Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

Hangman can be more than just a childhood pastime. It's a great way to break the monotony of the office and encourage team building.

How to play:

1. Choose a word or phrase and draw a line for each letter of the word.
2. The other player guesses one letter at a time. If they are correct, write the letter on the corresponding line.
3. If they are incorrect, draw a part of the hangman on the gallows.
4. The game ends when the word is guessed correctly or the hangman is completed.
5. Alternate roles and repeat.

Not only does Hangman sharpen vocabulary skills, it also allows colleagues to work together to solve a common puzzle.

How to play Trade-up game

Negotiation is a crucial part of successful selling, and this game is a great way to practice. The objective is to trade for better objects than what you currently have at hand. Start by passing out basic items such as office stationary, a stapler, or a soda from the fridge. Then, let everyone talk to others and try to trade for something they deem as better. Whoever ends up with the best product wins the game - since obviously they were able to finagle their way into better items. Afterward, it’s a good idea to ask the top players how they performed so well and what negotiation tricks they might share.

Everybody knows how to build a paper plane, but who can do it the best? In this creative team game, employees go head to head to build the best paper plane!

Great for: Teamwork, creative thinking

Duration: 10 minutes

Players: 4+

You’ll need: Various stationery supplies including paper, sticky tape and scissors

How to play Paper Plane Parade

Setup: Divide your group into even teams and hand each team a matching set of stationery supplies. Each set should include paper, sticky tape and scissors, but feel free to add other items such as glitter, googly eyes, etc.

To play: When the timer starts, the teams have five minutes to construct a paper plane using the supplies they were given. When the time is up, position the teams behind a line and ask them to throw their creations, one by one. The planes will be judged on three criteria: the plane that travelled the furthest, the plane that flew for the longest and the plane that looked the best. It’s up to you whether you inform your group of these criteria before or after the creation process.

How to play Ghost

Ghost is a quirky little letter-building game, where the whole objective is to not be the person who finishes a word. 2 to 4 players work best. Let’s say you have a team of 3. Each person takes a turn saying a letter to begin spelling out a longer word, (e.g. F-L-O-U-). If the next person adds a letter that creates a full word, like R to create FLOUR, that person loses.

If you lose a round, you are given one letter of the word GHOST (just like the basketball game HORSE). The first person to get all 5 letters G-H-O-S-T loses the game!

Thank you notes in the workplace are an easy and accessible way to express gratitude and appreciation. Showing gratitude is one of the best ways to voice recognition and build positive relationships with colleagues and leadership.

Here are some areas in which thank-you notes can boost morale and positive relationships in the workplace:

1. Post-job interview. After an interview is a great time to send a thank you note to express your appreciation for the opportunity to join a company, especially if it's a role you're excited about. Expressing thanks shows that you are open and communicative, which is an excellent sign that a potential employee is collaborative.
2. Teamwork. Make sure to say thanks when a team member or coworker provides support or collaborates effectively, send them a thank you note to acknowledge their efforts or take them out to lunch.
3. Recognition and thanks from leadership. When leaders in the workplace express gratitude, this can have lasting effects on productivity and the continuation of a positive work environment.
4. Random acts of kindness. Consider giving a coworker who you are close to a small gift to show your appreciation for them, especially if they have helped you professionally. Giving thanks or a small present to show appreciation will strengthen professional and personal bonds.
5. Express thanks to customers and clients. While gratitude in the workspace is vital to a healthy work-life balance, appreciation for your clients or customers helps build trust and a good reputation overall for your organization.

Expressing gratitude in the workplace shows appreciation, helps build positive relationships, and can contribute to a more harmonious and productive work environment.

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.

How to play Pick an accomplishment

For most people, it feels really awkward to share their successes. For your next meeting, break the ice by having everyone on the call share their latest accomplishment. Whether that’s a work related achievement or a personal goal like their best time in a 10k, you can create a safe space for people to brag and learn more about what their co-workers care about.

Every team's got its hiccups, but conflict resolution is the superhero cape. It saves the day by smoothing things over and turning tense moments into learning experiences.

