Top 20 Effective Team Building Activities For Work In 2023

Are you starting to notice mixed reactions and loggerheads amongst workers in the office? Maybe it’s time to take up any of the following effective team-building activities for work to be listed below.

Team building activities are a great way to facilitate bonding with your team members, reduce employee stress, and give them the chance to get to know one another outside of the office.

In a few lines to come, we’ll be listing the top 20 effective team-building activities for work.

Top 20 Effective Team Building Activities For Work

If you’ve ever had the opportunity of managing a team, I’m sure you know the true value of teamwork and collaboration. As managers, it’s up to you to keep your team members on the same page through effective team-building activities.

Our list of 20 effective team-building activities comprises a large group, small group, and remote team building activities for work.

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1. Virtual Break Room

This team-building activity is most suitable for remote workers. You can create this via Zoom or some other platform where staff can log in and join over their lunch or break – allowing them to catch up with coworkers as they would in a physical office.

You can also keep water cooler moments alive by encouraging workers to share interesting photos or videos.

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2. Virtual Escape Room

A Virtual Escape Room brings the mystery to your workers right in their homes!

Depending on the Escape Room you choose, team members have to pass through different rooms, solve the puzzles they encounter, solve a murder, and so much more! It is just as fun as it sounds, and what is more, it builds collaboration and communication among staff.

Click here to see how to play the game.

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3. Beer Making

This team-building activity for work makes team members automatic brewers right from their homes. This process doesn’t require prior knowledge of beer making as each participant individually walks through the process with the beer-making kits made available to them.

4. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

This team-building activity can be done virtually via zoom or any other teleconferencing platform.

On the call, challenge team members to collect different items from around their homes.

The first person to show all the required items wins the hunt!

5. Scavenger Hunt

Find a beautiful day, break everyone out into groups, and have a scavenger hunt around the city. You can organize one yourself or use a creative service like The Go Game (which lists companies like Netflix, Facebook, and HBO among clients) or Stray Boots.

This game keeps team members happy and excited. Be sure to take plenty of silly pictures — you can even have a slideshow when everyone regroups at the end.

Alternatively, you might try a “Random Acts of Kindness” hunt. For instance, Outback Team Building & Training offers this team building activity, which requires teams to split up into groups, download Outback’s app, and complete a series of challenges to benefit strangers in the community.

6. Set Competitive Challenges

A little friendly competition will always do good to a team as it strengthens the bonds of unity.

Setting up challenges for your teams can give them a goal to work towards. One popular challenge is the fitness challenge, no junk challenge, no carbonated drink challenge, and all. It provides healthy competition between teams and improves their health.

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7. Icebreaker Quizzes

Weekly team-building quizzes are a fun and risk-free method to do so. You may use an online ice-breaker quiz like Quizbreaker, which sends out a fresh set of quizzes to the team on a weekly basis. It can do wonders for bringing remote teams closer together as they learn more about each other while having a great time.

8.  Board Game Tournament

This is one good way to spark your team members’ competitive sides without having to leave the office. Organize a team-wide board game tournament.

Especially if your team is pretty big, it might be easiest to pick a single game, then have one team member sign up for specific time slots when they’re free to leave their desks and spend some time playing the game.

Some great games with reasonable play times include Boggle, Jenga, chess. Don’t forget to incentivize with prizes for first, second, and third place.

9. Business simulations

Just like real-life work-related situations, creating business simulations gives team members the freedom to think outside the box and come of with creative solutions to problems since there are no rules involved.

To pull it off, come up with an imaginary business problem and gather your employees in a conference room. Share the complete details of the activity—the rules, goals, and of course, the deadline—and let them have a crack at it.

10. Two truths and one lie

This is a classic fun activity that is used to integrate coworkers.

The formula for Two Truths and a Lie is straightforward: Begin by forming a circle with the entire group and giving everyone a chance to introduce themselves. In addition to their name, each team member states three facts about themselves, only two of which are true. It is up to the rest of the group to figure out which of the statements is false.

11. Jigsaw Puzzle Race

The jigsaw pule race is an enjoyable problem-solving activity that brings teammates together. To get started, break the company into teams for a multi-puzzle race, and suddenly you have a test of teamwork that electrifies the entire office.

Grab several copies of the same puzzle and turn your weekend activity into a contest to see which team can complete the puzzle first. Offer prizes just like you would in a game of office trivia.

Just be sure each team has the same number of people and choose your puzzle size wisely. A 1000-piece puzzle, for example, might be a bit time-consuming for a team of just five or six people.

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12. The Egg Drop Challenge

I’m sure you are quite familiar with this challenge. The Egg Drop Challenge is a beloved tradition that challenges teams of kids to create small structures around an uncooked egg to protect the egg from falling.

Each group is given specific items to build the structure that protects the egg, but nothing more. So, why not offer the same challenge to your coworkers?

Straws, newspaper, tape, and cardboard are just some everyday items provided during the Egg Drop Challenge — as you can see in the sample egg fortress below. However, consider making it even more challenging for your coworkers and allow them to use simply anything available in the office.

The height of the fall is up to you. But ensure to set an altitude that’s consistent with the materials each team has to work with.

