Training games are a great way to engage trainees with interactive activities that help facilitate the learning process. In this guide, we’ll share our favourite training activities alongside tips for engaging trainees. You’ll leave with practical ideas for improving your next employee training and add new methods to your toolkit. Let’s dive in!

What are training games and activities?

Training games and activities are interactive activities designed to engage trainees and create a more memorable and engaging learning experience.

These games are experiential in nature, and they invite trainees to actively participate in a task or game rather than just passively receive information. These kinds of training activities include group discussions, role-play games, debriefing and sharing exercises, group discussions, hand-on activities and more. 

Training activities are used to help facilitate some aspect of the learning process and often correlate with one or more stages of Robert Gagné’s pricinples of effective learning.

In some scenarios, these activities can go further by asking participants to actively use knowledge they are gaining in the session or to practice soft skills too. These opportunities for interactivity are a wonderful addition to any training program.

For example, if you’re delivering feedback training to a team, you might include an activity where they practice giving each other feedback in the session. This kind of gamified training is a great way to enhance learning and build practical skills that can be used immediately after the training is complete. 

On another occasion, enhancing your corporate training with a fun activity can do double duty in enabling better learning while also building team connections and communication skills.

Why use training games and activities?

According to Seymour Epstein’s cognitive experiential self-theory (CEST), our brains process and retain information in two ways: analytical-rational and intuitive-experiential. 

The intuitive-experiential parts of our brain are more active when focusing on specific tasks, especially those that are physical in nature or which invoke feelings and experiences. Knowledge gained through this kind of experiential learning tends to be retained more quickly and is forgotten more slowly than other methods. 

The analytical-rational parts of our brain are more active when focusing on processes, synthesizing information and making decisions .

In Seymour Epstein’s theory, our brains work best when both of these parts are working in tandem. Great training often employs various methods in order to activate both of these systems and help learners get the most out of the experience.

To simplify, adult learners can learn by passively receiving information but any learning is more effective when paired with experiential activities such as participating in tasks and games. 

Training games are an effective way to bring that intuitive-experiential part of our brains online. They also help create space in an agenda and enhance the learning experience.

For best results, try pairing training activities with a discussion or debrief in order to also activate the analytical-rational part of the brain and help trainees retain and use the training material you provide. 

However you use these games and activities, you’ll want to consider when and where to place them in your training agenda so you can create an effective learning flow and deliver a successful training program.

In SessionLab, it’s easy to create everything from a training program outline to an agenda for an individual training session. Start by dragging and dropping your training content into place.

Colour code your activities according to interaction type so you can build a balanced training session that caters to different learning styles. 

When you’re ready to lead your session, it’s easy to export your agenda in the format of your choice. Create a PDF handout for your trainers and trainees or invite stakeholders to collaborate on your session directly. 

Training icebreakers

Every training session has to start somewhere. After you’ve gotten the group’s attention and outlined the objectives of the training session, this is a perfect time to break the ice and start warming up the group. 

These training icebreaker activities are designed to help loosen up the group and create connections while also creating space to begin exploring the topic of your training programs.

While it might be tempting to jump right into presenting your training materials, using a training icebreaker game can ensure that you truly have the attention of your learners and that they’re best positioned to engage in learning. 

Just the facts

Getting a group of trainees energized at the beginning of a training session while also getting them to talk about the topic at hand is a great use of an icebreaker. In this training icebreaker,  start by defining a topic the group is going to list facts about. 

For example, for training on feedback skills, the topic might be “Facts about good feedback.” Next, invite the group to sit in a circle and have each person in turn contribute a fact about the topic.

While this is easy to start with, it can be difficult to keep going around the circle without repeating a fact or introducing an opinion or unproven theory. When someone breaks the rules of the game, another member should challenge by saying “Just the facts!” and then the group will vote on whether it is a fact or not.  

This is a great training icebreaker to get people warmed up while thinking critically about the topic at hand. 

I Expect

Having the group share their expectations of a training session can help create alignment and spur engagement while also giving the trainer insight into how they might best serve the group.

In this ice breaker for training, start by dividing a flipchart or virtual whiteboard into four quadrants. Then ask participants to respond with what they expect from: 1. The Training, 2. The Trainer, 3. From Yourself and 4. Other Participants.

You can have participants write their responses on sticky notes and add them to the chart, or simply ask for responses and write them in the necessary place. Check back at the end to show the group what they’ve achieved in line with their expectations. 

Magic Box

Training icebreaker games are often at their best when they encourage participants to begin engaging with the topic at hand while also sharing their perspective with the group.

Magic Box is an effective exercise that asks trainees to start by choosing an object from a pre-created box. Next, they’ll tell the group who they are, why they selected the object and what they think it has to do with the training ahead.

Participants are asked to think creatively about the relationship between the object and the workshop they’re about to undertake, creating engagement and allowing space for personal expression. It’s one of my favourite training icebreakers! 

Best and Worst

Sharing personal experiences and encouraging curiosity at the beginning of a training session can help set the stage for learning. In this training icebreaker, start by asking each person in the group to write down one best and one worst question that they want to learn about the group. For example: what’s the worst present you’ve ever been given, what’s the best advice you ever received.

Put all the questions in a hat and have everyone pick 2 at random. Go around the circle and have everyone share their answers and related stories. 

In a training environment, I tend to ask participants to add a third question relating to the topic at hand or put some extras in the hat myself: for example, what’s the worst feedback you ever received or what makes you cringe during a presentation?

