Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to play Facts only

An effective icebreaker for training sessions helps to energize everyone present while relating to the material. Start by narrowing down a topic that everyone should understand by the end of training. Then go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves, and give one fact that relates to the topic.

For example, if the topic is employee annual reviews, people could give a fact like “our review cycle begins in August”, or “the average for annual reviews ‘meets expectations’”. If you want to add another layer of complexity, you can have the group vote on if the statement is truly a fact (rather than more of an opinion). So if someone says “Employees don’t like annual reviews”, then the group would call out that it’s actually more of a personal statement and not a fact.

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.

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 host Finding commonalities

This is a fun and simple activity that is easy to execute no matter where you are. It does require a larger group since part of the activity is breaking people into groups. We suggest starting with groups of 3 - 5. Have each small group sit down together with the goal of finding something they all have in common. Set a time limit for doing so, such as five minutes. They will have to ask each other a lot of questions to dig into possible commonalities.

They may find anything from all having a tattoo to all hoping to visit Scotland someday. If you want to add a fun twist, try combining this activity with the classic “two truths and a lie” game. In that case, groups would present their findings to the rest of the attendees. They would share three options of what they discovered, with one of them being false. Then the larger group would try to determine which thing they truly had in common.

How to play Show your phone

A very simple and easy icebreaker involves asking everyone to share the latest “something” on their phone. The “something” could be their most recent photo, or the last app they had open. As long as it’s work appropriate, you can get creative about what you’ll ask people to show. A popular take on this game is to share the last 3 emojis you used, but you can get as creative as you feel comfortable. For a super fast and effective icebreaker, have each person stand up, introduce themselves, and share this tidbit of information based on your prompt.

‍How to play:

Provide necessary materials. Encourage team members to create vision boards by cutting out images, words, and phrases that represent their aspirations and goals.

Materials needed: Magazines, scissors, glue, boards or poster paper

Benefits:

• Encouragement and imagination: Encouraging your team members to create vision boards allows them to tap into their imagination and express their aspirations visually. By curating the materials that represent their creative visions, team members gain focus and inspiration for their work.

How to play Paper airplane race

Like the pencil javelin, the paper airplane race centers on how far you can get your paper airplane to fly. Each team constructs their best engineered plane and marks where they ultimately land. Each person on the team should have a chance to fly the place and the team that gets the furthest is declared the winner.

How to play: ‍

Instead of one person acting out a word or phrase, the entire team acts it out while one person guesses. This will definitely encourage team work!

Materials needed: None

Benefits:

• Teamwork in action: Experience the adrenaline rush of synchronized creativity as your team acts in perfect harmony. It's like a choreographed dance routine, but with hilarious gestures and expressive charades.
• Unleash your inner performer: Allow everyone to enter the spotlight and let their creative instincts take over. This allows for the slightly timid members of your team to build confidence in themselves, which can only be a good thing going forward.

It’s charades, but with a twist. In mimic madness, one player acts out words or phrases from charades cards, while their teammates try to guess what they’re acting out—no talking allowed!

This classic team-building game is perfect for boosting communication skills and bringing out everyone’s inner performer. It’s a fun, energetic way to get people working together while adding some laughs to the office atmosphere.

How to play:

• One player selects a charades card and acts out the word or phrase.
• Teammates guess the word based on the actions—no talking allowed!
• The team with the most correct guesses wins.

Looking for an energizer that’s great for enhancing the group dynamic as well? This one should do the trick.

How to play Walk and stop in sync

Simple and sweet, start by asking everybody to stand side by side in a line – preferably in a large space – before issuing a simple instruction:

“Walk forward together and then stop at the same time.”

The catch is that they’re not allowed to talk! Whether they communicate through body language, facial expressions, and/or entering some sort of group consciousness, they have to walk and stop in sync, without speaking.

Keep going until they achieve the goal and consider debriefing when they’re done. What did they learn? How did it feel? What lessons will they take forward?

Charades is a classic family party game everyone knows and loves. It also lends itself perfectly to online team-building events, although beware, the game can become considerably more difficult due to the limited view provided by the camera.

How to play Charades

Playing charades online also means you can eliminate any chance of cheating (all too common in the traditional game) by asking the performer to mute their microphone before starting.

Archery is a classic game that also can be a little dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Luckily, there is a way to play the game, office style, using a common stationary material: the rubber band.

How to play Rubber band archery

Instead of a bow and arrow, players use their fingers to pull back the band and shoot it at the target. Marking out a spot on the floor with packing tape, team members all shoot from the same location at the target, which can be anything that makes it evident that it was hit, like a bell or bowling pin.

Office DJ challenge brings some rhythm to the office! Teams collaborate to create themed playlists—whether it's “Monday Motivation” or “Friday Chill”—then share them to boost morale and get everyone in a good groove.

It’s a fun, creative way to connect over music, brighten the office mood, and maybe discover some new favorite tunes along the way.

How to play:

• Teams work together to create a themed playlist (e.g., “best road trip songs”).
• Share the playlists with the office.
• Enjoy the music and vote on the best playlist for the day!

Looking for more team building activities for small groups? Explore our full guide for more ideas to energize your team.

How to play Knowledge-based quizzes

If your company is especially reliant on customer loyalty, then anything you can do to increase dedication is a smart move. You can put together a quiz for your biggest fans to take to prove they know your business better than anyone. For example, an athletic shoe brand may have a timeline of shoe designs going back 20 years, and whoever can properly label the timeline is a winner. Or, a television show might put together a quiz about the TV characters and their history.

