Games during work

Hold several rounds, eliminating the lowest-scoring team at the end of each round, until you are left with two teams. Save the hardest questions for the last round, allowing the two remaining teams to call on eliminated persons for help. Host a card game or board game tournament during lunchtime. Make available various board games and several sets of cards for people to use.

Provide teams with crafting supplies such as cotton balls, tape, newspaper, and cardboard. The teams must create an egg holder that will prevent the egg from being cracked when dropped from a predetermined height. Break off people into groups of two. Each pair will be tied together at the ankles and must compete in a race against other pairs. The team to finish first while remaining tied together wins the race.

This can be done in conjunction with other activities. Create teams, making sure to break departments up. Use the drawing-based charades game to help people educate their team members on what they do. Each member of each team will be given the opportunity to draw one aspect of his or her job, whether it be a day-to-day activity or something more complicated. Have all participating people form a circle. After the circle is formed, people will hold the right hand of one employee and the left hand of another employee.

Make sure the people holding hands are standing across from each other so a human knot can be formed. The goal of this activity is to untie this knot without letting go of anyone's hand. Create an obstacle course through the office.

People who volunteer to go through the course are blindfolded and guided through the course by their colleagues. Provide each team with the same amount of plastic cups, making sure to keep the amount unknown until the start of the competition.

Each team must use all of the cups to create a pyramid. Then they must break down the pyramid by stacking the cups one into the other. If a cup is missing from the stack or if a cup falls out of the pyramid, then the team must start again from scratch. Host a weekend BBQ for staff and their families. Make sure to have several food options that accommodate a range of dietary preferences as well as games for kids and adults to take part in.

Pick a day each month to celebrate the birthdays of all those born that month. Decorate the office and provide a cake with the names of all the people celebrating their birthday on it. Host an office-wide pumpkin carving competition during the autumn season.

People can carve anything of their choice, though you can give bonus points for office-themed carvings. Have people share two truthful facts and a lie about themselves. The other people must guess which of the three statements is the lie. Hand out a roll of toilet paper, instructing your people to take as many pieces as they think they will need.

When everyone has taken some toilet paper, inform the group that they must share one fact about themselves for each piece of toilet paper they took. Break the team into several partnerships. Each group of partners sits back to back while drawing what their partner is dictating to them. In this activity, people stand in a line waiting for a message from the person standing to their left. The first person in line picks a message to whisper down the line. Then, ask them to write down what they thought you talked about.

If your real sentences contained random information, quiz them on that. Discuss who heard what, and see who was able to actively listen. It shows the importance of listening to verbal communication, but also non-verbal communication. They can discuss why they tuned you out, and what you could have done to keep them tuned in. Create a card deck that has images or words related to your company or brand. It might be logos, products, photos of your team, and so on. Whatever route you go, keep the images related.

For example, use all photos of your team, or all photos of your products. Divide up into teams and see which team can match the most pairs in the least amount of time. You might set additional rules, such as requiring the name of the person to be said aloud when the card is flipped over, or some other related bit of information connected to the image on the card.

Purpose: To learn the names, information, and visuals associated with your company. This is particularly effective if you have a lot of new team members and you want everyone to learn their name and something about them. Teams can get a point for matching up cards, but they can get two points if they choose to successfully debate and argue why the two cards the turned over are associated.

If the majority of the room agrees with their reasoning, they receive the points. If not, they lose a point. It also forces them to decide what is worth debating or not, as well as whether or not someone has provided a good argument. Place the name stickers in a container, and have each team member draw a name sticker out without being able to see the adjective.

Have them stick the name tag on their shirt and wear it for a specific period of time, instructing them that all of their responses and interaction for that time must reflect the adjective on their name tag. You can use this in several ways. Your team could wear them during a typical meeting or brainstorming session to show how good and bad attitudes affect outcomes.

They could wear them for a typical work day and then discuss how they felt. Or, you could have them wear a name tag half of the day, and switch with someone for the second half.

If they switch name tags, they will see how behavior and action often defines feeling, and not the other way around. Give each team member a piece of paper. Have them draw a simple drawing on the paper, without talking to anyone else.

Each person then passes the paper to their right. Each team member looks at the drawing they now have, fold the paper in half, and write at the top what they think the picture is of.

