29 simple & fun team building activities for work

If organizing team building is at the top of your to-do list, you’re in the right place. We know coming up with ideas is the tricky part, which is why we’ve brought together 30+ activities you’ll actually want to try.

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‍If you’re a remote team, get started with our virtual team building activities or free virtual activities instead. Here, we provide ideas primarily for in-office teams.

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Our team’s 3 favorite activities

1. Recognize each other with Workplace Gratitude

Price: Start for free

Best for: Recognizing each other and feeling appreciated

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Showing appreciation and gratitude to those around us can be one of the most powerful motivators. A few kind words could have lasting results - providing motivation for all involved while filling everyone with genuine happiness. Appreciation Shower makes it easy by giving team members guidance on what to say, automatically rotating pairs, and creating an environment where giving compliments is comfortable.

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You'll come away from Appreciation Shower ready to tackle any challenge. Appreciation Shower is free to try.

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2. Take it out of the office with a social

Price: $15+ per person

Best for: Getting to know each other outside of work.

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The quickest way for your employees to get to know each other is to break down formal barriers and have fun. Ask your teams what they want to try. A pub lunch? A theme park day? Tenpin bowling? The choices are endless.

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3. Learn more about employees with a game of ‘fact matching’

Price: $0

Best for: Another fun way to learn things you didn’t know about each other!

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Ask everyone to write an interesting fact about themselves, fold them up and put them in a bowl. Then take turns to pull out a fact, read it aloud, and have everyone else guess who the fact relates to.

Quick, fun, and simple activities to get you started

4. Get moving with balloon keepy-uppy

Price: $0

Best for: An instant energizer activity that will set the mood for your session.

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One balloon. One mission: keep it off the ground! No holding on to it is allowed.

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5. Answer fun questions and feel closer with Guess What?

Price: $0

Best for: Getting to know each other outside of work.

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Build relationships with this hilarious turn taking game. In ‘Guess What?’ team members take turns to guess general trivia about each other. Questions range from ‘what was their very first job?’ to ‘Is pineapple on pizza ok?’ After finding out the correct answer you should go deeper and have discussions about how or why. It’s a straightforward yet powerful game for encouraging team communication.

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6. Get ready for silliness with word association

Price: $0

Best for: An ice breaker that gets people communicating.

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See how employees' minds work and have a laugh by taking turns to say a word associated with the last. If they repeat something someone else has already said, they’re out. Kick things off with the word ‘team’.

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7. Take it back to the playground with ‘Would you rather?’

Price: $0

Best for: A fun way for participants to better understand each other. 

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Provide your employees with a collection of ‘this or that’ scenarios they must pick from. Be as serious or as silly as you like. For example: ‘Would you rather come: to work in your pajamas for the rest of your life or have to sleep in your workwear forever more?’

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8. Share your favorite funnies and connect

Price: $0

Best for: Adding an injection of humor to help employees relax around each other. 

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Give your team 10-minutes to find their favorite viral videos and then take turns to watch them. Then, ask each participant what they love about it.

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9. Celebrate your teams with their own coat of arms

Price: $0

Best for: Reminding employees of team strengths and goals. 

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Grab pen and paper, then have your team create a coat of arms to represent themselves. Ask them to split it into three and draw a recent achievement that reflects their team values, a current goal they’re working on, and something to signify their biggest ambitions as a team.

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Activities for bonding and getting to know each other

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10. Encourage personal joy for the whole team with event gifts

Price: $50+

Best for: Encouraging your employees' personal interests and get to know what makes them tick

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Give every coworker a yearly budget they can spend on events that matter to them. The only catch? They’re invited to share how their trip went! It could be tickets to the theater, a Motocross event, Comic Con, anything! You’ll soon learn about the diversity of your team.

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11. Discover what you have in common with ‘interest tag’

Price: $0

Best for: Breaking the ice and building bonds over shared interests

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Start the conversation by picking one film, tv, food, or hobby you’re really into, and see if anyone else is also enthusiastic. Whoever is most excited to talk on the topic is invited to share more before being chosen to pick another interest and carry the game on.

