Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

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.

The devil is in the detail, they say. At the workplace, misinterpreting instructions or being unclear with your instructions can have detrimental knock-on effects. Copy Cat teaches your employees to listen more carefully.

Great for: Listening skills, comprehension

Duration: 5-10 minutes

Players: 2+

You’ll need: Various sets of identical office items, something to use as a barrier i.e a flipchart.

How to play Copy Cat

Setup: To prepare for Copy Cat, separate players into pairs and position them on either side of a solid barrier—the players should be able to see their partner. Hand each player a set of matching office items. You can use things like a wastepaper basket, stapler, pens, sticky notes, etc. In each pair, one person needs to be the Leader and the other needs to be the Copy Cat.

To play: When the timer starts, the Leader begins building his structure with the materials provided. The Leader is allowed to iterate his actions, saying things like “I’m going to lay the wastepaper basket on its side,” and “I’m sticking two sticky notes to the bottom of the basket.” Based on these comments, the Copy Cat must attempt to create an identical structure to that of their Leader. The Copy Cat cannot ask any questions, forcing the Leader to be precise with their commentary.

How to play Blind square-build

This is a fun, problem-solving game that’s often used in business environments to support teamwork and critical thinking. To begin, tie a long piece of rope into a circle. Let attendees know that their job is to turn the circle into a square - while blindfolded. Break the session up into two, 15-minute sessions. In the first session, they can plot and plan but must not touch the rope. In the second session, they can work together moving the rope. This game is simple and effective and has materials that are easy to come across and cheap to buy.

In memory lane wall, teammates write down their fondest workplace memories and pin them on a designated wall for everyone to see. It’s a simple but powerful way to spread positivity and reminisce about shared experiences that have brought the team closer.

This is a heartwarming way to boost morale and remind everyone of the good times they’ve had together in the office.

How to play:

• Provide a space for team members to write down their favorite workplace memories.
• Pin the memories on a shared wall for everyone to read.
• Enjoy the positive vibes and walk down memory lane together!

How to play “Secret word” game

For this game, divide your group into two teams. Give each of them a different, “secret” word. The members of each team will try to incorporate the word into conversation as often as possible, without the other team guessing what their word is. For example, maybe one team is using the word “avocado”. Members would try to sneak in that word as often as possible, but organically, so it’s not easy to pick out. If someone orders a salad, a member might say “I love to put avocado in my salad.” Whichever team picks up on the other team’s secret word first, wins.Note: You obviously want to make sure the secret word is work appropriate!

How to play “Speed dating” icebreaker

In this game, you want to facilitate a series of rapid conversations among everyone in a very short amount of time. Have everyone sit in pairs with people they don’t know well or work with directly. Set a time limit (we recommend 3 minutes) and every time the timer goes off, one part of the pair should move to the next person. It’s usually easiest to have people move in a set pattern, such as everyone moving to the right each round. This is a great way to get people out of their comfort zone and sharing with people outside of their usual circle.

Picture this: a chat where everyone's honest and open. That's open communication! It's like a recipe for trust and harmony, stopping confusion in its tracks and making the team feel like a united front.

Be transparent and open in your communication. Share your thoughts, ideas and concerns honestly and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Clear communication helps prevent misunderstandings and promotes trust.

Open communication activity - Honest feedback board:

• Create a physical or digital board labeled "Honest Feedback."
• Provide sticky notes, pens and markers nearby.
• Encourage colleagues to anonymously share constructive feedback, ideas, or concerns related to work on the sticky notes and attach them to the board.
• Designate regular intervals (e.g., weekly or monthly) for team members to review and discuss the submissions collectively.
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This team building activity promotes transparency, builds trust and establishes a platform for open communication.

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.

Two Sides of The Coin is a quick game that’s a surprisingly powerful way to challenge preconceived notions and both forge and strengthen friendships. It revolves around the psychological concept of reframing, which is defined by the American Psychological Association as:

“A process of reconceptualising a problem by seeing it from a different perspective…[which] serves to alter perceptions of the problem’s difficulty and to open up possibilities for solving it”.

Here’s how it works:

Each team member has to think of a negative event that has happened to them in their lifetime. It could be personal or professional, but it has to be true. Importantly, they should also feel comfortable talking about the event.

Everyone then pairs up with a partner (feel free to let people choose or decide for them who will work together) and takes turns disclosing what happened.

Having described it once, they then do it again! This time, though, they have to talk about the bright side of the event. Their partner’s job is to help them find and focus on this silver lining – working with them to reframe the problem into something positive.

They then switch roles so the helper becomes the helpee.

