Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to play the ball point game

The Ball Point Game is a simple way to visualize agile and scrum concepts in action. It starts out easy enough, teams just stand in a circle and pass a ball to one another. Complexity can be ramped up over time, like introducing more balls so that your teams rethink their layout. Here’s a breakdown of the rules:

Teams start in a circle, pass a ball so each member catches it once (no adjacent passes allowed). Over time, add more balls, requiring teams to rethink their layout. The game involves three planning sessions and three 2-minute sprints, where each round starts with the "Starter" and ends with the "Finisher" for points.

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.

How to play:

Organize a scavenger hunt where employees search for potential hazards in the workplace. Provide a checklist of items to find, such as trip hazards, improper storage, or blocked exits. Once found, employees report them to a supervisor or safety officer.

This game turns safety into an interactive challenge, encouraging employees to be more observant and proactive about identifying risks. It's like playing detective with the reward being a safer workplace. Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of healthy competition?

Everyone knows the classic TV phenomenon of Wheel of Fortune. Add your own corporate twist onto it to bring TV show vibes to the event.

Set up:

1. Wheel it up. You’ve got to get craft and create the biggest, most standout wheel you can. Add workplace pictures to it too.
2. Create your list of winning answers, and make them workplace-themed, or popular mottos among your staff Use some brain teasers for SOS clues.
3. Create teams and get spinning. Your teams can shout out letters to fill in the blank space letters in the answer.
4. Add the occasional bonus round for double points, and create your finale with a one-on-one showdown. Who will wager big and take home the ultimate prize?

How to play Paper Plane Contest

Instructions: Each participant creates their own paper airplane using a standard sheet of paper. Measure the distance or time each plane stays in the air. The person with the longest distance or longest airtime wins.

Materials needed: Sheets of paper.

Prepare to fold, fly, and fiercely compete in the epic Paper Plane Contest. It's a creative extravaganza that will take your team back to childhood dreams of aeronautical glory. Bring your finest folding skills, unleash your inner innovator, and get ready to soar to victory in this friendly battle of airborne awesomeness.

How to play Don’t laugh

This activity is great if you have some especially funny team members. Start by having all attendees stand in a circle, and then have a volunteer stand in the middle and make some jokes. The attendees should not laugh, no matter how funny the person inside the circle is being. This is a great way to lighten the mood during heavier topics or serious meetings. One caveat: make sure that the “joker” is based purely on volunteers only. It’s not easy to stand in front of a group, particularly when it comes to trying to be funny. Not everyone will be up for this, so you need to know your team before you proceed.

How to play Around the horn

About as simple and traditional as it gets, this icebreaker involves a facilitator simply asking everyone to introduce themselves to the group. Keep things concise by asking everyone to share their name, role, region, and maybe one fun fact or otherwise light-hearted bit of information. Some people have people state what they are excited to learn in the session or what is most on their minds, work-wise.

Transform your office into a puzzle paradise! Puzzle stations are strategically placed around the workplace, offering employees a mental workout during breaks. It's like a treasure hunt for your brain, with puzzles ranging from crosswords to brainteasers waiting to be conquered.

Puzzle stations provide a refreshing break from screens, encouraging mental agility and problem-solving skills. Employees can collaborate, share tips, and revel in the satisfaction of cracking a challenging puzzle. It's a break that stimulates the mind and promotes a sense of accomplishment.

Instructions:

1. Set up puzzle stations in common areas or designated break spaces.
2. Include a variety of puzzles, from crosswords to Sudoku and brain teasers.
3. Encourage employees to tackle puzzles individually or collaborate with colleagues.
4. Consider hosting puzzle challenges with small prizes for those who conquer the most puzzles within a given time frame.

There’s something to be said about being kind and spreading positive vibes. While it may seem like “good vibes” is just tossed around flippantly, there is compelling evidence that being excellent and complementary is good for your health.

How to play:

‍One person, likely the team leader, gets the ball rolling and asks team members to go around the circle and give a compliment to someone on their team. It can be as simple as thanking someone for being so knowledgeable and helping you figure out a computer malfunction, or more specifically, to a project the whole team is working on together.

