Team Building Games for the Office, Remote Workers & Outdoors for 2025

Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist

Managers know team-building is essential to having a cohesive workforce. It builds up morale, breaks down communication barriers with ice-breaker meetings and nurtures trust between departments, among others. With all these benefits, a company may realize increased productivity, improve employee turnover and, ultimately, drive profits.

But planning team-building games for the office is usually met with resistance from employees, who may think that such activities eat up into their productivity or, put simply, is corny (Tallyfy, n.d., Cohen, 2019).

However, team-building games can be exciting and educational at once. In this article, we list team-building ideas for the office, remote workers and outdoors and briefly touch on their benefits, which resemble the social advantages of field trips. With planning and management commitment, these games can provide a memorable bonding event for your company.

Team Building Games Table of Contents

Quick Team Building Ideas
Team Building Outdoor Activities
Team Building Games During COVID
How Can Digital Innovation Enhance Team Building?
How Can You Measure the Impact of Team-Building Activities?
How Can Team Building Activities Impact Professional Growth?
What Challenges Might Arise During Team-Building Events?
How Can Team-Building Activities Promote Inclusion Among Diverse Teams?
How Can You Align Team-Building Activities with Business Objectives?
How Can Advanced Education Enhance Team-Building Success?
Other Team Building Tasks
How to Ensure Team-Building Activities Are Effective

Getting Started with Team Building Games

MIT Human Dynamics Laboratory researchers say that conversations during informal meetings are the most significant element that leads to team success. Therefore, team building games are good opportunities for teams to engage in informal yet enjoyable talks (Teambuilding, 2021).

As a team building planner, always remember that:

Team building is supposed to motivate employees. It should also help employees know something about how their coworkers work, think, and resolve conflicts (Johnson, 2021).
These games must not be seen as a one-time event but as a continuous process. They must establish trust among employees and ensure that everyone is headed toward one direction (Tit, 2018).
They should not gather employees just to force them to interact with each other. Instead, they must be deeply ingrained into the company culture by seamlessly incorporating them into daily office operations (Brightful, 2021).
Success is measured not by the number of hours spent working but by the work quality. Too much workload results in burnout and fatigue. Let employees take a break from everything so that they can look at a situation from a different viewpoint.
Employees have their own strengths and weaknesses. Three key factors are the level of collaboration, trust, and communication among them (Malas, 2021).
The amount of needed time and money to conduct the activities must be figured out as well.

Quick Team Building Ideas

Many employees worry about missing deadlines if they play games. Here are quick team building ideas that will not take up the entire meeting (Johnson, 2021).

Game of Possibilities

Duration: 5 6 minutes
Participants: One or multiple small groups
Materials: Any objects

Provide one person from each group with an object. Each of them must demonstrate to the rest of the group how they can use the object given to them. They cannot speak and must demonstrate by only using original and funny ideas. Other members have to guess what object is being described.

Water Cooler Trivia

Duration: 5 10 minutes
Participants: Any
Materials: None

Every week, participants will answer trivia questions on numerous topics and send their answers to get featured on a weekly leaderboard. Results will show who among the employees are trivia experts and funny ones, alongside each team’s average score. This game can be played via email or Slack.

Winner/Loser

Duration: 5 6 minutes
Participants: Two or more
Materials: None

Partner A will tell Partner B about something bad that happened to his or her life. It can be about anything, but it needs to be true. Then, Partner A will retell the same experience, but will only emphasize the positive sides of it. Partner B will aid in discovering the bright side of the experience. Later on, they will switch roles.

Purpose Mingle

Duration: 1 2 minutes
Participants: Any
Materials: None

Prior to the meeting, let each employee walk around and share what they wish to contribute to the meeting with as many coworkers as they can. Offering a prize to the employee who can interact with the most number of coworkers and to those who can successfully contribute something to the meeting is recommended.

