Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to play Wordle

Another word game great for a motivational boost is Wordle. It can be played individually or with teams. Wordle is a letter-based guessing game, in which players need to guess a five-letter word within six attempts. Teams need to use letters of the alphabet to figure out what the chosen word is. Every guess needs to count!

There is usually a category to make things a little easier, like “films” “sports” or “animals.” A team chooses 5 letters from the alphabet, and the game host lets them know if they’re right or wrong.

After you guess a word, tile colors provide feedback:

• Green means the letter is correct and in the right spot.
• Yellow means the letter is in the word but in the wrong spot.
• Gray means the letter is not in the word at all.

Keep going for 6 total guesses and strive to find the Wordle of the game!

Setting up a challenge for your teams using LEGO is a simple and playful way to kickstart an agile session. Tasking them with the challenge of building a specific structure shape using LEGO bricks. Stick a twist on it by giving them limited instructions

Set-up:

Simply create small teams, 4 or 5 members per team will do. Each group gets a set of LEGO bricks and only partially completed instructions. Give them a time limit for preparing and see who builds closest to the desired structure. Variations on the game can include:

• One person being a blindfolded builder
• A “tower of Babel” - biggest tower winds
• Limited communication (like only hand signals)
• Earthquake-proof designs that can withstand a gentle ‘shake’

Explanation:

‍Teams are presented with rapid-fire problems to solve, ranging from everyday office issues to totally wacky scenarios (like planning for a zombie apocalypse!). The goal is to come up with creative solutions as fast as possible.

In this hybrid version, teams—both in the office and remote—can get hit with rapid-fire challenges through video calls or chat. Each team works together to brainstorm and present their solutions as quickly as possible. In-office workers might tackle more physical challenges, like figuring out how to fix something in the room, while remote teammates might handle tech or creative scenarios. It’s a fun, fast-paced way to get everyone involved, thinking on their feet, and laughing at the wild scenarios they come up with!

How to play:

Create a word search puzzle using safety-related terms (e.g., "first aid," "PPE," "emergency"). Distribute the puzzles to employees and offer a small prize for the first person to complete it.

This quick office game is a simple yet effective way to familiarize employees with important safety vocabulary. It’s a relaxing activity that can be done during breaks, reinforcing key terms and concepts in a fun way. The satisfaction of finding that last hidden word is a great bonus.

If you’re trying to amp up the entrepreneurial spirit of your department, this game is perfect. It’s a great tie-in to more professional elements, so team leaders can evaluate business acumen, and public speaking skills.

How to play Business pitch

To start, you’ll want to split people into teams or small groups of 3 or 4, so it’s great for creating cooperation between people who don’t normally work together.  You also need to select a “board” who will judge the ideas presented.

Bonus: you can adjust this game and use some creative materials if you want to ramp up the visual fun. This game is very flexible and you can keep things simple or make it more complex. You can also browse more communication-focused games on our blog. To play this one:  

1. Once you’ve divided everyone into their pair or small team, have the board members (3 maximum) move to the front of the room where they can watch presentations.
2. Give everyone a set amount of time - say 20 minutes - to come up with their best business idea and pitch. If you want to keep the game materials-free, then people shouldn’t use props or anything else - just their own speech. However, as mentioned,  you could also have items on hand so people can create some visual elements like a storyboard or poster.
3. The groups should take turns presenting to the board and sharing their best idea and business plan.
4. The pair or group who comes up with the most compelling or intriguing business idea wins.

One of the benefits of working in a team is that you always have someone to offer their support when you need it. Whether you feel down and need an emotional lift or have too much to do and need some practical input, a sympathetic colleague can step in to ease the burden. This is teamwork and collaboration at its finest.

Unfortunately, Fortunately draws on that supportive reality by asking teammates to reframe each other’s problems into something positive.

Here’s how it works:

Ask one person on the video call to say something they’re struggling with. It shouldn’t be too heavy or serious – nothing that’s going to be uncomfortable to disclose. Next, go around the virtual circle, taking turns to reframe their “problem” in a positive light.

For example, Brian might start by saying, “Unfortunately, I’m finding it hard to wake up on time at the moment.” Upon hearing this, Sheryl might say, “Fortunately, you have such a comfortable bed to sleep in!” And Anthony might follow up with, “And fortunately, you need a good night’s rest to perform at your best!”

It continues from there until everyone has disclosed an issue and received a bunch of positive reframes from their colleagues. By the end of the task, everyone will have practiced their listening skills and offered/received support to/from their teammates.

