7 Most Fun Team Building Activities You Should Try

“Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. IT is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both, because it is so powerful and so rare.” – Patrick Lencioni

From what Lencioni uttered, it can be implied that team building is a simple yet powerful method to improve employee productivity while having fun in the workplace. A study commissioned by Neelam Saraswat and Shilpi Khandelwal also revealed that team building exercises have positive impacts on team effectiveness. It is one of best programmes to enhance communication, problem solving skills, creativity, loyalty, and leadership.

Moreover, according to some experts in Uplift Events, initiating team building exercises once in a month has several advantages for your team, such as unite your team members by finding common purpose, allocate jobs according to employee’s strength, resolve conflicts, find ways to incentivise staffs, give credit when it’s due, focus more on professionalism, and help you spend time with the most valuable assets of your company.

Whether you run a small, medium, or large-sized business, team building will help you create a high-functioning and successful team. So, have you applied these most fun team building activities that your employees might always want to try?

See also: Effective Ways to Build Company's Social Online Presence

Coin logo

Purpose: To encourage creativity amongst employees and help employees to learn more about their colleagues

Best group size: Small or medium group

Time estimation: 10 minutes

Material needed: None

How to play:

You can play this game when you are in a room plenty of table or desk space. Ask participants to place any coins they have in their pocket or purse on the table in front of them. Each person should create their own logo using only the coins they have and any useful materials they bring. They should then take turns displaying and explaining their logos.

Just one question

Purpose: To demonstrate the importance of asking the right questions, highlight priorities, and help them to think together as a team

Best group size: Small to medium group

Time estimation: 15-20 minutes

Materials needed: None

How to play:

Pair all the participants into smaller teams consist of 2 or 3. Then, ask them to give ‘just one question’ with a theme you decide. For example, “if you could ask just one question to discover person’s well-being, what would it be?” Let your staffs have Q&A with themselves and in the end ask how they feel about the game conducted.

Blind count off

Purpose: To have fun while teaching the importance of listening to and communicating with each other

Best group size: Small to medium group

Time estimation: 10 minutes

Material needed: None

How to play:

Have all participants form a circle and face outward, away from each other. The group should know how much they can count as a team, with only one person saying a number at a time. If two or more people say the same number, groups should start again from one.

You can also play it as ‘word challenge’. With the same circle form, start a game with a word a not expected word. Then, only one person can continue/make new word. If two or more people speak at the same time. The game is over and you should start from zero.

All aboard

Purpose: To enhance team communication and leadership opportunities

Best group size: Small or medium group

Time estimation: 20-30 minutes

Material needed: Rope

How to play:

Rope off an area that all participants can reasonably fit into to represent a boat. Once all team fit in one place, then the area should be made smaller, using a rope or tape to mark off the area. Participants must work together to find creative ways to get everyone inside area, as the area gets smaller and smaller.

Conducted story

Purpose: To sharpen communication skills, especially listening and memory

Best group size: Small to large group

Time estimation: 20 minutes or more

Material needed: None

How to play:

Gather your team to sit in circle. Start your story by story opening such as once upon a time, long long time ago, once when I was a kid, and so on. After that, have the person next to you to continue the sentence by adding one or two sentences. But, the person should first repeat the sentences from start. The goal is to create a coherent interesting story by time you get to the end of circle.

Silent play

Purpose: To practice nonverbal communication and restrain

Best group size: Small or medium group

Time estimation: 15 to 20 minutes

Material needed: None

How to play:

You should move around circle, passing an invisible material for example ball from member to member while communicating with one another. You can only pass the ball through a set of silent gesture. You can read the full instruction here. It is a fun game to try for your next team bonding.

A better place

Purpose: To encourage teamwork to solve real-life workplace issues

Best group size: Small group

Time estimation 30 minutes or more

Material needed: Pen and paper

How to play:

In a small team consists of 2-4 members, give them time to come up with a plan on how to improve certain issue around office with small budget (you can mention certain budget). Ask each team to present their ideas. Then, ask the other participants to vote the presented ideas, whoever gets the most vote win the game and get rewards.

Next read: 7 Must-have Qualities to be a Successful Recruiter