One Word Method

Training icebreakers are great for helping your group to fully arrive in the space and relax into the training session to come. One Word Method is one of my favourite ice breakers as it’s easy to run, encourages creativity, and it can also be adapted to serve any topic or training session. 

Start by introducing a topic of theme and let participants know that they’ll collaboratively create a sentence by each contributing one word of that sentence in order. The aim of the game is to create a sentence that makes sense and which also covers the subject or topic you’ve chosen.

This training game is especially effective at encouraging everyone in the group to speak early in the session and can help introduce a difficult subject in an approachable manner. 

Who are you? The pirate ship exercise

Every member of the group brings a unique perspective to any workshop, meeting or training session. In this fun training icebreaker, participants are encouraged to consider their role and perspective and what they’ll bring to the training ahead.

Start by sharing the picture of the pirate ship and ask people to reflect on which character on the ship best represents them. You might also ask, “Which character in the image best represents how you feel about this training? Why? Put your answer in the chat”. The ensuing discussion can help break the ice while also getting the group to think about how they’ll engage with the training to come. 

Training games to enable effective learning

Helping learners to learn is the goal of every educator and trainer. These training activities are designed to help create an ideal learning environment and can be used to support your main training content and get your trainees engaged early in the process.

Often, employees learn as much from each other as from a presentation, and these activities are designed to enhance employee engagement by encouraging participation and the sharing of experiences among the team.

Catch All

In Robert Gagné’s 9 principles of instructional design, he notes the importance of asking participants to recall previous learnings. This training activity from Thiagi Group is a simple game where participants are asked to recall something relevant to the topic at hand and share it with the group. 

Start by getting participants to stand in a circle and choose a category relevant to your topic or training materials. Next, throw the ball to a participant who must respond by recalling something they know or have learned about the topic before throwing it to another participant. You can use this at the start of a session to gauge existing knowledge or use it after lunch to help the group recall what they did in the morning.

Walking Questions 

In many training scenarios, one of the best sources of information and insights is from trainees themselves. In this training activity, you’ll invite groups to answer one anothers questions in order to close knowledge gaps and encourage proactivity in the group. 

Start by giving each participant a sheet of paper at the end of a training block. Each trainee writes one open question on top of a sheet of paper. They then hand the paper to the person to their right. On the new sheet they receive, each trainee will read the question and write down any ideas or insights they might have before handing it onto the next person. The activity ends when everybody has their original sheet back, complete with ideas from everyone else in the group. 

Angry Customers

The fourth stage of Kolb’s learning cycle is Active experimentation, where participants get to practice using the skills they’ve learned during the training. Role-play or simulation games are an especially effective training activity to encourage this in trainees. While the specific role-play you use will need to reflect your training topic, Angry Customers is a great example of how it’s done.

In this training game, split your team into two groups. One group will brainstorm examples of angry customer statements while the other group will brainstorm statements that might help defuse such a situation. Next, pair people from separate groups together and roleplay an angry conversation. Debrief at the end to help the group identify what worked best and how they might use these insights in real-life situations.

Pecha Kucha

It’s common for trainers to ask trainees to present learnings or summarize discussions in small groups during live training. Such a presentation can help enable knowledge retention and to ensure participants have a good understanding of the material.

Pecha Kucha is an effective training activity that asks participants to create a presentation with 20 images that they present for 20 seconds each. It provides a great framework for sharing information in a fast but comprehensive and visually interesting manner that can help enable knowledge retention and recall. 

As an added bonus, it’s also a great way of building presentation skills and teaching employees simple ways of sharing information with other teams.

Fun with Snowballs

Creating an opportunity for participants to recall and share information while also having fun can enhance learning and create a memorable training experience for all. In this training game, start by distributing paper to each participant. Next, ask a question relevant to your training topic or material presented and ask each participant to write their response on the piece of paper. 

Next, get everyone to move into an open space and have a snowball fight using the responses they’ve made. After a few minutes, blow a whistle and have each participant grab the snowball closest to them and read the answer or information out loud.

Variations for this game include asking participants to write a key takeaway or learning, or to use this at the start of training to ask participants what they know about the subject before you begin.

You might also award points for a correct answer to a question or keep a record of correct and incorrect answers so you can adjust your training materials accordingly.

Triz 

Adult learners and trainees are typically more goal oriented than child learners. Getting your trainees to think about their personal goals, as well as those of the training at large can help pave the way for engaged learners. 

Triz is an effective training activity that asks participants to list all the things they must do in order to fail at their goals. For example, you might ask, “What should you do to make sure that you achieve the worst result imaginable during this training?”

By flipping perspectives, its often easier to surface key barriers to learning and create space for a considered reflection on how to engage and make progress on their goals. 

Mixed Up Sentences

Passive presentations with no interactivity or space for trainee engagement can be a drag for participants to sit through. While it’s often necessary to present information in this way, there are ways to enliven the process and also reinforce learings too. 

With this training method, start by creating a sequence of sentences that summarize the main points of your presentation. Next, put those sentences out of order and remove one from the list. During your lecture or presentation, invite participants to take notes and at the end of the session, split them into teams who will use their own notes and the sentences to recreate the missing sentence and also put the sentences back in order. 

1-2-4 All

People learn in all sorts of different ways. While some people enjoy lively group discussions and interactive presentations, others need some quiet time alone with the material. 1-2-4 All is an effective way of catering to multiple learning styles while also creating space for personal reflection and small group discussion. 