What you need:

• N/A

How to play Interdepartmental pitch battles

For this hybrid version, teams can collaborate online through virtual meeting platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, while those in the office can meet physically or join virtually. Remote team members can contribute their ideas via shared documents or collaboration tools like Miro or Slack. Each team presents their pitch live via video call, with remote judges participating online and in-office judges scoring live. The presentations can be recorded so that all participants can watch each team's ideas, ensuring everyone stays engaged.

You may have played Word Association to pass the time on long journies. Well, funnily enough, it also works brilliantly as a quick team-building game!

Great for: Quick thinking, communication

Duration: 5 minutes

Players: 4+

You’ll need: Nothing

How to play Word Association

Setup: Position your group in a circle facing inwards. Players can be sitting or standing.

To play: To start the game, somebody starts with a one-word prompt. Then, play moves around the circle as each player replies with a word they strongly associate with the previous word. For example, if player one starts with the word “tree,” player two might say “leaves” and player three might follow up with “autumn.” Play moves around the circle until the time runs out.

By challenging your team to guess the answer to a secret question in under 20 inquiries, you'll encourage communication, collaboration, and strategic thinking. Plus, it's a great way to sneak in some team building without resorting to trust falls or awkward trust exercises.

How to play:

1. Think of an object, person, or place.
2. The other player(s) will have 20 questions to ask about your chosen item.
3. They can only ask yes or no questions.
4. After each question, you can only respond with yes, no, sometimes, or I don't know.
5. The players must try to guess what the object is before they run out of their allotted 20 questions.
6. If they successfully guess the object, they win.
7. If they run out of questions before they guess correctly, the player who chose the object wins.
8. If the game ends in a tie, you can play again to break the tie.

To supercharge the fun, try to set a theme for the game to boost the fun factor and creativity, while also allowing employees to learn more about each other. Make sure to check out our other question based games if this tickled your fancy!

Routine coffee breaks in brick and mortar offices provide the foundation for the development of employee relationships. Without this frequent interaction, remote teams can struggle to discuss topics outside of work.

How to play Virtual coffee breaks

That’s where virtual coffee breaks come in. Now, you can establish routine online coffee breaks for your employees, allowing them to unwind and socialise with their colleagues while sipping on their favourite hot beverage. You can use any kind of video chat software to do this such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, or Microsoft Teams.

How to play Post-it note art show

Teams are given the challenge of creating an office mural using only Post-it notes, with the mural reflecting a work-related theme. It’s easy to organize: grab some packs of colorful Post-its, assign a theme, and watch as creativity takes off. This is a fun way to encourage teamwork while bringing some color and personality to the office walls.

Top tip: Don’t stress over artistic skill! Even if it looks like a kindergarten project, it’s all about having fun together. Bonus points for those who incorporate inside jokes into their murals!

If your group are struggling to come up with team names, this quick team-building activity might help! Classification encourages players to find common ground and get to know one another quickly.

Great for: Interpersonal bonding

Duration: 10 minutes

Players: 8+

You’ll need: Nothing

How to play Classification

Setup: To prepare for Classification, separate your group into even teams. Before the game starts, make it clear that consolidating people into groups or perpetuating stereotypes isn’t useful. Players should avoid classifications based on gender, race, sexual preferences, or any other theme that could be perceived as prejudicial or discriminatory.

To play: After forming teams and explaining the basic rules, you’re ready to start. When you say “Go!” the players can start to exchange basic information about themselves. Perhaps they like to wake up early? Maybe they like to grab a coffee every morning? Based on these preferences and characteristics, the players will attempt to find common ground and classify themselves. You can expect results such as “The Early Birds” or “The Caffeine Addicts.”

Office Apples to Apples is a hilarious twist on the classic word game, perfect for bringing some shenanigans to a corporate event. Here's how to get the party started.

Set up:

1. Get your cards ready. A spin on the traditional Apples to Apples card game, you need to create cards with office-themed words or phrases, like “coffee break” or “Monday meeting madness”.
2. Lay Down the Law: Explain that one lucky soul plays judge in each round while the others throw down their wackiest associations to the green apple card played.
3. The judge picks their favorite, and that team scores a point. Set a point limit for winners.
4. Keep the laughs rolling by rotating judges each round.

How to play Team bingo

This is a really fun way to break the ice in a competitive way. Participants can get information on each other in a more engaging way. To begin, create a bingo card with a statement or question in every square. Make sure they are things that will apply to at least one person in the gathering. Try to pick a few things that are aligned with your work or the event. Every player will get a bingo card and then they should mingle around chatting with the other participants. The goal is for them to find people to sign each square based on what they learn. Pro tip: the signatures should only be from one or two people each, to avoid having the same people filling up all the squares for an instant bingo. When everyone has reached bingo (or is close), stop the game and have everyone share something they learned about their colleagues.

