Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to play Social media shoutout

A social media shoutout on internal workplace channels and public ones (as long as the person getting appreciation is okay with that!) in the workplace is a great way to show gratitude and appreciation for your employees.

A shoutout is a simple yet effective way to boost morale and strengthen the sense of community within your workplace. Make sure when doing a shoutout you are prioritizing using a gratitude-focused message that shows appreciation. This message highlights specific achievements, projects, or team efforts that the company is grateful for. Encourage Engagement with team members and customers if applicable, but always ensure dialogue remains professional.

By publicly acknowledging hard work and dedication in the form of gratitude, organizations can foster a positive and collaborative work environment.

One wrong move and you’re out of the game! Blind Retriever is one of the most engaging team-building activities, honing your employee’s listening skills as they attempt to retrieve the object while blindfolded and avoid obstacles along the way.

Great for: Listening and communication

Duration: 10 minutes

Players: 4+

You’ll need: One blindfold per team, various soft-edged obstacles

How to play Blind Retriever

Setup: Find a large open space. At one end of the space, place the object that your teams will need to retrieve and at the other end indicate some sort of start line. Then, position various soft-edged obstacles between the start line and the object. Avoid using any objects that could cause harm if somebody were to walk into/land on them. Finally, divide your group into small teams of about 2-4 players, allocate one person per team to be the Retriever and position everybody behind the start line. The Retriever is then blindfolded.

To play: When the game starts, the non-retrievers of each team must guide their blindfolded retriever to the other end of the room to collect the object using only verbal commands. If a retriever makes contact with any of the obstacles in the room their team is eliminated from the race. The team whose retriever collects the object first without touching any obstacles wins.

How to play Lucky Charms

Give all players a large bowl of Lucky Charms cereal. Have everyone sort the charm marshmallows into categories as fast as they can (for example, all hearts together and all clovers together). Whoever sorts through the most cereal in a minute wins.

A gratitude board is a physical and visual representation of gratitude, which can be anything from notes about specific moments to vacation photos. The board can be set up in an office as an ongoing reminder of the positive aspects of the workplace and can be an excellent tool for promoting a positive mindset during the workday.

Here are some of the ways to create and maintain a gratitude board:

1. Provide your employees with materials, such as a backboard made of cork or cardboard, paper, writing utensils, pins, and plenty of room for positivity. If you're a remote team, consider a digital board or chat space dedicated to gratitude.
2. Create a list of the things you're grateful for. These can be big or small, from personal achievements in the workplace or something unique. Give employees a chance to write these reflections, or ask them to bring photos or keepsakes that can be placed on the board.
3. Keep up with the board and ask employees to add new items once a week or make updates on professional achievements when they happen.

Gratitude boards can be a simple but effective way to bring employees together and boost morale in the workplace. Regularly engaging with a gratitude board in the workplace can promote work-life balance.

How to play Pterodactyl

Here’s a quirky new game that has hilarious results. In “Pterodactyl” (which is hard enough to spell correctly), players completely cover their teeth with their lips. One player starts the game by saying “Pterodactyl” to someone else without showing their teeth. If neither player cracks up and laughs, the next player passes it on.

Twists can come into the game if you add a silly face, cross your eyes, or use a strange voice. If you make another player laugh and show their teeth, they’re out! Continue this speaking game until only one Pterodactyl champion remains!

Every now and then, differences crop up. Conflict management skills are like the superhero toolkit to sort things out, keeping relationships smooth and stress levels low.

Conflict management skills activity - "Resolution theater":

• Prepare several workplace conflict scenarios with varying levels of complexity.
• Divide participants into small groups and assign each group a scenario to act out.
• Instruct groups to perform a role-play where they present the conflict, pause at critical points and discuss potential resolutions.
• After the role-play, encourage groups to share their proposed resolutions and engage in a constructive dialogue.
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This interactive activity provides a safe space for practicing conflict resolution strategies, sharing insights and learning from different approaches.

How to play Communication chain

This is a great game for a team and involves participants expressing activities through gestures. Have everyone stand in a line facing the same direction. The last person on this line is the lead. They should write down an action (such as “I was walking my dog and tripped and fell”). The person next to them in line acts out the particular action without any verbal cues, and then the next person in line does the same, and so on. The first person at the beginning of the line will have to guess what the action was.

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How to play Birth map?

There’s a lot of value in knowing where people come from. This is especially true if your organization has several offices or a hybrid workforce that is scattered. For this exercise, have a facilitator place a large map in front of the room. Have plenty of pins available and have each person come up one at a time to place a pin on the city where they were born. If you want to expand the exercise into a dialogue, try asking some follow up questions like “Whose birthplace surprised you most?”. You can also leave the map up during the rest of the day as an interesting conversation starter.

Paper chain power is a fast-paced, hands-on activity where teams race to create the longest paper chain in just three minutes. The catch? Each person can only use one hand! It’s all about coordination, quick thinking, and maybe a little friendly chaos.