Start by inviting participants to silently reflect on a question or topic of the training. Next, ask participants to form pairs and build on the reflection or ideas they each had. Finally, ask participants to form groups of four and discuss further before presenting their main learnings or ideas to the group. 1-2-4 All is a simple training activity but it’s also one of the most effective ways of creating space for everyone to be heard and contribute to a group discussion. 

Collaborative and fun training games

One of the fundamental principles of adult learning is experiential learning, which gives participants the chance to use skills and knowledge in a practical way.

Asking trainees to utilize their creative or critical thinking skills in the form of a game can help create an experiential learning experience and enliven the group. They’re a great way to enhance group dynamics and improve communication between trainees too.

Marshmallow challenge with debriefing 

Marhsmallow Challenge is a classic team building game that works well in a training environment by asking participants to work together as a team and engage their problem solving skills. 

Start by briefing the team on the task: they must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow, which needs to be on top. After each team has presented their marshmallow tower and a winner has been crowned, conduct a debriefing where participants will reflect on what went well, what could have been improved and what learnings they will take from the exercise. 

Human Machine 

Effective collaboration is an important aspect of how groups operate. Collaboration and camaraderie is important in a training environment too, and this training game is an effective way of engaging a group collaboratively. Start by getting the group into a circle. Let them know that together, they will be creating a human machine where each person will be a part of that machine. 

Start by asking one person to enter the middle of the circle while making the sound and physical movement of one part of the machine. After 5 seconds, another person enters the circle and connects to the first person, also making a sound and a movement.

Continue until everyone has been connected to the machine. In small groups, you can also deconstruct the machine one piece at a time. Use this training game when you’re looking to encourage creative thinking and collaboration in your trainees. 

Blind Square – Rope game

Fun training games where participants need to engage their problem solving brain while working as a team can be a great counterpoint to heavier training material and presentations. In this training game, start by tying a long piece of rope into a circle. 

Instruct trainees that they’ll need to turn the circle into a square but must do so while blindfolded. They’ll have 15 minutes to plan their actions but must not touch the rope. They’ll then have 10 minutes to create the square as a team while wearing their blindfolds.

This is a simple but effective training game that builds communication skills and can also be used to start a conversation about collaboration, planning and problem solving.  

Helium Stick

Training activities don’t need to be complicated in order to create engagement in your group and help pave the way for collaborative learning. Helium Stick is a fun and engaging training game that is a simple and effective way to encourage presence and collaboration in the group. 

Start by asking everyone in the group to form two rows, facing each other. Next, ask them to put their index fingers out and rest a long, thin rod on everyone’s fingers, ensuring its level. Finally, ask the group to try moving the rod down while ensuring everyone’s fingers remain in contact with the rod. The result is a fun, engaging game that helps trainees land in the session and create some levity in your agenda. 

Human Knot

This physical training game is a fun energizing game that also doubles as an exploration of the differences between self-organization and command-control management. For any training that contains elements of group dynamics and human systems, this is a great choice of training icebreaker or energizer. 

Start by getting trainees into groups of 7-16 people. Next, ask everyone to get into a circle and close their eyes. Next, they should link hands with two different people in the group and then open their eyes. The group must then untangle themselves without breaking any links. This training game often results in a lot of laughter and fun, while debriefing it can help give groups an understanding of how certain dynamics can manifest within a group. 

Virtual Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts on a specific topic can be a great way to get participants engaged in their own learning and encourage proactive exploration of a training topic. Start by creating a list of items that participants need to find that relate in some way to the topic of your training. 

For example, if you were running training on conflict resolution, your list might include finding a series of quotes or articles to cover each step of the resolution process, finding or taking photographs to represent four emotions experienced as a result of conflict, collecting the social media profiles of 3 thought leaders in the space, or even creating a spotify playlist of songs relating to core feedback principles.

Creativity is vital here, but the end result can be an engaging exercise that not only reinforces learning but also creates lots of space for fun. 

Games and activities for closing a training session

The closing stages of your training session can be among the most important when it comes to reinforcing learnings and helping your participants retain the key points of your training.

These training activities are designed to give trainees space to reflect on the session, reinforce their learnings and debrief with the group. They can be especially useful if you want to encourage trainees to take action following the training session or create a sense of closure too. 

If you’re following the ADDIE model of training design, these closing activities can also help you evaluate the effectiveness of your material and provide crucial feedback for future training sessions. 

Letter to Myself 

The best training sessions often result in positive change, whether that’s solving a problem or enabling trainees to do something they couldn’t do before. That said, it’s not uncommon for some participants to struggle to retain or implement learnings after the training. This training activity is a great way to avoid that issue.

Start by handing out pens and postcards/paper to the group and explain that everyone is going to write a letter to their future selves. In that letter, they’ll explain what they wish to achieve by the time their future selves open the letter.

You can add additional prompts such as, “I want to remember…” “I want to make a positive change because…” or “The biggest takeaway from today is…” to help guide the group and ensure participants are well positioned to retain and use their new knowledge in the future.

I used to think…But now I think…

Effective training is all about creating positive change. In this closing training activity, participants are asked to reflect on what they’ve learned and how their knowledge or perspective has changed as a result of what they’ve learned. Giving immediate feedback in this way can help surface valuable insights and cement learning too.

First, trainees will consider what they thought or knew about your training topic before the session, then they’ll reflect on what they think or know now. Give a few minutes for solo reflection before group sharing so that everyone is able to gather their thoughts before also enjoying the collective wisdom of other team members. 