The paper is passed to the right again. Each person reads the description, folds the paper over to hide the words, and draws a picture of that. This continues, where each pass alternates between determining what the picture was and drawing what was described. It is important that each turn only reveals the words or picture from the previous round. Separate sheets or pads of paper may be used if that is easier than one sheet of paper, but they should be passed together.

Purpose: This activity tends to create a lot of laughter and is an excellent ice-breaker at parties or before long meetings where you want people to be comfortable with each other. The drawings and interpretations tend to bring out discussion and jokes. Give each member of your team three cards with the same number on them so that every team member has a set of numbers different from every other player.

The goal is to accomplish the tasks in a set amount of time so that whoever is left will get a prize based on the total value of the tasks completed. And once a team member has used up all their cards, they are taken out of the game and out of the running for the prize. Ideally, there are more tasks and values than can be fulfilled by the cards your team possesses. They must determine which tasks to do, and which cards to use up.

Ultimately, not every task can be completed, and not everyone can be a winner. The goal is to get the highest total task value for the best prize , and work together to achieve it knowing that in order to do so, some will miss out. Purpose: This rather painful game helps your team work together, understanding both strategy and self-sacrifice.

Instruct them to write down, at the top of the sheet, a problem they have at work. Next, have them write below that, leaving a slight space, two things they think causes that problem again, not mentioning specific people but finding a way to focus on systems, ideology, or procedures that people use.

Draw a line from the two ideas up to the main problem, much like a family tree structure. Then have them break down those two ideas further, two for each, as far as they can go. The idea is to figure out what small things have led to the big things. The exercise could stop here, allowing the team members to simply enjoy personal discovery, or they results could be discussed as a group to see if there were small underlying problems that popped up on multiple problem family trees.

Purpose: To help team members to see the real problems they deal with, and what causes them, not as specific people who cause trouble, but as often seemingly small issues that mix with other small issues to create larger problems.

Assemble all but one of your team members in the shape of a triangle. They should be facing into the triangle, standing side by side to create the outline of the shape. Take the remaining member and place them inside the triangle. Let them choose to face whatever direction they want to, and instruct your team to remember exactly where they were in relation to the spinner. They should note who they were standing next to, and how they fit into the triangle shape based on where the spinner is facing.

The spinner should begin to slowly spin around. Without warning, the spinner should stop and stand still. At that point, the team has a set amount of time to reassemble into place so that the end result is a triangle situated correctly according to whatever direction the spinner chose to face. Purpose: This team building activity is a great way to get the blood-pumping and to get your team to work together. They need to remember where they belong on the triangle, and help others, too, in order to finish in time.

Dump the coins in a container, and have each person draw out a coin. Have each person share something significant that happened to them in that year. Read other posts by Julie and learn more about her here. Join over 60, other people and get valuable business tips delivered right to your inbox.

Employee Scheduling Build the schedule in minutes and share it instantly to make shift management easier. Team Messaging Communicate with everyone on the team, all in one place, without sharing phone numbers.

Timesheets Make payroll faster, easier, and more reliable with integrated, online timesheets. Enterprise Solutions. Schedule Demo. Like What You See? Sign Me Up! Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition takes those popular game mechanics and optimizes for team building online. Here is a list with more question games.

Still, Jackbox Games provides options you can use for online team building games. The game options include trivia and similar, and the virtual games to play with coworkers have some unexpected and creative dynamics. To play online, everyone logs into a website via a special URL. Learn more about Jackbox Games.

If the train was late and people were standing on the platform longer, sometimes the two dudes would stop playing for a bit.

Neither of those songs was Yellow Submarine. Yellow Submarine is also an online team building game you can play with remote teams. Here is how:. The mechanics work for online team games because the incentive is for each player to show their submarine as many times as they can.

If you wait it out, then you may be one of the last players in the game but you will also need to catch-up on points. A few years ago, video game cafes took the world by storm. The idea of going to play Mario Kart or Goldeneye while someone delivers you nachos and beer was a strong pull.

You can host a Nintendo Game Night for your team by using an emulator. The emulator allows you to play team building games online via most modern web browsers. Choose a game like Excitebike, Popeye or Ice Hockey and host a tournament to see who gets the most points.

Learn more at Emulator. The strategy in Ten Strikes is to share facts about yourself that are unique enough that other players will not be able to say it is true of them and will have to put fingers down.