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.

You might have seen companies using the “Caption This” game as a way of driving engagement on their social media feeds. Interestingly, it also works well as a team-building activity because it’s fun, collaborative and creative.

Great for: Creative thinking, collaboration

Duration: 5 minutes

Players: 4+

You’ll need: Various funny/thought-provoking images

How to play Caption This

Setup: Compile various images in a folder on your computer or print them out.

To play: Divide your group into teams or pairs and show them one of the images. Then, give them a few minutes to think of a suitable or funny caption for the image. When the time runs out, ask the groups, one by one, to present their caption. Groups can then vote for the caption they liked the most!

The aim of this game is to boost your conflict resolution skills by diving into some video scenes that are bursting with workplace drama. We'll watch 'em, dissect 'em, and figure out the best ways to make things right. This is a hands-on, visual, and chatty way to boost your conflict resolution skills. Let's dive into those scenes, have some fun, and make our workplace a better, more harmonious space.

Materials needed

You won't need much for this - just some video clips that showcase different conflict scenarios, a way to display them (a projector or screen), and something to jot down your thoughts.

Instructions

1. First you need to choose your scenes. Think workplace disputes, customer service kerfuffles, or good ol' interpersonal clashes – scenes that you can totally relate to. Scenes from the movie Horrible Bosses or Steve Jobs could be perfect.
2. After the video's done, it's your turn to chat. We'll dive deep into the conflict we just saw. What caused it? How did emotions play a part? And what about those communication styles?
3. Split into groups or pairs and hand out some worksheets or notebooks. You'll use these to brainstorm your own ideas for smoothing out the situation. Remember, it's all about constructive conflict resolution.
4. Let's regroup and share what we came up with. We want to hear all about your ideas and strategies. Feel free to speak up – there are no wrong answers here.
5. We're not stopping at one video. Nope, we'll keep this party going with a bunch of different scenarios. Each one will have its own unique challenges and situations.
6. After we've tackled all the videos, we'll gather 'round and talk about what we've learned. What were the big takeaways? Any recurring themes? And most importantly, how can we use all this newfound knowledge in our daily work lives?

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.

Ever helped a buddy with moving house? Offering help is like that—showing you've got each other's backs and creating a vibe of togetherness.

Offer assistance activity - "Helping hands":

• Create a designated area, either physically or digitally, where colleagues can post requests for assistance or offer help with specific tasks or projects.
• Participants can write down their requests or offers on sticky notes or digital platforms.
• Encourage colleagues to browse the requests and offers and connect with each other to provide assistance or collaborate.
• Regularly update and promote the exchange to ensure ongoing engagement and support within the team.
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Helping Hands fosters a culture of mutual aid, teamwork and resource sharing. All the perfect ingredients to boost working relationships!

Brace yourselves; it's time to embark on the stress-busting adventure of crafting your very own stress balls. Balloons, flour (or any chosen filling), and a sprinkle of creativity are your tools of the trade. It's DIY therapy with a squishy twist - creating a stress ally that fits snugly on your desk.

This hands-on activity is a break from the norm. When employees bond over creating a stress release, the activity turns into camaraderie, creativity, and a therapeutic crafting session. The end result? A desk buddy that's ready to take on stress, one squish at a time.

Instructions:

1. Balloons? Check. Filling? Check.
2. Stretch that balloon over the bottle or funnel, and let the filling commence.
3. Tie it off, and behold - you've birthed a stress ball.
4. Keep it close for those "deep breath, squeeze the stress away" moments, and revel in the satisfaction of crafting your very own stress-busting companion.

How to play:

Provide teams with a variety of puzzles, such as jigsaw puzzles, riddles, or brain teasers. Once they finish one puzzle, they progress to the next. The team who can finish the quickest is the winner.

Materials needed: Assorted puzzles

Benefits:

• Stimulated out-of-the-box thinking: Say goodbye to ordinary solutions! This game pushes your team members to think outside the puzzle box and explore unconventional approaches. Witness a creativity explosion as they discover innovative perspectives and solutions.
• Fostered collaborative triumphs: Witness the power of teamwork as your employees join forces to conquer challenging puzzles. It's like a symphony of puzzle-solving brilliance, with each team member adding their unique piece to complete the magnificent masterpiece. Collaboration never felt so victorious!