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12. Rely on supporting each other with an Escape Room

Price: $100+

Best for: Building trust and realizing each other's strengths.

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Book your team on a professional escape room experience and watch as they’re forced to really work together.

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13. Split into groups for a board gaming session

Price: $50+ (cost of board games)

Best for: Breaking the ice and building bonds over shared interests

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Bring together strategy and fun by hosting a board gaming session, splitting your teams into as many groups as necessary. Forget Monopoly; there’s a whole world of tabletop gaming available, including fun and challenging cooperative games which require teamwork.

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14. Bring teams together with a mixed puzzle challenge

Price: $20+ (cost of puzzles)

Best for: Multi-group co-operation.

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Split your employees into multiple groups and give each group a puzzle to solve as quickly as possible. The twist? Have some of each puzzle mixed in with the other puzzles, so they’ll need to cooperate with the other teams to complete them.

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15. Make bonds while getting tangled in knots!

Price: $0 

Best for: A quick, physical ice breaker that brings employees closer together.

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Have a team of six or more participants stand in a circle. Next, have them place out their left hand and hold it with someone on the other side of the circle. Once all hands are locked, see if they can untangle themselves without letting go.

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Team building activity ideas for small and large groups

Looking for team building activities for large groups? We’ve got it covered!

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16. Tell stories together, one word at a time

Price: $0 

Best for: Practicing attentiveness and creativity. 

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Ask your employees to get comfy. It’s storytime! One-by-one each participant must add a word to the sentence as they begin to build a quirky story. The rules are: it must carry on the plot, and only the leader can ‘end’ the story. Be ready; it might get bizarre.

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17. Foster connections with flat pack

Price: $50+

Best for: A hands-on challenge that tests patience and gets coworkers cooperating. 

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Build connections and upgrade the office in one fell swoop. Split your team into small groups or partner them up to build a piece of furniture together. 

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18. Boost communication with an obstacle course

Price: $0 

Best for: Improving one-to-one communication skills in a fun, physical way.

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Set up a ‘minefield’ in your office, by positioning cardboard boxes and furniture as obstacles your participants must not touch. Then have your employees split into pairs, with one wearing a blindfold and the other ready to be the director. Have the latter participant direct their blindfolded teammate across the room without hitting a mine.

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19. Try to keep the office dry as they problem-solve with a water balloon

Price: $5

Best for: Sharpening critical thinking skills while bringing summer playground fun to the office.

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Set up a start and finish line in your designated space (outdoors, if you want to avoid a wet carpet!). Place a filled water balloon on the start line. Now asked small groups to move the balloon to the finish line, without using their hands. The trickiest rule: everybody must take part in moving the balloon.

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20. Follow the leader 

Price: $0 

Best for: An easy and accessible ice breaker for small groups. 

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Gather in small groups and face each other. The object of the game is for one group member to start acting out a small repeated action, and for others to pick up on it and copy it. Scratching your head, winking, etc. When everyone is doing the same thing, someone should change the action. The beauty of it is, there’s no one defined leader. It’s whoever decides to take the lead!

Extra fun team building games

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21. Risk getting messy with an egg drop

Price: $10+ 

Best for: Promoting ingenuity and getting a bit messy.

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Split your employees into small groups and challenge them to make an egg carrier that will protect an egg when being dropped from a height. Give them a selection of recycling materials and adhesives, then watch them do their thing. Hold a contest at the end to see which egg will survive being dropped from the top of a flight of stairs or ladder.

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22. Let coworkers shine as you make your own movie

Price: $50+  

Best for: Encouraging communication, creativity and fun.

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Provide your team with props, costumes, and the time to make their own movie! You can either give them a prompt (such as a story to communicate or an ad to create) or let them use their imagination and see where it takes them.