Artful Closer 

Closing a training seminar by asking participants to create a visual representation of something they’ve learned can be an effective way to aid knowledge retention, share insights and create a memorable experience. Start this training activity by asking participants to close their eyes and think about the highlights of the session and choose one of the key lessons they learned. 

Next, participants will create an abstract image to represent that learning and which captures the essence of what they’ve learned. After they’re done, trainees then share the images in small groups and try to interpret what each image represents. For a closing activity with a visual edge, Artful Closer is a great choice that can prompt interesting discussions and aid knowledge retention too! 

Magical Gifts 

Having the members of your group share their takeaways from a training session is a great way to reinforce learnings and create a sense of closure.

In this paired training activity, one person starts by sharing their favourite takeaway from the training session or what action they’re going to take next. The second person listens carefully and then hands them an imaginary gift in response and describes what it is. 

For example, if I say that my next step after receiving training on emotional intelligence is to reflect on my experience and prepare for a tough conversation with my boss, the other person might hand me a magical pillow to help me rest and prepare for that conversation or a megaphone to help my voice be heard. After receiving the gift, the first person shows appreciation and explains how they will use the gift before switching. 

For particularly heavy training topics, this closing activity can be effective at introducing some levity and kindness while still ensuring people meaningfully reflect on what they’ve learned. 

Conclusion

Whether you’re designing live training sessions or blended learning courses, training games and activities can be an effective way to enhance the training experience and create space for experiential learning. Use them alongside tools like Gagne’s instructional design principles in order to design the most effective learning experiences possible.

These games aren’t just about using up time or giving people a break (although that’s also a worthy cause!) – activities like these can help engage participants and create a memorable experience that ensures learning is retained long after the session is over. 

Want to go further? Check out our guide on how to design a training session plan and create an agenda that will set the foundation for an effective session. 

Looking for an example training agenda? Explore this training plan template based on Kolb’s learning cycle and adjust it to your needs. 

Leadership activities are a great way of developing the skills and competencies needed to be an effective leader. It’s not easy to learn these skills, especially when so many leaders don’t receive effective training or support. In this article, we’ll explore the leadership activities you should master in order to lead a high-performing team and become a better leader!

Learning the why and how of being a great leader alongside practical techniques and frameworks is one of the easiest ways to become a better leader.

Anyone in a leadership role has both a big influence and responsibility for their team. Some of the aspects they need to pay attention to in order to be a good leader are:

• Setting the climate of a workplace
• Making decisions
• Inspiring team members
• Setting values for their team
• Improving team spirit and cohesion
• Being responsible for their team’s communication and wellbeing
• Developing leadership skills in other team members

There are a number of tools to help you with leadership development. Coaching, peer support circles, and leadership development workshops can all help one to become a better leader.

Leadership activities such as those featured here are also effective at introducing leadership concepts and learning how to solve common leadership challenges. You might run these leadership training activities during a workshop, add them to an ongoing learning program or simply introduce them to managers as needed.

In this guide, we’ve grouped leadership activities by these core competencies, so you can choose the right activity to help yourself or others develop their leadership skills. Let’s dive in!

What are leadership activities?

Leadership activities are exercises designed to help develop leadership skills and enable leaders to be more effective in their roles. They can include activities that help train new leaders and improve core leadership skills like problem-solving, active listening, or effective group management.

You’ll also find that the best leadership development activities give leaders tools and techniques they can use on the job. It’s one thing to know that leaders need to be good listeners, but quite another to be given a framework and toolkit that means you are a great listener who always helps their team feel heard and understood.

The exercises below are not only great to use when training leaders, but they are practical techniques leaders can use with every team member immediately, whatever their leadership style.

What are leadership activities used for?

While managers might approach tasks differently based on their leadership style, there are skills and competencies that all leaders should learn in order to best service their team. Learning how to be a good leader can be difficult, so using exercises and activities to improve leadership skills in a safe, experiential environment can help leaders be more effective in their role.

If you’re running a leadership development program, you might use these activities during the training program. For example, after conducting a self-assessment and deciding how they want to develop as a leader, participants might work on improving their leadership skills with these activities.

Whether you’re running such a program and developing managers internally with workshops or simply want to brush up on your own leadership skills, these exercises are a great place to begin.

A bespoke leadership development workshop (like the one featured in this leadership template!) is also a natural place to include these activities.

In SessionLab, it’s quick and easy to design a leadership workshop fit for your needs. Start by dragging and dropping blocks to design your outline. Add minute-perfect timing and instructions to each activity to refine your agenda.

When you’re ready to share with collaborators or participants, export your workshop agenda in PDF, Word, Powerpoint or invite them directly to the session.

Leadership training activities for building a positive work climate

Leaders are role models to their colleagues and organization. Their leadership styles, principles, and values determine the culture that drives their organization’s behavior.

That is why a competitive, paranoid leader can easily create an organization where team members are similarly competitive and less open to collaboration. While a leader who is open and inclusive will create a climate of openness and inclusiveness. How they behave, and what they consider the norm, also affects which kinds of behaviors are enforced and celebrated and which behaviors are punished.

The following leadership activities can help you in recognising important leadership behaviors that result in a productive workplace. They can also be used by leaders to set the stage for team bonding and a great workplace environment with their team. A must for all leaders!

Leadership Envelopes

Leadership games like this help groups translate abstract leadership principles into practical on-the-job behaviors. Participants work in groups to come up with real-life applications of different leadership principles.

