Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to play Pass the clap game

Pass applause around the circle! To play, participants should gather in a circle and the leader will start the clap. Other players take turns clapping in a clockwise direction until the leader makes the final clap. There are some other variations, too. For example, the participants can start the clap slowly and then gradually increase the tempo over rounds.

One-word check-in is a quick activity that helps gauge the mood and mindset of all team members. It’s ideal as a warm-up or to start a meeting with a pulse check.

Set up:

In a circle, ask each team member to describe their current feeling, focus, or attitude in just one single word. They might give you positive input like motivated or focused, but they might let you know how tired and overwhelmed they feel, so it’s important to listen closely. Once everyone has spoken, look for recurring themes and reflect on those as a group.

For this activity, your employees will get to grips with an online whiteboard and practice agile communication and visualization skills. A lot of agile skills can be honed with the right visualization methods, especially down complex ideas and practices into smaller chunks.

Set up:

Use an online whiteboard accessible to all (WebWhiteBoard and Miro will both do the job). You need to assign one person as the sketcher, give them a topic (like “project workflow”), and allow one minute to draw it silently. Team members guess the drawing, and then share feedback and annotations to enhance clarity and collaboration.

The rolling chair race is a great way to get creative and transform the office into a playful space for the Office Olympics. Using different rooms, furniture, and anything you can find, create an obstacle course that can be completed in an office chair. This means making sure spaces are wide enough for the chair to fit, and ensuring that team members can actually get through so all they have to focus on is winning the race.

Time each person completing the obstacle course and the team that makes it through in the least amount of time takes home the gold.

How to play:

Provide materials for employees to create safety posters that highlight important safety messages or procedures. Display the posters around the workplace and have a voting process to select the best ones. Offer prizes for the top posters.

This activity promotes creativity and personal investment in workplace safety. Employees get to showcase their artistic talents while contributing to a safer work environment. The posters serve as ongoing reminders of safety practices long after the competition ends.

Get ready to get soaked! Splash battle royale is basically dodgeball, but with water balloons. Teams face off and try to eliminate opponents by hitting them with balloons—easy enough, but staying dry? Not so much.

It’s a great way to cool off, get competitive, and share a few laughs—especially when that one overly serious teammate gets soaked. Perfect for those hot summer days when the office needs a little outdoor chaos.

How to play:

• Split into teams and arm everyone with water balloons.
• Eliminate opponents by hitting them with balloons.
• Last team standing wins (and stays the driest—maybe)!

If you’re planning more outdoor activities, explore our full list of fun team-building games for even more ideas.

Squirt gun water races are an exciting alternative to traditional water fights. To play, you’ll need plastic cups (one per team of two people), string, scissors, duct tape, and enough squirt guns for every second person in the group (i.e., 10 people will need at least 5 squirt guns).

How to play Squirt Gun Water Races

Set up for the game by:

• Making a small hole at the bottom of each cup, close to the edge
• Threading a long line of string (e.g., 15 feet long) through each cup
• Use duct tape to suspend the string between two fixed points that are slightly closer together than the length of the string (e.g., a tree and fence about 12 feet away from each other). The cups should be facing the same direction

Play the game by:

• Dividing into pairs and blindfolding one member of each
• Giving the blindfolded members a squirt gun
• Ensuring the cup starts at the end of the string, closest to the teams
• Pitting pairs against each other to see who can squirt water into their cup fastest, pushing it to the other end of the string

The first pair to get their cup to the other end wins. Of course, only one member can see what’s happening! The sighted person must communicate effectively to guide their partner in the right direction.

Squirt gun water races are unique, exciting, and awesome for team-building. Yet another benefit is that they’re accessible to everyone. Unlike other Field Day games for adults that involve physical activity, you only need the ability to fire a water gun!

This indoor team-building game involves together to write a story on a sheet of paper. The catch? You do it one line at a time, taking turns to contribute a sentence before folding over the sheet (just enough to cover the line) so the next person can’t see what you wrote.

You continue in this fashion until everyone has added a sentence! Whoever goes last then unfolds the paper and reads the story aloud. Not only is the game fun to play, but the random (and often amusing!) nature of the story demonstrates how valuable clear communication is in a team environment.

How to play Most difficult prospect

Every sales person has come across a prospect that is full of objections and generally makes their job harder. The better that people are able to deal with such individuals, the more effective they will be at a sales job. Sort people into pairs and have them act out a sales meeting, with one of them playing the role of a difficult prospect. That individual should impersonate the toughest prospect they have come in contact with, rolling out all the usual objections and talking points, while the other person tries to overcome them and answer questions. Then, bring everyone back together for a discussion about how the conversations went. Everyone will have something to learn about how to deal with their next challenging sales meeting.

