Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to implement insights (following event)

If you want to go beyond recall, have each person describe how they will implement what they learned in their daily lives and tasks. Hearing important concepts is one thing; knowing how you can practically apply them is something else!

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Explanation:

‍Office workers create physical art while remote team members work on digital designs. Then, both pieces are merged into a single, collaborative masterpiece.

In the hybrid version, office workers can get hands-on with paints, paper, or any materials lying around the office to create their part of the art piece. Meanwhile, remote team members work their digital magic—whether it’s on Photoshop, Canva, or even just a doodle on Paint. The real fun comes when both pieces are combined and displayed on a shared platform like Teams or Slack. The end result is a cool, hybrid art collage that blends physical and digital creativity. It's a fun way to bring both worlds together and see how different styles come together!

Mix up the usual routine with a community impact day. Instead of the office grind, teams head out to do some good—whether that’s cleaning up a park or helping out at a local charity.

Not only does it feel good to give back, but it’s a refreshing break from the usual. Plus, nothing says team bonding like rolling up your sleeves and making a difference together.

How to play:

• Organize teams for a community service project.
• Tackle tasks like clean-ups or volunteering.
• Enjoy the good vibes from making a real impact!

No list of Field Day games for adults would be complete without tug-of-war. A classic activity, it’s suitable for both small and large teams (although having an even number of people helps) and always goes down a treat!

How to play Tug of War

To play, you’ll need a long, thick rope with a piece of material tied at the center and two equal teams of roughly the same strength. From there, you:

• Mark a centreline on the ground
• Lay the rope in a straight line so the flag/material is next to it
• Get each team to stand in a row next to one half of the rope, facing the opposite team. The centreline should be equidistant between them
• Get the players to pick up the rope and prepare to pull
• Blow a whistle so the teams start pulling (or “tugging”) against each other.

A battle ensues, with each team pulling as hard as they can, slipping and straining with each passing second! The first team to pull each member of the opposition across the centreline wins.

Another activity utilizing an online whiteboard, the Four-Step Sketch develops scrum skills and rapid ideation as teams work together to find solutions.

Set up:

Step 1: Present a challenge (e.g., design an app dashboard). Each member sketches their own solution.

Step 2: Break into teams, share and discuss sketches in breakout rooms.

Step 3: Teams combine the best ideas into one refined design.

Step 4:Reassemble to present and explain final solutions, focusing on iterative improvement.

Scrum values are promoted when everyone comes together to share their sketch and innovate a new solution.

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Example challenges:

‍a. Design a user-friendly app dashboard‍

b. Sketch a creative marketing campaign

c. Design a remote team-building activity

d. Visualize our sprint workflow

Fuel teamwork and competition by challenging teams to complete a jigsaw puzzle race.

Materials needed:

• Jigsaw puzzles of varying difficulty levels
• Timer or stopwatch

Instructions on how to play:

1. Divide the team into equal groups and provide each team with a jigsaw puzzle.
2. Set a timer and have teams race against each other to complete their puzzles.
3. Emphasize that each team member must contribute to assembling the final image.
4. Celebrate the first team to finish and acknowledge their teamwork.

Why it's a great team building game:

• Piece by piece teamwork: Requires collaboration and coordination to complete the puzzle.
• Friendly competition: Adds a dash of competition to energize the team spirit.
• Problem-solving practice: Enhances problem-solving skills in a fun and engaging way.

Top tip to help the game run smoothly: Choose puzzles that match the team's preferences and skill levels. If possible, opt for puzzles that relate to the team's interests to make it more engaging.

How to play Broom Hockey

Broom Hockey is just what it sounds like! But, instead of playing with a puck and sticks, you grab some brooms from the cleaning closet and make a puck out of paper. Roll it up into a tight ball so that it rolls smoothly in the direction you want.

It’s best to have a designated open area to play this game, so use any break rooms or conference rooms, using the underside of a desk or a trash bin as your goal marker.

How to play Count to 20

Truly one of the simplest and fastest team-building games to play. This exercise doesn’t require any planning and can be done completely spur of the moment. Have everyone sit or stand in a circle together. Start the game by saying “one”. Next, another player will say “two” and so on. The goal is to make it to 20 without two people saying the same number at once. This requires observing your colleagues and predicting when they will speak up. If two people say the same number, the game starts over. Make sure to review our list of minute to win it games, too.