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13. Game of Possibilities

To play this game, give an object to anyone in each group. Then ask each person to display in front of their group — without talking — what the object is used for. The rest of the team has to guess what object the person is demonstrating. Demonstrations must be creative and original. It can be played in small groups and only requires random objects.

14. Volunteer

Allowing team members to volunteer in a particular activity other than work is a great way to create a bond among team members

Place-based volunteering ideas include volunteering at a local soup kitchen, helping build a Habitat for Humanity house, or delivering gifts to children’s hospitals during the holidays.

Skill-based volunteering is a great way to stretch your employees’ expertise: It’s when your team volunteers its time and uses its professional skills — anything from marketing to app development to writing — to help a nonprofit.

You can check out VolunteerMatch.org for either type of volunteering opportunity and Catchafire.org for skill-based volunteering opportunities.

15. Office pictionary

Pictionary is a super simple game that only requires a pen, paper, and the board game Pictionary provides you with the game board, a timer, two dice, and cards with words on them.

The aim of Pictionary is to guess what the drawer is, who is drawing words from a list of cards. Once you guess correctly, you can advance across the game board and the first to reach the end wins!

Split your employees into teams of two or more. Write down the names of day-to-day items, popular movies, celebrities, and events on cards.

Taking turns, a person from each team will draw a card without revealing to their team members what it says. Then, they’ll proceed to draw that object/person/phenomenon on a whiteboard, and their team members will attempt to guess what it is.

16. Minefield

Place random objects or “mines” across the floor in an open area. Divide them into two groups of two, then blindfold one of them. The other individual must guide his companion to walk from one side of the space to the other without stepping on anything. The person carrying out the execution may only offer verbal instructions, and the blinded individual cannot talk at all.

This competition is perfect with 5-6 teams onboard. At the end of it all, the one who reaches the finish line without stepping on any of the “mines” the earliest wins the game.

17. Mystery Dinner

Mystery dinners are one of the most beloved team-building traditions. On a single night, you send a group of folks from different teams within your company to dinner somewhere in your city (or at someone’s house).

The dinner is hosted by one of your colleagues and is sponsored by the company. These meals bring together random groups of people from the same company for an evening of delicious food and discussion.

The only thing participants should know about the dinner ahead of time is the date and time. Send each group an invite with the name of the restaurant they’re going to and who they’ll be going with, so they can arrange transportation together.

18. The magazine story

In this team-building activity, each team is expected to create an imaginary magazine cover story about a successful project or business achievement.

This game inspires creativity and big thinking among team members. At the end of the game team, members learn how to create a story or project about your company out of the blues.

To get started, divide participants into teams of 3-6 players. Give them markers, pens, and anything else they’ll need to create a fictional magazine cover.

19. Movie making

The idea of this activity is to stimulate creativity among team members. This fun activity may require the use of movie-making equipment like cameras, tripods, and microphones. Here, team members are given movie roles to play.

20. Office trivia

Asking trivia questions about the workplace is one good way to get everybody engaged in work affairs. You can ask random questions like; “How many people are working in the media department?”.

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What Are The Benefits of Engaging In Team Building Activities?

Team-building activities are one great way to strengthen the bonds within your team. It gives team members the opportunity to meet each other beyond the daily work routine.

Here are a few benefits of engaging in team-building activities for work:

1. Get to Know Your Team

Your team is made up of people with different needs, ambitions, and personalities. Getting to know them, and helping them to get to know each other, can build a happy, trusting team.

Hosting a team-building activity like pre-holiday drinks evening is an easy way to start to get your team members mixing and mingling.

Team-building activities offer opportunities to build relationships. Here people will be open to conversations that go on to show the other side of them.

2. Work toward a common goal

Team building activities for work inspire colleagues to work towards a shared vision and common goal

Creating a Team Charter can provide your people with a written definition of the team’s purpose and goals. You can find strategies for bringing a team together to achieve a particular goal in our Bite-Sized Training session, Team Building.

3. Develop Strong Team Skills

Going out of the work routine to do something fun enhances team skills. It helps team members develop the right skills and competencies to get things done.

Developing stronger skill sets, and matching your people to the roles best suited to them, can result in a more able, more motivated team.

4. It boosts morale among the workforce

One of the most significant advantages of the right team-building activities is that it boosts morale among your workforce. Team members get to work together on exciting and challenging activities and can display their skills and talents.

Team-building activities and games that boost morale can break down barriers among employees and create an environment that is nice to work in, which is vital to a successful and well-functioning business.

Conclusion

This encompasses a wide range of team-building activities. The way you employ these activities will be determined by your aim, the size of your team, the environment, and the amount of time you have to prepare.

Feel free to choose any game on the list. If you want team building to be effective and fun, you have to combine serious team-building activities with some goofy games for the best results.

References

  • blog.hubspot.com38 Fun Corporate Team-Building Activities & Outing Ideas Everyone Will Enjoy
  • tinypulse.comThe Ultimate List of Team Building Activities [New activities added]
  • blog.vantagecircle.com38 Quick and Easy Team Building Activities Your Employees Will Love (+How to Play)
  • workamajig.com – 35 Team Building Activities Your Team Will Actually Love

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