26 Team Building Activities & Ideas From The Pros

One of the easiest and most character-building ways to bond with your team is to volunteer together. This option is also completely free. All it takes to find where you’re needed is nothing more than a simple Google Search within your community. You can also send out a message on social media to let others know that you and your team are looking for a great cause to volunteer for. Our team recently did this by filling care packages for a local children’s hospital, and we did it from our own office!

I have a program for my team called Foodie Fridays. It is designed to be a day in the “Beginner’s Mind.” As marketing and PR strategists, we’re always the ones with the counsel and the answers, but that can be exhausting. One Friday every other month, we learn something in the food and beverage world together. We’ve made chocolate, stomped grapes, pickled green beans, roasted our own coffee, etc. It’s a way to build peer relationships, learn something new, relax and create space for new creativity and have a simple wonderful day together.

As a certified yoga instructor, I work with corporate often to help team build. Yoga classes offered at the workplace is a wonderful way to increase morale and reduce attrition. The yoga journey helps to clear out the sludge not only in the body but the mind as well and polishes the heart so that your compassion, wisdom and faith in your efforts and actions become more apparent.

The idea of ‘connection’ sits at the heart of our philosophy when it comes to team building. The trouble is, as with many small businesses, finding social time together can be tough. To combat that, one simple team building ritual that we have put in place is Friday drinks. I know that may seem almost too obvious on the surface, but the sad fact is that with many small teams being increasingly time poor and geographically diverse, finding a dedicated time for a social catch up often now falls into the ‘too hard bucket’. So – we try and make it super simple. 4pm every Friday, no matter where you are – it’s tools down and refreshment in hand. If you’re in the office – brilliant. If not – join via video or dial in by phone.

An activity called “Hero, Highlight, Hardship” is a great team building activity for small businesses. By having everyone share a hero who has made an impact on them, the biggest highlight of their life, and a hardship that changed who they are, the group gets to know each other in a deeper way. When combined with an off site where everyone’s guard is down because they’re more relaxed, it is a great activity to kick off the morning and help the group feel connected.

A great team building activity is to have the entire team take the StrengthsFinder and bring in a qualified Strengths consultant for a workshop. In these workshops, team members learn more about their own strengths as well as those of their peers. When team members understand each other’s strengths, they become more engaged and much more effective as a team. These Strengths workshops also include a number of other team building activities.

We have an employee of the quarter contest where the winner is nominated by their peers. Everyone emails their manager to vote for a colleague, and we ask them to give a comment about how that employee was helpful to them or what was something they did that was admirable. When we choose the winner, we hold a team meeting and read all those comments about the employee out loud to their peers. It’s been a great way to encourage team-building in a way that isn’t uncomfortable or silly because the employees only participate if they want to.

We have been so impressed at how everyone has participated and how this simple employee appreciation display has really brought them together.

We used to organize team events in-house when we had just a handful of employees, but with almost 20 employees in our NYC office now, we need some assistance. If you don’t have an in-house event coordinator, there are several companies in every locality to help you organize corporate events.

We used Wekudo, which specializes in corporate event planning in NYC, for our recent team kickball event. They took care of getting a park permit, making reservations, ordering food, catering to dietary restrictions, and more. They also gave me a point person to contact on the day of the event if anything goes wrong. While these services vary in cost, they are usually willing to offer something in your budget. It’s also the price you pay for the peace of mind that everything will be taken care of for your event. You can focus on your job and leave the planning to them.

The Active Shooter Training Program is a team building experience designed by a seasoned law enforcement officer to train employees in the best way to proceed in the event an attacker invades their office. Employees are taught tactical ways of running, strategic methods of hiding, and smart ways to fight.

The activity is very engaging, with attendees participating in mock attacks and responses. This is NOT a PowerPoint presentation. Team members must work together to stop the threat. They will be shown step by step how to work together and protect each other. It’s an exciting shared adventure that the team will appreciate and never forget.

Superhero Academy is an action-packed day in the park where players rotate between different stations and play mini-games to test their mental, physical, and creative skills. At the end of the day, they’ll apply what they’ve learned to defeat the bad guy and save the day.

The diverse blend of skills each of the programs comprises puts a spotlight on the diversity of the team, truly giving everyone the chance to be the hero.

My favorite team building activity is the scavenger hunt. We make a list of goofy (and easy) tasks for each team to accomplish within a 2-hour time frame. This list includes tasks like taking a picture of someone wearing a hat or taking a picture with a stranger, just to name a few. It’s a good team bonding experience because we randomly create the team, which allows you to talk and work with people in other departments. It’s nice to put names to faces. It’s also good to have bragging rights as the winning team!