Generally the more fingers and toes you start with, the longer the game will go. The Question Game is a fun and free online team building activity that requires no prep or special equipment. To start playing, ask someone a question, and that person must respond with a question directed back at you or another participant.

If you delay for five seconds then you are out. Escape games are a popular group activity in person, and are increasingly popular online team building games too. These virtual escape games provide opportunities for teamwork, collaboration, and developing team building skills. There are dozens of options to choose from, including free or DIY escape rooms, and fully facilitated ones.

Check out this list of online escape rooms for more ideas. Virtual murder mysteries are similar to online escape rooms, but generally have more theatrical flair.

Typically, you either download scripts and choose actors on your team, or hire an outside company to perform the murder mystery for you. These online murder mysteries tend to have fun themes that match holidays, entertainment and other interests. Here is a list of online murder mystery games. Game shows are a ubiquitous part of growing up. You can play online versions of these game shows with remote teams. These games are fun since they are familiar, a little nostalgic, and easy to match with prizes.

Check our our list of virtual game show ideas and this on on how to play Jeopardy online. Playing fun team games online is a great way to do team building and create meaningful relationships with coworkers while working from home.

You can play the online team building games on this list, create your own, or check out other resources for more ideas. Be sure to check out our lists of online games for large groups and offline team building games too.

With online team building, the most important element is that you dedicate some time to games, because all work and no play makes for a pretty dull time. Next, check out our lists of fun games to play on Zoom , Google Meet games and this one with virtual game night activities.

The following are a few common questions and answers about online team building games to play with coworkers. Online team building is any formation of relationships between team members that occurs via online platforms. For example, you can do icebreakers at the beginning of virtual meetings. Online team building games are any games that you play virtually to help foster collaboration and team spirit with employees.

Virtual team building games and remote team building games are closely related. Scientists have often found a link between happiness and productivity. So it makes sense to try to encourage employees to keep a sense of fun while they work. Oh, and the good news? Many of these games can be easily adapted to play remotely — and most of them cost absolutely nothing! These games are perfect for helping new colleagues — or even old colleagues!

These games are mostly very easy to adapt to a remote working environment, too. In a game of Guess That Baby, all players bring in a picture of themselves as a baby. The aim is simple — coworkers must browse all of the baby pictures, and aim to identify who each photo belongs to. You can play this game remotely, too. She even plays it on her show! However, the game works far better when everybody can get together in the same room.

If you like the idea of shouting at your colleagues, while working together to stay alive, then this is the game for you. This leaves them to shout this out to the rest of the group, in the hope that they will hear it, and prevent a fatal crash. It gets noisy. It gets a little bit stressful. And adrenaline levels can run high. But it is a very rewarding game that can teach you and your colleagues the value of communicating under pressure, while helping you to understand each other just a little bit better.

Another game by Ellen DeGeneres, Psych! Simply download the app, and give all players the special passcode to your game. Then, all players will all be shown a question on their phone, which they all must think of an answer for. The good thing about Psych! In a game of Two Truths and a Lie, each person picks two truths about themselves, and then makes up a lie. The objective of this game is to try to guess which statement is the lie, for each player — which can be a ton of fun.

Not only does this game encourage you to get creative with the statements you choose, but it also helps you to find out interesting facts about your colleagues. Similar to the Heads Up game mentioned earlier, this game involves players sticking the name of a celebrity onto their heads. However, unlike the game of Heads Up, which is turn-based, a game of Who Am I will see all players walking around at once, asking questions about the character on their head.

This game is a great way to get people mixing and mingling fast, while producing some pretty hilarious results. It can get pretty wild, and the subject matter can sometimes get a bit inappropriate… so you might want to set some house rules first. But this game can actually be a really great ice-breaker for new colleagues to get to know one another better. The way we like to play this in the office, is to divide a space into two areas.

Everybody stands in one area, and the first player will state something that they have never done. Then, they will go and stand in the other area — and anybody else who has never played golf with their mom, will join them.

Everybody left in the original area will have played golf with their mom. The following games are specifically listed with the idea of helping your employees to learn to work better as a team. In a game of Human Snakes, you need to split your group into teams of equal size. You can have as many teams as you like, and you could theoretically have teams of any size… but we recommend between people per team. Each team stands in a line, with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them.