Sneak-a-peak is a fabulous game for getting everyone involved. The aim of the game is rapid-fire copying of a Lego structure you make. The only prep needed beforehand is to get your Lego set and have a structure in mind that isn’t too easy to replicate.

Set up:

1. Build a simple structure out of Lego pieces. Something not too easily guessable, and keep it hidden!
2. Split everyone into small teams, with one ‘viewer.’
3. Allow the ‘viewer’ a short time (about 30 seconds) to come and observe your hidden structure.
4. Get them to go back to their teams and describe it, in as much detail as they can.
5. Teams are given a 10-minute timer to build the structure. Once complete, compare each team’s attempts.

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 Secret word

Insert some fun and laughter into your everyday office work by playing this silly game. To play, start by writing down any word on a piece of paper (An object or action is usually easiest). Choose your first participant and have them place the paper on their forehead (without looking at it). It’s key that the player doesn’t know what word they are displaying! Other players should gesture to try to get them to guess the word without actually speaking. The person with the card will try to guess the word based on the actions of everyone around them.

How to play the super story

This is another game focused on group wordplay, and one that can be done virtually as well as in person. It’s also really fun, so a great exercise for boosting team morale. To begin, let each person know they’ll take a turn as the story-teller. They should grab an object around them - like a pen or pad of paper - and spend one minute telling the most exaggerated story they can come up with around the object.

For example, if their object is a pen, they might talk about how this was the pen used to sign a deal for the most famous athlete in their city. It’s also a game that puts people on the spot and makes them come up with something under pressure, so it’s an especially helpful activity for management level team members.

How to play March madness

Take advantage of a competition that’s already going on! Build off of the energy of March Madness and encourage staff to participate. Have people create brackets and keep track throughout the series. You can take things to a new level by adding in a few other themed challenges like a desk decorating contest or make your own jersey day. If you go this route, you can assign points for each challenge to go along with bracket performance.

Focus your teams into an agile mindset with a game of Iteration Auction. The game moves quickly and helps employees to prioritize, negotiate, and adapt quickly, which are all core staples of agile methodology.

Set up:

Give each player a set amount of “iteration dollars” to spend on actions (tasks, improvements or project features) on a shared board. These actions will apply to a basic project you give them, such as delivering a product to a certain market. Assign each action a cost based on its complexity or value (how much you think it will help their project). Let them bid, apply the action and review after each round, letting them bid again in the second round. These are the “project updates.” By bidding on tasks, team members are getting used to weighing impact and urgency in iterations, much like in real agile sprints.

For this game, the only thing needed is an extensive vocabulary and a desire to have fun. It can also be a really fun way to learn new things and impress your colleagues. You never know who is going to introduce you to an amazing new word! This is also a virtual-team friendly activity. You might add this game to other virtual team-building activities.

To play:

1. First, choose a topic. It could be anything from “animals” to “our company vendors” - it just needs to be broad enough for some traction in the game.
2. Team members must name things that fit within that topic - but the key is, their word needs to begin with the last letter of the former word. For example, if your topic is animals, and someone says “beaver”, then the next person could say “rat” (because it begins with r) and the next person could say “tiger”, and on it goes.
3. Go around the group naming things that fit in the topic until everyone has had a chance to contribute.
4. If you do happen to have a piece of paper, you can make sure you’ve covered every letter of the alphabet. The simplest way to do that is to write out the alphabet in advance, and then cross off the letters as they are used in words. Again, this is optional, though. More important than using the whole alphabet is making sure everyone gets a chance to contribute.

In lightning hunt, players race to find specific household items and show them on camera. It’s fast-paced, and a great way to get everyone moving and laughing as they scramble to find the most random things lying around their homes.

This game is perfect for injecting some spontaneity into your virtual meetings. Plus, it’s always fun to see what odd items people can dig up at a moment’s notice!

How to play:

• The host calls out specific household items.
• Players race to find and show the items on camera.
• The fastest player to find each item wins a point!

