Last updated 14th June 2024
There’s no point having the perfect processes, systems, office environment and project management software – everything that makes your business work! – and then have a team that doesn’t like working together.
Team building activities are not only fun, but they can help with collaboration and communication between team members.
So let’s take a look at 15+ team building activities that can help your team work in harmony…
1. Adventure days
Get ready for a day of laughs if you take your team on an adventure day. Whilst activities like this may take a full day out of the office it’s definitely worth it, for developing communication skills and the team bonding that will take place.
Adventure days can include ropes courses, hiking, rock climbing and even camping if you fancy an overnight stay
Here’s some of our team at Go Ape. Their activities include a ropes course, segway rides, mountain biking and amazing BBQs!
Through adventure days like this, you’ll find out people’s strengths and weaknesses and see your team come together in ways they haven’t before.
2. Orienteering
Whilst you might think orienteering is reserved only for scouts, the benefits of a day orienteering can help even the most corporate of teams.
It will help refine decision-making skills and awareness by forcing teams to do their own navigation and problem-solving.
Orienteering is often referred to as the ‘thinking sport’ for a reason and teams will benefit greatly from the brain training involved.
3. Charity or volunteer work
Although charity work or volunteering doesn’t have to be reserved for team building, it is a great way to create a positive impact whilst also working together.
There are the traditional route community service type activities such as litter clean-ups or helping the elderly, but there can be more to it.
For example, why not contact your local schools and see if the students would benefit from team members giving talks about your industry, or offer work experience. That way you are offering something to your community.
There are organisations who can help organise this kind of thing for you too! Take Groundwork, for example, they can give your team a project to undertake and support you along the way.
4. A party!
Not only is a team party lots of fun and chance for the team to let their hair down – it can be a way to team build.
In a party-like atmosphere, people tend to relax and that can help build stronger relationships and camaraderie.
Team wide parties can also help team members who don’t necessarily cross paths everyday come together. This can help to improve the working environment and improve cross-team communication.
5. Office trivia or quiz
This activity is an easy and cheap way to encourage team building. It could be as downloading a ready-made quiz online or writing your own questions.
You could even personalise the quiz to help colleagues learn about their teammates, or make it about your company to help them brush up on their knowledge.
Either way, a quiz encourages teamwork…and a bit of friendly rivalry.
6. The always/never game
Always/never is a great game to help to clarify your team’s thinking on an issue.
This activity is a bit more serious and not as fun as other examples in this post, but it can be extremely helpful!
For example, if a team is getting bogged down by a particular project or issue it’s time to introduce always/never.
Give the team five minutes to generate and share what the project should “always be like” and then a further five minutes what it should “never be like”.
They can do this in a list, a visual mind map or out loud. But either way, it will help them get past the point they had previously been stuck at.
7. Randomise communications
Donut is an app add-on for slack that helps build team relationships.
It’s a simple but effective concept that pairs up team members who might not necessarily know each other for a remote ‘coffee and donut’ meeting.
It can help strengthen team relationships, build bonds across departments and encourage productive conversations.
All you need to do is create a slack channel with all the people you want to be involved and Donut does the rest!
There’s also features to help with training exercises and onboarding new employees.
8. The ‘Egg drop’
The egg drop is a fun game for problem-solving, it’s quick, easy and the concept is as simple as it gets. The premise is to protect your egg and all costs!
Split your employees into teams, give them a raw egg each and materials such as bubble wrap, tape, paper – anything you have lying around.
Then simply give the teams an allotted time to create the best protection for their egg. Once this is done, the teams need to take it in turns to drop their eggs from a height and the most intact egg, wins!
You can provide a prize for the winning team, and also bonus prizes for the most creative!
9. Murder mystery evening
A murder mystery evening may sound a bit retro, but they are fun, have a party atmosphere and have added problem-solving practice.
You can download ready to go mysteries online from sites like Night of Mystery, which will give you the story, character descriptions and instructions on how to conduct your evening.
Then simply assign everyone a character (you can even encourage fancy dress) get some drinks and some food and let the mystery begin!
10. Emoji song
Another fun activity that encourages creativity, and can be used as a part of meetings to get people energised.
Creating an emoji song is exactly as it sounds, you need to either create your own or recreate a well-known song using just emojis!
11. Design a board game
Have a game night, but with a difference! Every game you play needs to be created by yourselves.
Just split everyone into teams and you’ll need to provide materials, but nothing out of the ordinary, just some big sheets of card and crafty essentials.
12. Use a scavenger hunt app
A scavenger hunt is a popular team building activity, but they are a lot of work to create.
The Goosechase app is the easiest and most modern way to create a scavenger hunt for your team. Their website has hundreds of hunts ready to play, or you can create your own.
You can include videos, photos and track the whole thing using GPS, which is so much fun to look back at the end!
You can set how long teams have to complete their hunt and set a password to join. So everything is kept organised and private.
13. A cook-off or bake-off
A cook-off or bake-off creates a really fun day in the office.
You can ask your team to bring in a dish or bake of their choice and everyone can sit down to eat together.
You can make it a competition and offer prizes, or ask for a donation to enter to raise money for charity.
Whether everyone excels…or there are a few culinary disasters, the fun factor is still the same!
14. A TV or movie club
Every office usually has lots of chats going on surrounding what everyone is watching on Netflix. ‘Did you catch that documentary?’, ‘I love that new series, you have to watch it’ and so on!
So why not make it an activity?
You can organise a mass watching, or send everyone off to watch at home. But by simply watching the same thing and then chatting about it afterwards, it encourages team members to socialise.
15. Talent show
A talent show may not be for everyone, but it’s a great way to boost team morale!
Combine it with a party to help people let their hair down, and don’t make it mandatory in case that scares people off.
16. Powerpoint karaoke
PowerPoint karaoke has got to be one of the funniest ways to not only bond as a team, but also test presentation skills!
Each team makes a PowerPoint presentation, for the other team to present.
Simple, right?
But, the fun part is that you have no idea about what you’re about to present about! Cue uncontrollable giggles when your Head of IT is tasked with a presentation on how to make it big in the clown industry.
Final thoughts
Team building is important in any industry and sector because without a successful team, your business will likely suffer.
So, whether you introduce some of these activities into meetings, or organise whole days of fun your team will benefit greatly.
Working remotely? Check out this article: 28 Tips for Managing Remote Teams in 2024