Materials you’ll need: Just your team and, ideally, outdoor space

How many people: Small to mid-sized teams (8-16 people)

Here’s one you may have played with family over Christmas, or as a drinking game with friends at university! This time, though, it’s strictly professional – a trust-building exercise that teaches the virtues of communication and teamwork, while also providing some good light-hearted fun.

Sticky Notes (otherwise known as “Who Am I?”) involves giving each employee a sticky note and pen and asking them to write down the name of a famous person or character. These people can be alive or dead, real or fictitious (e.g. from a movie), but should be a name that everyone in the group will recognize.

How to play Sticky notes/Who am I?

Each team member then takes their sticky note and puts it on a colleague’s forehead – ensuring they don’t see who’s written on it! Their task is to figure out the name on their note by asking “yes/no” questions to their colleagues.

For example:

• “Am I male?”
• “Am I alive now?”
• “Am I on TV?”
• “Am I an historical figure?”

You can play the game in different ways, depending on the size of your team. For smaller groups, it’s fun to sit in a circle and take turns asking questions. For larger teams, it may be easier to walk around as if you’re at a networking event, mingling with others and asking questions as you go.

What you need:

• Sticky notes and pens

We're gonna dig into past workplace conflicts, learn from them, and maybe even give our past selves a pat on the back. Let's get started!

Materials needed

Not a lot is needed here, just paper and pens!

Instructions:

1. The first goal here is to think back to a workplace conflict you've faced before.
2. It could be a disagreement with a colleague, a tricky project situation, or maybe a frustrating client interaction.
3. Grab a pen and paper or your trusty device—it's time to write a letter to yourself. Pretend you're talking to your past self during the heat of that conflict.
4. Start by describing the conflict. Who was involved? What were you all arguing about? Where and when did it go down?
5. Don't hold back on the emotions. Share how the conflict made you feel, and how you reacted. Were you cool as a cucumber or seeing red?
6. If the conflict got resolved, let yourself know how. If not, explain why it stayed hanging in the air.
7. Here's the meaty part—identify what you could've done differently to handle the conflict better. What strategies or communication skills could've saved the day?
8. Reflect on the lessons you've learned from this experience. How can you use these lessons to face future conflicts like a pro?

Once you're done pouring your heart into your letters, let's gather 'round and chat.

Let's talk about common themes, cool strategies, and any lightbulb moments you had during your reflections.

To wrap things up, think about what you've learned and what you're going to do about it.

The Creative Puzzle Mural challenge is a fusion of artistry and collaboration. Each team is tasked with creating a section of a larger mural, aligning colors, shapes, and themes. As you assemble the puzzle pieces, you'll uncover the beauty of unity in diversity. This activity celebrates the power of collective creativity while highlighting the importance of communication and harmonious teamwork.

Instructions

• Divide participants into teams, ensuring a mix of artistic abilities.
• Assign sections of a mural to each team, providing basic guidelines.
• Teams work collaboratively to design and paint their sections.
• Combine the pieces to reveal the complete mural artwork.
• Reflect on how the different sections symbolize teamwork and collaboration.

Building forts inside the office might sound juvenile. And it is! But that’s the point. Fort building is fun, silly, and creative – a perfect antidote to the usual stress and responsibility associated with work.

For this game, get everyone to bring things like bed sheets, cardboard boxes, and string to the office. Then divide the group into teams and give them a 30-minute time limit to construct the best possible fort! Each group then presents what they’ve built for you – the judge – to decide who won.

How to play Sneak it in

Here’s a fun word game to get some chuckles around the virtual meeting room. Lifted from the movie Super Troopers, ‘Sneak It In’ involves giving someone the secret task of sneaking a random word into their sentences. In the movie, ‘meow’ is used by the trooper, who needs to say it in his sentences without giving the game away to the listener.

Create a private breakout room, then task someone with adding a word from a random noun generator online to their sentences. Watch the creative ways they can work it into their normal speech, until they’re caught out, then give the task to the next person.

How to play Tug of War Challenge

Instructions: Divide participants into two teams and provide a long rope. Each team holds onto one end of the rope and pulls in opposite directions. The team that successfully pulls the other team over a designated line wins.

Materials needed: Rope.

