Team Building Activities
In today’s fast-paced and competitive business world, the success of any organization largely depends on the ability of its employees to work together as a team. A team is a group of individuals who work towards a common goal, using their individual skills and strengths to achieve that goal. However, building a strong and effective team is not an easy task. It requires effort, time, and commitment from both the management and employees. This is where team building activities come into play. Team building activities are designed to bring individuals together, foster collaboration, and enhance communication and teamwork.
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Believe it or not, fun team building activities for work are critically important to the success of your business.ย
In fact, the personal bonds formed between team members actually give your company a competitive edge.ย
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In this writeup, we discuss the importance of team building activities and how they can benefit organizations.
Itโs all about engagement. There is a clear link between the personal bonds between your team members and their engagement level. For instance, according to a Gallup study, having close work friendships can boost employee satisfaction by 50%. This indicates that personal bonds between team members are crucial for fostering a positive work environment. The study also found that people who have a self-described best friend at work are seven times more likely to be fully engaged at work. This demonstrates that when employees have strong relationships with their colleagues, they are more likely to be invested in their work and motivated to perform at their best.
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In addition to this, another study has reported that engaged companies consistently outperform their competitors in terms of profits, productivity, and turnover. This means that organizations that prioritize employee engagement and foster a sense of community through team building activities are more likely to achieve success in various aspects of their business. When employees feel connected to their colleagues and the organization as a whole, they are more likely to be productive and committed to their work. They are also less likely to leave the company, reducing turnover rates and the associated costs of recruitment and training.
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Team-building activities for small groups
Organizing a team-building event for a small group demands a different approach compared with organizing an event for a large company or corporation. Team-building activities for small groups can be played by a small number of participants with little to no equipment. Small teams are required to work closely together over long periods, so employees must understand each other and communicate effectively.
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The following activities are designed to strengthen communication and interpersonal relationships, encourage creative thinking, and develop problem-solving skills.
#01. HUMAN KNOT
Human Knot is a great game for encouraging your employees to work together to solve a problem. The game requires good leadership and cooperation to solve the puzzle.ย
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Great for: Problem-solving, communicationย
โDuration: 5-10 Minutesย
โPlayers: 6+ (even number required)ย
โYouโll need: N/Aย
To play Human Knot, players must stand in a circle facing inwards. Then, each player must reach out their right hand and join hands with somebody opposite them (players should not join hands with anybody to their immediate right or left). Finally, do the same with the left hand, joining hands with a new partner.ย
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The aim of the game is to unravel the knot, without releasing each otherโs hands, so that the players finish standing in a perfect circle with their hands joined. To achieve this, players will need to turn, twist, and pass through each otherโs hands, all the while maintaining good communication.
#02. BLIND RETRIEVER
Blind Retriever is a great game for improving communication within small teams that will have everybody laughing in no time.ย
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Great for: Having fun, strengthening communication and listening skillsย
โDuration: 5-10 Minutesย
โPlayers: 4+ย ย
โYouโll need: A random object, at least 2 blindfoldsย
To play Blind Retriever, separate the players into teams and have them stand together behind a start line. Then, one member from each team must put on a blindfold while somebody places a random object somewhere in the room. Use something thatโs soft and doesnโt have any sharp edges.ย
After hearing โGo!โ The teams must guide their blindfolded teammate to the random object before the opposition gets there first. The players giving instructions may not pass the start line and can only give commands verbally. The first team to get their hands on the random object wins.ย
#03. PERFECT SQUARE
Perfect Square encourages employees to either lead or cooperate with their peers, using verbal communication to turn a length of string into a perfect square while blindfolded.ย
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Great for: Leadership, communication, listening skills and problem-solvingย
โDuration: 10-20 Minutesย
โPlayers: 4-10ย ย
โYouโll need: Blindfolds, a long piece of rope with the ends tied together
To play Perfect Square, blindfold each player and have them form a circle facing inwards, holding the piece of rope in their hands. Once the circle has been formed, the players can lay the rope on the ground and take a couple of steps back.ย
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Now the game begins. The players must attempt to move the rope so that it forms a perfect square on the ground. To do this, the players should assign a leader who will guide their peers using only his/her voice.ย
