Team building exercises have become a big part of the modern business world.
Now, countless organizations will regularly hold team building games and exercises so that their employees can:
- Have some light-hearted fun
- Get to know each other better
- Feel a bigger part of the company
It doesn’t matter whether you have 10, 50, or 100 employees working for you: team building games are super important.
Most business owners have started catching on to this, so they want to know the best team building games and exercises. This way, they can give their employees the most fun experience possible.
To get you ‘in the know’, here are the most popular team building games and exercises that even the biggest global companies are using to create a more positive workplace culture.
Cornhole
Cornhole is a classic game that’s played in thousands of offices around the country.
The great thing about cornhole is that it’s fun and competitive — which is the perfect combination.
Your employees will be able to separate into different teams and face off against each other to see who can be crowned cornhole champion. You can even turn this into a monthly challenge to see which team can finish at the top of the leaderboard by the time each month ends.
To play cornhole, you’ll need to buy some stained cornhole boards. These boards can then go in your office and be stored away whenever they’re not in use. Or, if you have a social corner or games room in your office, then the cornhole boards can be left out in the open for employees to use at any time.
Office Bingo
Office bingo is guaranteed to bring the house down every time you and your team play it. Each employee will be eager to be the first one to shout “BINGO!”, so you can expect plenty of noise and excitement along the way. Just remember that someone in the office will need to be the bingo caller. More often than not, that’ll be the manager or one of the co-managers of the organization!
Charades
Who doesn’t love the occasional game of charades?
This type of game is extra fun when it’s done in an office environment, which is why it should be near the top of your games list whenever you’re doing team building.
During charades, participants should be asked to act out office-related happenings. For example, act out a computer breaking down or having to talk to a troublesome customer on the phone — you get the idea.
Remember, whichever team wins should be given a small prize at the end. This way, it’ll encourage everyone to be extra competitive.
Pizza Fridays
Pizza Fridays have become an insanely popular trend.
Not only do they give employees something to look forward to during the week, but they also give everyone in the office an opportunity to socialize and blow off some steam after a long week of working. Plus, it’s free pizza, so nobody is going to complain!
Before ordering pizza, ask everyone what they want so that nobody is left out.
Pool
If you’ve yet to add a pool table to your workplace, you’re way behind the times.
Now, most offices have pool tables in them. The reason for this is that they’re great for team-building purposes.
During lunch breaks, employees won’t be stuck at their desks, not talking to each other. Instead, they’ll all be gathered around the office pool table, chatting and having a good time. After all, no employee is going to turn down the opportunity to play pool at lunch.
Another cool thing is adding a whiteboard next to the pool table. Here, you can keep a tally of everyone’s win/loss record so that you know who the pool king or queen in the office is.
Typically, you’ll be looking at somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000 for an office pool table. Although it might seem like a lot, it’s a great long-term investment and will help keep employees incentivized when working in the office.
Boardgames
It doesn’t matter which board game you choose; board games are a great platform for team building.
From Monopoly to Twister, ensure your office has at least a handful of boardgames stored away and ready to be pulled out whenever needed.
Just like Pizza Fridays, board games are typically best to play at the end of the week when your employees are ready for the weekend. For example, you might let them finish a couple of hours early on Friday to play a big board game in the office, such as Monopoly.
Karaoke
Karaoke is a guaranteed way to get everybody at your work laughing and having a good time.
On the big display screen at the front of the office, you’ll be able to pull up different karaoke videos so that willing participants can sing along with them. Or, you can go old-school and buy a karaoke machine. This is always a lot of fun and is one of the best ways to get employees to come out of their shells and become more comfortable with their work colleagues.
Before you do any office karaoke, do a quick survey on which genres people want to sing. For example, you might have an office filled with people where the overwhelming majority want to do some 80s and 90s karaoke.
Show and Tell
Show and tell is a more traditional team-building exercise that businesses have been using for decades.
Essentially, the way this works is really simple: employees are asked to bring an artifact (or multiple artifacts) into the office that mean a lot to them. Or, if employees work from home, they can showcase these artifacts via video.
Through show and tell, employees can provide each other with insight into their lives and personalities. For example, one of your new hires might have traveled the world and collected a ton of jewelry along the way, which they could then showcase to everyone and tell stories about.