How to play Word crush

There aren’t many people in the world who haven’t heard of the game Candy Crush. Word Crush is a video game crossover that uses a column-stacking system while challenging the player’s word-building skills.

Each person can play individually, or record high scores and go head-to-head with multiplayer. The game is available for Apple and Android, so download and share on a screen for a competitive, word-building challenge!

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!

Can you creep up on the pirate and steal his treasure without being spotted? This game will push your employee’s sneaking skills to the limit.

Great for: Energising your team

Duration: 10 minutes

Players: 6+

You’ll need: A chair, a random object (small enough to easily pick up and carry)

How to play Pirate’s Treasure

Setup: To prepare for Pirate’s Treasure, position your players in a circle, facing inwards, and place a chair in the centre. Request a volunteer and ask them to sit on the chair. Blindfold the volunteer and place the object under the chair.

To play: To start the game, the players in the circle (the pirates) start walking around the chair. When they stop, they silently pick one person to attempt to steal the object from under the chair. If the pirate manages to steal the object undetected they win the game. However, if the volunteer hears the pirate approaching and points at them, the pirate is eliminated and play starts again.

Not every team-building activity needs to be carefully choreographed. Sometimes, organic bonding activities like Company Potluck build stronger relationships.

Great for: Interpersonal bonding

Duration: 1–2 hours

You’ll need: N/A

How to organise:

• Set a time and date for your team to come together for a group meal.
• Ask each team member to arrive with a snack or dish which they prepared themselves. For the more culinary inept employees, shop-bought products are also acceptable.
• Everybody arrives at the event with their offerings and spends the afternoon eating and mingling with their colleagues.
• To prevent lots of people from bringing the same product, you can pin a paper to the staffroom wall for people to write down what they intend to bring.

How to play My favorite gift to give…

You can learn a lot about people from what they say about presents. What do they like to give, or receive? Ask people to share their favorites, and you’re sure to gain insight into their personality (plus learn some cool new gift ideas in the process). This is an especially fun one for around the holidays. An alternative for following the holidays would be “What is the most exciting gift you got?”

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.

How to host a Wine (or whiskey) tasting

If you’ve ever attended a wine tasting, then you know it’s a much bigger experience than just sipping on some wine. Having a sommelier (or mixologist or curator for other types of alcohol) can be really beneficial in learning about different types of drinks, what foods go with them, best practices for serving, etc. A good wine tasting will include 6 different versions ranging from white to red, as well as a palette cleanser and a few light snacks. If your team favors whiskey, you can research the best ways to serve and pair samples. Performing a quick Google search will help you learn the best ways to execute a tasting, but we suggest just reaching out to a local winery or distillery and setting up a group tasting.

Note: You may also want to arrange safe transportation, since the alcohol can really add up in tasting situations.

This easy game is perfect for breaking up an in-person meeting with a quick exercise that encourages listening and concentration, depending on the size of your team, which can be done in a meeting or break room.

How to play:

‍Set up chairs in a circle facing one another so your team members do not face to face. This game is about listening, so get ready to use your ears and not your eyes. Have your employees start counting from one to ten or higher if you’re a big group. Each person goes around in a circle saying a number, but since you are not looking at one another, you have to be patient and listen carefully for your neighbor to speak theirs. If you interrupt them, you start back at zero and start the whole game again.

Materials you’ll need: Just your team and enough chairs and space to have your whole team sit in a circle.

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

Fun, chaotic, and surprisingly difficult, Attract and Repel is a fantastic game for making people laugh and for breathing life back into the room.

Here’s how it works:

After clearing a space in the office, gather everyone together and ask them to start walking around the room. Next, tell them to choose 2 colleagues (without saying anything out loud), one of which they must stay as close as possible to and the other they have to stay as far as possible from.

What follows often borders on bedlam! People will giggle with glee and squeal with dismay as they attempt to juggle these two competing goals. Try playing this game for 5 to 10 minutes before a morning meeting or after lunch – traditional low points in terms of energy levels – to feel an instant boost in positivity.

A quick brainteaser or trivia question is a simple way to engage your team at the start of the week. This is a particularly useful strategy for encouraging engagement in remote teams. You can create a dedicated channel in Slack for employees to discuss the answer.

Great for: Facilitating interaction

Duration: 5 minutes

Players: 6+

You’ll need: A thought-provoking riddle, trivia question or brainteaser

How to play Quiz Question of the Week

Setup: Establish a day of the week when you’ll pose a head-scratching question to your team. When the time comes to ask the question, you can display it in any way you see fit. Write it up on a whiteboard in the common area, drop it in an email, or—if you’re working remotely—put it in a dedicated Slack group.