The groups conduct multiple rounds of discussion to build upon each others’ ideas, and in the end, evaluate the best ideas to identify the most useful behaviors. This is also a great activity to run with all your team members. Seeing how they consider and respond to different leadership styles can help you focus on the right approach as a leader!

Leadership Envelopes #leadership #issue analysis #thiagi 

Leadership exercise in groups, working with practical leadership principles.

This activity helps groups to translate abstract leadership principles into practical on-the-job behaviours. Participants work in groups to come up with real-life application of leadership principles. The groups take multiple rounds to build upon the ideas of each other, and in the end, evaluate the best ideas to identify the most useful behaviours.

Your Favourite Manager

In this activity, participants take on three different employee personas and list the behaviors of a positive leader or manager and a negative one from the perspectives of those employees. After some individual reflection, participants compare their lists, first in pairs and then in groups. Finally, they collect the ultimate do’s and don’ts for managers and leaders.

Any activity that encourages deep reflection on your own leadership style and those of your role models is a wonderful way to grow. I’ve been especially inspired by how some of my old bosses approach problem solving while I was a team member working beneath them.

My Favourite Manager #management #leadership #thiagi #teamwork #remote-friendly 

Participants work individually, assuming the roles of three different people and brainstorming their perceptions of three most favourite managers and three least favourite managers. Later, they work with a partner (and still later, in teams) to prepare a list of dos and don’t-s for improving employees’ perception of a manager’s style.

Leadership Pizza

This leadership development activity offers a self-assessment framework for people to first identify the skills, attributes and attitudes they find important for effective leadership, and then assess their own development in these areas. This framework is also a great tool to set individual leadership development goals in a coaching process.

We love activities that allow team members to reflect on different leadership styles and assess their own skills and preferences. The visual format makes it easy to share and reflect on leadership styles later too!

Leadership Pizza #leadership #team #remote-friendly 

This leadership development activity offers a self-assessment framework for people to first identify what skills, attributes and attitudes they find important for effective leadership, and then assess their own development and initiate goal setting.

Playing with Status

The best leadership training activities often allow managers to work on their leadership skills while also providing an opportunity to reflect on their leadership style and how it might affect other employees.

Playing with Status is a role playing game where pairs enact a job interview or coaching session and enact different versions of the conversation based on whether each person has high or low status. By experiencing the effect of status on the relationship, would-be leaders can consider how they interact with other members of their team and create a more positive workplace culture.

Heard Seen Respected

Standing in the shoes of others, practicing empathy and ensuring that everyone on a team is able to be heard is a necessity for great leaders and your team in general. In this activity, participants shift between telling stories where they were not heard, seen or respected and then being listeners who do not pass judgment. 

Remember that leadership training should often start with the fundamentals of respect and empathy. If you can’t respect and empathize with your team members, how can you expect them to do the same for you? Keeping things simple with an activity like Heard Seen Respected can be an especially effective option whether you’re working online or offline. 

Team building leadership activities

Every leader has an integral role in the formation of the teams they work with. Whether you are consciously working on it or not, your attitude and actions as a leader will significantly influence team cohesion, communication and the team spirit of the people you work with.

This comes through in small everyday actions, the way you share responsibilities, the way you empower colleagues, and the way you foster a cooperative work environment as opposed to a competitive one.

Sometimes, it can also be effective to run team building activities with your company that are expressly focused on helping teams come together and bond. Try using the following leadership team building activities with new teams, or groups that need to spend a little time getting to know each other better.

Marshmallow challenge

The Marshmallow Challenge is a team-building activity in which teams compete to build the tallest free-standing structure out of spaghetti sticks, tape, string, and the marshmallow that needs to be on the top. This leadership activity emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, collaboration, and innovation and problem-solving.

It’s a wonderful game that allows participants’s natural leadership qualities to shine through, and it helps teams have a lot of fun too!

Marshmallow challenge with debriefing #teamwork #team #leadership #collaboration 

In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top.

The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world. Visit the Marshmallow Challenge website for more information. This version has an extra debriefing question added with sample questions focusing on roles within the team.

Blind Square Rope Game

This activity is a tried and tested game that asks teams to communicate well and solve a problem as a team. Not only is this a fun team building activity, but it’s a great way for potential leaders to step up and help their team win!

Start by tying a length of rope into a circle and then instruct participants they will have 20 minutes to turn it into a square, with fifteen minutes to plan their actions and five minutes to implement. Here’s the catch – no one may touch the rope until you begin, and every team member is blindfolded during implementation. This is an effective leadership game that is great with both small groups and larger teams separated into breakouts.

Tower of Power

All leaders need to work closely with other members of their organization in order to succeed. This leadership game encourages groups to work together in order to build a tower with specific (and sometimes tricky!) rules before than reflecting on what worked, what didn’t and what they would do next time.

It’s a wonderful activity for leadership training, as it provides an experiential way to explore leadership concepts, all wrapped in a fun game!

Minefield

When teams work together well, something magic happens. But what elements constitute a high performing team? As a leader, how can you help ensure those conditions are met? In this leadership game, participants must work together to get every team member across an obstacle while blindfolded.

It’s a simple concept that creates a perfect space for exploring how teams operate and the role leaders have within them. Bring plenty of fun obstacles (squeaky toys are best) and encourage groups to think strategically for best results!

