There are four
main types of team building activities, which includes: Communication
activities, problem solving and/or decision making activities, adaptability
and/or planning activities, and activities that focus on building trust. The
idea is to perform various activities that are both fun and challenging, and
that also have the “side effect” of building teamwork skills that can help
improve performance and productivity. In this first installment, we’ll take a
look at 10 highly effective team building activities designed to improve
communication & problem-solving skills.
Communication
and Icebreaker Activities
Two Truths and
a Lie
Time Required: 15-30 minutes
Start out by
having every team member secretly write down two truths about themselves and
one lie on a small piece of paper – Do not reveal to anyone what you wrote
down! Once each person has completed this step, allow 10-15 minutes for open
conversation – much like a cocktail party – where everyone quizzes each other
on their three questions. The idea is to convince others that your lie is
actually a truth, while on the other hand, you try to guess other people’s
truths/lies by asking them questions. Don’t reveal your truths or lie to anyone
– even if the majority of the office already has it figured out! After the
conversational period, gather in a circle and one by one repeat each one of
your three statements and have the group vote on which one they think is the
lie. You can play this game competitively and award points for each lie you
guess or for stumping other players on your own lie. This game helps to
encourage better communication in the office, as well as it lets you get to
know your coworkers better.
Life Highlights
Game
Time Required: 30 minutes
This is an
excellent icebreaker activity that’s perfect for small and large groups alike.
Begin by asking each participant to close their eyes for one minute and
consider the best moments of their lives. This can include moments they’ve had
alone, they’ve shared with family or friends; these moments can pertain to
professional successes, personal revelations, or exciting life adventures.
After the participants have had a moment to run through highlights of their
lives, inform them that their search for highlights is about to be narrowed.
Keeping their eyes closed, ask each participant to take a moment to decide what
30 seconds of their life they would want to relive if they only had thirty
seconds left in their life. The first part of the activity enables participants
to reflect back on their lives, while the second part (which we’ll discuss in a
moment) enables them to get to know their coworkers on a more intimate level. The
second portion of the game is the “review” section. The leader of the activity
will ask each and every participant what their 30 seconds entailed and why they
chose it, which will allow participants to get a feel for each other’s
passions, loves, and personalities.
Coin Logo
Time Required: 5-10 minutes
Begin by asking
all participants to empty their pockets, purses, and wallets of any coins they
may have and place them on the table in front of them. If someone doesn’t have
any coins or only has very few, others in the room can share their coins with
them. Instruct each person to create their own personal logo using the coins in
front of them in just one minute. Other materials they may have on them, such
as pens, notebooks, wallets, etc. can also be used in creation of the logo. If
there is a particularly large group, people can be broken up into teams of 3-6
people and instructed to create a logo that represents them as a team or the
whole room can gather to use the coins to create a logo for the organization/group/department/etc.
Each solitary participant can explain their logo to the group or if the room
was split into groups, the leader can have each group discuss what led to the
team logo and what it says about them. Not only does this activity promote self
and mutual awareness, but it also enables participants to get to know each
other on a more personal level.
The One
Question Ice Breaker Activity
Time Required: 15-20 minutes
This icebreaker
not only gets coworkers talking to each other, but it also gets them working
with one another. It’s quite simple: the leader gets to decide the situation
the question will pertain to. Example situations include babysitting, leading
the company, or being married. After pairing participants into teams, the
leader will pose this question: If you could ask just one question to discover
a person’s suitability for (insert topic here), what would your question be?
Say the leader chose to go with a marriage situation. That means each person in
a two-person team would come up with one question that would help them discover
whether or not their partner was suitable to be married to them. If the topic
was babysitting, each team member would have to come up with just one question
whose answer would help them determine whether or not the person was suitable
to babysit their child. This icebreaking activity can also get mixed up by
issuing one situation for the entire group or allocating a different situation
to each team member or pair to work on. Depending on the situation chosen, the
activity can be very fun, but it can also demonstrate that crucial questions
should be developed properly.
