14 proven activities that build trust between team members

Many teams struggle to trust or even connect with the people they work with, which can cause avoidable issues like poor communication and conflict.

This problem is even bigger in remote teams, where coworkers have little to no physical interaction.

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You need to be proactive in creating an environment where trust and team bonding can blossom. One of the ways to do this is by regularly organizing trust team building activities.

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We’ve put together our list of fun and engaging activities that will strengthen your team and build trust between team members.

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The 14 best team games & activities for building trust

To help you get started on building trust in your team, we’ve put together a list of 14 fun (and mostly inexpensive) trust team building activities for work.

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We’ve separated them into three categories:

• Activities for virtual teams
• Activities for on-site teams
• Activities for both remote and on-site teams

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Team building trust activities for virtual teams

1. A day in the life photos

Price: $0

Great for: Teams who like visual projects

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Because remote teams have little to no physical interaction, employees often don’t know much about their coworkers outside of what they do during office hours. This hinders trust-building because people are more likely to trust those they know on some personal level.

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To bridge this gap, you can introduce ‘Day in the Life Snapshots’ to your virtual team.

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Create a dedicated channel on your team communication platform where remote employees can share pictures of their day-to-day lives.

If they frequent any coffee shops before work or visit their local parks during breaks, encourage them to share pictures! They could even share images of their home office setup so others know what their workspace looks like.

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As simple as this is, it is an effective trust activity for team building because it provides coworkers with the opportunity to get a glimpse of each others’ lives and learn more about who they work with.

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Team building trust activities for on-site teams

2. Egg drop

Price: $5-10

Great for: Teams who like crafting

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Egg drop is an effective trust game for team building because it helps team members work together with a common goal in mind.

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How to play:

1. divide your team into groups and provide each group with an uncooked egg and a variety of office supplies including tape, paper, cardboard, pens, and pencils.
2. Allocate 15 minutes to each group, and when the time is up, have them test out their contraptions by dropping their eggs from a pre-set height.

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The goal is for them to design and assemble a protective shield around their egg that prevents it from breaking when dropped.

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3. Trust fall

Price: $0-5

Great for: Small and large teams

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This trust-building activity is common in many organizations because of how effective it is. It requires people to quite literally depend on their coworkers to have their back.

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How to play:

1. Bring employees together and divide them into smaller groups.
2. Have one person blindfolded and about 5 to 8 coworkers form a circle around them.
3. When the blindfolded person is ready to fall, they announce it to the people in their circle, who then let them know it’s safe to do so.
4. As the person falls, it is the responsibility of those in their circle to catch them and keep them from hitting the floor.

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4. Work outings

Price: $80+ per outing

Great for: Adventurous teams

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Sometimes, trust building requires taking employees out of the office environment, and having them interact with each other as individuals, not just colleagues. Work outings are a great way to do this.

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In informal settings, people are more likely to open up, share personal information about each other, and form friendships.

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One-time outings are rarely as effective as intended, so instead, you can put together a budget for monthly or quarterly team outings. Some fun activities to try as a team includes:

• Paintballing
• Painting classes
• Trampoline park
• Murder mystery party
• Scavenger hunt
• City tour
• Laser tag

Looking for more inspiration? Check out these 22 fun team outing ideas (article is in German).

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5. Paired compass walk

Price: $0-5

Great for: Teams who like outdoor activities

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Because this activity requires blindfolding (or keeping your eyes closed), it pushes people to put their complete trust in someone else to lead them safely. This can help establish bonds between team members.

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How to play:

1. Take your team outdoors to a space where they can freely walk long distances, like a park.
2. Divide them into pairs and have one person in each pair close their eyes or wear a  blindfold, while the other person keeps their eyes open.
3. Have the person who has their eyes open lead their blindfolded partner down a straight path and back.
4. You can have them do the exercise a few times, switch positions, or switch partners, depending on how much time you’ve allocated to the activity.

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6. Back to back

Price: $0-5

Great for: Small to medium-sized teams

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Looking for an activity that’s quick, fun, and requires no budget? Back to back is the way to go.

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How to play:

1. Divide your employees into pairs and have each pair sit back to back.
2. Give one person a picture with a complex shape on it, and the other a pencil and a blank piece of paper.
3. The person with the picture must describe the shape without naming it, and direct their partner with the pencil and paper on what to draw.
4. Once completed, have each pair face each other and see how accurate the drawing is compared to the picture.

This activity, similar to compass walk, builds trust because it requires reliance on your partner. It also teaches employees how to communicate with each other better.

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7. Eye contact

Price: $0

Great for: Small teams

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Studies show that eye contact is a crucial part of communication. It can create bonds between people and increase empathy.  

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To facilitate this team building trust activity, divide your employees into pairs and have each pair maintain eye contact for a full minute. Once a minute is up, have people switch partners until each person has gotten a turn with the rest of the team.

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The goal is for people to be vulnerable and make connections with each other.  

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Team building trust activities for both virtual and on-site teams

8. Icebreakers

Price: $0

Great for: Introducing new team members

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Icebreakers are a great trust activity for team building because they help employees learn more about each other, discover interests and experiences they have in common, and connect.

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All you need to do is notify employees in advance and set up a meeting. Once everyone is present, you can ask different questions, from silly to personal, and have each person take turns answering. For example:

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• What is your favorite childhood memory?
• What is something none of us know about you?
• If you could choose any superpower, what would you choose and why?
• What has been your favorite purchase this month?
• What is your dream vacation, and why?

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Pro-tip: To help introverted team members feel more comfortable participating, you can share your questions in advance so they have enough time to prepare answers.

