Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

Brag & boost is an uplifting, in-office activity where one person highlights an achievement, and another praises a colleague’s success. It’s a simple but effective way to foster positivity and recognition within the team.

This is a great way to start or end a meeting, spreading good vibes and making sure everyone’s hard work gets noticed.

How to play:

• One person calls out an achievement they’ve noticed.
• Another team member follows up with praise for a colleague.
• Continue passing the compliments and positive energy!

How to play Pitch a desk item

This is an improvisation game that can help everyone with communication skills while getting to know each other better. To begin, simply have everyone pick one item from their desk. Their goal is to “pitch” the item as if they are the manufacturer, sharing the marketing strategies they would use to entice customers to purchase. They should include information like their perfect consumer and how they plan to reach them. You’ll need a panel of judges to pick the perfect pitch and announce a winner.

“Yes, Let’s” is a classic improv game that’s taken straight out of drama class. We like it for a host of reasons! However, one of its main draws in the context of boosting collaboration is that it involves everyone who is present.

Unlike other activities of this nature, the focus is never on a single person – which is ideal for anyone who doesn’t like being the center of attention.

Here’s how to play:

In a large open space, ask everyone present to start walking around the room. Next, shout out a suggestion for something the group should do.

For example, you could yell, “let’s go swimming in an ice-cold lake”, “let’s ski down this mountain”, or “let’s crawl on our bellies through this minefield.” It can be anything you want, but the game works best when it involves movement.

Whatever you suggest, the group has to respond enthusiastically by yelling back, “yes, let’s!” Everyone then does the action in question, moving around the room “swimming”, “skiing”, or “crawling”. After a while, someone else shouts out another action (“let’s cook a feast for our Viking guests”), and the process repeats.

Hilarity ensues as colleagues look around at their teammates doing all manner of crazy movements and mimes! Expect to energize the room, laugh until your belly hurts, and remember the joy of playing.

Furthermore, you’ll reaffirm a key element of collaboration: that there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Creative problem-solving demands a culture of acceptance, where people feel confident about raising their hand to offer a suggestion. “Yes, Let’s” normalizes unexpected ideas, rewards engagement, and stops people from feeling self-conscious. You’re sure to reap the rewards in the office.

This is your opportunity to recreate one of your favourite family game shows, think Family Feud or The Price is Right, to name a few. The idea is simple, create a list of questions, divide players into teams and let the games begin!

How to play Company game show

Company g ame shows are a fantastic opportunity for employees to foster new relationships while enjoying a light-hearted and engaging online game. You can create separate group chats for your teams so they can discuss their answers before giving them.

When the whole gang's aiming for the same bullseye, see it as though it’s a motivational magnet. Shared goals keep everyone on track, turning coworkers into the dream team who want to see the best in you.

Shared goals activity - Vision board creation:

• Set up a creative station with magazines, newspapers, scissors, glue and large poster boards.
• Instruct colleagues to create individual vision boards by cutting out images, words and phrases that represent their career goals, aspirations and values.
• Encourage participants to share their completed vision boards with the group and explain their choices.
• Discuss common themes and goals that emerge, showcasing the team's shared aspirations.
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This visually engaging activity strengthens the sense of unity and purpose among colleagues.

How to play “Hot takes” break

During breaks, encourage people to share unpopular opinions around a certain topic. You start by announcing a subject that is normally non-controversial. Then, let people raise their hands and share a “hot take”, which is an opinion not usually shared by others in general. Here’s an example: the topic is “movie villains”. Someone might raise their hand and say that their hot take is that a certain movie villain is misunderstood and shouldn’t be viewed as bad. Or, maybe the topic is “ice cream”.

A hot take might be someone claiming that chocolate ice cream is the worst flavor. It’s important to keep these topics light and fun so that everyone is comfortable and finds the situation humorous. Now is not the time to bring up politics, religion, or even sports teams if you have a particularly passionate group. You can do a few rounds of this throughout the day whenever you need a pause or refresh.

Another activity utilizing an online whiteboard, the Four-Step Sketch develops scrum skills and rapid ideation as teams work together to find solutions.

Set up:

Step 1: Present a challenge (e.g., design an app dashboard). Each member sketches their own solution.

Step 2: Break into teams, share and discuss sketches in breakout rooms.

Step 3: Teams combine the best ideas into one refined design.

Step 4:Reassemble to present and explain final solutions, focusing on iterative improvement.

Scrum values are promoted when everyone comes together to share their sketch and innovate a new solution.

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Example challenges:

‍a. Design a user-friendly app dashboard‍

b. Sketch a creative marketing campaign

c. Design a remote team-building activity

d. Visualize our sprint workflow

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.

“It’s 11.30am on a midsummer’s day and your plane has just crash-landed on a remote desert island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Your task is to rank these 20 items that were salvaged from the plane in order of their importance to the survival of you and the team.”