Classification
Game
Time Required: 10-15 minutes
The
classification game can be a quick icebreaker or a more complex activity. For
the purposes of this example, we will treat this activity as a quick
icebreaker. Before splitting the room into teams of four, explain the concept
of “pigeon-holing someone,” which means classifying someone as something or
stereotyping someone. It should be made clear that this type of classification
is subjective and unhelpfully judgmental. Instruct the participants to
introduce themselves to those in their team and quickly discuss some of their
likes, dislikes, etc. After the introductions, reveal to the teams that it will
be their job to discover how they should classify themselves- as a team- into
two or three subgroups by using criteria that contains no negative,
prejudicial, or discriminatory judgments. Examples of these subgroups can
include night owls and morning people, pineapple pizza lovers and sushi lovers,
etc. This activity encourages coworkers to get to know each other better and
enables them to collectively consider the nature of all individuals within the
team.
Problem Solving
Activities
Picture Pieces
Game
Time Required: 30 minutes
This problem
solving activity requires that the leader choose a well known picture or
cartoon that is full of detail. The picture needs to be cut into as many equal
squares as there are participants in the activity. Each participant should be
given a piece of the “puzzle” and instructed to create an exact copy of their
piece of the puzzle five times bigger than its original size. They are posed
with the problem of not knowing why or how their own work affects the larger
picture. The leader can pass out pencils, markers, paper, and rulers in order
to make the process simpler and run more smoothly. When all the participants
have completed their enlargements, ask them to assemble their pieces into a
giant copy of the original picture on a table. This problem solving activity
will teach participants how to work in a team and it demonstrates
divisionalized ‘departmental’ working, which is the understanding that each
person working on their own part contributes to an overall group result.
Sneak a Peek
Game
Time Required: 10 minutes
This problem
solving activity requires little more than a couple of sets of children’s
building blocks. The instructor will build a small sculpture with some of the
building blocks and hide it from the group. The participants should then be
divided into small teams of four. Each team should be given enough building
material so that they can duplicate the structure you’ve already created. The
instructor should then place their sculpture in an area that is an equal
distance from all the groups. One member from each team can come up at the same
time to look at the sculpture for ten seconds and try to memorize it before
returning to their team. After they return to their teams, they have
twenty-five seconds to instruct their teams about how to build an exact replica
of the instructor’s sculpture. After one minute of trying to recreate the
sculpture, another member from each team can come up for a “sneak a peek”
before returning to their team and trying to recreate the sculpture. The game
should be continued in this pattern until one of the team’s successfully
duplicates the original sculpture. This game will teach participants how to
problem solve in a group and communicate effectively.
Zoom
Time Required: 30 minutes
This problem
solving activity requires the wordless, picture book entitled, “Zoom” by Istvan
Banyai. This book features 30 sequential pictures that work together to form a
narrative. The book should be fairly easy to find, as it’s been published in
over 18 countries. The pictures can even be laminated to prolong their usage.
Hand out one picture to each participant, making sure a continuous sequence is
being used. Explain to the participants that they can only look at their own
pictures and must keep their picture hidden from other participants. Time
should be given for the participants to study their pictures because each
picture will contain important information that will help the participants
solve the problem of putting them into order. The ultimate goal is for the
group to place the pictures in sequential order without looking at one
another’s pictures. The participants can talk to each other and discuss what is
featured in their picture. This activity brings coworkers together and gets
them communicating with the common goal of solving a problem, but it also
allows for leaders to emerge and take control of the task.
The Great Egg
Drop
Time Required: 2 hours
This messy, yet
classic and engaging problem solving activity requires splitting the room into
two large groups with the task of building an egg package that can sustain an
eight foot drop. A variety of tools and other materials should be provided to
the teams. After the packages have been built, each team must also present a
30-second advert for their package, highlighting why it’s unique and how it
works. At the conclusion of the presentations, each group will have to drop
their egg using their package to see if it really works. Aside from teaching
the groups to work together and communicate, it also brings them together with
the common goal of both winning the egg drop and successfully creating an egg
package.
Create your Own
Team Building Activities
Time Required: 1 hour
The group
leader should present participants with this fake problem: The hour was going
to be spent doing a problem solving activity, but as the group leader- you
don’t know any and you don’t want to do one that the participants have already
heard or tried previously. The goal- or problem- then, is to have each group of
participants come up with a new problem solving activity that they’ve invented
themselves. Groups should be no larger than four or five people and at the end
of the hour, each group must come up and present their new problem solving
activity. Aside from being a problem solving activity in and of itself, this
activity also promotes creativity, communication, trust, and time management,
among other things.