M&M Arm Wrestle

Duration: 15 minutes
Participants: 4 20
Materials: A bag of M&Ms

Have participants form in pairs and expect an arm-wrestling match. Whoever pins down his or her partner’s arm gains a point and gets an M&M candy. The goal of M&M Arm Wrestle is to gain as many points as the participants can before the time runs out. Normally, participants will pay attention to the competition of wrestling arms against each other instead of working together and winning points for their teams. Let them play a few extra rounds to realize this notion (Tit, 2018).

Amoeba

Duration: 15 minutes
Participants: Medium to big teams
Materials: None

To play Amoeba, start by mentioning a number. The number refers to how many people must be in a group. For instance, if the number five is mentioned, participants must then form into groups of five as quickly as they can. Whoever gets left behind once all the teams have formed loses the game. Continue playing until only one person is left.

Team Building Outdoor Activities

Outdoors is always fun. It also brings many benefits, namely vitamin D, enhanced concentration, and faster recovery. Moreover, it is a great venue to bond with coworkers. Have a great time at work with these team building outdoor activities.

Human Knot

Duration: 15 30 minutes
Participants: 8 20
Materials: None

Ask everyone to stand in a circle facing each other. Tell them to place their right hands out and hold the hand of someone across from them. Then, ask them to place their left hands out and hold another hand from someone across them. Within a set time, all of them must untangle the knot of arms without letting go of each other’s hands. For larger groups, make several smaller circles and let them compete against each other (Johnson, 2021).

The Perfect Square

Duration: 15 30 minutes
Participants: 5 20
Materials: Long rope tied together, blindfolds

Ask employees to hold a piece of the rope while standing in a circle. Then, have them put on the blindfold and place the rope on the floor. Let them walk shortly away from the circle. Later on, ask them to come back and make a square with the rope without taking their blindfolds off. Have a time limit and instruct them to stay silent to make the game more challenging and competitive.

Egg Drop

Duration: 1 2 hours
Participants: Two or more small groups
Materials: Various office supplies

Egg Drop is one of the most popular team building outdoor activities. To play this game, divide participants into groups of three to five members. Provide each group with an uncooked egg. Place all the office supplies in a pile. Supplies can be tape, pencils, straws, and so on. Give them 15 to 30 minutes to use the supplies in making a contraption. The contraption surrounding the egg must keep it from breaking if dropped. Once the set time is up, drop each egg on the ground and find out which egg survives.

Team Emblem

Duration: 30 minutes 1 hour
Participants: Any
Materials: Cardboard, chart paper, markers, crayons, tape, or anything else needed to draw or paint a team emblem

Participants will be divided into small groups of three to four people each. Have groups gather the required materials to draw or paint their team emblems, which must reflect what their team values are. Later on, let them show their emblems to each other and explain the reason behind their outputs (Cohen, 2019).

Shipwrecked

Duration: 30 minutes
Participants: 8 24
Materials: Actual or images of food, water, weapons, tarp, flares, matches, and so on

Let employees picture this: their plane has just crashed on an island and they only have a few minutes to gather items from the plane wreckage before the entire plane gets burned. Divide participants into two groups. For 25 minutes, let them choose the items they think they will need and rank them according to their importance. Some items are important but limited; thus, they will have to barter with each other.

Frostbite

Duration: 1 1.5 hour
Participants: Any
Materials: Cardstock, toothpicks, rubber bands, sticky notes, and so on

Divide employees into small teams of four or five. Have them imagine that they are lost in the arctic and must make a shelter to survive the cold winds. Each team must vote for a leader who will be tasked to play the role of a frostbite victim; hence, he or she will not be able to move physically. At the same time, the rest of the team will be suffering from snow blindness. The leader will give orders on making the shelter without helping and the members must follow without seeing (Erts, 2016).

Frostbite is one of the most challenging team building outdoor activities. It aims to test the survival instinct of employees.

All the News

Duration: 50 minutes
Participants: 5 20
Materials: Newspapers, whiteboard, markers

Divide participants into small teams. Then, give each team a newspaper and have them think of newspaper headlines that describe the company best or predict future department accomplishments. They can think as many as they can and as far as in the future they wish. Once all teams are done, let them share their headline ideas.