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9. Two truths and a lie

Price: $0

Great for: Acquainting old and new teammates

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One of the more interesting team building activities that build trust in the workplace is two truths and a lie. This game is easy to play and requires very little preparation, yet is effective at helping co-workers learn more about each other as they share interesting truths (and creative lies) about themselves. It is also free and versatile, making it ideal for all types of work settings.

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How to play:

1. Give everyone 10 minutes to think of two truths about themselves, as well as one convincing lie.
2. Have each person takes turns sharing their three statements with the rest of the group without pointing out which is the lie.
3. The group then has to guess which statement out of the three is a lie.
4. After guessing for a set time (about 5 seconds for each person guessing), the individual reveals the lie.  

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10. Design a team logo

Price: $5-30

Great for: Creative teams

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If you’re looking to awaken the creativity in your team members, this activity is the way to go.

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How to play:

1. Divide your team into different groups, and give them the task of designing a team logo (or redesigning it if one already exists).
2. Provide the necessary materials (which could be a shared digital collaboration space for virtual teams or stationery for on-site teams), and allocate a set time to complete the task.

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This activity is not only fun but also encourages collaboration between people who ordinarily wouldn’t work together. More than that, it helps team members build trust in each others’ capabilities, and gives you an idea of how employees picture the team.

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11. Share passion projects

Price: $0

Great for: Small to medium-sized teams

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Outside the office, most people have side projects or hobbies they work on and enjoy in their free time. However, these interesting parts of their lives are not likely to come up at work.

This trust activity addresses this by encouraging employees to share their passion projects with the rest of the team. They could even share projects they’ve completed or are looking forward to starting.

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You can facilitate this exercise by bringing team members together in a safe space and asking them this:

“Do you have any pet projects or hobbies that you enjoy doing outside of work?”

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Everyone can then take turns answering the question, and if they’re open to it, coworkers can even offer support, encouragement, and helpful tips.

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12. Teaching time

Price: $0

Great for: Learning new skills

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Although people showcase their professional expertise at work, they rarely get to share their non-work-related skills and abilities.

By introducing teaching time, you allow your employees to share their fun and interesting nuggets of knowledge with the rest of the team.

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You can assign one person a week to teach the team something unrelated to work before meetings begin. Topics taught could be ‘the different ways to knot a tie’, ‘how to say a sentence in Mandarin’, or even ‘the quickest way to start a fire in the woods’. With an exercise like this, the possibilities are endless.

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Not only is this trust game for team building fun, but it also gives people the chance to get to know each other better.

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13. Organize a team bucket list

Price: $0

Great for: All team types

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Discovering that you share common interests and goals with people is one of the sure-fire ways to bond with them. This is why a team bucket list is such a great trust-building activity.

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By creating a space for employees to share experiences and achievements they want to accomplish in their lifetime, you open the door for them to connect with similar-minded coworkers and even those who are simply interested in learning more about their hobbies/goals.

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14. Connect coworkers with different roles

Price: $0

Great for: Promoting cohesion between linked roles

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Employees understand themselves better when they know what each others’ roles entail.

You can connect team members with different but interdependent roles to show each other how they go about working on tasks.  

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For example, in a tech team, you can pair up a front-end developer with a back-end developer. Both can go over each others’ processes and explain why they make certain decisions.

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This exercise helps team members work better together and be more considerate towards each other.

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Why use team trust building activities in your workplace?

If you’ve ever tried managing people who don’t trust each other, you’ll know it’s…difficult, to say the least. A team that lacks trust keeps information from each other, is unable to cooperate, and produces underwhelming results.

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In contrast, when trust is present, the team as a whole is stronger, more efficient, and able to achieve their goals.

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But more than that,

• It helps teammates feel safe opening up to each other
• It opens the door for innovation and creativity
• It promotes knowledge sharing and new skill acquisition
• It encourages collaboration and credit-sharing
• It reduces workplace anxiety and improves overall employee satisfaction.

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Learn more about the importance of trusting teams in this 9-minute TED talk by business coach Simon Sinek.

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Using trust team building activities for your team

How much your team members trust each other directly or indirectly affects productivity, overall work satisfaction, and even employee retention.

This is why facilitating these activities is so important. However, know that trust team building activities require continuous and intentional efforts to be effective.

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To go the extra mile, you can conduct regular team surveys to get a sense of what areas of your culture need refinement. If your team struggles with building trust, feel free to refer to any of these trust-building activities. Otherwise, you can check out some of our other resources, like our problem-solving activities or leadership team building activities.

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Learn more about team building

At Gomada, we help businesses run a variety of interactive team building activities that help improve communication, resolve conflict, and build trust in remote and hybrid teams, with no preparation required on your part. For more details about our team building activities, visit our website or check out our post on the best team building apps.

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FAQs

What are team building activities?

These are a set of activities put together to help improve communication between co-workers, develop the strengths of the team, and promote better, more cohesive working relationships.

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What is the best team building activity?

There isn’t any singular best team building activity because how teams enjoy different activities is subjective. The good news though is that we have a wide selection of great activities you can try out with your team to see which they like best.

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Why are trust team building activities important?

When team members trust each other, they are more likely to communicate better, require less conflict resolution, experience better work satisfaction, and are more focused on achieving company goals.

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How do you organize a virtual team building activity?

Start by choosing an activity and selecting a time for it to take place. If required, you would also need to create a realistic budget for the activity.

Next, inform your team ahead of time so that they can clear their schedules.

Finally, ensure that all your employees have the necessary hardware and software (e.g., a webcam and access to your chosen video conferencing platform) required for the exercise.

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How do you build trust in a team?

Create a culture of openness and transparency, and provide opportunities for team members to build relationships with each other by planning trust-building activities. However, know that trust is built over time and doesn't happen overnight.

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