Crocodile River

The Crocodile River is a team-building activity in which group members need to support each other in a task to move from one end of a space to another. It requires working together creatively and strategically in order to solve a practical, physical problem. It tends to emphasize group communication, cooperation, leadership and membership, patience and problem-solving.

Crocodile River #hyperisland #team #outdoor 

A team-building activity in which a group is challenged to physically support one another in an endeavour to move from one end of a space to another. It requires working together creatively and strategically in order to solve a practical, physical problem. It tends to emphasize group communication, cooperation, leadership and membership, patience and problem-solving.

Human knot

This is a simple game to help team members learn how to work together (better). It can also focus on the group’s understanding of communication, leadership, problem-solving, trust or persistence. Participants stand in a circle, close their eyes and put their hands into the circle to find two other hands to hold. Then they open their eyes and the group has to try to get back into a circle without letting go, though they can change their grip, of course.

Who are you? The pirate ship exercise

Every member of a group occupies a different position in the team. An effective team leader is one who considers their role and is aware of where employees also stand.

This leadership training activity is an effective method of getting a group to consider their roles with the metaphor of a pirate ship. Start by sharing the image and invite each person to consider which person on the deck they most identify with. Is it the captain, or perhaps is it the person repairing damage to the hull? What follows is an effective conversation on roles within a team.

Collaborative leadership activities

Whether you’re leading a small group or working across a massive organization, part of your role of a leader is to help their team work together more effectively. Removing obstacles to effective collaboration and creating frameworks for better teamwork is something you’ll be doing as a leader.

Use the activities below to develop the skills necessary to facilitate better collaboration and working habits between team members.

Circles of Influence

Effective teamwork is often about identifying where each member of a team can have the most impact and use their skills best. Leaders often need to find ways to identify where to direct their team and consider how different skills and working styles fit together to make a cohesive team. This activity makes it easy to facilitate this process and encourage employees to reflect and be proactive too!

We love that this leadership exercise encourages every team member to take responsibility and action. When looking for leadership qualities in a group and considering who you might want to develop into a future leader, this is also a great place to start!

Team of Two

Whether you’re leading a team of just a few people or hundreds, the reality is that many of your discussions and interactions with the people you will lead will be interpersonal and one-on-one in nature. Developing the skillset you need to solve issues in your team when they arise and finding ways to ensure these conversations are productive is one of the most important things you can do as a leader.

Use Team of Two whether working online or as part of an in-person session to help your working pairs and interpersonal relationships go from strength to strength. By articulating needs and consequences clearly, this leadership exercise helps people communicate efficiently and see the results they need – a must for anyone in a leadership role! 

What I Need From You

One of the most important leadership skills to cultivate is clarity: being clear in what you expect and need from others in your organisation or group is an integral component of high-functioning teams. With What I Need From You, each team member involved in the exchange is given the chance to articulate their core needs to others and respond in a structured way.

This kind of clear, direct action is great at unblocking conversational roadblocks in both large and small groups, and is something all leaders should have in their toolkit.

Generative Relationships STAR

The relationships between the members of a team can make or break the work you do together. In this leadership training activity, leaders learn how to help a group understand their current working patterns and identify possible changes.

Each participant will individually rate the current performance of the group on the 4 points of the STAR compass tool included. Next, small groups will discuss their choices and find points of alignment and disagreement. Finally, the whole team will discuss the first steps they can take to improve relationships and performance for the group.

Team Canvas

When it comes to enabling true collaboration throughout your organization, it pays to involve your team members in helping shape the way you want to work together. Different leadership styles may call for a different approach to this process, but it’s always helpful to see a complete example of how you might define your team culture and working processes.

In this workshop template, you can see a complete agenda for a team canvas workshop. This will take a team through a process of co-creating and defining everything from your goals, values, assets, and rules. Effective leadership often means tapping into group intelligence and enabling your team to take shared ownership of their success. Team Canvas great way of achieving this!

Inspirational leadership activities

Great leaders inspire others. However, there are many different reasons why someone will find a leader inspirational. Developing the skills to inspire team members and lead with this energy is important, whatever your leadership style.

In order to grasp what facilitates inspiring leadership, try the following exercises. You’ll be surprised at how thinking more deeply about your own role models or what your values can help you in all of your leadership interactions!

Leadership Advice from your Role Model

Everyone is asked to think of a role model they look up to and ask themselves: If a young person would ask these role models for leadership advice and what kind of advice that would be.

Facilitate a group conversation where these pieces of advice are shared and contradicting points are discussed and reconciled. Given diverse enough responses, this structured sharing activity might be a good introduction to the concept of situational leadership.

Leadership Advice from Your Role Model #skills #leadership #thiagi #role playing 

This structured sharing activity provides a faster, cheaper, and better alternative to buying and reading a lot of books: You tap into the wisdom of the group—and of their role models.

Living Core Values

The core values of your organization are a great place to look when you want to inspire your team members. Leaders should be involved in defining and exemplifying their core values and also helping create space for the team to share how they’re living those values. The result is an inspiring leadership exercise that allows a leader to help the group celebrate their wins and also suggest places for improvement.

Start by choosing one of your core values and asking activity participants to share a story of how they have been practicing this core value. After sharing, ask the team to reflect on what inspired them from the story. As with any leadership development game, be the first one to share a story to help guide the discussion. Running this exercise will not only help inspire a team to greater heights but also surface any areas that need improvement – it’s a great method to have in your leadership toolbox!

Campfire

Throughout human history, stories have been a consistent source of inspiration. Whatever your leadership style, finding time to share more about your own story and create space for others to share theirs can be massively useful as a leader.