Conflict resolution activity - Role play resolutions:

• Develop fictional workplace scenarios involving conflicts or disagreements.
• Pair colleagues and assign each pair a scenario to role-play.
• Partners take turns assuming the roles of individuals in the conflict and work together to find constructive solutions through communication and negotiation.
• After role-playing, each pair presents their conflict and proposed resolution to the larger group.
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This interactive activity hones conflict resolution skills, encourages creative problem-solving and enhances communication strategies.

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.

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 play "Steal the bacon”

A very competitive game, the goal of this activity is to steal an item from the middle of a group. How does it work? Divide a large group into two smaller ones, and assign everyone on Team A and Team B a number. For example, each person on both teams gets a number 1-10. Then have the teams stand opposite of each other with the object in the middle. Have a moderator announce a number randomly, and then that number from each team will attempt to grab the object and take it back to their side. This is a very physical game, so keep your team in mind when suggesting it.

Here’s a simple game that always goes down well with small groups – especially when it’s a new team that’s still getting to know each other. FYI, Magic box also works well when you need an improv game that’s less daunting or full-on.

How to play Magic box

To play, you’ll first have to assemble a box full of random objects. It doesn’t matter what goes inside! The stranger and more varied, the better. Candy bars, coffee cups, plants, pictures, water bottles, business cards, books…you name it.

With your box ready, the fun can start. Each person sits in a circle and takes turns picking out an item. They then have to tell the group something about themselves that relates to that object.

The trick is to do it without overthinking. Heck, this is improv! They can make something up entirely if they want to. Play it that way and the group could then try to figure out whether it was a true story or not. Bonus points if whoever’s telling the story can link it to a central topic or theme of the workshop.

Whatever version of this game you play demands quick thinking and creativity from participants. It can also showcase their personalities and help the team learn more about each other, becoming a closer group as a result.

As an aside, Magic Box can also be played by remote teams. All you need is a virtual box of items (a web tool like this can be helpful) that people select at random. We’ll go through more examples of remote improv games later.

These days, 99% of our written communication is digital. Assigning Pen Pals revives the art of the handwritten letter and provides your employees with an opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper level.

Great for: Interpersonal bonding

Duration: N/A

Players: 6+

You’ll need: Nothing

How to play Pen Pals

Setup: Start by assigning Pen Pals and determining the frequency of the letters. To encourage interdepartmental bonding, try pairing employees who wouldn’t usually cross paths.

To play: The game is simple. Employees will exchange letters with their pen pals at regular intervals. Through this process, your employees will develop lasting relationships that reinforce the company culture.

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" 🚨🧠⚙️⏳

This game is a fun, chatty way to level up those conflict resolution skills. Let's dive into those scenarios, chat it out, and become conflict-solving pros!

Materials needed

• Conflict scenario cards (These are your secret weapons. You'll need to whip them up beforehand.)
• Some comfy chairs or a chill seating arrangement
• Optionally, someone to guide the game, like a facilitator or moderator

Instructions

1. First things first, create a set of scenario cards. Each one should tell a little story about a workplace conflict. Think of disagreements between team members, tricky client situations, or head-butting with colleagues.
2. Gather your gang in small groups. Aim for about 4-6 folks per group. But if you've got a cozy team, you can play all together as one big, happy crew.
3. Pass out those scenario cards, but keep 'em face down for now. The suspense is half the fun!
4. Once everyone's got a card, tell 'em to take a peek and read it solo. Each card gives a little story about a conflict situation – who's involved, what's going on, and why things are heated.
5. Now, it's time to dive into the drama. Get your group to chat about the scenario. Here's what they should tackle:
   

• What's causing this mess?
• What could be the reasons behind the conflict?
• How can we fix it in a positive, productive way?
• Are there different angles to consider?

6. After giving 'em some time to hash it out (about 10-15 minutes), ask each group to spill the beans. Share what you discussed – the insights, strategies, and solutions you came up with.
7. After tackling a bunch of scenarios, bring everyone together for a debrief session. Chat about common themes, what worked, and any challenges that popped up. Ask your crew to think about what they've learned.