#04. TWO TRUTHS, ONE LIE
Two Truths, One Lie, is a fun game that gives your team the chance to get to know interesting things about their colleagues. The game encourages your employees to bolster their public speaking skills in a laid-back environment.ย
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Great for: Building relationships, public speaking, communicationย
โDuration: 10-20ย
โPlayers: 2+ย
โYouโll need: N/Aย
To play Two Truths, One Lie, players sit together in a circle on the floor or at a desk. Then, going around the circle players take turns telling three interesting facts about themselves.ย ย
The catch? One of these statements is an outright lie. Itโs the job of the listeners to try and guess which of the three statements is the lie. This game will test how well your employees really know one another.ย
#05. OFFICE DEBATES
Understanding how to handle disagreements and differences in opinion is fundamental to a functional office environment. Office debates are a great way to improve your employeeโs communication and public speaking skills.ย
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Great for: Communication, public speaking, creative thinkingย
Duration: 20 Minutesย
Players: 4+ย
โYouโll need: A way for speakers to deliver their presentations (whiteboard or projector)ย
To set up an office debate, gather your employees into a room suitable for giving presentations, such as a boardroom. Then, select two players to go head-to-head in a debate.ย ย
The topic can be work-related or something silly, it depends on what youโre hoping to achieve from the activity. One player must argue for the topic while the other must argue against it. By way of voting, the audience will then determine who they consider the winner.ย
Team-building activities for large groups
Organizing team building events for large groups requires considerable planning and careful execution for it to be successful.ย
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However, the energy that large groups bring to the table is extremely valuable and can make the session more engaging. Organizing team building events for large groups can help employees to build relationships with people they may not usually interact with.ย
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If youโre planning to execute a team-building event for a large group, this list of activities will set you off on the right path.ย
#01. FIELD DAY
Organizing a field day is a fun and cost-effective way to keep your participants engaged while developing numerous work-related skills. Organizing a field day is a big job so you may consider enlisting the help of a third party.ย
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Great for: Teamwork, leadership skills, listening skills, communicationย
Duration: 2-3 hoursย
โPlayers: 20+ย
โYouโll need: Various, depending on the games you chooseย
For a successful field day event, youโll need a minimum of about 20 players and at least 2-3 teams to instill some competitive spirit. Players will excel in some games more than others, so make sure to keep things varied if you want to ensure a balanced competition.ย
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How you choose to organize this event depends on your overall objective and the skills youโd like to develop within your team. Some examples of great field day games include tug of war, split team mug, soccer billiards, sac race, watery slip โnโ slide, etc.ย
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Pro tip: Before the field day begins, make sure to announce that there will be a valuable prize for the winning team. This is a simple yet effective way to energize the players right from the start.ย
#02. MURDER MYSTERY
Interrupt your employees in the office and alert them to a crime thatโs just taken place in the cafeteria! Murder mystery events are a really fun way of developing relationships within your team and you can be as creative with them as you like! If youโre not sure where to start when organizing a murder mystery event, there are events companies out there that can lend you a hand.ย
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Great for: Problem solving, building relationshipsย ย
Duration: 2-3 hoursย
โPlayers: 20+ย
โYouโll need: A large area such as a function room or cafeteriaย
A successful murder mystery event requires a lot of preparation but the results make it worthwhileโthis is something your employees are going to be talking about for a long time!ย
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The first step is to pick a theme for your murder mystery party. Examples of some popular themes include James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Scooby-doo, and Peaky Blinders. Once youโve decided on a theme, itโs time to craft your murder story. If youโre struck by writerโs block, you can always find pre-written murder mystery stories online.ย
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Itโs really important to know exactly how many people will be attending the event as everybody will be assigned a character and play a unique role. To help get your employees into character, provide them with costumes and props.ย ย
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To encourage players to stay in character, announce a negative consequence such as putting money in a jar or making them wear a silly hat until the next person breaks character.ย
#03. LASER TAG
These events are great if youโre struggling to find the time to plan and execute your own team-building event. Laser tag can be done outdoors or indoors depending on nearby facilities.ย
Laser Tag is a great alternative to paintball as players are considerably less likely to get hurt. With the fear of injury removed, the game becomes more enticing to players of all demographics.ย
