Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to play:

Create bingo cards with different safety-related actions or reminders in each square (e.g., "wore safety goggles," "reported a hazard"). Distribute these cards to employees and encourage them to mark off squares as they observe these actions throughout the day. The first person to get a bingo wins a small prize.

Safety bingo blitz makes safety awareness engaging. It's like regular bingo but with a twist that reinforces good safety practices. Everyone loves a good game of bingo, and it's a great way to keep everyone alert and involved in maintaining a safe work environment.

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There’s nothing like a spot of mischief to bring colleagues closer together. With office makeovers, different teams within the company have the chance to “redecorate” another team’s space. From unraveling rolls of toilet paper to putting up posters of people’s favorite boy bands, the options are endless.

Set some ground rules beforehand to stop the pranks from going overboard though. The atmosphere should be light and full of laughter – not frustration at the state of your redecorated space!

How to play Business card collection

To introduce people who haven’t met before, you can try this game. Set a timer and have everyone try to collect at least 3 new business cards in the room. Through the conversations they have with others, they should write down at least 3 details about the person on their business card. So, once the timer goes off, you can go around the room having each person name the people that they met and the information they found interesting (from their notes on the card). If people want to collect more than 3 cards, that’s fine, as long as they are taking the time to also get to know some details about each individual. Remember, the goal is to get to know others, have real conversations, and recall both names and other facts about each person.

Scrabble is a household classic that has brought people together for years. After building a word, countless people have scrambled to check their dictionary, and shout to their opponent “There’s no such word!” It’s a word-building game that comes with more than a handful of strategic play.

How to Play:

1. 2 to 4 players set the board up
2. Each player gets seven letter tiles.
3. Take turns forming words on the board, building off existing words.
4. Rack up points by placing words on bonus squares for extra scores!

Get your thinking-caps on and your dictionaries on standby for this classic letter game!

Setting up a challenge for your teams using LEGO is a simple and playful way to kickstart an agile session. Tasking them with the challenge of building a specific structure shape using LEGO bricks. Stick a twist on it by giving them limited instructions

Set-up:

Simply create small teams, 4 or 5 members per team will do. Each group gets a set of LEGO bricks and only partially completed instructions. Give them a time limit for preparing and see who builds closest to the desired structure. Variations on the game can include:

• One person being a blindfolded builder
• A “tower of Babel” - biggest tower winds
• Limited communication (like only hand signals)
• Earthquake-proof designs that can withstand a gentle ‘shake’

Otherwise referred to as “Life Raft”, this is a superb indoor team-building game that, at first glance, seems like nothing but a bit of fun. However, look closer and you realize everybody’s working together, laughing, encouraging one another, and using strong communication skills to complete the task.

Want to give it a shot? Start by making a square on the floor with strips of tape. That’s your life raft! When you call “All Aboard”, participants have to squeeze themselves inside the square as quickly as possible. To spice things up a bit, why not split the team into 2 groups to see who can do it first?

Nothing brings people together like food. Feast & connect is all about gathering your team for a casual lunch, giving everyone a chance to chat, relax, and build relationships outside the usual work talk. No pressure, just good food and conversation.

This laid-back team-building activity is perfect for boosting morale, sparking new connections, and strengthening bonds over shared meals. It’s a nice break from the hustle and a great way to show appreciation for your team. Plus, who doesn’t love a good lunch?

How to play:

• Organize a team lunch with a relaxed, casual setting.
• Encourage conversation and bonding over food.
• Use the opportunity to strengthen team connections and morale.

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 Cooperative yoga or stretching

A collaborative set of movements is always a nice idea for a group. We suggest focusing on yoga moves and having each person picking the next move in your flow. A participant will pick a yoga move that everyone completes, and then the next person selects a different one, and so on.

It’s best to complete these exercises quietly and without speaking, focusing  instead on breathing and movement.

