Easy team building games workplace

You must be tired of the daily office schedule. The same work. Always around the same people. It is quite normal to be bored with the daily office activities. Does your team come across some team building games that will not only bring your team together to create new ideas but also save them from the same boredom?

It will develop communication amongst your team and also create some great memories. Moreover, how do you motivate the newcomers to gel up with your team? How about conducting small activities. The newcomers can become more engaged with the team through quick team building activities. These activities will be fun as well as educational. But what are the activities in your mind right now? I hope you have some incredibly amazing activities that are enjoyable and will be able to include everyone to raise their spirits.

But is that enough? Before you start investing your time in organizing activities for your team to fuse fun and work, there are some nitty-gritty details that you should probably know. The core idea behind team building is to empower individuals to contribute to common goals. Statistically or scientifically, there have been plenty of evidence to prove that team building activities have positive effects in the workplace.

They specifically work well for teams who are looking for ways to bring improvement in the way they work with each other. A key reason why such simple games and activities bring strong changes into a workplace is that they have the ability to help people come out of their comfort zones. They provide a means and platform for team members to break the ice in an intimidating manner and take their teamwork to a whole new level.

The upcoming list gives you a quick peek into some of the most popular workplace games and activities of all times. Do you want to add a fun element into your daily work routine? Here are a few interesting things you can try. Running the Activity: B lind drawing requires 2 players to sit back to back. One player is given a picture of an object or word.

The other person draws the object on the basis of the given verbal description and their own guesswork. Objective: Blind drawing helps you to evaluate how two members can effectively communicate , imagine, and innovate.

Running the Activity: Whenever possible, take your team for a Scavenger Hunt at the nearest place like museum, zoo or theme parks. It will sound silly. Now that the team knows what the goal is, ask them for the same word types. See what kinds of words they supply. Repeat the exercise until you get a mission statement that the team feels is correct. A variation is to categorize the types of words before the first round.

So, tell them you are looking for words that apply to the team without telling them you are working on a mission statement. By stripping away the jargon and stiffness and allowing the mission statement to go through several rounds of nonsense, you allow your team to help you craft a statement that is more relaxed and honest.

Using wooden blocks or an actual Jenga game, mark blocks according to the hierarchies present in your company.

For example, you might have some blocks denoted as the IT department, and others as HR. Divide your team into groups, giving them an equal number and kind of blocks. From here, either specify the type of structure each team must build, or provide guidelines and allow them to build any structure they want.

When the time limit has been reached, each team, taking turns, must begin to remove a block at a time without destroying their structure. Do not inform them ahead of time that you will be asking them to do this. If time allows, you may ask them to repeat the exercise. See if they find a way to build a structure that can withstand removal of blocks.

Purpose: This exercise is meant to show how each department and the various managers and staff positions are necessary to complete the task, and that without everyone in place, things fall apart. Divide your team into groups of two each. Have each person sit with their back to the other. One person will have a picture.

The other person will have a blank sheet of paper and a pen. The team member with the picture must not show the other person the image. Instead, the are to describe the image without using words that give it away, while the other team member is to draw what is being described. For example, the picture might be of an elephant standing on a ball. After a set time limit, the drawing time ends and both team members view the original picture and the drawing.

Purpose: This is an exercise that focuses on communication and language. While the final drawing will seldom look like the picture, it is revealing to participants to see how different the interpretation of instructions can be even when they are supposedly talking about the same thing. Gather your team in a circle, and have them sit down. Each team member should then put on a provided blindfold. Leave the circle. Instruct them to form a perfect square out of the rope without removing their blindfolds.

You can introduce variations into this game. For example, you might, at random, instruct a team member to not speak. One by one, members of the group are muted, making communication more challenging.

Or, let the team come up with a plan before putting on the blindfold, but once they cannot see, they also cannot talk. Purpose: This exercise deals with both communication and leadership styles. There will inevitably be team members who want to take charge, and others who want to be given direction. The team will have to work together to create the square, and find a way to communicate without being able to see.

On name tags or similar labels, write down the name of a famous person, or write down people types e. For a set amount of time, the entire group should mingle, and ask and answer questions.

They should treat each other according to the stereotypical way based on what kind of person they have been labeled. Each team member can use that treatment, as well as the answers to questions, to figure out what the label is.

As each team member figures out who they are, they can exit the game and let the rest continue. Purpose: By confronting stereotypes in both how people treat us and in the questions and answers used, the team can get a better sense of how we mistakenly see people as well as how it feels to be so narrowly defined. This is also a good ice-breaker activity if you have team members that do not know each other yet.