That’d be one way to introduce the classic team and trust-building exercise called Desert Survival! A powerful way to demonstrate that teams outperform individuals and that collaboration’s key to success, this activity always goes down well.

There are three ways to play:

• With actual items that the team can hold and put in piles
• With pictures of each item or
• With items simply written down on a board or piece of paper

In any case, the team gets around 40 minutes to discuss each item, reflect on their respective pros/cons, and work together to decide what they’re going to keep. In the process, they’ll realize the:

• Need to speak up if they wish to make a point
• Problem with stubbornness in a collective environment
• Value of compromise and sacrifice in search of unity
• Gaps in their personal knowledge/reasoning that others can help fill

From a managerial perspective, the Desert Island scenario also reveals how well the team works together and how easily they find solutions to a problem. You’ll see how rapidly they approach a state of synergy – where collaboration enables them to leverage their individual strengths and become greater than the sum of their parts.

What you need:

• A selection of items to be used on a desert island (or pictures of them) – unless you choose to write them down instead.

How to play Build A Shelter

How would you survive if you were stranded in an isolated place with a blizzard coming? Use this activity to find out! As an added complication, you can pretend that everyone is blinded by frostbite (by using blindfolds). The team leader must give the group instructions for building a shelter that can withstand the arctic winds. To play, you need a large space and some supplies. Then, select a leader (who can see) and blindfold everyone else.

You’ll also need a large fan. The leader guides everyone in putting together their shelter (remember, while blindfolded). When everyone feels confident that their shelter is up to the test, turn on the fan and see if the structure can withstand the wind! This game is sure to lead to a lot of laughs and you’ll be surprised at some of the clever ideas that people come up with. This is also a powerful exercise for effective leadership - it’s not easy to reach a goal with a group that is blindfolded!

How to play Wikirace

The Wikirace is a simple game, loved by college students bored in class. In the chat, send one Wikipedia article hyperlink and call it ‘start page’, then another hyperlink titled ‘target page.’ The rules are that the player must get from the start page to the target page in a limited number of mouse clicks. It might be as random as going from ‘pizza’ to ‘Apollo 13.’

Try it out in teams to have everyone strategizing frantically. Try making it even more difficult by decreasing the amount of allowed clicks between pages. There’s no going back once a new hyperlink is clicked. Share your screen and try this one out for a laugh in a virtual meeting.

Teams will channel their inner architects and engineers to construct impressive structures using unconventional materials. From spaghetti and marshmallows to playing cards, the challenge is not just to build a towering masterpiece, but also to do so collaboratively, emphasizing communication, planning, and creative problem-solving.

Instructions

• Gather construction materials such as spaghetti, marshmallows, playing cards, or other unconventional items.
• Divide participants into teams and provide each team with the same materials.
• Set a time limit and a goal height for the structures.
• Teams work together to design and construct their structures.
• Evaluate based on stability, creativity, and teamwork.

Quick, simple, and surprisingly engaging, Fact or Fiction is a first-rate icebreaker game that challenges players to distinguish between true or false statements.

How to play Fact or Fiction

To play, one participant reads out a statement, and everyone else must guess whether it’s “fact” or “fiction.” The aim is simple: test people’s general knowledge on certain topics and have some fun in the process!

This question game often works best with a bit of planning, though. Try to compile a long list of fact/fiction questions beforehand that players can draw from. It’ll help the game flow and ensure you ask questions on a range of topics to keep it interesting.

Alternatively, you can forget the trivia and play Fact or Fiction with personal statements. Each player says something about themselves, and everyone else decides if it’s true or false! Examples include:

• I have traveled to every state in America. Fact or fiction?
• I can do the splits. Fact or fiction?
• I have an identical twin named David. Fact or fiction?
• My family emigrated here from France in 1880. Fact or fiction?
• I am bilingual. Fact or fiction?

How to play Lights, camera, action!

Here’s a funky and active virtual corporate event that is great for the movie buffs out there. ‘Lights, camera, action!’ is a game where teams need to act out a chosen scene from a movie. Prepare cards with famous scenes beforehand, like Luke Skywalker’s parental discovery or Pulp Fiction’s mysterious briefcase, then award points when someone guesses correctly.

You could even spice things up by hosting a mock Oscar award ceremony with awards after everyone’s finished. Cut!

Time to test your team's agility with relay rampage! Teams compete in an obstacle course, with each member racing to complete a section before passing the baton. It’s part speed, part strategy, and all fun.

Expect a lot of cheering, and probably a few stumbles, but that’s what makes it hilarious. This is perfect for building energy and teamwork with a side of competition.

How to play:

• Set up an obstacle course with different sections.
• Each team member completes their section before tagging the next.
• First team to finish the entire course wins!

