Team building games for the office

They say teamwork makes the dream work –

but does it really?

"I love team building activities’’, said no one ever. We’ve all been there. Someone suggests team building, you groan and immediately imagine building a raft in a cold pond in a field 20 miles from the nearest town or city.

But that’s ok. It’s a natural reaction if your past experiences of team building have been less than enjoyable. No one wants to spend time doing tasks that push them out of their comfort zone and make them feel exposed and embarrassed in front of colleagues. But team building doesn’t have to be painful and unpleasant. The right team building activities can help your employees bond, which in turn boosts engagement and productivity. Which is a great thing, right?

Ok, hear us out. We’re not all outdoorsy survivalists, we’re not all Olympic athletes, so finding activities that everyone is suited to and will enjoy and more importantly have a real purpose will bring considerable benefits to your workplace. You don’t have to travel miles to a remote camp to engage your employees, planning in regular time to play simple team building games in the office will work just as well to create a healthy company culture that helps attract and retain highly motivated and engaged employees.

Why is team building important?

Companies are telling us that retaining employees is harder than hiring them, so providing your employees with reasons to stay is crucial. When employees work together and succeed as a team, they form bonds that can turn into trust and friendship, and employees who like and trust each other are more likely to be happy in their workplace, which is a great reason to stick around. Remove team building from your employee development planning and you could be missing a trick.

Recent reports from Gallup estimate that:

●      Up to 85% of employees are not engaged in the workplace

●      Up to 81% of employees are considering leaving their jobs

●      Companies with a highly engaged workforce are 21% more profitable

●      Good company culture increases revenue by 4X

●      1 in 3 professionals cite boredom as their main reason to leave their jobs

The bottom line: research shows that companies with engaged employees are more productive - up to 25% more. Companies also see increased profitability and customer ratings, and less turnover and absenteeism. But how do you increase engagement? That's where team building comes in. Creating opportunities where your staff can get to know each other outside of a strictly professional setting can help break the ice and build a strong bond between coworkers.

Team building can also:

●      Improve communication

●      Encourage teamwork

●      Reveal your team’s strengths and weaknesses

●      Boost creativity

●      Build confidence in your employees

Convinced? We hope so. Now all you have to do is choose an activity that everyone on your team can access easily and will enjoy.

Here are some of our favourite tried and tested team building games that are great for the office:

●      What's my name?

“What’s my name?” is an excellent and easy ice-breaker team building game where players use “yes” or “no” questions to guess the identity of a person.

How to play: Each player writes the name of a person on a self-sticking name tag. The person can be anyone – a celebrity, an iconic person, a famous athlete, even a client of your company. The players then place the name tag on the back of another player so they can’t see who they are, but the rest of the group can.

Each of your employees will ask the others various “yes” or “no” questions to help them figure out who they are supposed to be. Once they’ve guessed the name of the person, they can remove the tag.

Why play? Your employees will warm up and get talking to each other, improving their communication skills and building relationships. It’s also guaranteed to get you laughing, and laughter has also been shown to boost productivity.

●      Two truths and a lie

This is a simple, yet effective team building game where your employees can get to know more about each other in an informal setting. The game works best in a small informal meeting or a large conference room. 

How to play: Each player must announce two facts about themselves that the rest of the group doesn’t know. The players must also come up with a convincing lie. The other participants will then ask questions to determine which are the two real facts and which is the lie.

Why play? This team building game encourages your employees to open up to each other and see their teammates in a completely different way.

●      Lights, camera, action

Who doesn’t dream of being in the movies? Get your team to get creative and ask them to plan, script, direct, and perform their very own cinematic masterpiece. 

How to play: You will need specific equipment for this team building activity (cameras or smartphones with decent inbuilt cameras, tripods, computers with video editing software, TV) so a little preparation is required.

Split your team into smaller teams – each of them will create their own movie. Each team picks a mystery envelope containing a film genre or theme and each team member will be assigned a specific role – the director, the producer, video editor, actors, etc.

Set a deadline for each final cut for the film premiere (normally 4-6 hours after you begin the exercise). At the end of the activity, you can watch all the films and the best ones receive awards. Popcorn and drinks for the final screening will be a nice touch.

Why play? This activity is highly entertaining and rewarding and is also a great thing to include in a blog or news article to promote your company's culture and social activities.

●      Dragons’ Den

“Dragons’ Den” is a team building activity that’s based on the TV show. The goal is for teams to pitch mock products in front of a group of “dragons” to secure investments.

Number of players: Preferably up to 24 people split into teams of 2-6 players.

How to play: Participants are divided into teams of 2-6 people. Each team has to come up with an imaginary product and develop a pitch for it. The pitch must include a brand name, slogan, business plan, marketing plan and financial data.

Meanwhile, choose 3-4 people to be the “dragons” who will evaluate the pitches. Give them an imaginary pool of money they can invest in the pitched ideas, as well as provide an imaginary background for each of the dragons (for example, “X is the second cousin of Kim Kardashian, the secret mastermind behind her cosmetics empire”).

Each team then presents their pitch in front of the dragons. The dragons must ask questions and evaluate the pitches as if they were real businesses. The team that gets the most investment wins.

Why play? This activity promotes unconventional thinking, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and teamwork.

●      Odd couples

In any given team, you’ll have different personalities working together. This team-building activity will let people appreciate their differences, and at the same time find something in common to improve team bonding.

How to play: Create a list of odd pairs of objects that go well together – salt and pepper, Sonny and Cher, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, peanut butter and jelly, etc. Write down the objects on separate pieces of paper. Tape the papers to participants’ backs. The participants then mingle with the group. The objective is to figure out what’s written on their backs by asking only yes or no questions.

When the players have figured out what they are, they have to find the other half of their odd pair. When they’ve found their pair, the participants have to find three things they share in common.

Why play? This is a great way to improve team bonding and communication skills and gives people the chance to mingle with colleagues that they normally wouldn’t communicate with.

●      Back-to-Back Drawing

Good communication is an essential tool in achieving productivity and maintaining strong working relationships at all levels of an organisation. This, in turn, will improve morale and employee satisfaction. This activity is the perfect way to promote and improve communication within your organisation.

How to play: Split your group into pairs, and have each pair sit back to back. Give one team member a picture of a simple drawing or basic shape, and give the other a small whiteboard and a dry erase marker. The person with the picture will give verbal instructions to their partner on how to draw the drawing or shape they’ve been given, without telling them what the drawing or shape is. After a set amount of time, have each pair compare their images and see which team drew the most accurate depiction of the drawing or shape.

Why play? This activity helps build communication skills.

Now that you have a list of team building games, what are you waiting for? Start introducing some team building games and watch your team work together.