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23. Stop taking work so seriously with a comedy night

Price: $100+ 

Best for: Rewarding your teams when they deserve to relax.

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Bring your team closer together through laughter with a trip to a comedy show. It’s a great way to let off steam and show them they deserve downtime after all their hard work. 

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24. Make an Office Mockumentary

Price: $0 

Best for: Celebrating your office workers and letting them reflect on the workplace.

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Whether you’re a fan of The Office or not, you can’t deny a mockumentary of your own employees would be hella interesting! Set up a booth where they can record a daily ‘piece to camera’ or hire a video team to come in and do things properly for you. 

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Other purposeful team building activities:

25. Practice problem solving with an online hackathon

Price: Free 

Best for: Encouraging team innovation and strategic thinking.

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A hackathon is ideal for getting your team to innovate quickly. It involves being given a real-world problem to solve within a tight deadline (say 24-48 hours). Try these resources if you need more info on organizing a hackathon. 

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Interested in more team problem-solving games? Try these.

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26. Boost communication as a gourmet guide

Price: $0-50 (spent on ingredients)

Best for: Learning to listen and follow directions.

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Try something delicious in the office. Invite your team to each choose their favorite dish, then take turns to talk their team members through making it. It could be as simple as a sandwich!

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For more activities like this, take a look at six of our favorite communication-boosting ideas or these communication-boosting exercises.

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27. Build trust with a mystery box 

Price: $0

Best for: A quick and easy way to see participants trust each other. 

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Grab a cardboard box and cut a flap on one side, so that participants can put their hand inside. Have members of your team take it in turns to find an object (inside and outside of the office) and secretly place it inside the box. Next get another member to put their hand inside and guess what they can feel! Watch as they squirm at the thought of something disgusting or dangerous inside…

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28. Show employee appreciation with a spot of shopping 

Price: $20+

Best for: Helping show employees how thankful you are.

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Give your team members a budget to spend on another colleague. Ask recipients to take a photo of their gift when it’s received, and have the buyer explain why they thought their item was the perfect way to show appreciation. After all, it’s the thought that counts most.

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Need more activities for showing employee recognition? Take a look at our thankful team building ideas. 

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29. Increase morale through compliments

Price: Free 

Best for: Fostering positive feedback & employee appreciation.

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Get team members to grab a sheet of paper each and pop their names at the top. Have them pass it on to another colleague. Now, get everyone to write one compliment about the person titled on their paper. Then pass it on again. Repeat until everyone has written a compliment about every other colleague. Finally, hand back papers to the named individual, and watch the joy unfold!

Don’t miss this blog for more morale-boosting activities.

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Why prioritize team building?

You know team building is something you *should* be doing. That’s why you’re here. But what are the benefits of prioritizing and committing to workplace team building regularly? Let’s take a look…

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Five benefits to organizing workplace team building activities

With frequent team building sessions, you’ll see:

1. Stronger team relationships
2. Improved communication
3. Greater problem-solving abilities
4. Increased creativity 
5. Happier employees

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Overall? Regular team building sessions mean better business performance.

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What are the best team building activities for work?

You want to find the best team building activities with as little hassle as possible and build those bonds fast. The catch? The right office team building activities for you are dependent on your exact team needs. It’s not one-size-fits-all. 

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At Gomada, we start by measuring where your teams need improvement and recommend specific activities based on your results. This ensures you skip wasted time on activities that don’t help your team progress. 

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What are some examples of team building activities?

Team building isn’t all about playing games. Any activity that brings your team together to aid communication, build bonds, and increase morale is a team building activity. Yes, even those extended lunches and post-work socials. This is why the ideas listed and linked above are great examples.

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Which of these team building activities for work are you most excited to try? Don’t forget, if you need support keeping your team on track with regular team building sessions, Gomada can help.

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Plus, if you’re looking for further support with boosting employee engagement, we’ve written more handy blogs on the best team engagement apps and best employee engagement solutions to choose from. Go take a read.