We have a Foosball table in the office, and when your team has a sport or an activity that they have in common, it’s invaluable. It helps everyone get to know each other, deepens relationships, and gives people a way to blow off steam together. Foosball is a simple but surprisingly fun game, and anyone can play it. What is special about Foosball is that it cuts across gender, culture, and natural physical ability, so that everyone can play.

A team building event playing a popular sport like basketball has an uneven playing field. Even if one person is great at Foosball, and the other person has hardly played, it’s still fun, and the teams can be balanced in two on two pretty easily. The positive impact on team culture to have something that anyone can do together is hard to beat!

We actively encourage all of our colleagues – whether they’re in sales or marketing – to work together. For example, we hold themed Sales Days that combine work tasks with fun games, snacks, fancy dress and prizes for the teams that generate the best sales at the end of the day. It’s a great reward for their hard work and helps boost productivity throughout the business as everyone gets involved.

A company that promotes healthy competition in the office is one that can improve productivity and communication. Pushing teams to the next goal is a great way to build an effective team dynamic, but you need to make employees look forward to the little things. Put up a small prize and start a monthly competition. It could be something as simple as guess which song is played the most on the office radio or have a Connect 4 tournament. These little breaks can help to break up the day and re-energize your workforce as well as build morale.

When done right, a sales contest is a great way to motivate all employees regardless of how long they have been with the company. In fact, this activity can address under performance issues as well as the training of a new hire as long as the rewards benefit them as well. There are a number of sales contest ideas that can meet this goal – from daily group contests, to milestone based recognition, and even a “loser consequence” type of contest. At the end of the day, employees acquire improved skills that endure after the games are over.

We just did a fabulous team building activity for our small business with DuMore Improv. We didn’t just go to watch improv, we participated in an improv class. It was wonderful for us as a small business because we’re in the client driven space. We learned the power of “yes, and” and also to value active listening. From a team perspective, we saw how in improv, it’s your job to move your team members’ ideas forward. Highly recommend improv for any small business, especially businesses suffering from negativity in the workplace.

We’re headquartered in the Nordics, but we’re a team of 30 people living all over the world. At our summer gatherings in Helsinki, we spend lots of time getting to know each other. One of the highlights every year is going to a traditional Finnish sauna on the shores of the Baltic sea. Everyone talks in the sauna and racing from the hot sauna into the cold sea is a great way to bond!

Every Friday (3pm to 5pm), we organize a “Brainstorm with Booze” where we discuss an issue we’re facing in the business and map out a solution. The alcohol helps with creativity, and people put their guard down. All the while, you’re solving a real issue in the business. It’s great for camaraderie and culture.

Set aside time and space in the office for employees with similar, non-work-related interests to do something together. For example, Bullhorn Staffing built a “jam room” complete with amps, mics, keyboards, and guitars, where their musically-inclined employees could play together. It’s proven to be a major “clincher” for prospective employees.

Organizational success is considered to be largely dependent on how fast and in what way its people connect with each other for mutual benefit what is the key to success. And this eclectic collection of top 50 team games would help you or your HR manager do just that!

Work perks play an important role in attracting and retaining employees, which is why it makes sense to develop team building activities that can double as a work perk. From arranging company-wide outings to giving incentives like an additional PTO (paid time off) day for employees to volunteer, companies can provide real value to their staff while improving overall team work performance. Team building is especially important when you work in a self-managed environment, like we do at Fit Small Business.

When selecting an activity, you MUST make sure that it is appropriate to your group’s culture, and a good fit for their personalities. It’s not one size fits all; with so many team building options out there, if you truly want to make an impact and improve workplace performance – and by default, boost revenue – you must select an activity perfectly suited to your specific group.

A great company culture is a magnet for a great team, and having regular team building activities (e.g. quarterly or biannually) creates a positive culture. When employees are happy to be at work, they’re more likely to take ownership, work together to achieve great things, and recommend the company to their friends.

After a team building event, hold a debrief session. The debrief should include what went well, what did not go well, lessons learned, and how the lessons can be applied. Also, include an agenda and clear purpose for the day. There is nothing worse than spending employee time and company money on an activity that does not have clear takeaways.

Often, it’s the small gestures that can improve morale and bring teams together. Some companies get overwhelmed by the notion that boosting morale requires daily catered lunches and team getaways. Of course, we all want that, and it helps, but simply showing appreciation for your employees and treating them with respect also goes a long way. Throw in a few office contests and nights out on the company dime, and every can feel good about their job.