How to play Trading post

Understanding pricing and its effects on supply and demand is a natural skill in the business world. This game can help your employees to focus on this area in new ways. You can do this game for any length of time, so it’s perfect for fitting into most agendas. Start with two groups, a pile of fake money, and some simple items to trade like paper clips or pencils. Each group should have their own money and supply of items. The groups will need to decide what things cost and come up with trade terms.

Then, they should get busy buying, selling, and trading. At the end of the exercise, bring everyone together and see who came out ahead. Why did one group do better than the other? What did everyone learn? Supply and demand are pretty simple economic concepts that most people know, but this is a fun reminder and refresher.

Online murder mystery events are just like their live-action counterparts, only, online! With the help of a professional third-party organiser, you can create an engaging murder mystery event for any sized group.

Murder mystery events have become a popular team-building activity because they facilitate interaction between employees and improve teamwork and problem-solving skills.

How to play Online murder mystery

To make the experience more immersive, encourage players to dress up and gather props to match the theme of the event. Also, don’t forget to utilise the background features on zoom for added realism.

Pictionary is a game of charades where players draw words instead of acting them out.

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Split the group into teams.
2. For every round, pick one team member to draw.
3. Provide the drawing team member a word.
4. Set a timer for up to sixty seconds for teammates to guess.
5. Use a point system where if the team guesses correctly, they get one point.

You can make things more challenging by giving teams the opportunity to steal or move onto the next team’s turn. This game is not only a good way to learn new vocabulary, but to help with visual skills as players connect a word with an image. You can also play this game virtually, so it’s perfect for almost any gathering.

Expressing gratitude to employees by offering them continuing education through online training courses can be a great way to foster a positive work culture and boost employee morale. By offering to fund workshops and classes, employees can refine their skills and be better equipped to do their work.

• Communication and de-escalation course
• Emotional Intelligence Training
• Team building methods
• Diversity and Inclusion Training
• Leadership Development
• Mindfulness and stress reduction

Many of these courses are found on popular online learning platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udemy. If your team prefers an in-person learning session, contact professional development and HR organizations for tailored training programs. Tailoring your training to your organization's specific needs and culture is essential for practical gratitude expression.

How to play Celebrity matching game

This is similar to the childhood photo matching game, only instead of a photograph from their childhood, staff should bring in a photo of a celebrity they’ve been told they resemble. You can either post the pictures in a public space or pass them around and have everyone guess which photo belongs to which person.

How to play Treasure hunt

Similar to a scavenger hunt, a treasure hunt is a lot of fun but with a bit more intention. Rather than collecting a random list of items, participants use clues to find more prompts and hints, until the group solves a mystery (or finds a treasure). You can also create a treasure map if you want to play into the “pirate” fantasy a little more. The important thing is that only clues point toward the next stop - areas of the map should not be spelled out, but involve some problem solving and critical thinking to figure out what the clue means.

Our final minute-to-win-it cup game is a hilarious way to round off the list. It also takes a steady hand and a surprising amount of patience! You’ll need a few rolls of toilet paper, some cups and refillable water. Here’s how to play:

Set-up:

1. Prepare your contestants: Each player should be given 1 roll of toilet tissue. At the end of a long table, place one cup per contestant. Fill the cups up (it shouldn’t be too heavy, as the paper will rip). Under the filled cups, place the end of the toilet tissue roll, and let the toilet tissue unravel all the way to the other end of the table.

2. Wind the cup towards you: On your mark, each player then carefully rerolls the toilet tissue, slowly dragging the filled cup toward them. Things can get really fun when a player is losing halfway through the race. They start to panic and speed up the rolling process. This often causes a bit of spillage, tearing the paper. When that happens, they need to clear up and reset their roll.

This super simple game is a barrel of laughs, so try it out with your teams today. It’ll bring team members closer together and keep everyone on a roll!

How to play Competitive Human knots

Human knot is a popular team-building activity that requires at least 6 people. To play, everyone stands in a circle, puts their hands into the center, and grabs somebody else’s hands with their own (ensuring they’re holding 1 hand from 2 different people).

The group then attempts to untangle themselves without letting go – ducking, twisting, and climbing over each other as they go. It’s fun, chaotic, difficult, and great for uniting teams, having fun, improving communication, and honing leadership skills.

In Competitive Human Knots, we take things to a new level.

This time, you separate your large group into separate teams of 6+ people and pit them against each other! The first team to untangle themselves wins. Alternatively, you could set a time limit to stop the activity from taking too long. The team that’s made the most progress by the end, wins.

How to play Paper airplane race

Like the pencil javelin, the paper airplane race centers on how far you can get your paper airplane to fly. Each team constructs their best engineered plane and marks where they ultimately land. Each person on the team should have a chance to fly the place and the team that gets the furthest is declared the winner.