To play: Once you’ve asked the question, allow some time for your employees to wrestle with potential answers/solutions. It’s up to you when you choose to reveal the answer, but the idea is to encourage your employees to engage with the question as a group. If you like, you can start a leaderboard with a prize at the end of the year for the person who answered the most questions correctly.

Looking to spice up your office meetings? Look no further than the classic guessing game Hot Potato! Not only will it get everyone out of their seats and moving, but it can also be a fun and educational way to boost team morale and office knowledge.

How to play:

1. Gather a group and form a circle.
2. Take a small object, like a ball or beanbag, and pass it quickly around the circle.
3. Set a timer for a random amount of time.
4. Whoever is holding the object when the timer goes off is out.
5. Continue playing with shorter timers until only one person remains.

So next time you're feeling like your meetings are a little stale, toss in a game of Hot Potato and watch the office energy go through the roof! (Just try not to accidentally throw the potato at Jim from accounting's head...)

How to play Phone Booth

This game is great for small teams of 4-6 people, so if you have larger groups you’ll want to break them up. You also need to create separate “phone booths” for each team, where they won’t be in direct contact with each other. You can do this with various partitions or cardboard pieces. Ideally, the booths should fit everyone, and they won’t hear or be able to chat with the other groups. Set a timer for about 20 minutes, and give the teams a problem to solve. For example, you might want to say “Find some new ways to increase customer satisfaction.”

Each team will spend some time on this problem (remember, while not speaking to other teams). At the end of the designated time, have the teams come together and discuss their strategies. Then hold a discussion for everyone where you talk about what worked well and what didn’t. How did everyone work together? Did the best ideas float to the top? Did a natural leader emerge in discussions? If you want to enhance the team-building aspect of this game, you can have the teams work together to build their phone booth before getting started.

Test your team’s spelling skills with a spell-off showdown! Contestants take turns spelling increasingly difficult words until someone slips up. It’s like a mini virtual spelling bee, but with more laughs and less pressure.

This game is great for keeping the brain sharp and having fun at the same time—especially when you realize nobody remembers how to spell "mnemonic."

How to play:

• The host gives players words to spell, starting with easy ones and getting harder.
• Each player takes a turn spelling their word.
• The last person standing after everyone else misses a word is the winner!

For more fun team-building activities that mix laughter with a little friendly competition, check out our full guide.

In 3-question showdown, you’ve got a mission: mingle around the room and ask open-ended questions to get to know your teammates—fast. It’s speed-dating, but without the awkwardness, and way more about finding out who loves pineapple on pizza.

It’s a fun team activity to break the ice and discover fun facts about people you usually only see in meetings. Plus, who doesn’t love finding out who the office cat person is?

How to play:

• Mingle and ask each teammate three open-ended questions.
• Share fun facts you learned after the showdown.
• Walk away knowing way more about your coworkers (like who’s secretly a karaoke pro).

This game takes a little more precision than the others and needs a steady hand. Cup Tower Jenga can be played in teams or as a solo cup game. You’ll need some medium-sized index cards. If you can’t get index cards, try cutting up some A4 paper. Make sure the paper has a similar weight, around 150gsm. If the paper is too light, it won’t support the cups’ weight. Each sheet needs to be big enough to fit an upside-down paper cup. Now let’s set the game up.

Set-up:

1. Stack up a tower: Each participant needs four cups and a table in front of them. On the table, they need to build a tower of upside-down cups, four cups high. Between each upside-down cup should be placed 1 index card.
2. Carefully deconstruct: One at a time, players need to slide out an index card, so that the cup above neatly falls over and contains the cup beneath it. Precision beats strength here. If the construction is rushed, or cards aren’t pulled perfectly, the whole tower is likely to fall down. If the tower falls before the 4 paper cups are perfectly stacked, they need to rebuild and try again.

Try this one out in pairs, with one person being the builder and one as the demolition expert. They’ll likely strategize together. The first pair to stack 4 wins!

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:

Host a fashion show where employees model various types of personal protective equipment (PPE). Have participants walk the runway and explain the purpose of each piece of equipment. Judges can score the presentations, and winners receive prizes.

A PPE fashion show catwalk adds a fun and creative twist to learning about essential safety gear. It helps employees become more familiar with the equipment they should be using and encourages them to take PPE seriously. Watching coworkers strut their stuff is always hilarious

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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)