How to play Stop and walk

This is a high-energy game that's great for groups. Use it to warm up large groups in a fun way or break up long periods of sitting such as during training. All the participants should “walk” and “stop” on the commands of a leader. The leader should repeat the two commands several times so everyone gets used to it - and then switch commands to “trick” people. For example, saying “stop” two times in a row. You can also add in other commands like “jump” or “turn around”. There’s no real winner, it’s just about everyone being silly and moving their bodies.

Costume races are fast-paced, hilarious, and ideal for both small and large groups.

To give them a try, you’ll need:

• A briefcase for each team
• Enough old/used clothes for each member of the team to get fully dressed, such as hats, dresses, shirts, skirts, pants, and jackets.

You then fill each briefcase with clothes and mark a track with a start and finish line. Next, put the briefcases at the end and line up the teams (each should have the same number of people, if possible) at the start.

When the whistle blows, one person in each team races to the briefcase opposite them and gets fully dressed as quickly as possible, pulling the clothes over the top of whatever they’re already wearing. They then rush back to the start in their costume, at which point the second person in their team has a turn.

The first team where everyone is dressed in a costume and back at the start line wins! However, if you want to make this game even more memorable, design it so each briefcase follows a certain theme. You could have one team dressing up as pirates, for example, another as famous Disney characters, and so on.

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Bingo blitz turns your workday into a game by creating Bingo cards filled with everyday office tasks or events—like “send an email,” “have a meeting,” or “drink a coffee.” As these things happen, players mark off their Bingo cards. First person to get a full row or column wins!

It’s a simple, fun way to make the office day a little more engaging and adds a bit of light competition to the regular routine.

How to play:

• Create Bingo cards with common office tasks or events.
• Players mark off tasks as they happen during the workday.
• The first person to get a full row or column shouts "Bingo!" and wins!

Skill swap workshops are all about sharing talents. Team members vote on what skills they’d like to learn—from cooking to dancing—and then someone hosts an online workshop. It’s a fun way to mix up the workday and learn something new together.

Whether it's mastering a new recipe or trying out salsa moves, it’s a great way to bond, have a laugh, and pick up a fresh skill along the way.

How to play:

• Team votes on a skill they'd like to learn.
• A team member (or outside expert) hosts an online workshop.
• Everyone joins in and tries out the new skill together!

Put strategic thinking to the test with the Strategy Showdown: Board Game Bonanza challenge. Teams will face off in a series of classic board games that require cunning tactics and clever maneuvers. From chess to Uno, participants will showcase their ability to strategize and outwit opponents. This challenge highlights the importance of strategic collaboration in achieving collective goals.

Instructions

• Select a variety of strategic board games.
• Divide participants into teams and assign each team to a different board game.
• Teams compete in rounds of board games, earning points based on their performance.
• Declare the team with the most points the ‘Board Game Bonanza’ champions.

How to play Something in common

‘Something In Common’ is a no-prep game that can be run on the spot in your next virtual get-together. Create some breakout rooms of 4 or 5 people, giving them a 3-minute timer. Set a task of finding the most unique fact they have in common.

One point is awarded at the end to the team with the most interesting example. Tell them to emphasize uniqueness, as ‘we all use phones’ is a bit dull, while something like ‘we have all read a book by the same author’ sparks interest.

How to play Faux job interviews

This is a fun game for anyone who considers themselves a smooth talker. Within your group, pair everyone off into groups of two. Have one person come up with a job, and the other person should share reasons why they are the perfect candidate in a fake interview. The sillier the job title, the more fun the responses.

For example, a job might be “ice cream taster” or “dollhouse interior decorator”. Which traits does the other person have that would make them ideal for that role? This is also a fun way to learn more about your coworkers special talents and characteristics.

High-fives and pats on the back make everyone smile. Positive feedback isn't just about saying "good job," it's a morale booster that powers up motivation and helps colleagues shine even brighter.

Positive feedback activity - Kudos circle:

• Gather participants in a circle.
• Start by tossing a soft ball or object to one person, offering them a specific compliment or recognizing a recent achievement.
• The person who received the compliment then tosses the ball to another colleague, offering their positive feedback.
• Continue until everyone has received and given compliments.
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Kudos Circle generates a positive atmosphere, boosts self-esteem and reinforces a culture of appreciation. Try this team-building activity outdoors for extra enjoyment!