This game can help business owners get ideas about the future of their companies and set new goals (Toggl, n.d.).

Team Building Games During COVID

Remote workers deal with a different kind of challenge because they become uninvolved in any direct personal communication. A TINYpulse research on what leaders must know about the virtual office culture reveals that remote employees have weaker relationships with coworkers compared to those working in the office (Regan, 2020).

One way to get ahead in managing crucial situations like this pandemic is to facilitate the following team building games during COVID:

Typing Speed Relay

Duration: 15 30 minutes
Participants: Any
Materials: None

The Typing Speed Relay is a more collaborative take on the typical typing tests online. Form people into teams, have each member perform a typing test, and add their scores to make a total score for their teams.

This is one of the team building games during COVID that promotes friendly competition. It also enhances typing skills, which is an essential factor in a remote work setup (Alexis, 2021).

Water Shots

Duration: Flexible
Participants: Any
Materials: A glass of water

Water Shots fosters healthy hydration among employees. Select a trigger, such as “every time someone walks behind the screen" or “anytime someone speaks on mute." Anytime a trigger occurs. all participants have to drink water.

Slideshow

Duration: 30 50 minutes
Participants: 6 50
Materials: None

Slideshow is an impromptu team building game. Here, one person will narrate a story of a process or an adventure, while the other will act as the slideshow or visuals of the narration. Participants may use props to make the task more exciting.

Self-Portrait

Duration: 15 30 minutes
Participants: Any
Materials: Markers, crayons, colored pencils, paper

Ask employees to draw a self-portrait anonymously. Let them send their outputs via chat and post them online, guess which is whose, and explain the reason behind their drawings.

(Pandemic) Bucket List

Duration: 30 minutes 1 hour
Participants: Any
Materials: None

The year 2020 is the first year of everyone’s unfulfilled plans and goals. This fact is upsetting, and it can have an essential effect on the well-being of employees. To prevent a big morale drop from happening, have them list down a pandemic bucket list. These things must be attainable even during the pandemic. Assign each employee with a remote buddy who can support and encourage them. At the end of the year, set up a meeting for this activity, where everyone can declare the achievement of their goals (Simic, 2021).

This game is considered one of the most inspiring team building games during COVID.

Camera Race

Duration: 10 20 minutes
Participants: Any
Materials: Any

In Camera Race, employees need to race to be the first one to bring a certain item to the camera. The host decides what items are to be brought and crowns the winner of every round.

You can also try spontaneous virtual scavenger hunt ideas for remote workers during one of your Zoom calls.

How Can Digital Innovation Enhance Team Building?

Digital innovation plays a vital role in transforming traditional team-building methods by integrating interactive technology and creative problem-solving into group activities. Leveraging digital tools enables teams to collaborate in virtual environments that closely mimic real-world challenges, fostering sharper communication and enhanced adaptability. By incorporating digital simulations and scenario-based challenges, organizations can boost engagement and cultivate a mindset of continuous improvement. Moreover, gaining insights from structured creative training, such as an online game design degree, can provide team members with practical skills to design and implement innovative activities. This approach not only modernizes team-building efforts but also aligns with evolving workplace trends and professional growth strategies.

How Can You Measure the Impact of Team-Building Activities?

Organizations seeking to optimize team-building efforts can measure impact using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Analyzing key performance indicators—such as changes in project turnaround times, employee retention rates, and engagement survey results—provides clear insights into performance improvements. Additionally, gathering real-time feedback immediately after activities enables more accurate adjustments and continuous enhancement. Leaders should consider periodic evaluations that incorporate both hard data and personal testimonials to refine strategies. For those interested in advancing their strategic skills through formal education, reviewing the highest-paying master degrees can offer valuable perspectives on modern management and analytics techniques.

How Can Team Building Activities Impact Professional Growth?