Though radio is not as popular as it once was, many stations used to engage in a form of this loyalty testing by sharing codes throughout the day. If someone could call in with all the codes (to prove they listened all day), they were a winner. This adds another layer of fun and excitement for customers, and works particularly well for consumer goods that tend to have high degrees of repeat business.

Popular in interview settings and among new teams, Pass the ball is an effective ice-breaker that both unites and energizes employees. It couldn’t be simpler to play either.

How to play Pass the ball

Standing in a circle, one person starts by throwing a ball to a colleague and asks them a question as they do so.

The catcher answers, then repeats the process with another teammate. This continues for as long as you wish to play. Potential questions include:

• “What’s your fondest childhood memory?”
• “Where did you grow up?”
• “What was the last movie you watched at the cinema?”
• “If you could have a superpower, what would it be?”
• “Would you rather have legs for arms or arms for legs?”
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To keep people entertained and inject more energy into proceedings, try to pass the ball and ask/answer questions as quickly as possible. You could also set rules (e.g. “if you drop the ball you have to do a dare” or “only open-ended questions allowed”) to add another level of fun to the game.

How to play Call a number

This circle game is ideal for warming up and gaining energy. Follow these steps: First, give all of the players ordered numbers (so if there are 15 players there would be numbers 1-15). Players should gather in a circle and then choose someone to go first. The player will mention a random number within the range of numbers you are playing with. The player with the number mentioned must respond by mentioning the number of another player. The game continues with players responding when another player calls their number. If a player doesn’t respond right away when their number is called, they are out.

In silent birthday shuffle, players must line up in order of their birthdays, but here’s the twist—no talking allowed! Only hand signals and body language can be used to figure out everyone’s birthdate, making it a fun and often chaotic communication challenge.

This game is perfect for breaking the ice and encouraging non-verbal teamwork.

How to play:

• Players must arrange themselves in the order of their birthdays.
• No talking allowed—only hand signals and gestures can be used.
• The game ends when the team is successfully in order!

Looking for more team building ideas to energize your group? Browse our full guide for more inspiration.

How to play One-word icebreaker

This is a perfect exercise for kicking off a specific event or meeting. You need a group of 4 or 5 people, or to break larger groups into teams of that size. The goal is to have everyone describe their feelings on the event that is about to take place using only one word. Give them a few minutes and then go around the room having everyone state their word, like “excited”, “nervous”, or “curious”.

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.

Your team is transforming into urban explorers armed with cameras, ready to capture the essence of the city. The Urban Photography Expedition is a creative challenge that combines sightseeing with storytelling. As you traverse the streets, squares, and alleys, you'll not only snap stunning shots but also collaborate to craft a visual narrative of the city's soul. It's an opportunity to flex your artistic muscles, enhance your communication skills, and develop a keen eye for detail—all while fostering camaraderie within your team.

Instructions

• Form teams, ensuring a mix of photography skills.
• Provide a list of themes or subjects for the photos.
• Teams interpret themes creatively and capture captivating images.
• Collaborate to curate a photo collection that tells a compelling story.
• Share your insights and learnings from the photography experience.

Team-building doesn’t only need to be about silly games. Sometimes, you strengthen your team while contributing something valuable to your local community.

Great for: Company culture, company perception, job satisfaction

Duration: 2–3 hours

You’ll need: N/A

How to start:

• Consult your team about the type of community service they’d like to get involved with. It could be anything from a beach cleanup to helping out at an animal shelter.
• Once you’ve settled on an activity, reach out to your chosen organisation and inform them you’d like to offer a helping hand.
• Don’t forget to document the event by taking photos or making a video—these images will make additions to your employee breakroom!

How to play Recall quiz (at the end of an event)

How about a little icebreaker to wrap things up? Most icebreakers are at the beginning, but with longer events, we suggest interspersing them throughout - including the end. Have everyone go around the room and share their biggest takeaway from the day. Or, have a list of quiz-style questions that you ask everyone and see who can remember the most answers. Recall is an important part of memory, so this is a great time to reiterate the concepts that you really want people to take away.

Explanation:

Each team member describes themselves using traits from a famous movie or book character, without saying who they are. The rest of the team has to guess the character based on the clues.

This game is perfect for hybrid teams! Whether remote or in the office, everyone gets a chance to participate. Each person describes themselves using personality traits or quirks of a famous character via video call or chat, and everyone else guesses who they are. It’s an easy-going virtual icebreaker that gets people laughing, thinking creatively, and learning more about each other.

If you’re looking for a serious game that teaches the value of collaboration in a plain and no-nonsense manner…then this one definitely isn’t it!

Hello kitty’s a super simple improv game that’s all about being silly, getting involved, having fun, and making each other laugh. And, ultimately, that’s what improv games are all about. The fact they forge tighter bonds between teammates is a bonus.

How to play Hello kitty

Hello kitty couldn’t be easier to play either. Suitable for groups of any size, you start by dividing employees into two teams: kittens and puppies. Next, separate everyone into pairs, where one partner’s a kitten and the other’s a puppy.

The puppy’s job is to say hello with one goal in mind: to make their partner smile, chuckle, laugh out loud – anything that shows they’re amused. The kitten’s job is to keep a straight face. Expect all sorts of funny voices, impressions, and gestures to follow! What happens if/when they succeed, you ask?

The kitten turns into a puppy, of course! They can then both turn their attention to any remaining kittens who are yet to laugh. The game ends when everyone has joined the puppy team. By then – having exercised your creative sides and laughed a lot – you should all be feeling energized, light, and closer to your teammates.