Get ready to wield your balloon-bashing skills in the exhilarating Balloon Sword Fight challenge! As your teams gear up for friendly combat, the atmosphere will be filled with excitement and laughter. Inspired by the fast-paced action of sword fights, this game replaces steel with balloons, turning your colleagues into balloon-busting warriors. It's not just about popping balloons; it's about teamwork, strategy, and the art of joyful competition.

Instructions

• Divide participants into teams of equal size.
• Equip each team member with a balloon "sword" – a harmless, air-filled weapon.
• Set up a designated play area with safety precautions in place.
• Teams strategize and plan their approach to the battle.
• Engage in friendly combat, trying to pop opponents' balloons while protecting your own.
• The last team with an intact balloon wins the round.
• Encourage sportsmanship and celebrate the victorious team.

How to play Name game

For this 5-minute energizing activity, have each person add an adjective to their name as they introduce themselves to the group. For example, “Amazing Anita” or “Resourceful Ron”. Make sure each person present gets the chance to share their enhanced name. Then, go around in a circle and have each person try to recall 3 of the names they heard, along with their adjective. This is a fun memory-jogging activity and it also forces people to pay more attention as others are introduced. It’s an easy first icebreaker for teams who don’t work together too often.

After gathering everyone together in a remote arena, a game of Emoji Communication is a great way to get teams working together. This game highlights how easy it is to misinterpret digital messages and the importance of thoughtful communication. It helps members build agile skills where tone and context need extra clarification.

Set up:

One person in the remote meeting is chosen as the messenger. They create a message, a clear and cohesive sentence using only emojis. No words allowed! Everyone else works by a timer and writes down their guesses. Dish out points for correct guesses and rotate the messenger. Some example sentences to start you off could be:

"Let’s grab coffee and chat" ☕👫💬
"Team celebration tonight!" 🎉🍻🎶🕺
"Emergency! Need a quick solution" 🚨🧠⚙️⏳

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.

Kicking off our list is a competitive bout of stacking. This cup game is the most popular on the list, and also the most professionally competitive! Side note, did you know that professionals call this “sport stacking,” and the world-record holder finished a stack in 1.33 seconds?

This one works best individually, and is fun to use a timer with, for extra competition! Give each player 10 cups and a table to do their stacking.

Set-up:

1. Build a pyramid of cups: Each player needs to stack 10 cups to make a pyramid shape. The base will have 4 cups, then 3 on top of those, 2 cups for the next level, finished with 1 cup at the top.
2. Collapse the pyramid down into one stack of cups: Players then need to take the top cup and collapse the other cups down, until only one stack of 10 cups remains Remember to smash that timer as soon as they’re finished! Create a leaderboard and find the fastest stacker!

You may have played this party game as a child, but it also works brilliantly for breaking the ice at work-related team events. It’s particularly convenient because it doesn’t require any equipment, all you need is a group of people and an open area to move around in. Wink murder can be played with 10-30 people, any more and the game can take too long, any less and the game becomes too easy.

How to play Wink Murder

To prepare, arrange your group into a circle and ask them to close their eyes. At this moment, a moderator will move around the circle and select one player to be the ‘murderer’ by tapping them silently on their shoulder.

When the game starts, all the players start to walk around the room. It’s the task of the ‘murderer’ to catch eyes with a player and wink at them, eliminating them from the game. When a player gets winked at, they must ‘die’ as dramatically as they see fit and leave the game.

It’s the role of the players to identify who the ‘murderer’ is and to make an accusation. When a player wants to make a guess, they say “I accuse [name].” The accusation must be supported by at least one other player by saying “second”. The accused player must then respond with “yes” if they are the murderer or “no” if they are not.

If the accusation is wrong, the two players that made the guess must ‘die’ and leave the game.

This game is an interactive outdoor activity perfect for a company retreat. If you’re taking the whole team to Paris for a city getaway to boost morale, Pay it Forward is the perfect game that helps you get to know your surroundings and encourages team members to collaborate.

How to play:

‍Split your workers into small teams, not more than ten a group. Each group will be given a small recording device or asked to designate one player as the videographer. Teams will be given an envelope that contains tasks. Each task is worth a certain number of points.

