Team building games are one of the creative and fun ways to get your team members to connect with each other. Finding the right team building games for the office can be a challenging task, since not every team member is comfortable with certain kinds of activities. It is significant to choose an activity everyone feels comfortable doing. Whether you have a new team or are appointing new members to your existing team, providing a stress-free way for them to know each other can make a huge difference. Most of these games do not need extra items and can be played within 20 minutes. Here are a few awesome team building games that you can play within your team.
Team building games are important for a company’s success. In fact, the personal bond between employees gives businesses a competitive edge. A team that can communicate and collaborate efficiently is proved to be more productive, and pleasant to work with. But, how does team building activities work? It is about engagement.
Several studies show that close friendship improves employee satisfaction by 50 percent. At the same time, people are seven-time more likely to be engaged if they have a best friend at the workplace. Another report says that engaged teams outperform competitors in terms of both profits and performance.
10 Awesome Team Building Games
- What Makes you Tick
This team-building activity can be considered as an exercise in learning about each other’s personalities and seeing what type of personalities will collide. Take a personality test together. Select a speaker, if time permits, to talk about different personality traits, their weaknesses, strengths, and a plan on how potential clash can be lessened. You must choose a personality test that is not too much complicated. The True Colors personality test and the DISC personality test is a great choice.
2. Truth and Lies
This is one of the team building games without materials. For this activity, make participants sit in a circle facing each other. Each player must mention three truths and a lie about themselves. The lie must be realistic. Each participant should do the same. Other players should guess which statement is a lie. This is a fun-filled, icebreaker game that allows co-workers to know about each other.
3. Building the tower
This is one of the popular DIY team building games. Split into two teams. Each team will have the same amount of materials required to make a tower. Every team will be given a time limit for building their team tower. The team that builds the tallest and the strongest tower will be declared as the winner. For checking, which is the strongest tower among all, they are tested by blowing or simply by allowing them to stand on its own to see whether it is falling without any additional support or not. Then the captain will measure the height of the tower.
4. Barter Puzzle
Break your team into groups with an equal number of participants. Give each team a distinctly various jigsaw puzzle of equal problem. Explain that they have a certain time period to complete the puzzle with the help of other members of the team. The objective is to complete their puzzle before the other team finishes, and they must come up with a unique way of convincing the other teams to handover the pieces they need, whether through exchanging team members or through a barter system, etc. Whatever they decide to do, they must do it as a group.
5. Scavenger Hunt
Divide your team into groups of equal size and give them a list of things to locate and find back. Whether they remain inside the office or they need to leave the premises, it is up to you. The objective is to come back first with most of the items. A scavenger hunt can be theme-based and might include various clues or twists that force a team to work together. You can bring a variation in the digital scavenger hunt where participants must find examples and information or web pages online.
6. What’s my name?
It is one of the popular indoor team building games for employees where players have to answer questions saying yes or no when asked to identify a person. This game is perfect for a group of any size. Each player writes the names of a person on a sticking name tag. This person can be anyone- an iconic person, a celebrity, a famous athlete, or even a client. Then the players paste the tag on the back of another player so that it is not visible to them, but the rest of the team members can see the name.
What’s my name?” is an excellent ice-breaker team building game where players use “yes” or “no” questions to guess the identity of a person. While mingling and mixing, every employee will ask the other different “yes” or “no” questions to help them find out who they are supposed to be. Once they guess the name, they can take out the tag. This way, the employees will warm up and get talking to each other, improving communication skills.
7. No smiling
This is an indoor team building game. It is meant to get a laugh out of even the most serious people and can re-engage the team in a stressful situation. It is great if you have a big team. Before starting, ask everyone to sit and tell your employees that they are not allowed to smile for a few minutes. See who can last long in this situation.
8. The barter puzzle
Jigsaw puzzles are not just fun- they enhance problem-solving skills, harness brainpower, and improves attention. By playing this game, your team will be asked to take decisions under pressure and get to cooperate as a team. This game requires about 12 to 20 players who will be divided into a team of 4 to 5 members. Divide your team into groups with an equal number of members. Every team gets a different jigsaw puzzle to equalize the difficulty. All of them have to complete the puzzle within a given period of time. Here, the trick is that some of the pieces of this puzzle may be will another team member.
The motto is each team has to complete their puzzle before the other team does. Besides, they must also convince other teams to give them the missing pieces- either through negotiation, barter, donating time ti another team, or exchanging team members. The barter puzzle game promotes interaction and discussion as teamwork is the most important thing required for finishing a job. Also, this team building game brings out the best strategists and negotiators among your employees.
9. Count to 20
In this team building activity, your employees will count to 20 to practice teamwork, active listening, and forward-thinking. Although it sounds easy but it is not so. Divide the players into small groups and ask each of them to stand in a circle. The alternative would be to have a big circle for a small number of people. All the participants are looking down with closed eyes. The motto of the exercise is to count to 20 as a team. Here, the challenge is that there is no way of knowing will speak the number, and if two speak the number at once, the whole group has to start again.
10. Picture-sharing
It is one of the popular digital team building games that you can play with your teammates. Picture sharing activities help your team bond with each other in no time. It can facilitate laughter and surprising responses that will leave your team members feel connected and happy. Set aside a designated, may be at the beginning of every meeting,, for a team member to share a personal photo that is not related to work. This photo can include hobbies, pets, family members, gadgets, etc.