Bringing your team together to connect doesn’t just feel good – it’s beneficial for business.
Team building is often seen as a crucial element for fostering successful collaboration. While some people view it as essential, others may find it cringey, probably due to ineffective past experiences. However, when appropriately executed, team building can be incredibly impactful, enhancing everything from team morale to the company’s bottom line. Gallup research highlights that effective team building can drive better performance, reduce absenteeism, and boost profitability.
Despite its benefits, team building can be challenging, particularly when your team is pressed for time, spread across different locations, or not well-acquainted. Yet, with these straightforward virtual team building activities and exercises, you can unite your team, helping everyone collaborate more effectively, achieve superior results, and enjoy the process.
Here are some quick and effective team building activities for work that can be easily incorporated into virtual and hybrid work settings.
Research and thought leadership on group dynamics have highlighted a set of common traits found in the most effective teams apart from the . When planning team building activities for work, whether it’s an icebreaker or a staff retreat, keep these characteristics in mind as the guiding principles for your team-building strategy.
Try one of these five-minute team-building exercises to set your team on the right path before you even finish your cup of coffee.
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Bragging about ourselves can feel awkward, but this activity is a great way to step out of our comfort zones, learn more about our teammates, and celebrate each other’s achievements. Simply ask each person to share one of their proudest accomplishments and explain why it’s meaningful to them.
Understanding where someone comes from can provide insight into their journey. Have the meeting host display a world map on the screen and add pins to the map as each team member shares their birthplace. At the end, zoom out to see all the pins at once. You could also ask follow-up questions like, “What do you notice about the pins?” or “Did anyone’s birthplace surprise you?” For smaller teams or a variation, each person can share the cities where they’ve lived. Larger teams can populate the map before the meeting and dive straight into the discussion.
Sharing childhood pictures is a lighthearted way to learn more about your team’s upbringing. Before the meeting, ask everyone to send a baby photo of themselves (the sillier, the better!). During the activity, show each picture to the group and see if they can guess who it is.
Perfect for virtual teams, this activity reveals the true nature of your colleagues' workspaces. Are your co-workers neat freaks, or do they collect cups and Post-it Notes? Let the team know about the activity ahead of time so they can tidy up if they wish. Then, have each person send a picture of their workstation. Colleagues can comment with emojis, ask questions, and enjoy the ensuing hilarity. For variations, team members could share pictures of other areas of their house, like a junk drawer, closet, or bookshelf, to spark conversation.
We’re all familiar with our colleagues’ Zoom backgrounds, but what else is in their home office? These virtual team building activities help you get the full picture. Give each person 30 seconds to turn their laptop or camera around and give the group a tour of their home office, pointing out exciting or special items and discussing their decorating process (or lack thereof).
Want to learn more about your co-workers’ favourite foods? Take a peek into each other’s kitchens with the Pantry Pop Quiz! Rather than spying on lunch choices over a cubicle wall, team members can share snapshots of their fridges or pantries. Who has the best snacks? Who’s a ketchup minimalist? Whose pantry would make Marie Kondo proud? Have each person send a photo of their fridge or pantry to the facilitator beforehand. Then, the group can guess who each picture belongs to, with bonus points for bonding over shared favourites or discovering new snack ideas.
Music is a universal connector. Ask each person to share their go-to karaoke song and, if they’re brave enough, sing a line or two. This activity not only brings fun and laughter but also offers insights into your teammates' personalities. As a follow-up, create a Spotify playlist of the group’s karaoke picks and share it with everyone to enjoy.
Instead of the usual “How are you?” with a default “Good” or “Fine,” use emojis to really understand your team’s current mood. Ask your team to choose 3-5 emojis that summarize their feelings. During the meeting, everyone can share their picks and explain them as much as they’re comfortable with. This is a lighthearted yet insightful way to foster vulnerability and support among teammates.
Revisit the childhood joy of creating a time capsule to learn more about your teammates’ journeys. Ask each person to gather 1-5 items that represent their current self and future aspirations. Everyone can share their items during a meeting, explaining why they chose each one. Seal the items in a box and plan a future meeting to reopen the time capsule and reflect on your progress.
