Five Quick Teambuilding Activities

I once put on about 30 articles of clothing in a matter of a couple of minutes. My team won. I once had to build a wooden tower while blindfolded and being instructed by others what to do. My team lost. I did these things (and many more) at a previous employer where we had morning meetings and every Friday was Fun Friday. We’d forego the regular meeting content of financials, project updates, and announcements every Friday morning to have fifteen minutes of fun. It was the weekly meeting everyone looked forward to and usually, we all walked away laughing and smiling. And we’d talk about it for days, weeks, and sometimes I still see former co-workers posting old videos and pictures from some of the activities we did.

Managers took turns planning the activities, which ranged from trivia to challenges to charades to getting pies in the face. Some were team activities, some were every man for themselves. And there was always a prize for the winners.

Here are five quick teambuilding activities to get your teams engaged, energized, and best of all, working together and having fun.

1. Team Trivia. Pick a theme and come up with 10-15 questions. Divide up into groups and each group is given a copy of the questions to write down their answers. Then switch papers with another team and reveal the right answers. The team with the most right wins a prize.
2. Scavenger hunt. Give each team 5-10 clues for items that are found around the office or facility and send them on their way. The first team to bring back all the items wins a prize.
3. Charades. Break into teams and take turns having one player from each team draw a clue and act it out. Their team has 30 seconds to guess what the clue is. If they fail, the other team has a chance to steal the point. Some clue ideas- movie titles, song titles, or animals.
4. Pass the package. Wrap a gift or just a box in layers of wrapping paper. Grab a die and two oven mitts. Pick a number 1-6. The first player has to put on the oven mitts and try to unwrap the gift while the next person in line rolls the die. When they roll the designated number, it becomes their turn and the next player begins to roll the die. To see this fun in action, here’s a video.
5. Get to know you. This works well with slightly larger groups. Prior to the meeting ask everyone attending to submit one unusual fact about themselves. For example, I have traveled to 45 out of the 50 states. Compile all of these statements and give a copy to each employee in the meeting and give them 10-15 minutes to mingle and find out who the statement belongs to. The person with the most at the end wins a prize. This is a great way for employees to get to know each other better and is a great conversation starter. Employees may also find that they have some things in common.

These activities don’t take a lot of time, but they can have a big impact on your employees, their team dynamics, and just overall morale.

How do you encourage teambuilding at work? What other quick teambuilding activities can you come up with?