Team-building games for the office, in an hour or less
Good team building does not need a day out. It needs a shared problem, a little pressure and something to laugh about afterwards — all of which fit in a meeting room and an hour.
These are games for colleagues who already work together. They are grouped by what the team gets out of them, and none needs anything more than a room, a screen, or a bag from the grocery store.
To get people talking to people they do not usually work with
1.Mixed-team quiz
Draw teams from a hat so nobody is with their usual crowd, then play a quiz round together. A picture quiz works well: one phone a team, pictures on the big screen, and the answers are recognized rather than remembered, so the specialist and the generalist are equally useful.
2.Speed networking
Pairs get three minutes and one question — what would you do with a free Friday? — then move on. Ten rounds in half an hour, and everyone has spoken to ten people.
3.Desert island
Each group has to agree on five objects to take to a desert island from a list of twenty. Agreeing is the exercise; the list is an excuse.
To solve something together
4.Marshmallow challenge
Spaghetti, tape, string and one marshmallow; the tallest free-standing tower in eighteen minutes wins. Teams that prototype early beat teams that plan, which is the lesson.
5.Escape-room-in-a-box
Boxed escape-room games run on a table in an hour. Buy one per team and race them.
6.Back-to-back drawing
One person describes a picture, the other draws it without seeing it. Swap. It is a short, funny lesson in how badly instructions travel.
To celebrate
7.A quiz about the team
Collect a photo from everyone — their first car, their pet, their vacation — and make a quiz: whose is it? Make a pack by uploading the pictures with four names to pick from. A free pack holds 8 pictures, one round.
8.Awards
Ask everyone to nominate a colleague for a made-up award — most likely to reply at midnight, best playlist — and read them out. Keep them kind.
Running it well
Say how long it will take before you start, and stick to it.
Mix the teams yourself. Left to choose, people pick the colleagues they already know.
Give a small prize. It does not matter what; it matters that there is one.
For a big room, check the limits beforehand: depixelate holds 30 phones in a free game, and a $4.99 event pass lifts that for 7 days without a subscription.
