Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to play Synonym Memory

This is another game that has been adapted from a childhood classic. Memory rules are simple: flip over two cards at a time and find  matching pictures or words. When players find pairs, they take the cards off the board. The player with the most pairs of cards at the end of the game wins. Using synonyms instead of pictures or simple words makes things a bit challenging, but helps people to brush up on their language skills.

Come up with a list of sample matches like enticing/tempting, assume/suppose, or patience/restraint. This game is also a visual way of learning how other people use words and how different phrases have different meanings.

How to play Who’s Most Likely To?

“Who’s Most Likely To” is a simple question game where players identify someone in the group who best fits a certain description. For example:

• Who’s most likely to sing karaoke at the next Christmas party?
• Who’s most likely to play practical jokes in the office?
• Who’s most likely to make you laugh so hard that you cry?
• Who’s most likely to have a witty comeback?
• Who’s most likely to be awarded employee of the month 6 times in a row?

You need two or more people to play, as well as a large set of pre-written cards with these questions written on them. Feel free to make these cards yourself or purchase an actual “Who’s Most Likely to” card game in advance. From there, you sit together in a circle and take turns drawing cards/answering questions.

Aside from being surprisingly fun, we like this game because you can use it to give indirect praise and compliments. For example, the question might be: “Who is most likely to cheer up the room?” Whoever gets picked is sure to feel happy about it!

Got You! is a rapid icebreaker designed to lighten the mood for the day ahead. The idea behind the game is simple, catch the other person finger while avoiding the other person from catching yours.

How to play Got You!

To play the game, arrange your group into a circle with a little space between each player. Next, ask each player to stick out their left palm towards the player to their left with the palm face up. Then, ask the players to rest the index finger of their right hand onto the palm of the player to their right. When the moderator shouts “Go!” the players must attempt to catch the index finger of the player to their left while avoiding the player to their right from catching theirs.

Want to raise the energy levels in the room? Lift people’s spirits? Encourage colleagues to work together to achieve a common goal?

Don’t Drop the Balloons involves inflating masses of balloons in the office and making a rule that they can’t touch the ground! However, you can add a competitive element by splitting employees into 3+ teams and assigning balloons of a particular color to each one. If any of their balloons touches the floor, that team’s out!

How to play Office “Great race”

Have you watched The Great Race? It’s a competition show where teams race around the world competing various tasks, finding out what their next task is when they complete one. You can create your own version in your office and have teams go on a quest before ending at a finish line. You can make a day of it, or break things up over a few weeks.

This game seems a little childish at first, but it usually leads to a ton of laughs. It’s the perfect game for leaving egos at the door - chances are everyone will feel equally silly. Why not let your walls down and just goof off for a while? You’re sure to feel closer to your coworkers afterward.

To begin:

1. Have the group stand in a circle, and have one person stand in the center. The circle should be wide enough that the person in the center can freely spin around, and people can move fairly freely.
2. The person in the circle should spin around a few times with their finger pointed out. When they stop, the person they are pointed at is “up”.
3. The person in the center asks that person to make a particular noise - for example, a lion, or a car that won’t start. Chances are the sound won’t be that accurate, and the more outlandish, the funnier the game gets.
4. Then the person who was just “up” moves to the middle and does the same. They will spin, point to someone, and come up with a silly noise for them to make. This goes on until everyone has had a turn.

Office FM is an ongoing team-building activity that boosts morale and encourages employees to collaborate.

Great for: Company culture

Duration: N/A

You’ll need: Access to a music streaming service (Apple Music, Spotify, etc.)

How to organise:

• Create a collaborative playlist and invite everybody as a contributor. If you like, you can create a theme such as “90s Party Classics”.
• Ask each employee to contribute a maximum of two songs to the playlist.
• Hit “play” on the playlist whenever a morale boost is needed!

How to host Snack tastings

If you don’t want so much focus on alcoholic drinks, try sticking with snacks. Who doesn’t love snacking? A snack pairing can be a really good idea if you have a culturally diverse staff. Have everyone bring or suggest one of their favorite snacks and the drink that is best served with it. This can range from a fancy hors d'oeuvre to a decadent dessert. Or, simply have everyone research a geographic area and bring in the region’s most popular snack for everyone to try. This is an easy DIY event that you can host without needing a particular space, though you may need room to set everything up.

How to play One-word story

Storytelling exercises help people to overcome shyness and work on their articulation skills. In this game, a group of people takes turns saying one word to create a story. Start in a circle and move clockwise or counter-clockwise. Many times this exercise starts with “Once upon a time” and goes from there. The final players should say “the end”.

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.

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 Dot voting

Does your team tend to go off on tangents and get into circular discussions when talking about projects or issues? Meetings that devolve into unrelated conversations are a big challenge in many workplaces. You can practice these skills with this exercise, dot voting. To do it, all you need to do is present the issue and then have everyone suggest ideas for a solution.

Write them down on the white board so everyone can see. Then, hand out sticky notes and have everyone place their papers under the ideas they like best. You might let them choose only one, or up to 3. Once everyone has had their turn, you will have an obvious visual that shows which of the ideas was most popular. This is a great tactic that can be used in many different meetings, discussion, and brainstorming sessions.