Each team is sent out into its surroundings, ideally a place where there are plenty of people to perform random acts of kindness for strangers. These random acts are found in the envelope given to your team at the beginning of the game. The person recording is documenting each task completed.

Examples of tasks could include:

• Paying for a strangers coffee at a cafe
• Telling someone they look great today
• Offering a small shopkeeper to help take out the trash

Once teams return to the home base, they tally up their points based on the number of tasks they completed.

Materials you’ll need: You’ll need plenty of space for your team to roam around, like a village or city center. A small recording divide like a GoPro or personal cellphone.

How many people: Small to large groups (8 to 20+ people)

Here is an exercise that will challenge participants and help them to think on the spot. Start by picking a poetry style, like a sonnet, haiku, or limerick.

How to play:

1. Give everyone vocabulary words to use within the poem.

2. Set a timer for five or ten minutes for the groups or individuals to complete their verses. You can also do this online via meeting software by using breakout rooms to work in private.

3. Have your brilliant poets read the masterpieces aloud.

You might want to come up with some extra fun by having judges rate poems, or coming up with awards for the best poem, worst poem, most creative, etc. If you want to enhance the improv component, have players finish each others’ phrases on the spot.

How to play What If?

Want to inject some energy into proceedings and trigger some silly, serious, and generally scintillating discussions at the same time? Play What If. A super straightforward question game, you simply take turns asking “what if” questions for your teammates to answer.

You may find that the best discussions come from questions people make up on the fly. Nevertheless, here are some great “What If” questions to get things started:

• What if you could travel back in time?
• What if the power went out for a month?
• What it there was no internet anywhere in the world?
• What if your high-school crush contacted you out of the blue?
• What if you stopped drinking coffee for a week?
• What if a famous director asked you to star in their next movie?
• What if you had 24 hours left to live?

How to play Group order

Start with everyone mingling in a large area, and instruct them to arrange themselves in order of something like height, number of pets, time with your company, etc. This way, everyone can learn something new about each other and the line organization is helpful for team-building. This is a quick game and you can get as creative as you want with it. Try some other get-to-know-you games from our list!

Kanban is a Japanese word literally meaning “visual card.” It is one kind of agile methodology first developed by Toyota, and in this system, teams use visual cues to keep all tasks flowing in a process. One of the best ways to make an agile game with this system is by creating a simulated pizzeria. Let’s break it down:

Set-up:

Create a pizzeria with stations for each pizza-making step (e.g., dough rolling, cheese sprinkling, baking), represented by sticky notes as orders move through. Your teams will iterate with each order to speed up every round. Improving each round and redesigning how many workers are at each station makes great practice for agile methodology.

How to play Statue challenge

This game is full of silly fun, but can encourage more observational skills and makes people aware of their colleagues. This game is really ideal for people working in larger open spaces. The first participant that you choose is the “statue” leader. At some point in the day, they’ll freeze - it should be random. As other players notice the “statue” they will also freeze. This continues until there is only one person left, and they lose. This is an entertaining game that also offers a bit of stress relief during busy times, and is great to plan when tensions are high in the 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 Zip, Zap, Zop

This game is sort of like hot potato without a ball. Start with everyone in a circle. The first player should clap their hands, point to another player in the circle, and say “zip”. The pointed-to player must immediately clap, point to another person, and say “zap”. The third player says “zop” and continues the pattern. The process should repeat with everyone saying “zip, zap, zop” until each person has had a turn. For a little extra challenge, try to increase your speed as you go through second or third rounds of the game.

This game is designed to get your team’s creative juices flowing and encourage them to think on the spot.

How to play the rhyming game

The idea is really simple. Each person takes it in turns to make a sentence. Each sentence needs to rhyme with the previous one. For example, “John woke up and went to work” … “It was his last day so he gave a smirk...” And so on.

Set a rough time limit for each person to say their sentence (we recommend three seconds). If they are too slow they lose the game and are out for the next round. Then a new story begins. If a rhyme is said twice then that person is also out of the game.

The game continues until two people are left for the ‘final showdown’.