Team building exercises can sharpen transferable skills such as leadership, communication, problem-solving, and conflict resolution. These skills support employees in climbing the career ladder and adapting to evolving industry challenges. Integrating strategic learning opportunities within team activities also paves the way for personal development and reinforces long-term career progression. For instance, pairing practical sessions with continued academic growth—through programs like the easiest online master's degree—can provide a balanced approach that reinforces both teamwork and individual advancement.

What Challenges Might Arise During Team-Building Events?

Leaders may encounter obstacles such as misaligned activity selection, insufficient pre-event feedback, and logistical limitations that hinder engagement. Addressing these issues involves clearly defining objectives, tailoring activities to diverse team dynamics, and implementing robust communication before and after events. Meticulous planning and contingency strategies can prevent resistance and ensure all participants find value in the experience. For professionals aiming to deepen their strategic expertise, exploring the fastest masters degree can offer advanced insights into efficient organizational management.

How Can Team-Building Activities Promote Inclusion Among Diverse Teams?

When designing team-building initiatives, consider selecting activities that actively incorporate diverse perspectives and communication styles. Choose exercises that allow employees from varying backgrounds to contribute their unique insights without feeling marginalized. Leaders should customize activities to accommodate different cultural and personal preferences, thus creating an environment where every voice is valued. This approach not only enhances team cohesion but also reinforces an inclusive workplace culture. Additionally, exploring alternative educational opportunities—such as 6 months degree courses—can offer strategic insights to support effective inclusivity strategies.

How Can You Align Team-Building Activities with Business Objectives?

Begin by setting clear goals that mirror the strategic priorities of your organization. Determine whether the focus is on enhancing communication, fostering leadership, or boosting problem-solving skills, and then define measurable outcomes to track progress. Use both quantitative metrics, such as productivity rates and employee retention, and qualitative feedback from participants to evaluate success. Secure executive buy-in so that team-building initiatives integrate seamlessly with broader business strategies rather than existing as isolated events. Additionally, collaborate with internal experts and, when appropriate, leverage professional training resources from accredited colleges online to incorporate evidence-based techniques. Consistent review and refinement of your objectives help ensure each activity directly supports long-term business performance and workforce resilience.

How Can Advanced Education Enhance Team-Building Success?

Investing in further education can equip managers with research-driven strategies that complement innovative team-building approaches. For example, pursuing higher education not only refines leadership and analytical skills but also introduces cutting-edge methods to build resilient, productive teams. Advanced studies offer frameworks that bridge theory with practical application, fostering an environment where diverse talents thrive and organizational goals are met. Reviews of such educational paths, including a doctorate degree online cheap, can provide valuable insights for leaders seeking to align team-building efforts with long-term strategic growth.

Other Team Building Tasks

Team building does not always have to be all about just fun, they can also be something that can make employees reflect about who they are as workers, what their company holds, and more. Here are other highly recommended team building tasks.

Mad Lib Mission Statement

Transform the company’s mission statement into the famous Mad Lib game. Eliminate main nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Make a worksheet in which the eliminated words are displayed as a blank line with directions on what types of words are required. Ask each group member to provide the word. Once there is an ample number of words, let all employees read the mission statement. It will sound funny. After a while, ask employees again for the same word types. Find out what types of words will be provided. Redo the game until they come up with a mission statement that feels right for them.

Another way to play this game is to classify the kinds of words prior to the first round. Tell participants that the words must suit them best. However, this must be done without letting them know that they are working on a mission statement (Campbell, n.d.).

Active Listening

Gather the team for what they believe is another meeting. Read a long speech filled with mind-boggling but logical jargons that talk about sales and marketing. Incorporate sentences that talk about something else in the document. These sentences must contain information that will be asked to them after the speech. Afterward, have them write down what they believed was talked about. Conduct a quiz about the random sentences, too.

Paintballing

Paintballing will need to be scheduled ahead of time and will last for about two hours. Nevertheless, it is a fun way to establish positive rapport among employees. This is best played together with the managers and some HR personnel. Allowing employees to chase the management around with a paintball gun is an unconventional yet interesting workplace morale booster (Tallyfy, n.d.).

