Top Teams

The team that plays together stays together, right? Well, often, wrong! Team building activities are one of the most dreaded days in any company’s calendar. Employees trudge wearily to work, knowing that what awaits them will likely be sweaty, dull, repetitive, and no real fun at all. Employers pull their hair out in frustration, trying to rally the troops to muster up some kind of sense of workplace camaraderie. Everyone leaves having gotten no closer to their colleagues and no more likely to be enthusiastic the following year. Whether it’s about getting a disjointed team to really pull together and work as one or having a fun day out with employees who already pull their weight, team building should actually do the work of bringing a team closer together. Sure, a themed party is great fun, but does it do the job? Taking the team on an obstacle course might get them to work together, but are they really having fun? There needs to be a balance of the two elements in any successful team-building day! Please, don’t be the “egg and spoon race” boss, be the boss who does things a little differently! If you need some ideas, take a look at our list of the top five team-building activities ever!

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Zombie Escape

Helpful if you need to get your team thinking about creative problem solving and collaboration.
You’ll need a rope, a key, five to ten clues, or puzzles.

Gather your team in the conference room or any empty space. If you’re outside, set up room-sized boundaries. Before you begin, choose one team member to be the zombie (yes, we mean the whole dead eyes, arms stretched out craving brains bit) and tie them to something fixed in the corner of the room, using the rope. For every five minutes of the game, the zombie’s rope is let out a little bit further. Eventually, the zombie will be within reach of the team members who need to solve the puzzles to find the key and unlock the door to escape the zombie.

Air Band Battle

Helpful for team bonding.
You’ll need an MP3 player or phone and some speakers.

If you’ve ever watched Lipsync Battles, you pretty much know what’s coming next. Instead of having a soloist doing the lip-sync, expand the game to include full bands. Break your team up into groups of three or four, and let them hash out who will be doing what in the band. Pull song names out of a hat (ones that everyone will know) and give the team some time before the team building day to figure out props and practice their performance. Teams will vote for the winner, but no one can vote for their own band!

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A Shrinking Vessel

Helpful in improving creative problem-solving.
You’ll need a rope, tape, or a blanket to mark out the space of the vessel on the floor.

Clear a space on the conference room floor, with room around it for the rest of the team to watch; depending on the size of your team, you may want them to do this all as one or as a few smaller groups. The team stands in the demarcated space, which shrinks every few minutes. The goal is for the entire team to stay within the boundaries for as long as possible. Once a team member is outside the boundary, the team is out of the game. The team with the longest time is the winner.

Back to Back Art

Helpful for communication skills.
You’ll need art supplies: pens, paper, etc.

Break the team up into pairs and have each pair sit back to back. One person gets the picture that the team will be drawing; the other gets pen and paper. The person with the picture describes it to the person doing the drawing without telling them exactly what’s in the drawing. After however much time you like, the pictures are compared, and the most accurate one is the winner! Steer clear of overly complicated images for this one. This can be adapted for remote work team building as well.

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A Day At The Races

Helpful for team collaboration.
You’ll need supplies to build plywood race cars sponsored by the office.

Break your team up into groups of about three and have them each build their own ply or pinewood race cars. Provide each team with the same basic supplies and design and have them design their own decorations, team uniforms, mascot, the works. Set up a race track in the office carpark and organize a party on race day! Just be sure to have a first aid kit on hand because someone’s probably going to end up with a skinned knee or hand. Make sure there are safety precautions to prevent cars from going off into traffic etc. You could have an awards ceremony and hand out a trophy to the winner!