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Great for: Teamwork, communication, relationship buildingย
Duration: 1-2 hoursย
โPlayers: 10+ย
โYouโll need: Provided by organizersย
To play Laser Tag, teams compete against each other in a series of game modes such as capture the flag, team deathmatch, etc.ย
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Each player is equipped with a weapon and a sensor thatโs usually affixed to the playerโs chest and/or head. Players aim their weapons at the enemy team and attempt to โkillโ them by hitting their sensor.ย
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Teams win in different ways depending on the game mode played. The winners of team deathmatch, for example, would be the team that scored the most points by โkillingโ the higher number of enemy players.ย
#04. COMMUNITY SERVICE
No, not the criminal punishment type. Weโre talking about heading out into the community with your team and giving something back. Team building doesnโt always need to be about silly games and awkward icebreakers, why not use your team building event to do something positive?ย
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Great for: Company culture, building relationships, company prideย
โDuration: 2-3 hoursย
Players: 20+ย
Youโll need: N/Aย
To organize your service to the community, come together with your team to discuss possible services you could offer. Is your office located near the beach? How about an organized company beach-cleanup event?ย
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Before the event has even started, the planning process is a great opportunity for employees to engage their creative thinking and communication skills.ย
Doing something for others is proven to make us feel good. By the end of the day, employees will feel proud of themselves, their colleagues and the company for which they work.ย
#06. OFFICE TRIVIA
Office Trivia is a simple and cost-effective way to facilitate team building. Once the questions start rolling, teams will naturally become competitive with one another! Office trivia is an easy way to encourage employees to socialize with departments they usually donโt mix with.ย
Great for: Building relationships, creative thinkingย
Duration: 20-30 minutesย
Players: 20+ย
Youโll need: Microphone and loudspeaker, projector, a list of questionsย
To play Office Trivia, youโll need to prepare a list of questions that youโre going to ask your players. These questions can be about the company itself or themed around a different topic.ย
Players are divided into teams and each team comes up with a unique name to identify itself. Teams do their best to answer the questions correctly and the team with the most correct answers is the winner.
The bigger you make your office trivia event the more enthusiastic your employees will be. Thatโs why we suggest setting up a large projector for displaying your questions and speaking into a microphone for that โgame showโ feel.ย
#06. SCAVENGER HUNT
Scavenger Hunt is a fantastic way for employees to work together as a team, learn more about the company they work for, and explore the office. As an organizer, coming up with good scavenger hunt ideas can be daunting but try not to be dissuaded. Be creative and think outside the box.ย
Great for: Energizing, teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinkingย
โDuration: 1-2 hoursย
โPlayers: 20+ย
โYouโll need: Items for your teams to find and a large space to exploreย
The aim of the game is to find items hidden around a predefined location or complete certain challenges. Once the team has found the item or completed the challenge, they receive a clue for the next phase.ย
The winning team is the one that completes all stages of the scavenger hunt the fastest.ย
To play scavenger hunt, divide players into small teams and define a starting location. Each team is given a starting clue or challenge to complete the game starts.ย
Be creative with the items, challenges, and riddles you include in your scavenger hunt. When thinking of challenges, consider key skills you would like to develop within your workforce.ย
Team-building exercises for remote teams
A Gallup survey in June of 2022 found that 8 in 10 people are working hybrid or remote, while only 2 in 10 are entirely on-site. And this trend continues for future predictions. Furthermore, 85% of managers believe that teams composed of remote workers will be the norm in the future, according to TECLA.ย
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With this new shift in workplace dynamics, companies are forced to find new ways of connecting their workforce on a personal and professional level. A recent press release issued by The Video Conferencing Market predicted that the growth of virtual technology will reach a CAGR of 11.45% by 2026 that may come to $9 billion, a conclusion indicative of the recent rise in online communications.ย ย
The following is a list of team-building activities if you are a part of remote work culture:ย
Unlike the scavenger hunts we discussed earlier, lightning scavenger hunts can be conducted online with remote teams. This game is a great way of energizing your team at the beginning of your team building event, especially if your employees have just spent hours sat behind their computers.ย
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Great for: Energization, breaking the iceย
โDuration: 5-10 minutesย
โPlayers: 5-20ย
โYouโll need: N/Aย
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How to play Lightning Scavenger Huntย
To play Lightning Scavenger Hunt, the leader of the event will announce items that the players need to find in their homes as quickly as possible. Some examples of items could be โFind something that begins with the letter โLโโ or โBring back two items that are the color yellow.โย
Once the players hear the word โGo!โ theyโll search for the items as quickly as they can. The first person to return with the correct items is the winner.ย