This game is perfect for breaking up the workday and injecting some fun competition into the office.

How to play:

• Split into teams and provide paper, scissors, and tape.
• Each player can only use one hand to build the chain.
• The team with the longest paper chain after three minutes wins!

Looking for more team bonding activities to energize your office? Explore our full guide for more ideas.

How to play What do we have in common?

In large organizations, it can be hard to encourage interaction. Use this exercise to improve relations whether in person or in virtual meetings. The moderator should simply ask the group to come up with 5 or 10 things they all have in common. This could be a favorite pizza flavor or Starbucks order, or the ability to speak another language. Colleagues will have to have an extensive dialog to learn about each other and come up with these commonalities, which can be really beneficial for relationship-building.

If you’ve ever been to a professional escape room event, you’ll know just how effective they are at improving essential skills like communication and problem-solving. With Office Escape, you can recreate the drama of an escape room experience without leaving the office!

Great for: Problem-solving, creative thinking, communication, leadership

Duration: 1–2 hours

You’ll need: A storyline with a final objective, a series of problems and challenges

How to organise:

• Think of a final objective and then create a series of challenges and tasks that leads them towards completing it. It’s easier to think of challenges when you already have the final objective in mind.
• Plot a series of challenges that leads your employees toward the final objective. Be creative and have fun with it!
• You can further engage teams by offering a small reward for being the fastest to complete the objective.

Looking for more team-building activities for adults that build communication and problem-solving skills? Explore our full guide for extra inspiration.

How to play Name that product

Remember the memory games that you used to play as a child? A variation of this activity can help new hires to learn about your product offerings. You don’t need anything besides a pen and paper! Begin by making a list of the products that your company sells. On the same page, list product features and price points. Then, on separate papers, write a short product description for each of the items. Have sales reps match the products with the short descriptions. Or, as another variation, instead of descriptions you can use customer needs or wants, or another indicator that would help people to better understand your product breadth and keep them straight.

Taking the principles of Kanban we learned earlier, now is a great time to make a personal version that prioritizes focus and streamlines workloads. Kanban boards are usually used for team projects but work just as well for a single person. This activity reinforces the Kanban concept: tracking work in stages to keep workflow steady.

Set up:

Each person needs a basic Kanban board, either on a physical whiteboard or on their computer. Each board needs three columns, just keep it basic for the first version. Try “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” Get them to write every task for that day or week onto a sticky note (electronic ones are available too) and move each one slowly onto the board. Encourage them to keep a holistic view, so as not to overload the “in progress” section. Simple activities like this can help staff who may feel overloaded. Ask everyone to reflect afterward on how their tasks are managed, and record the insights.

Scavenger Hunt is an excellent opportunity for your team to escape the office while working on essential soft skills like teamwork, communication and problem-solving.

Great for: Teamwork, communication, problem-solving

Duration: 1–2 hours

You’ll need: A list of challenges for teams to complete.

How to play:

• Establish the boundaries of play, i.e. the confines of a large park.
• Create a list of things for employees to find, hear, smell or do. For example: Find the leaf of a maple tree.
• Teams will work through the list, ticking off challenges as they complete them.
• The first team that completes all the challenges (or the team that completes the most challenges after the time runs out) wins.

How to Desert Island Exercise

For a quick and easy icebreaker that doesn’t require any materials, try this simple question and answer exercise. Simply ask what each person would bring if they were stranded on a desert island. Then go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves, along with the one item that they would choose. They should pick one thing and then offer a brief explanation of why they chose it.

How to play Hula Hoop Challenge

Instructions: Each participant is given a hula hoop and must keep it spinning around their waist for as long as possible. The person who keeps the hoop spinning the longest wins.

Materials needed: Hula hoops.

The Hula Hoop Challenge promotes physical activity, coordination, and determination. It adds a light-hearted and nostalgic element to the picnic, and participants can cheer each other on and share in the fun.

A simple and low-stress icebreaker game that gets the ball rolling can be done on large and small company retreats.

How to play: Break your team into small groups with no more than five people. Give them the prompt, a simple question, like, “how would you describe your work day?” Each team has five or ten minutes to develop a one-word answer that sums up their response. After the exercise is finished, each team goes around and reads their answer out loud, facilitating discussion amongst the group.

You can play this game as many times with as many questions as you can come up with!

Materials you’ll need: Just your team!

How many people: Small to mid-sized groups

Whether you’re onboarding new employees or simply want your current employees to form a more cohesive unit, Hypeman’s sure to help. Incorporating personal introductions and an element of role play, it’s a popular activity that never fails to create a positive atmosphere in the office!

How to play Hypeman

Give it a shot by dividing the team into groups of 3 and asking them to assign themselves roles:

• Player 1 has to share some basic personal information with the group (e.g. where they’re from, what they do, what hobbies they have, and so on)
• Player 2 introduces Player 1 to the audience by recounting what they just learned about them in a simple, matter-of-fact manner
• Player 3 is the “Hypeman”. Their task is similar, except they introduce Player 1 in an exaggerated, hyperbolic way that makes them sound amazing!