Tug of War encourages teamwork, communication, and friendly competition. It promotes unity, camaraderie, and creates a sense of strength and determination among team members.

Pipeline doesn’t just foster trust between colleagues. It’s also an awesome way to cultivate collaboration, communication, and listening skills.

How to play Pipeline

Here’s the basic idea:

Each team member has a small half-pipe with which they have to transport a small ball/marble between point A and point B, without letting it hit the floor.

Each person rolls the ball along their pipe and onto the next person’s, before running to the end of the line so they can take the ball again when it arrives there! This continues until they deposit the ball into a basket at the end of the course.

If they drop it, though, they start over.

Of course, the more people on each team, the easier it becomes, and vice versa. Try to spice things up by adding a time limit and offering prizes to the victor. You could also put obstacles in the way to make the task harder!

Another advantage of Pipeline is that you can play it anywhere. Indoors or outdoors, confined to one room or spread across many, it’s your choice. However, the bigger the space, the trickier the task.

What you need:

• Small sections of half-pipe
• Small balls (marbles or ping pong balls)

Rock, Paper, Scissors is a classic game you’ve probably played since childhood to pass the time and make group decisions. But have you ever done it using your bodies to make the shapes as opposed to your hands?

How to play Human rock, paper, scissors

That’s exactly what happens in the “human version” of the game. Fun, quick, and ideal for getting people giggling and moving, you start by deciding a full body pose for each item (e.g. rock could be curling up into the fetal position) and then dividing the team into 2 groups.

From there, you face off against each other, taking a few seconds before each round to decide which pose your group will make. When that’s done, you count down from 3 and move as one to do your pose. As always, rock beats scissors, paper beats rock, and scissors beat paper.

While not a group activity per se, this technique is great for allowing employees to practice goal setting in their own working time. The Pomodoro Technique is a disciplined time management method that encourages working in focused, concentrated bursts, separated by short breaks. Here's how it works:

• Choose a task you want to work on. Set a timer for 25 minutes (this is one "Pomodoro").
• Focus solely on the task at hand until the timer rings. Avoid any distractions or interruptions during this time.
• After 25 minutes, take a short break of 5 minutes. Use this time to stretch, take a walk, or do something enjoyable.
• Repeat the process. After completing four Pomodoros, take a longer break of 15-30 minutes.

The Pomodoro Technique is like your best friend for productivity and discipline. It can start to feel like a game, especially when you’re racing against the clock, meaning that it may not even feel like work sometimes. Plus, it’s a game that gives rewards! Those short breaks are vacations for your brain and great incentive to get work done.  So, if you're aiming for setting and reaching goals at work, Pomodoro is the technique for you!

How to play Postcard drawing

Sometimes also called “doodling together”, this activity is a fun and creative one where the group works collaboratively together to draw using postcards started by others. Have everyone get a blank postcard and then the moderator should give some direction about what to draw. Then, they lay the postcard down and the next person adds their postcard, continuing whatever pattern or drawing was started by the previous person. The process keeps going until a large drawing is completed using the postcards. You’ll need to do this in a very large room or outdoors, and have plenty of postcard-size paper and markers or crayons available.

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 Alphabet game

This game involves going through the alphabet and finding words that fit a specific category. For example, you could choose animals as a category. You would start with the letter “A” and the circle would be responsible for coming up with different animals that begin with A, then B, and so on (so relevant answers could be ant, beaver, etc).

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.

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.

A water-tight relay is a great game to get everyone active, if a little bit wet! You’ll need 2 or more teams, a cup for each player, and a source for refilling water. The objective is to carry water in a cup to a teammate, creating a relay chain until all water is collected at the end.

Set-up:

1. Carry water carefully: Create teams with an equal number of members, each member should be the same distance away from their teammate. The first person in the line is given a full cup of water. They move to the second person and pour water into their cup. They can only pour water backward over their head!

2. Continue the chain till the end: Each member repeats the action until the last person pours their water into one large container. The first member in the line then gets another full cup and repeats. Put a measurement on the final container (3 or 4 full cups of water), and the first team to reach the line wins.

Speed does not always beat a steady hand in this game. Try this one out as a fun Friday activity. Just make sure you’re away from electrical equipment!