What are team-building office games?

Team building office games help provide an opportunity to encourage communication, collaboration and a better understanding of different employee personalities within a team.

Designing team games inclusively

When creating team activities that involve physical activity, think about ways to make them comfortable and accessible for everyone. You might offer alternative options or use virtual tools if available.

If your team is virtual, you can play games entirely online. Virtual teams can meet in individual video conferences to plan their presentation.

Gather feedback from employees about what helps them feel included to help make these activities more enjoyable for the whole team.

Team building office game examples

Explore a few different teams building office games to help to bring your teams together. We have separated our examples into different categories depending on what impact they can have on a team’s group cohesion:

Competitive games

These games create some healthy competition and encourage different teams to think quickly in response to challenges:

Office Olympics

Create your own version of the Olympics with team games that create friendly competition. You might take inspiration from real Olympic activities and recreate fun office versions. For example, you could make an obstacle course out of office supplies and have teams push an office chair through the course.

This type of team-building activity can encourage physical activity, which could provide a good opportunity for employees to relieve stress and improve their sense of wellbeing. If you have an outdoor space, then holding racing or other physical competitive activities outside could also enhance this.

Office Shark Tank

Recreate the TV show “Shark Tank” by dividing employees into small groups, each of which has to create a new product to pitch. Explain exactly what they need to include, such as a business and marketing plan, a slogan and financial information for the company.

Each team presents its idea to a few people who’ve been designated as the judges, or “sharks.” Tell each shark how much money they have to invest in the imaginary companies. They can ask questions and make investment offers similar to the TV show.

Charades

In the popular party game, players have to keep others guessing about which famous person or character they are pretending to be through mimed clues. This game can be easily adapted into an office game to find out about someone’s cultural interests, like their favorite comedians, sports stars or actors.

Office trivia

Take an afternoon to host a team trivia competition. You can divide employees by work teams or create new teams. The latter strategy works well if you want to encourage bonding across teams. Each team has to agree on an answer to each trivia question. Award points for correct answers and total up the scores at the end.

Choose an online trivia platform if you’re working remotely. You can also prepare trivia questions, asking a question of one team at a time. They can discuss the answers over the video conference and then give their final answer, earning a point if they respond correctly.

20 questions

20 questions is a simple guessing game where a team member has to think of an object, person or place and their colleagues take it in turns to ask “yes or no” style questions in order to find out what that is. Players typically have to achieve this within 20 questions.

Since this game requires only simple communication skills, you can play it with your virtual teams as well as in person.

Seasonal decorating competition

Set up a fun decorating competition to get office teams to work together. An easy option is to have each team decorate a door or office based on the season or a particular theme. Certain holidays lend themselves well to specific items, such as decorating pumpkins in the fall, trees in the winter and eggs in spring.

If your team members are virtual, have individuals do the decorating at home. Then, take turns showing the results before voting on the winner.

Line-up challenge

In a line-up challenge, employees line up in a certain order silently. Give them the criteria for creating the line, such as oldest to youngest, chronological order based on birthdays or in order of the least to the longest amount of time working for the company.

This activity helps with team building because it allows your employees to use nonverbal communication and work together to get in the correct order. This game is best played in-person since it may not be possible to line up when you’re all in a virtual setting.

Board game bracket

Set up a board game competition using a tournament-style bracket. Each pair plays a board game, and the winners of these games play each other. The bracket continues until you have one ultimate winner. You can adapt this game to work for virtual teams by choosing an online game.

The competitors play individually, but they still bond over the friendly competition. They can also learn more about one another as they play. Work teams will likely support their own members during their games, which can help unify them around a common interest.

Scavenger hunt

Encourage teams to work together to complete an office scavenger hunt. You can limit the search to the office or expand it to the community. Give each team a list of objects to either take photos of or collect. The first team to complete the list is the winner.

To encourage the team to bond and work together, require that all team members stay together throughout the scavenger hunt. One way to ensure this is to require photos that include the entire team.

Two truths and a lie

Two truths and a lie is a classic among office games. It lets coworkers learn more about one another, which helps them connect and see each other as more than just coworkers. Each person takes a turn sharing two things that are true and one thing that’s a lie. Everyone else guesses which statement is the lie.

This is an easy option to adapt to virtual teams. Simply gather everyone on a video call and take turns sharing two truths and a lie.

Escape room

Gather your team and head to an escape room to encourage everyone to work together. Cooperating and using each other’s strengths can help the team successfully escape. DIY escape room kits are available, so you can set up an escape room in the office if you prefer.

Virtual escape rooms may also be popular. Using one means you don’t have to physically meet at an escape room or set one up at the office. Your team can complete the virtual escape room and get the same experience from home.

Collaboration and problem-solving games

These games require working together to solve a problem, rather than creating competition:

Problem-solving challenge

Put together teams of employees to compete in problem-solving challenges. One example is the egg drop, where groups build something to protect an egg from breaking when it’s dropped. Provide limited materials that teams can use for the protective egg compartment. When the time is up, have each team drop its protected egg from a designated height to see if it survives without breaking.

Another example is building the tallest tower using only the materials provided. Or, have teams build a bridge out of materials such as uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows to see if they can build a structure that holds up across a designated distance.

These activities are ideal as in-person office games, but they’re difficult to do when everyone is in a different location. These activities let each person share their ideas before the team collaborates and creates a solution they think will work. It’s similar to the problem-solving they may have to do on the job.

Speed movie

Divide your employees into small groups of four or five people. Each team needs to produce a short film in a set time period, such as three hours. Consider different movie genres and have each team draw a genre randomly. You can also add other required elements, such as a specific location, action or object, that has to appear in the movie.

Each team breaks off to plan, film and edit their movie in the given time. Have the teams assign roles to each person, such as director and editor. This lets them work as a team in a fun situation, but some of the ideas of working together as a team can transfer to work situations. Screen the movies and choose a winner.

This activity is a little more difficult to adapt to a virtual environment, but it’s still possible. Teams can meet and plan their movie via video chat. Each person records their part at home and submits it to the editor, who puts it together. Get everyone together in a group call to screen the short films and choose a winner.

Office mini golf

Divide employees into teams and have each team build a mini golf hole in the office. You might limit the materials they can use or assign a certain theme to make this task more challenging. Judge each of the holes to choose a winner. Then, let the teams play the mini golf course.

This activity is more difficult to adapt to a virtual setting since the teams aren’t together to build the holes or play mini golf. You could have teams create drawings of their mini golf hole design without building it and judge them on their creativity.

Office game best practices

When choosing team-building games to play at work, keep these considerations in mind:

• Employee personalities: Choose games that your employees might enjoy, taking into consideration personal preferences.
• Ability levels: Ensure everyone can participate in the office games you choose, regardless of experience.
• Letting employees plan: Get employees involved in choosing and planning team-building games, so they can do activities they enjoy.
• Scheduling games during work hours: Don’t expect your employees to stay late to do team-building activities. Schedule the games during working hours to give employees a break while you work on team building.
• Focusing on collaboration: A little friendly competition can be enjoyable, but emphasize collaboration and teamwork over aggressive competition while playing.

Team building office games give your employees the chance to have fun together while competing against each other. There are many benefits to such games, including better group cohesion, an opportunity for employees to bond and developing problem-solving skills. However, make sure your team activities are inclusive and accessible regardless of ability level.