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 Compliment train

This simple no-prep activity keeps the aim of positive reinforcement and maximizes a productive atmosphere. It is so simple it can be run during a virtual water cooler chat. Each person in the group simply chooses one other attendee, and then that person chooses someone who hasn’t been complimented yet and tells them something positive they’ve done.

The effectiveness of this simple activity comes from the fact the complimenting is done at a peer-to-peer level, rather than from management.

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Get your virtual whiteboards ready for remote sketch-off! One player describes an object in detail, and everyone else has to draw it based solely on the description—no peeking. The results? Often hilarious.

It’s a great way to have some fun, practice communication, and see who’s got the best artistic (or interpretive) skills.

How to play:

• One person describes an object, step by step.
• Everyone else draws it on an online whiteboard.
• Compare drawings for some laughs and see who got closest to the real thing!

How to play Confess then guess

This is a simple “getting to know you” game for groups of all sizes, especially people who are just getting to know each other. In every round, participants write down the answer to a prompt (that was previously created) and then put the answer into a bowl. A host will read out each reply and players have to guess which person wrote the answer. Some prompts to try are:

• Your greatest fear
• Your favorite animal story
• Who you were in a past life
• Your favorite activity for relaxing
• What you were voted in high school
• What you wanted to be when you grew up
• The first item on your bucket list
• Your personal hero
• Something you’re allergic to

‍Lightening scavenger hunts are a tried and true favourite for company team building events. The game can be played by both small and large groups using your favourite video chat software. This game gets your team moving and energized for the remainder of the meeting.

How to play Lightening scavenger hunt

Before starting the game, you’ll need to prepare a list of items that your team will need to find in their homes. The items can be completely random, or you can pick a theme such as “items beginning with the letter ‘R’” or “items that are blue.” For an additional incentive, you can offer prizes for the fastest people to return with the objects.

How to play:

‍Set up a Jeopardy-style game board with categories related to workplace safety (e.g., "Fire Safety," "PPE," "First Aid"). Create questions of varying difficulty and assign point values. Divide employees into teams and let them choose questions to answer for points.

Safety jeopardy extravaganza transforms safety training into an exciting game show experience. It’s an effective way to review safety policies and procedures while fostering a competitive spirit. Channeling their inner Alex Trebek, participants can both learn and have fun.

How to host Food drive competition or poll

There is great joy in helping the community around you, and your staff surely agrees. Invite your staff to bring in nonperishable food that counts toward a prize. You can make things really straightforward and provide small incentives for every item donated, or you can make things a little more fun. Setting up a “food pantry poll” is a fun idea that is more interactive. Create a poll about something that impacts everyone in the company, where they can share an opinion, and then have the non-perishable food items be “votes”.

So, for example, you might have a poll regarding where to hold the company holiday party. Offer a few choices, and then have people bring in canned goods toward their favorite option. Set up boxes with the choices written on them, and have people drop their items in the box. In the end, the box with the most items is the winning option. This is a fun way to make some non-critical decisions and a great way to help others.

Cool off and blow off some steam with super soaker showdown! Teams engage in a friendly water gun fight, battling it out while dodging sprays and soaking each other. It’s a fun, refreshing way to unleash some energy and enjoy the outdoors.

This is perfect for adding a bit of action-packed excitement to a team day out—and there’s nothing like a good water fight to get everyone laughing.

How to play:

• Equip each team with water guns and create boundaries for the battle.
• Teams strategize to soak their opponents while staying as dry as possible.
• The team with the driest members (or the most soaked fun) wins!

How to play Giant Connect Four

Instructions: Set up a giant Connect Four board on a stand. Participants take turns dropping their colored discs into the slots, aiming to get four in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The player who achieves four in a row first wins.

Materials needed: Giant Connect Four board.

Giant Connect Four is a strategic and engaging game that promotes critical thinking, decision-making, and friendly competition. It encourages problem-solving skills and provides an opportunity for participants to interact and strategize with each other in a relaxed setting.

Imagine standing on that iconic red circle, sharing your most audacious goal with the world as if you've already aced it. In this activity, participants channel their inner TED speaker and deliver a brief presentation that could rival the real deal.

Public speaking about your goals isn't just about eloquence; it's about fostering confidence, celebrating achievement, and nurturing a positive mindset. Get ready to captivate your audience – even if it's just your team – and let your goals take center stage in the spotlight!

Top Tip for Facilitator:

• Remind the employees it's about sharing dreams, victories, and the occasional stumble.
• As the facilitator, be the hype person, the supportive audience member, and the constructive critic all rolled into one.
• Let the stage be a place where authenticity shines, and goals take center stage with a side of passion!

How to play Lego builders

If you have enough space to spread out a bit, try some lego construction. Give everyone the same set of lego pieces, and print out brief instructions for creating a certain project. Who can complete the project in under one minute?

The classic TV gameshow Jeopardy can be adapted for an office setting with a few simple steps.

How to play:

1. Create categories based on your workplace, such as company history, industry knowledge, culture, and team building.
2. Develop challenging questions for each category and assign point values based on difficulty. Divide employees into teams and play the game.
3. The first team to buzz in and provide the correct answer earns the corresponding points.
4. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Playing Jeopardy in the office is a fun way to test your employees' knowledge and promote teamwork. It's also a great way to inject some fun and excitement into your workday.