Using masking tape, create a large polygonal shape on the floor. It should be about 12 feet long by 6 feet wide, at least. Mark the start and stopping points. Make the shape a bit convoluted, choosing a shape that is elongated with the idea that people must make their way from one end to the other. Place a few squeaky dog toys inside the shape, and twice as many full sheets of paper with a large X on them inside the shape. The paper is the mines. At least two at a time, each person on your team must make their way from start to finish blindfolded.

They cannot step outside of the boundary, nor can they step on a mine. If they do, they are frozen. They can only be unfrozen if someone else inside the shape steps on a squeak toy. Their only guidance is the vocal commands of those outside the shape who are not blindfolded. Purpose: This game is about communication, and trusting each other. Players learn to be observant of multiple action as well as give clear and timely advice.

On a bulletin board or other surface which accepts thumbtacks, create a blank timeline. The timeline should start as far back as the oldest member on your team was born or when the company was founded, whichever came first. Mark each year on the timeline. Then, using narrow strips of paper, write down important dates for the company e.

Give your team members four slips of paper, and ask them to mark down four important moments in their life. Let them pin them to the timeline.

Purpose: This exercise helps show, in a visual way, the different generations and experiences of your team. It leads well into talking about cultural and generational differences and the effects that has on how people work and communicate. It is also an opportunity for team members to learn more about each other.

Have each team member bring one item from their desk to the exercise. Then, tell them that this item is going to be their new product, and that they must come up with a name, logo, slogan, and marketing plan for that object.

Give them a set amount of time. This could be done individually, or in small groups if desired. Discuss, as a group, which products were successfully sold and why. Update Your Retention Strategy for Retaining Millennials in the Workplace Working with millennials is significantly different than working with their…. LOG IN. Increase productivity and boost creativity with team-building. Four Walls Communication Activity This quick activity is all about learning how each team member prefers to communicate, allowing for better collaboration, and less miscommunication in future interactions.

Team Birthday Lineup A classic for a reason, this team-building exercise requires your team to communicate with each other without the use of words. Penny For Your Thoughts This sharing game is often used as an icebreaker and provides a unique way for your team members to learn more about each other. Spider Web In this game, the team must work together to get all individual employees through the challenge.

Scrambled Puzzles Jigsaw puzzles are just the background for this selection from our 5-minute team building activities. Helium Stick Another simple 5-minute team building activities for the workplace, this exercise is all about overcoming the initial frustration of a challenge to find the right solution—all while working together as a team.

Paper Tower Paper Tower is another fun game that can be used to spark innovation and creativity in your team. More posts by CareerArc Staff Writer. Related Posts. How to Better Recruit Nurses and Software Engineers, the Two Hardest Jobs to Fill in America As the labor market continues to tighten, job candidates are gaining more power and choice while industries everywhere are struggling….

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Privacy Policy. Save Preferences. Offering a language course in-house for the team is a great way of doing this. Other options include lunchtime exercise or a book group. Only being allowed to ask and answer yes-no questions, the task is to find your partner from within the group.

A brilliant ice breaker for new teams, and a way to improve communication, this is one of those team building exercises which is fun in the process.

Blow up a beach ball and get to work with a sharpie pen. The team then tosses the ball from player to player. When someone catches the ball they look at where their right thumb has landed and state their answer to that category. Get a long stick or lightweight pole. The team lines up next to each other and extends one hand and index finger. The games master places the stick resting across the fingers.

The team must now figure out how to lower their stick to the ground without it falling or rolling off. This messes with the mind as the natural tendency is for the stick to rise as everyone is trying to remain in contact with it.

Fun and challenging, it requires team concentration and collaboration. Nothing works for team cohesion quite like shared values, missions and experiences. Create a team mood board highlighting things such as your values, or achievements. Let people contribute with what they love about the team. This creates something nostalgic and positive that will exist long after the team building exercise and help the team to stay gelled at all times.

Have you noticed how planning a social event or a team building day is always the job of just one person? Why not shake it up by making the planning part of the team building activity itself? That way everyone has to collaborate, discuss, negotiate, plan and strategize. With this game, teams are given a completely random and typically dull item that they must create a marketing strategy for. They need to create a brand name, slogan, advert, logo and more. At the end of the allotted time they have to give a 5 minute presentation to the other teams.

Teams then vote on the winning team. There you go! Read more. Spend quality time with the people who matter the most. Enter your location below to find your nearest adventure Please enter your postcode or city you wish to search by Find my event Please enter a city or postcode….

CluedUpp Blog. Team building exercises bring you: A motivated workforce skilled in collaboration. Skilled problem solvers and decision makers. Effective communication grown through real life practice.