For a simpler, remote-friendly alternative to the time capsule, ask each person to grab something meaningful within arm’s reach and share it with the group. Whether it’s an item with sentimental value or a funny story behind it, this quick game of show and tell is a great way to spark conversation and connection among team members.
Take a trip down memory lane by revisiting your team’s most significant moments from the past year. This activity can be tailored to fit the size of your team and the time you have available. For larger groups or shorter time frames, ask each person to share one or two highlights from the past year. In smaller groups or when more time is available, team members can share more detailed stories, including both highlights and lowlights, if they’re comfortable. Begin by reassuring everyone that not all memories need to be positive—sometimes sharing the tough times can be just as impactful.
Challenge your team to summarize their life in just six words. Give each person a minute or two to craft their six-word memoir, then share it with the group. The memoir can be a collection of random words or a concise title that encapsulates their life journey. This activity encourages creativity and introspection, providing a unique way to learn more about your colleagues.
Help your team reconnect with their big dreams by sharing items from their personal bucket lists. Ask each person to share three or four goals or experiences they want to achieve in their lifetime. These can range from the whimsical to the serious, from the realistic to the fantastical. This exercise allows team members to reflect on their aspirations and inspires conversations about shared interests and dreams.
Get a glimpse into your teammates' everyday lives with a purse or wallet tour. Ask everyone to share what’s in their purse, wallet, or bag. Do they have a myriad of cards, old receipts, gum wrappers, or just the essentials? Whether it’s a minimalist’s sleek wallet or a Mary Poppins-esque tote, this activity reveals fun facts and quirks about your colleagues’ personalities and daily routines.
For a lighthearted team-building exercise, play “Would You Rather?” The facilitator poses a series of (safe-for-work!) scenarios or preferences, and each person chooses between the two options. Start with simple questions and progress to more humorous ones to spark laughter and conversation. Examples include, “Would you rather adopt a cat or a dog?” or “Would you rather attend an executive meeting with spinach in your teeth or toilet paper stuck to your shoe?” Team members can share their answers verbally, hold up signs, or type responses into a virtual chat to generate lively discussions and reactions.
Bring some fun into your remote team’s day with a GIF challenge using your group messaging tool, like Slack. Give the team prompts and ask them to find a GIF that captures their reaction. Examples include:
When someone books a meeting with you at 4 p.m. on a Friday.
When you finally launch a big project, you’ve been working on.
When you realize your fly was down during your in-person presentation.
When you stay up too late watching Netflix on a work night, provide tips on how to find, copy, and paste GIFs (like Googling “[emotion] gif” or using giphy.com or tenor.com) for those less familiar with them.
Unleash your team’s creativity with a quick craft challenge. See who’s right-brained and who’s resourceful under constraints. Give the group five minutes to create a specific object using random supplies from their homes or a provided set of items. For instance, can they build a rocket ship using marshmallows, spaghetti, and Cheerios? Or an office building using only desk or pantry items? The results are often hilarious, if not impressive.
Turn emojis into a fun guessing game by having team members describe their favourite movies using only emojis. Remote teams can share their emoji strings in a group chat, while in-person teams can draw them on paper. Alternatively, nominate a team member to pre-populate a list of emoji movie titles for the group to guess, turning it into a pop quiz-style game.
Get your team moving and thinking fast with a lightning scavenger hunt. Before the meeting, prepare a list of items for team members to find around their homes in a minute or less. Examples include:
Stimulate creativity and quick thinking with the improv game "Name Ten Things." Inform the group that speed and spontaneity are essential—there are no wrong answers (while keeping it work-appropriate). Start with one person and prompt them to name ten items related to a specific topic. Topics can be straightforward, like their top ten vacation destinations; creative, like ten names for a new dog; or silly, like ten worst first date locations.
Once the first person finishes, they nominate the next person and give them a new prompt. Repeat the process until everyone has had a turn.
In today’s fast-paced, remote, and hybrid work environments, it’s crucial to maintain the connection with our co-workers as if we were sitting next to each other every day. By dedicating just a little time and effort to incorporate these simple, five-minute team-building exercises into your routine, you can foster meaningful relationships among team members. These connections lead to happier employees and stronger, more cohesive teams.