Planning/Adapting Exercises
Tag Team Game
Time Required: 20-30 minutes
This adapting exercise requires
just a few simple tools, which include large sheets of paper, writing paper,
pens, and markers. In this exercise, participants are broken up into groups of
4-8 people and instructed to share with their group their individual strengths
and the positive attributes they feel would lend to the success of their group.
They are to write these strengths and attributes down on a piece of paper.
After their group discussion, each team will be given one large sheet of paper,
writing paper, markers, and a pen. The groups should then be instructed to make
the “ultimate team member” by combining each team member’s strengths and
positive attributes into one imaginary person. This “person” should also
receive a name, have a picture drawn of them, and have their different
attributes labeled. The group should also write a story about this person,
highlighting all of the things their imaginary person can do with all of their
amazing characteristics. At the end of the exercise, each group should share
their person with the group and read the accompanying story. This exercise will
help coworkers adapt to weakness they feel they or a team member may have by
understanding that as a group, they are capable of having more strengths and
positive attributes then they would have working solo.
The Take Away Game
Time Required: 5-10 minutes
This planning game only requires
15 coins of any time, including pennies. To play, the instructor can create
multiple teams of two or have on group play another, with one representative
from each team participating in each game until everyone has had a turn. The
set up is simple: a coin is tossed to decide who goes first. Each side may
remove two coins every time they call the it (heads or tails) correctly. The
winner is the person/team removing that removes the last coin. The game can be
made more complex by upping the number of coins a team can take when it’s their
turn or by allowing coins to be put back. With increased complexity, the
activity allows the teams a strategic planning stage. The goal is to have the
players realize that simpler versions of the game can easily be planned and
controlled by the team/person playing first.
The Paper Tower
Time Required: 5 minutes
This planning exercise is very
simplistic in its approach, but it teaches participants the importance of
planning, timing, and thinking on their feet. Each participant is given a
single sheet of paper and told that it’s absolutely necessary that they
construct the tallest free-standing structure in just five minutes using no
other materials. After the five minutes and a review of the structures, a
discussion can be had concerning who planned out their structure, who ran out
of time, and what could be done differently next time.
Road Map Game
Time Required: 30 minutes
The participants need to be split
into two groups with an equal about of players in each group. This planning
exercise also requires that the participants have paper, pens, and a map. The
map can be of the state the participants are in, of the whole country, or of a
specific area. The area the map covers doesn’t matter as much as the fact that
each group needs a copy of the same map. Instruct the teams to plan a vacation,
which must be planned within certain parameters. Each group should be given a
list of what they have for their trip, how much money they can use, what kind
of car they will have, the size of its gas tank, m.p.g., the price of gas, the
beginning and ending destination, and anything else you can think of. Each
group should write down their travel plans and any group that runs out of money
or gas will be disqualified. Awards can be given to the team that saw and did
the most with what they had or for the most exhausting trip, the most relaxing,
etc. The goal of team building exercises like this is to get coworkers working
together as team with the common purpose of planning this trip in 30 minutes.
Paper and Straws Game
Time Required: 15 minutes
This planning game is ideal for
small groups and only requires drinking straws and some paper. The group leader
needs to draw a large circle on a large piece of paper with concentric circles
within it. Then, each circle must be assigned a score, with the biggest score
being saved for the smallest, middle circle. This paper is taped onto the middle
of a large desk. Then, each participant must gather around the table and be
given a drinking straw. The group leader will make dime-sized balls by wadding
up bits of paper. It is up to the group leader how many balls will be in play.
The participants must blow into their drinking straws to push the balls around.
It sounds easy, but as more balls come into play, the participants must plan
with their coworkers how they will push balls into high-scoring sections
without moving balls that are already in place. This may require re-positioning
themselves in different locations around the table or having different players
blow in different directions; it’s up to the participants to create their plan
of attack. The group leader can end the game once they’ve reached a specific
score or once each ball is in the middle. These simple team building exercises
helps coworkers work together to create and follow through with a plan and it
also encourages them to communicate.