For instance, Player 2 might introduce Player 1 by saying, “This is Arthur. He’s a salesman for our company who enjoys playing tennis at the weekends.”

Then Hypeman would step in and say, “Here’s Arthur – AKA, the coolest guy I know! He’s so good at his job that he could sell an ice pack to an Inuit! Oh, and he wields a tennis racket like Roger Federer too. Honestly, you’d be a fool not to be his pal.”

You’d then mix up the roles so everyone had a chance to be the Hypeman (and to be hyped by their colleague!). Encourage witty and outlandish claims; crazy compliments that make people laugh. You could even go a step further and award prizes for the most successful Hypeman – as voted by the group!

Imagine a team that rolls with the punches. That's adaptability—being cool with change and helping colleagues navigate the twists and turns of work life.

Adaptability activity - "Change challenge" brainstorm:

• Present a hypothetical or real work-related change that the team might face in the future.
• Divide participants into groups and provide them with markers, flip charts, or whiteboards.
• Instruct each group to brainstorm creative ways to embrace and adapt to the change, focusing on positive outcomes.
• Encourage groups to discuss their ideas and strategies for effectively navigating the proposed change.
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This brainstorming activity enhances adaptability skills, encourages innovative thinking and promotes a proactive approach to change management.

How to play Personality Shapes

If your personality was a shape, what would it be? This is a fun little game where you can get a visual of the different personality types you work with. At a table near the entrance to your event, have several colored shapes set out. You’ll also want a sheet available that explains the different shapes and their traits. For example, squares could be detail-oriented and stubborn, while circles are empathetic but struggle with saying no. You can be creative in making the various shapes and matching them with different characteristics.

The important thing is that everyone gets a chance to choose a shape based on the descriptions provided. Then, before starting the meeting, ask everyone to raise their shape in the air and let everyone look around. In this way, you can get an accurate portrayal of who sees themselves a certain way. For added benefit, allow time for discussion.

How to implement insights (following event)

If you want to go beyond recall, have each person describe how they will implement what they learned in their daily lives and tasks. Hearing important concepts is one thing; knowing how you can practically apply them is something else!

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With digital playbook, employees create short user manuals or intro videos explaining how they work best—whether it’s preferred meeting times, communication styles, or favorite work snacks. It’s like a cheat sheet for collaborating effectively!

This activity helps teams understand each other’s work preferences and habits, which can make remote teamwork smoother and more enjoyable.

How to play:

• Each team member creates a short video or document explaining how they work best.
• Share the playbooks with the team so everyone can reference them.
• Use the playbooks to understand teammates' work habits and collaborate better!

For more fun team-building activities for work that strengthen communication and connection, explore our full guide.

Get ready for a wild ride as your team navigates public transport to conquer checkpoints. It's not just about reaching your destination; it's about making quick decisions and adapting on the fly. You'll need to work together to figure out the best routes and timings. This challenge sharpens your problem-solving skills and shows you the power of collaboration. Plus, you're in for a fun-filled adventure that will leave you with unforgettable memories.

Instructions

• Create teams and assign a starting point.
• Provide a list of checkpoints around the city.
• Teams use public transport to reach checkpoints in a set order.
• They must decide on routes and timings.
• Time penalties for missed checkpoints.
• First team to finish or most checkpoints in time wins.
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Bonus Tip!

You won't believe the transport paradise that London is – metros, taxis, the iconic underground, and buses galore, making it an absolute dream for the Transportation Challenge. It's the ultimate playground for this adventure!

In this activity, we'll help you and your colleagues discover your communication styles and discuss how to adapt them to improve workplace communication. So, grab your pens and let's get started!

Materials needed:

• Communication style quiz questionnaires (don't worry, we've got those ready for you).
• pens or pencils
• A flipchart or a whiteboard.
• Colorful markers.
• A cozy meeting space where you can comfortably chat.

Instructions:

1. Let's kick things off by talking about why effective communication is so vital in the workplace.
2. Remember, understanding your communication style can make your interactions with colleagues and bosses much smoother.
3. Here come the questionnaires! Take one and answer the questions honestly, without overthinking. Your responses are just for you.
4. You've got 15 minutes to complete the quiz
5. After collecting your completed questionnaires, we'll calculate your scores using the quiz key.
6. Then, we'll group you into different communication style categories, like assertive, passive, aggressive, or passive-aggressive.
7. Now, it's group time!

Chat about:

• What makes your communication style unique?
• How does it influence your daily work interactions?
• What are the strong suits and potential pitfalls of your style?
• Share real-life stories where your style worked like a charm or, well, maybe not so much.

Wrap things up with some key takeaways from your discussion.

Remember, being self-aware and flexible with your communication is the name of the game.

Go forth and apply your newfound wisdom to combat common workplace issues!