8 Team Building Exercises (That Are Actually Fun)

Ahhh…team building. Nothing is more likely to induce collective sighs and eye rolls than a lame team bonding activity. But getting to know your team doesn’t need to be #awkward and weird. Check out these 8 team building exercises people will actually enjoy!

#1 – Host A ‘Show And Tell’ Morning Tea 

This team-building exercise accomplishes two things. First, it helps keep everyone updated on what different members of the team are working on and secondly, it’s a chance to socialise a little. 

Basically, team members who are working on a specific project or product host a 30-minute (ish) show and tell for their colleagues. 

The first 15 minutes is an informal /high-level update on what they’re working on with Q+A. There’s a chance for colleagues to give suggestions and share positive feedback.  

During the following 15 minutes, everyone is invited to have a chat and enjoy morning tea, organised by the hosting team. This could be a good way to wrap up a Friday afternoon too, with a cheese and fruit platter and a few cold beverages instead!

#2 – Scavenger Hunt

When organised well, scavenger hunts can be an awesome team building activity. 

Everyone is divided into teams and given a list of tasks to complete or objects to locate in a set amount of time. You can literally come up with hundreds of different ideas of what teams need to accomplish but here are a few to get you started –

• Take a team photo in front of a local landmark
• Solve a riddle or complete a puzzle
• Make something with glitter or feathers on it
• Collect 3 knick-knacks from a co-worker’s desk

The first team to complete all the tasks wins! Why not kick off the scavenger hunts with lunch, and have teams make a centrepiece for their table? It’s a great opportunity for the group to work together before the hunt and tap their creative skills. 

#3 – A Team Cooking Class Or Challenge

Team bonding activities that involve (good) food usually get the tick of approval!

Organise a team cooking class or challenge. It might be something along the lines of a cook off;  teams are given specific ingredients and have to come up with their own dishes. Or, consider booking a private cooking class for the whole team with a professional instructor.

 Why not theme the cuisine too? Cooking French? Team members can come dressed with a ‘touch of French’ and the most creative outfit wins a prize!

#4 – A Community Service Day

A team-building exercise that leaves everyone feeling like they ‘gave back’ is always a winner. 

• Volunteer to work at a community garden – weeding, planting, digging…all that green thumb stuff!
• Spend the afternoon with a charity like packing hampers for families in need at Christmas time
• Help out at a soup kitchen
• Get the team working together at an animal shelter

There are endless options for organising a day or afternoon where your team can get involved in a community or social project. 

#5 – Campfire Stories – One Of The Team Building Excercise Classics!

A storytelling session, this is one of the classic team bonding activities that encourage team members to share and establish common experiences.

Write out a few different work/office related trigger words on post-it notes; for example- 

‘first day at work’, ‘conference’, ‘travelling for work’, ‘training’, ‘celebrations’, ‘side project’ etc

Stick the notes to the left side of a whiteboard or wall. Someone begins by picking out a trigger word and shares a related experience. 

Once they’ve shared, the post-it moves to the right side. Meanwhile, other team members think of a similar story and can come up with their own words which they stick to the left side of the board and continue the story thread. Or they can choose a new word from the trigger list. 

The idea is to create a set of interconnected stories for your team to establish connections. 

#6 – Make A Tower Of Marshmallows And Spaghetti

This is a team building activity that can be added to the end or start of a regular meeting to get the group collaborating and problem-solving.

Divide everyone into teams and for each group, you’ll need 20 raw spaghetti sticks,  a roll of tape, a metre of string and 1 marshmallow.

The team’s goal? To build the tallest tower which needs to stand unaided for at least 5 seconds. The catch? The marshmallow must be at the very top of the tower!

#7 – News Headline

Want to take a peek into your teams’ mind and to know what they think about the company? This team-building activity will help.

Divide people into groups of 3-6 and give each group a newspaper. Each group creates headlines by cutting out words/headlines from the newspaper about what their department or the organisation as a whole could achieve in the next 12 months.

The goal is to come up with new ideas for innovation or spot hidden opportunities. Teams then discuss the ideas together and the feasibility of each one.  

Each group should come up with 4 headlines, the 4th headline should be a funny one,  just for a few laughs!

#8 – Book an Escape Room 

Figuring out how to escape from a room has become big business in the team building world! There are professional Escape Rooms you can book for team activities to get everyone out of the office and working together to complete a mission.

Not familiar with the Escape Room concept? 

It works like this – a group is placed in a room and given a mission to find hints and clues that will help them escape from the room. It might be finding a key or figuring out a password. Everyone needs to work together to figure out each clue and work toward the goal of escaping.

If this list doesn’t get you feelin’ in the team vibe, we don’t know what will….or maybe you should check out 8 more team bonding exercises right here.