Community Service

Community service helps employees give back and bond with each other in a new setting. Great examples of community service projects are participating in farming and agriculture initiatives, culinary degree graduates volunteering in feeding programs, and tutoring children from under-resourced communities.

How to Ensure Team-Building Activities Are Effective

To ensure team-building activities foster meaningful engagement and strengthen teamwork, consider these five strategies:

Align Activities with Team Goals: Each activity should directly relate to the team’s overall objectives and challenges. For example, if communication is weak, include activities requiring clear, concise exchanges. Aligning the purpose of the activity with team goals will make it more relevant and impactful for employees.
Encourage Active Participation: Every team member, not just a few extroverted individuals, must be involved in the activity. Use games that require collaboration and interaction from everyone, ensuring that all employees feel valued and included. Activities that encourage group problem-solving can be especially effective in this regard.
Be Open to Feedback: After each team-building event, ask for feedback on how employees felt and what they learned. This will allow you to fine-tune future activities to meet the team’s needs better. Listening to team members' opinions ensures that activities remain engaging and relevant, preventing them from feeling like a chore.
Incorporate a Balance of Fun and Purpose: While team-building activities should be enjoyable, they should also have a clear purpose. Combining fun with meaningful outcomes encourages employees to actively engage. For instance, a problem-solving game might include a debriefing session to discuss how lessons from the game can be applied in the workplace.
Make It Regular and Consistent: Don’t limit team-building to occasional events. Incorporate activities into regular meetings or set aside time for them throughout the year. Consistent team-building will help strengthen bonds over time and cultivate a culture of collaboration. Regular participation helps employees build lasting relationships and trust, leading to more effective teamwork.

Adults Need Some Playtime, Too

Muse career coach Al Dea compares employees with professional sports teams who work and practice with each other to be the best at what they do. Just like them, employees cannot proceed with a task without knowing the positions of the other members, who is relaying the next task to whom, and who must handle an ABC situation. They will not achieve anything if they do not know and understand each other (Kalish, n.d.). Games and even icebreaker questions for college students can help in this regard.

Many companies have already started to realize how important office perks and socializing activities are to their culture, whether they have structured or agile teams. They now know that taking some steam off can make their workers happy and productive. At the end of the day, employees are just grown kids who still need playtime to awaken their creative selves (Tit, 2018).

Key Insights:

Importance of Team Building: Enhances morale, communication, trust, productivity, employee retention, and ultimately drives profits.
Resistance to Team Building: Employees may resist due to perceived interference with productivity or viewing the activities as unappealing.
Effective Planning: Successful team-building activities should be ongoing, embedded in company culture, and focused on fostering collaboration, trust, and communication.
Quick and Engaging Ideas: Short activities like "Game of Possibilities" and "Water Cooler Trivia" can be integrated into regular meetings without significant time investment.
Outdoor Activities: Promote bonding and physical well-being with activities like "Human Knot" and "Egg Drop."
Remote Team Building: Address the unique challenges of remote work with games like "Typing Speed Relay" and "Camera Race" that enhance virtual engagement.
Reflective Activities: Incorporate tasks that promote self-awareness and alignment with company values, such as "Mad Lib Mission Statement" and community service projects.
Continuous Improvement: Team building should be a dynamic, evolving process aimed at improving workplace relationships and fostering a supportive environment.

FAQ:

