Fun team building games bring all the members of your group together in a non-threatening stress-free situation where they can learn to work together for a common goal or simply just get to know each other better. Games can encourage people to step out of their comfort zone, since everyone else is doing it too.
Three wonderful games
Three wonderful games are listed here that range from individual exercises to ones which emphasize teamwork. All of these team building exercises can be done during work hours as a quick training session.
Lions, Tigers and Bears – Oh My!: This is a great icebreaker game. Divide the room into two teams, and have six cards filled out – two each with the designation ‘Lions’, ‘Tigers’ or ‘Bears’. Tigers beat lions, bears beat tigers, and lions beat bears – just like rock, scissors, paper. Lions roar, tigers growl, and bears whuffle.
Each team leader draws a card, and holds it up so only their teammates standing behind them can see. The teams should be facing each other in lines, about five feet apart. On the count of three, each team acts out their animal, and the winners try to tag the losers before they reach a taped line on the ground five feet behind them. Ties mean nothing happens. The team wins that has the most members when a predetermined time period is up.
Heads Up – Pass it On!: Have two teams line up facing each other. At the end of the double line, place a chair with a ball or other object on it. On the other end, have a referee flip a coin and show it privately to the two people heading up the lines.
If it is tails, count silently to ten and try again; heads, each leader should squeeze the hand of the person next to them, and that person will squeeze the hand of the person next to them, and so on. The person at the foot of the line, once they receive a squeeze, will grab for the ball on the chair. A point is scored for the team grabbing the ball. The referee must show the coin after each grab; if it is not heads and someone grabbed the ball, a point is deducted from that team’s score. Play to ten or twenty points, depending on time constraints.
Copycat!: This is a hilarious game guaranteed to break the ice. One person is selected to be the guesser, and leaves the room. The rest of the group selects a leader. They all sit in a circle, facing the center. The leader starts a simple motion, and the others follow suit. This can be clapping hands, swinging a foot, snapping fingers, nodding head, rubbing tummy, patting shoulder – any small action. The ‘guesser’ returns and is stood in the center. Every little bit, the leader changes the movement, and the others copy him or her. The guesser’s job is to figure out who the leader is. Once they guess it correctly the leader is the new guesser, and the group picks a new leader.
These fun team building games can loosen up your group and get them in the right frame of mind to talk about how teamwork they’ve learned can be applied in the workplace.