How to play Giant Twister

Instructions: Create a large Twister board on the ground using colorful circles or mats. Players take turns spinning the wheel and placing their hands or feet on the corresponding colors without falling. The last person remaining on the board wins.

Materials needed: Large Twister board or mats.

Giant Twister adds laughter, physical activity, and friendly competition to the picnic. It promotes flexibility, balance, and creates a lively and entertaining atmosphere for participants and spectators.

How to play:

Challenge employees to write and perform parodies of popular songs with safety-themed lyrics. Record the performances and have a voting process to select the best ones. Offer prizes for the top performances.

This activity combines music and humor with important safety messages, making it memorable and entertaining. It encourages creativity and team spirit while reinforcing safety concepts in a fun way. Plus, who doesn’t love a good song parody?

“Hey! Team mate! Leave those unsafe things alone! All in all you’re just a ‘nother slip in the hall” 🎶

In sketch & guess, one person draws a word or phrase on a whiteboard, while their teammates try to guess it within a time limit. The quicker the guesses, the better! It’s like Pictionary, but perfect for office shenanigans.

This game is great for getting the creative juices flowing and injecting some energy into the workday.

How to play:

• One player draws a word or phrase on a whiteboard.
• Teammates guess the word within a set time limit.
• The team with the most correct guesses in the fastest time wins!

Find more team building activities for small groups to bring creativity and collaboration into your office.

How to play Case study problem solving

Many consulting firms and other businesses include small case studies as part of their interview process. You can do the same by having a single small group (or even smaller pairings) consider a particular problem and come up with a solution. This can be something a bit silly, like “How would you survive if you were stranded on a desert island?” but it’s more effective if the issue is centered on your real work.

For example, if sales of a certain product line are lagging, have the team discuss strategies for what they would do to fix it. It’s a good way of getting everyone’s brains channeling the right energy before digging into more complex work.

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.

How to play Blind Volleyball

Volleyball’s always fun to play with friends. However, this version of the game adds a memorable twist that makes it even better! Rather than playing with an ordinary net you can see through, you place a cover over the top that stops you from seeing the team on the other side.

This simple change completely alters the volleyball experience! It becomes something like Battleships. You have to guess where the opposition is so you can place the ball where you hope they aren’t. In essence, you’re playing blind.

Assuming you can find a volleyball net and ball, this Field Day game for adults is nice and easy to organize as well. The rules are exactly the same as normal, other than the cover you’ll put over the net (an old bed sheet does the trick nicely). Just be conscious of hitting the ball too hard! You don’t know where people are on the court, so smashing it over the net is asking for trouble.

This is a light-hearted team game that’s great for improving communication skills. Before you can start playing, you’ll need to divide the players into small groups, say 2-3 players per team—any more than this and things can become chaotic.

How to play the drawing challenge

To play the drawing challenge, each team must first designate one player to be “the drawer,” while the other players will be “the describers.” The describers will be shown an image which they’ll have to describe to the drawer within a given time limit. The more accurate the description, the more accurate the drawing will be.

The game is guaranteed to spark some laughter among your group while encouraging the players to develop their communication and listening skills.

Ready, set, puzzle! In puzzle dash, teams race against the clock to complete a jigsaw puzzle or brain teaser. The fastest team to finish wins, promoting problem-solving, quick thinking, and a bit of healthy competition.

This group teambuilding game is perfect for sharpening your team’s focus, collaboration, and time management skills. Whether it’s a jigsaw or a tricky brain teaser, puzzle dash brings out the best in quick thinking under pressure—all while having some fun.

How to play:

• Divide into teams and give each team a puzzle or brain teaser (e.g., a 100-piece jigsaw or a Sudoku challenge).
• Set a time limit and race to complete it as quickly as possible.
• The team that finishes first (or makes the most progress) wins!

How to host Book exchange

Make everyone a bit smarter while they quench their thirst. Request that at your next happy hour, you bring a book to share. Ask people to bring their favorite book, or to choose the professional development book that’s been most helpful. Everyone should share a bit about what makes that particular book so special. At the end of the event, people can borrow the books available or just remember the title so they can find it on their own later on. This is a great way to learn more about your colleagues and learn some new things at the same time.

A vital part of effective team collaboration is communication. Yet to be a strong communicator you also have to master the art of listening.

That’s one reason Group Counting’s such a popular improv game. Aside from being fun and strangely addictive to play, it requires participants to pay close attention to each other; to get on the same page by listening intently from the outset.

