Ready? Three, two, one, fall! If you’ve ever been subjected to the co-worker trust fall, we’re sorry — you’re safe here. Blind trust falls show that your fellow employees can follow simple directions to prevent bodily injury.
What we’re saying is, they worked a lot better back in fifth grade, then they do at fifty.
And that’s true for many of the exercises people use to build teamwork in the workplace. So let’s not fall into that trap!
Want to be a cool employer? Or maybe give the head of your next leadership retreat a subtle hint? We have four actually fun (but still kind of cheesy) teambuilding game suggestions, below.
1. Make Something Together
If you had an employee lounge with a TV (not many of us do), would you turn it to the cooking channel? Do your employees love to have potluck meetings or are always bringing baked goods from home to share?
If so, then consider Corporate Team Building Cooking Activities! They’re professionally-led cooking classes that let everyone have a part in making something delicious!
How does that relate to team building? Well, cooking is a lot like collaborating at work. Your final product depends on having all the ingredients, combining them in the right way, and making sure those talents are baked to the perfect temperature.
Even if your employees are more likely to be on the Worst Cooks Ever show, don’t worry – the staff will make sure whatever your making comes out more than edible.
There are chocolate making classes, cake classes, pizza classes, lunch prep classes, Food Network game-show inspired options, and more!
Choose one and start mixing with your employees (see what we did there?) today!
2. Frostbite
This game is excellent for a group that has a new leader, or a new management team, as it puts one person in charge (of each group).
It requires some materials, depending on the size of the “shelter” you want to make. You could use anything from pool noodles and 2x4s to popsicle sticks, depending on the space you have and how much you want to spend.
Here’s the gist of the game: teams of four to five people get “stuck” in the “snow.” All but one of them are struck by snow blindness and must rely on the elected leader for guidance on how to make a structure that will keep them safe.
Or would keep them safe, were they to scale it up to size. The blinded members get blindfolded, and the leader can’t help with their hands but can walk the other members of the group through what to do.
The team that creates the most structurally sound structure “wins.”
At first, there’s a lot of frustration in this game, but the room fills with pride and laughter at the end. Be sure to take pictures of the final product!
3. An Escape Room
Escape rooms became common in the mid-20-teens and are still going strong. They’re liveable puzzles that take teamwork, creative thinking, communication, and determination to solve.
That makes them a great company outing for team building, and you can likely get a corporate rate if you do your research correctly.
The only trouble is finding an escape room that none of your employees have done yet.
How you make the groups for the escape rooms (and for any of these activities, really) matters too. The tried and true method is to group up the people who work together in teams.
But those teams usually have their own power dynamics, where quieter or newer people don’t get the chance to step up.
There are infinite group possibilities. The only thing we don’t suggest is letting people make their own groups. They already trust their friends – so doing these activities with people they already know doesn’t make your company any stronger.
4. Floating Stick
Want to get some sunshine? This game is meant to be played outside, but is doable inside, as well.
All you need for it is a group of 8-12 people, and a long (light!) stick or pole. You can usually find these at hardware or craft stores, in the form of dowel rods. It needs to be at least 4 feet long, depending on the size of the group.
The point of this game is to lower the stick from standing height to the ground. Sounds easy, right? There’s a trick.
The trick is that players can only hold the stick with their index finger. As in, they have to balance it on their index finger.
That fact means that there’s upward pressure on the stick, and it’s easier to make it rise than it is to lower it to the ground.
Your employees’ job is to figure out the best strategy to get the stick down, within a certain amount of time.
Having Fun Building Teamwork in the Workplace
These games are supposed to create a stronger bond and ability to work together in your teams, but they’re fun and silly, too.
Notice that we didn’t include the dreaded “human knot” option, where people have to twist and contort to unravel their limbs.
We hope you enjoyed these low or no contact suggestions for building teamwork in the workplace, and that they make a difference in your day to day functions.
If you need more things that make your day to day easier, our website is full of niche-specific advice and templates for almost every type of job.
Skim our resources and let us know how it goes!