In Campfire, start by creating a selection of 10-20 sticky notes relating to a concept you wish to explore with the group. Put these on the wall and then invite your group to review them and consider stories they might tell related to one of those words. Start the storytelling session yourself and think about how you might inspire and elicit further stories from the rest of the team before passing the torch to the next person around the campfire!

This is a great activity to run during leadership training or when team building. Creating safe spaces for people to share their experiences is a leadership skill you absolutely want to cultivate and practice!

Letter from the Future

Leaders are often called upon to inspire their team members about the future of their product or organization. Employees who are excited about where you’re going are more likely to work together well and be energized to see results. This activity is useful for helping inspire a team, or even just to inspire yourself as a leader and get your vision for the future down on paper!

Begin by asking your team to speculate on what the world will look like in five years. Next, ask them to write a letter from the future detailing what the group has accomplished in that time and how they overcame any challenges.

Share the results to inspire the group for what you might accomplish and also start creating plans for how you’ll create your desired future. You might even find that running this activity solo is effective when thinking about how you want to develop as a team leader!

Leadership activities for personal development

A good leader is one who helps uplift and upskill the members of their team. These leadership activities are designed to help you encourage participants to be more autonomous, take initiative and work on their personal development.

If you’re new to a leadership role or trying on various leadership styles, these can also be great activities to practice on the road to leading a team. Growth and development is a vital aspect of employee happiness and fulfilment – be sure to bring ideas for enabling others to your leadership role.

Roles in a meeting

Learning by doing is an important aspect of effective leadership. Sometimes, you have to try something new and approach the task with an open mind while working to the best of your ability. This simple method is a great way of encouraging participants to take an important role during a meeting and also take part in developing and refining those roles.

If you’re running a leadership development program and want to start upskilling participants, this is a great way of delegating some simple leadership roles. Plus, it helps encourage the group to contribute and engage with how a successful meeting is put together too!

Alignment & Autonomy

One of the most impactful things a leader can do is get out of a team’s way and allow them to perform more autonomously. Doing so effectively means people can take ownership of their work, be more invested, and develop their skills too. But how can you do this without creating chaos or misalignment?

In this activity, you first help every team member align on your goals and then reflect on where they can take more ownership and be more autonomous in their work while still contributing to the goals of the team. Not only is this a great way to help your team develop, but it also takes work off your plate as a leader and can enable you to get out of the trenches if necessary.

15% Solutions

One of the biggest barriers to personal development is being overwhelmed by what you need to do to achieve your goals. As a leader, you can help your team by enabling them to take the small, important actions that are within their control.

Start by asking participants to reflect on where they have the discretion and freedom to act and how they might make a small step towards a goal without needing outside help. By flipping the conversation to what 15% of a solution looks like, rather than 100%, employees can begin to make changes without fear of being overwhelmed.

The GROW Coaching Model

The best leaders are often great coaches, helping individual team members achieve their potential and grow. This tried and test method is a wonderful way to help activate the development of everyone from a new start to an established leader.

Begin by teaching your mentee or group the GROW acronym (Goal, Reality, Obstacles/Options, and Will.) and guide them through a process of defining each section and collectively agreeing on how you’ll make progress. This is an effective leadership activity that is great for leadership training and is equally useful when it comes to help any team member grow.

Decision-making leadership activities

An important aspect of leadership development is learning how to make informed and intelligent decisions while also ensuring you listen to your team. A leader who bulldozes their team into a decision without first listening to their expertise is not going to make their team feel valued.

The outcomes of uninformed decisions are often poor or frustrating for those involved too. While leaders are justifiably responsible for making final decisions, it’s integral to find methods to do so in a well-reasoned way.

These leadership activities are useful when it comes to making good decisions while involving your team members in the process and developing a leadership style that creates space for others.

Dotmocracy

When solving problems as a team, it’s common to have various options for moving forward. As a leader, it often falls to you to make the decision for which solution or direction to pursue. But how can you do that while also creating space for the opinions of your team to be heard?

Dotmocracy is a tried and tested facilitation method for making informed decisions with the help of your team. After presenting the available options, give everyone on your team a number of dots to indicate which option they prefer. You’ll want to adjust the number of votes based on the number of options there are to choose from. A good rule of thumb is to have fewer dots than there are options, giving just a few for every team member.

Leaders want to be on hand to break any ties and to facilitate discussion around what is chosen, but when it comes to making decisions with your team, this method is hard to beat.

Impact and Effort Matrix

The hallmark of a good decision making process is transparency. Leaders should know why a decision is made and should be able to clearly explain their thinking to team members. As such, the best decision making activities make the process open and easy to understand.

Start this activity by creating a 2×2 matrix and then place possible options on the matrix based on the expected impact and effort it would take to achieve them. This makes it easy to prioritize and compare possible decisions while also including team members in the process.

An inclusive leadership style means bringing your own knowledge to the table while also listening to the opinions of the team. When running this activity, be sure to combine these aspects to ensure items are placed in the appropriate place on the matrix.

Level of influence

Making the right decision is often a process of weighing up various factors and prioritizing accordingly. While there are many methods for doing this, being an effective leader often means making this as simple as possible.

We love this decision making activity because it asks the group (and its leader!) some simple questions to narrow down possible options and makes it easy to prioritize too. Start by asking the level of influence a team has to make possible actions happen and ranking them accordingly.