The Spelling Bee competition is a household classic and serves as a great opportunity for your team to show off some linguistic skills.ย ย
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Great for: Listening skillsย
โDuration: 10-20 minutesย
โPlayers: 5-10ย
โYouโll need: N/Aย
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How to play Spelling Beeย
The host will make a list of words that the contestants must attempt to spell, starting simple but quickly increasing in difficulty as the game progresses. You can either offer points for correctly spelt words or eliminate players from the game if they answer incorrectly.ย
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Why not incorporate โbonus roundsโ as a chance for players to score additional points? Think spelling words backwards or asking them to spell a word from a foreign language.ย
The virtual debate club encourages members of your team to develop their public speaking skills. Itโs a great way of bringing shyer team members out of their shells by practicing silly topics.ย
Great for: Communication skills, public speaking, critical thinkingย
โDuration: 30 minutesย
โPlayers: 6+ย
โYouโll need: N/Aย
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How to play Virtual Debate Club
A virtual debate club can become a regular occurrence as a way of getting your team together. Decide how often and when the debate club will occur and announce this to your team.ย
At every event, two speakers will be asked to prepare a presentation about a topic, one arguing for and the other arguing against. โShould there be pineapple on pizzas?โ is an example of a light-hearted topic.ย
Players can use any means necessary to make their points heard including videos, images, graphs, surveys, etc. Once the presentations have ended, the audience must vote for the person they feel best conveyed their argument.ย
Personal โuser manualsโ are great tools for introducing new hires to the team during the onboarding period. Not only can new employees get a handle on how their colleagues like to work but they can get to know them on a personal level too.ย
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This task is more applicable for smaller teams, as new hires arenโt likely to want to watch hundreds of videos about their colleagues.ย
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Great for: Onboarding, building relationshipsย
โDuration: 5-10 minutesย
โPlayers: N/Aย
โYouโll need: No equipment requiredย
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How to create personal user manualsย
To set up personal โuser manuals,โ ask your employees to spend 5-10 minutes recording a short video of themselves with a camera or on their phone. In the videos, employees should introduce themselves, tell an interesting fact, and talk about how they like to work. This could be something like your manager preferring that you send them an email rather than call them.ย
Once your new employees have watched these videos, theyโll feel as though they know more about their colleagues or how they operate during work.ย
Looking to improve on team camaraderie? The โHealthy Togetherโ challenge is a fun way of encouraging your team to strive towards a shared goal.ย
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Great for: Company culture, wellnessย
โDuration: Ongoingย
โPlayers: 6+ย
โYouโll need: A spreadsheet for tracking goal commitmentsย
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How to play the โHealthy Togetherโ challengeย
To play the โHealthy Togetherโ challenge, your team must agree on and commit to a shared challenge. This could be anything from healthy eating to daily exercise, but the idea is to unify your workforce towards a specific goal.ย
Once your employees have agreed on a specific goal, make a calendar spreadsheet with all the names of the participants. When an employee completes the daily challenge, they can put a โtickโ, when they fail, they should put a โcrossโ.ย
The person(s) with the most โticksโ next to their name is the winner and is awarded a prize.ย
Encouraging your team to take up regular reading is an effective way of improving your employeeโs skill sets. Furthermore, introducing five-minute book talks encourages your employees to share their opinions on a range of topics.ย
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Great for: Skill development, public speakingย
โDuration: 5 minutes/personย
โPlayers: 4+ย
โYouโll need: N/Aย
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How to organize Five-Minute Book Talksย
For 5-minute book talks to work effectively, participants must first choose the same book read and establish a deadline. Once the readers reach the deadline, participants will gather in a group call and take turns to discuss what they thought about the book.ย
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5-minute book talks enable employees to share their opinions even when others might disagree which helps to build confidence.ย
Takeaway
Team-building activities can help remind people that work is never just about them individuallyโitโs about the entire group. When youโre encouraged to do something together, rather than solo, it brings to life the idea that the groupโs success (and ultimately the companyโs) should be a priority. This can be a particularly useful learning experience for teams that struggle with teamwork, are overly competitive, or lack unity and confidence as a result of a bad manager or hard times.ย
With this article, you now have all the ideas you need to build something amazing.ย
We hope youโre inspired to try one or all of these activities, even if it takes a while.ย
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Feel free to contact KNOLSKAPE in order to learn more about how our courses and programs help organizations and leaders build strong, cohesive, productive teams.
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