How to play Group counting

The game itself couldn’t be more straightforward. The team stands in a circle, closes their eyes, and works together to count to 21. However, there’s a catch: only one person can speak at once. Not only that, but if more than one person says a number at the same time, the group starts again from 1.

It might sound easy enough, but you’d be surprised how long it can take to get to 21! And remember that everyone has their eyes shut, which stops them from using hand signals and other gestures to pick who’ll speak next.

Instead, they’re forced to listen – to try and pick up on verbal cues to see if someone’s about to yell out the next number.

Expect light-hearted frustration mixed with laughs as the team proceeds from 1 to 21, followed by shouts of glee when they finally finish the game. By then, they’ll have bolstered their sense of group mind and become a closer team in the process.

How to play Cold call bingo

A light-hearted game that can help with dreaded cold calling skills is bingo. For this activity, you need to break up more senior sales people from less experienced ones. You’ll have two groups (senior and junior). Give each junior participant a bingo card with 24 sales-related prompts. Have the junior reps listen to the more senior ones make calls and fill in their bingo cards accordingly. Once they have filled in their card - like in normal bingo - they win. Some of the prompts to add to the card could include:

1. “Call back tomorrow”
2. “We’re not interested”
3. “You need to talk to someone else”
4. “You’re too pricey”
5. “I’m not sure”
6. Whatever pertains to your business

How to play Pretty windy

This game is fun because it’s so active and engaging, it makes for a lot of laughs! To play, you’ll need balloons and plastic cups. The goal is to blow plastic cups over using only air from an inflated balloon. You can start by lining up 5 or 10 plastic cups on an empty table. Then give each player a balloon. Everyone has one minute to blow up their balloon and then release the air from the balloon to knock the cups over or off the table. Whoever has knocked over the most cups in one minute wins.

Looking for a classic trust building activity that never fails to bring workmates closer together? Try the “trust walk” – another super straightforward exercise that’s reminiscent of the “minefield” exercise we described earlier.

How to play Trust walk

Start by creating a path for people to follow, complete with obstacles, twists, and turns. Next, divide your team into smaller groups of 2 to 3 people and give one of them a blindfold to wear. The sighted individuals then have to guide whoever’s blindfolded along the path as quickly (and safely) as possible.

When they finish, the blindfold passes to one of the others. Repeat this process until each group member has completed the course. The first group to have each member complete the course wins!

As long as you clear enough space, you can do the trust walk in the office. However, we recommend trying it outside at some point too!

The extra room available adds to the fun. Heck, some teams choose to do this exercise as part of a larger hiking activity – on a team-building retreat, for instance, where the entire experience revolves around boosting camaraderie.

Want a slight variation on the trust walk? You could also do an exercise called “the blind trail”. It’s a similar concept, but this time every person on each team is blindfolded. Have them stand in a line, holding onto a rope.

Their task?

Work together to navigate an obstacle course that you’ve laid out (all while holding onto the rope). They’re allowed to talk and use non-verbal communication – enabling them to help and trust each other as they proceed from A to B.

What you need:

• Blindfolds
• Rope (to make the “path”, or to use in the blind trail exercise)
• Items to use as obstacles

3-Question Mingle bypasses the small talk and cuts straight to the nitty-gritty. It’s a simple game that helps employees get to know each other in a short space of time.

Great for: Interpersonal bonding

Duration: 10 minutes

Players: 8+

You’ll need: Pens, sticky notes

How to play 3-Question Mingle

Setup: Hand each player a pen and a sticky note and ask them to write down three open-ended questions. Examples include questions like “Who’s the most important person in your life right now?” Or “If you could have more money or more time, which would you choose and why?”

To play: Set a time limit and ask the players to start mingling with their colleagues. Once the players find a partner, they take turns asking one of their questions. Once they’ve both asked a question, they swap those questions with each other and find a new partner. This process continues until the time runs out. To debrief, ask your group what interesting things they learned about one another.

Did you ever play this game on roadtrips as a kid? Capture some of that magic by playing it with your work pals. You can actually play this game anywhere, which makes it perfect for an office or conference room event.

How to play ABC game

However, since the game uses letters, you will need to make sure there are sufficient posters, papers, or other documentation around. To play, split the group into two or more teams.

The groups should have even numbers and also be relatively small - bigger groups make the game too easy and then it ends faster. Instruct every team to go around the space and find items that begin with the letters A - Z. For example, for “A”, someone might find a desk plate for “Adam”, for “B”, someone might see a “Suite B” sign, and for “C”, someone might find a paper that says “checklist” on it. The first team to run through the entire alphabet wins.