Trust Exercises
Mine Field
Time Required: 20-30 minutes
This trust exercise requires some
setting up before it can be executed. It also requires a large, open area such
as a room without furniture or an empty parking lot. The leader must distribute
“mines,” which they place haphazardly around the area. These “mines” can be
balls, bowling pins, cones, etc. This exercise gives coworkers a chance to work
on their relationships and trust issues, which is why they are paired into
teams of two. One team member will be blindfolded and cannot talk and the other
can see and talk, but cannot enter the field or touch their blindfolded
teammate. The challenge requires each blind-folded person to walk from one side
of the field to the other, avoiding the mines by listening to the verbal
instructions of their partners. Penalties can be put in place for each time a
blindfolded person hits a mine, but the real idea behind the game is to get the
team members to trust their partner’s directions and to teach them to
communicate in a more effective way.
Running Free
Time Required: 20 minutes
This trust building exercise
requires nothing more than a few blindfolds and a large, flat area- preferably
with grass. The group leader can either team people up or allow them to pick
their own partners. Once everyone is in teams of two, one team member will be
designated as the leader and the other as the follower. The follower must wear
a blindfold. The group leader will instruct the leaders in each team to hold
the hand of their blindfolded partner and take them on a slow walk around the
area for at least 3 minutes. This will allow the partners to get accustomed to
the process and their partner. After three minutes, instruct the teams to take
a normal-paced walk for three minutes. After those three minutes are up,
instruct the leaders to take their blindfolded partners on a fast walk for
thirty seconds. After each turn, the blindfolded partner is developing more and
more trust in their seeing partner. Instruct the leaders to take their
blindfolded partner on a 30 second jog, then a 15 second run, and lastly, a
very fast 15 second run- with breaks in between. After the last run, the
follower can take off their blind fold and rest for a bit with their partner
before the process begins over again and the followers become the leaders and
vice versa. After the last run, a discussion can be had about the process,
whether or not it was difficult for participants to trust their partners and if
so/not, why?
Slice ‘n Dice
Time Required: 15 minutes
This trust building exercise
should take place outside and preferably, should be done with a large group of
20 or more. Participants should be instructed to form two equal lines facing
each other (creating a corridor) and to put their arms straight out in front of
them. Their arms should intersect, overlapping by about a hand with the arms of
the people opposite of them. The person at the end of the corridor will walk
down the corridor of arms. In order to let the person pass, the other
participants will have to raise and lower their arms. That person will then
join the corridor again and then the next person in line will walk through.
This process will continue until everyone has had a turn. Now that the group is
more confident, participants should be instructed to walk quickly, run, or
sprint down the corridor, trusting that the other participants will let them
pass without making them pause. For the last turn, the participants making the
corridor should be instructed to chop their arms up and down as people run
through. This exercise allows participants to build trust in their teammates
while also having fun.
Eye Contact
Time Required: 5 minutes
This trust exercise requires no
special equipment, just an even number of participants. Making eye contact is
sometimes difficult for people, as it requires a certain amount of trust and
respect. Some people avoid it, while others simply aren’t very good at it; they
make look away often or appear awkward or uncomfortable, sometimes fidgeting
with other objects. This exercise, though simple, can help coworkers become more
comfortable and trusting of each other through the practicing of eye contact.
For this activity, have people group into pairs and stand facing each other.
The idea is to have them stare into their partner’s eyes for at least 60
seconds. Neither participant should be wearing glasses or sunglasses of any
kind. There may be some giggles at first, as it can feel somewhat awkward
during the first try, but as participants get the hang of it, it should become
easier for them to make eye contact for prolonged amounts of time.
Willow in the Wind
Time Required: 20 minutes
This particular trust building
exercise goes by different names, but usually illustrates the same idea. This
exercise is best suited for coworkers who already know each other fairly well.
One participant must volunteer or be chosen to be the “willow.” The willow must
stand in the middle of a group with their eyes closed, their feet together, and
body upright. They will perform a series of “trust leans” against the other
participants, whose job is to hold up the willow and pass them around without
allowing them to fall or feel frightened as if they’re going to fall. Before
beginning, the instructor should discuss “spotting” techniques to all
participants. Those who are not the willow must have one foot in front of the
other, have their arms outstretched, elbows locked, and fingers loose, as well
as be ready and alert. This will ensure that they will successfully pass the
willow around without any troubles. Various co-workers can take turns being the
willow. This technique helps coworkers establish and build trust with each
other in an open, fun environment.