What are some quick team-building activities for busy schedules? Quick activities include "Game of Possibilities," "Water Cooler Trivia," and "Winner/Loser," each designed to take only a few minutes but still promote engagement and teamwork.
How can we incorporate team building into our company culture? Integrate team-building activities into regular meetings and company events. Make them an ongoing process rather than one-time events. Encourage participation and create a supportive environment where these activities are valued.
What team-building games are suitable for outdoor settings? Outdoor activities such as "Human Knot," "Egg Drop," and "The Perfect Square" are great for promoting teamwork while enjoying the benefits of being outside, such as improved concentration and faster recovery.
How can remote workers participate in team building? Use virtual team-building games like "Typing Speed Relay," "Water Shots," and "Camera Race." These activities are designed to foster engagement and teamwork among remote employees despite the physical distance.
What are some reflective team-building tasks? Reflective tasks include "Mad Lib Mission Statement," where employees collaboratively rewrite the company's mission statement, and community service projects that allow employees to bond while giving back to the community.
How do we ensure team-building activities are effective? Plan activities that are engaging and relevant to your team's interests and goals. Continuously gather feedback and be willing to adjust activities to better meet your team's needs. Focus on building trust, communication, and collaboration.
Why might employees resist team-building activities? Employees may view team-building activities as time-consuming or unproductive, or they might find them unappealing or corny. It's important to choose activities that are enjoyable and beneficial for the team.
What benefits do outdoor team-building activities offer? Outdoor activities provide physical health benefits like vitamin D exposure and enhanced concentration, as well as opportunities for employees to bond in a different setting, leading to stronger workplace relationships.
How can we engage remote employees in team building during a pandemic? Remote-specific activities like "Slideshow," "Self-Portrait," and the "(Pandemic) Bucket List" are designed to keep remote employees engaged and connected, addressing the unique challenges posed by remote work during a pandemic.
What role does management play in successful team building? Management should actively participate in and support team-building activities, demonstrating their commitment to fostering a positive, collaborative work environment. Their involvement is crucial in making these activities a success.

References:

Alexis, M. (2021, March 30). 30 Online Team Building Games for Remote Teams in 2021. Teambuilding. https://teambuilding.com/blog/online-team-building-games
Brightful. (2021, January 29). 8 Best Team Building Games of 2021. https://www.brightful.me/blog/team-building-games/
Campbell, S. (n.d.). 32 Team Building Games Your Whole Team Will Love. When I Work. https://wheniwork.com/blog/team-building-games
Cohen, E. (2019, June 3). 35 Team Building Activities Your Team Will Actually Love. Workamajig. https://www.workamajig.com/blog/team-building-activities
Erts, N. (2016, August 10). Top 50 Team-Building Games that Your Employees Would Love to Play. Sage HR. https://blog.sage.hr/top-50-team-building-games-employees-love-play/
Johnson, C. (2021, April 27). 13 Awesome Team Building Games (Infographic). Wrike. https://www.wrike.com/blog/team-building-games/
Kalish, A. (n.d.). 22 Team-Building Activities Your Coworkers Won’t Hate. Retrieved May 11, 2021, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/team-building-activities-games-for-work-office
Malas, F. (2021, May). Team Building Activities: 34 Activities To Create An Unstoppable Team. ClickUp. https://clickup.com/blog/team-building/
Ocasta. (n.d.). 30 new ideas for virtual team games and activities this lockdown (updated). Retrieved May 11, 2021, from https://ocasta.com/blog/new-ideas-for-virtual-team-games-this-lockdown-updated
Piedfort, M. (2019, February 2019). 22 Top Team Building games That People Will Actually Want To Do. Workzone. https://www.workzone.com/blog/team-building-games/
Regan, R. (2020, April 26). 10 Team Building Games for Remote Workers. Connecteam. https://connecteam.com/team-building-games-remote-workers/
Simic, A. (2021, March). 30+ Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Teams. Deel. https://www.letsdeel.com/blog/virtual-team-building-activities
Simon, B. (2017, February 2). Top Team-Building games: Experts Share Their Favorites. Smartsheet. https://www.smartsheet.com/top-team-building-games-experts-share-their-favorites
Tallyfy. (n.d.). 6 Fun Team Building Games That Your Employees Won’t Hate. Retrieved May 11, 2021, from https://tallyfy.com/team-building-games/
Tit, M. (2018, May 7). 21 Team Building Activities That Your Team Won’t Sigh At. Paymo. https://www.paymoapp.com/blog/team-building-activities/
Toggl. (n.d.). 38 Team Building Games That You Will Actually Enjoy. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://toggl.com/track/team-building-games/