Who’s the office detective? In whodunit: office edition, your team plays out a murder mystery, with each member taking on a character to help solve the case. The goal? Work together, piece by piece, to find the culprit.

This interactive, large-group teambuilding activity is great for boosting communication, creativity, and collaboration. It encourages employees to engage and think critically while embracing their roles. Plus, it’s a hilarious way to break up the day and get everyone involved in some playful, investigative fun!

How to play:

• Assign characters and a murder scenario to each participant.
• Everyone plays their role and works together to solve the mystery.
• The team that figures out “whodunit” first wins!

Trusting your colleagues doesn’t just feel good. It also has very practical implications. After all, it means you can count on each other for help; to work together to achieve common goals.

The Perfect Square (otherwise known as the “blind square”) game teaches this lesson to your employees and sets in motion the teamwork that’s so pivotal to a successful working environment.

How to play Perfect/blind square

Here’s how it works:

Get your entire team to stand in a circle and give them a long stretch of rope to hold. Next, put a blindfold on each person. They then have to drop the rope, take a few steps back, and spin around a few times until they’re dizzy.

That’s when the fun really starts!

Their goal is to return to the rope and work together to lay it out in the shape of, you guessed it…a perfect square. You can give them as much time as they need or add some pressure by setting a time limit.

We like this activity for its simplicity, but you can definitely make it harder if your team’s finding it too easy! For example, why not get them to make a star, diamond, or pentagon? It’s sure to keep them occupied a little longer.

What you need:

• Blindfolds
• Rope

Buckle up for a tech-infused journey through time in the Time-Traveling Tech Expedition. From ancient civilizations to futuristic landscapes, your team will delve into history's greatest technological milestones. But here's the twist: you'll also tackle hands-on tech challenges inspired by each era. As you leap through time and grapple with inventions past and future, your team's adaptability and innovative spirit will shine. It's a quest that transforms history into a playground for the tech-savvy.

Instructions

• Divide participants into tech-savvy teams.
• Assign different historical eras, each with corresponding tech challenges.
• Research and create puzzles inspired by technology of the past and future.
• Solve tech-related tasks and move on to the next era.
• Celebrate accomplishments and discuss how technology has evolved.

You might be surprised how many workforces enjoy a game of chess!

How to play online chess club

Creating an online chess club is easy and free. Schedule regular games throughout the year and reward the winner with a small prize like a voucher or cash bonus - monetary rewards are a great incentive for driving online social interaction.

How to play:

Sit in a circle and start a story with a few sentences. Each person adds a sentence to continue the story, building upon the previous contributions.

Materials needed: None

Benefits:

• Enhanced communication skills: Your team will be able to improve their ability to listen and build upon the ideas of others. It's like a symphony of words, where everyone gets a chance to play their unique melody.
• Team synergy on steroids: Witness the magic of teamwork as your team's contributions harmonize into a cohesive storyline. It's like a literary potluck where each person brings their secret ingredient to create a masterpiece.

If you're a younger team with an appetite for video games, this might be worth a try!

Among Us is an online game where an ‘imposter’ attempts to eliminate members of the ‘crew’ without being discovered.

How to play Among us

The game can only be played by a maximum of ten players, so you might want to consider putting together a league if you have a larger workforce.

How to play Balance challenge

Sometimes called the “helium stick” exercise, this game creates engagement in a group and paves the way for more group learning. Have your group break into two groups and form rows. The two rows should be facing each other. Then, ask everyone to hold out their index fingers and place a long, thin rod across everyone’s fingers. They need to ensure it’s level before going further. Then, instruct them to move the rod up or down, but as a group where the rod stays level.

How to play Pin the tail on…

Return to your childhood birthday with a “pin the tail on” game. You can buy a set from a party store or online, or you can make up your own game with your own visuals. Some people print a large photo of a coworker and have that as the game piece. For example, if your boss always drinks Diet Coke, maybe you have a life-size image of her and participants should try to pin the beverage into her hand. As a refresher, the game involves having participants approach the game, one at a time, to be blindfolded and spun around. Then, they attempt to pin an accessory to the larger picture. It’s usually good for some laughs to see where everyone’s pins ended up.

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.