Next, choose those items that you have the most influence on and then prioritize the ones you really want to happen. This simple, two-step process is a great activity for leadership development as it is something any leader can use with ease!

Fishbone Analysis

Making good decisions requires a complete knowledge of the problem at hand. For leaders who may no longer be on the frontlines of their department, it’s important to surface insights from their team and understand the root cause of any problem before making a decision.

In this leadership activity, start by choosing a problem area and adding it to the head of the fish. Next, brainstorm ideas that might cause the problem and add these as categories to the skeleton. Brainstorm on each of these categories and ask why is this happening in order to dive deeper and fully understand the issue at hand before making an informed decision as a group.

Leadership exercises for setting team values

Usually, the values of a leader are mirrored in the organization. If shortcuts are common practice for the leader, then she will see shortcuts made by her team members all across their projects. But if learning and self-improvement are important to the leader, then this will be a good foundation for these values in the whole organization, too.

To be more aware of your own values as a leader and then bring these ideas to your team, try these leadership exercises!

Explore Your Values

Explore your Values is a group exercise for thinking on what your own and your team’s most important values are. It’s done in an intuitive and rapid way to encourage participants to follow their intuitions rather than over-thinking and finding the “correct” values.

It’s a good leadership game to use to initiate reflection and dialogue around personal values and consider how various leadership styles might chime with some values more than others.

Explore your Values #hyperisland #skills #values #remote-friendly 

Your Values is an exercise for participants to explore what their most important values are. It’s done in an intuitive and rapid way to encourage participants to follow their intuitive feeling rather than over-thinking and finding the “correct” values. It is a good exercise to use to initiate reflection and dialogue around personal values.

Your Leadership Coat of Arms

In this leadership development activity, participants are asked to draw their own coat of arms symbolising the most important elements of their leadership philosophy. The coat of arms drawings are then debriefed and discussed together with the group.

This activity works well with equally well with leadership and team members. Creating a visual representation of what you stand for in the form of a coat of arms can help create a memorable asset you can refer to and rally behind in the future.

Your Leadership Coat of Arms #leadership #leadership development #skills #remote-friendly #values 

In this leadership development activity, participants are asked to draw their own coat of arms symbolising the most important elements of their leadership philosophy. The coat of arms drawings are then debriefed and discussed together with the group.

After the exercise you may prepare a coat of arms gallery, exhibiting the leadership approach and philosophy of group members

Team Purpose & Culture

Ensuring all group participants are aligned when it comes to purpose and cultural values is one of the jobs of a leader. Teams and organizations that have a shared and cohesive vision are often happier and more productive and by helping a group arrive at these conclusions, a good leader can help empower everyone to succeed.

Even with multi-discipline teams and organizations with different leadership styles, this method is an effective way of getting everyone on the same page. This is a framework you’ll likely use again and again with different teams throughout your career.

Leadership communication activities

Leaders are usually viewed as the parents of the organization. It is expected from them that they take care of their people and make sure that proper norms and rules are followed. One of the key areas where a leader has a large influence is the style and amount of communication between people.

Active Listening and giving effective feedback are critical skills to have as a leader but are also crucial for your team members. In fact, the issue that leaders rank as one of the biggest barriers to successful leadership is avoiding tough conversations, including giving honest, constructive feedback.

Develop good communication practices with the following leadership games and activities.

Active Listening

This activity supports participants in reflecting on a question and generating their own solutions using simple principles of active listening and peer coaching. It’s an excellent introduction to active listening but can also be used with groups that are already familiar with this activity. Participants work in groups of three and take turns being “the subject” who will explore a question, “the listener” who is supposed to be totally focused on the subject, and “the observer” who will watch the dynamic between the other two.

Active Listening #hyperisland #skills #active listening #remote-friendly 

This activity supports participants to reflect on a question and generate their own solutions using simple principles of active listening and peer coaching. It’s an excellent introduction to active listening but can also be used with groups that are already familiar with it. Participants work in groups of three and take turns being: “the subject”, the listener, and the observer.

Trust battery

Every time you work together with someone, your trust battery – the trust you have towards a certain person, or the ‘emotional credit’ that person has in your eyes – either charges or depletes based on things like whether you deliver on what you promise and the social interaction you exhibit. A low trust battery is the core of many personal issues at the workplace.

This self-assessment activity allows you and your team members to reflect on the ‘trust battery’ they individually have towards each person on the team and encourages focus on actions that can charge the depleted trust batteries.  It also works great when promoting virtual leadership and working with online teams!

Trust Battery #leadership #teamwork #team #remote-friendly 

This self-assessment activity allows you and your team members to reflect on the ‘trust battery’ they individually have towards each person on the team, and encourages focus on actions that can charge the depleted trust batteries.

Feedback: Start, Stop, Continue

Regular and constructive feedback is one of the most important ingredients for effective teams. Openness creates trust, and trust creates more openness. This is an activity for teams that have worked together for some time and are familiar with giving and receiving feedback. The objective of Start, Stop, Continue is to examine aspects of a situation or develop next steps by polling people on what to start, what to stop and what to continue doing.

For those in charge of online leadership, it’s vital to find ways of having difficult conversations in constructive ways virtually – try this method when working to resolve issues with your distributed team!

Feedback: Start, Stop, Continue #hyperisland #skills #feedback #remote-friendly 

Regular, effective feedback is one of the most important ingredients in building constructive relationships and thriving teams. Openness creates trust and trust creates more openness. Feedback exercises aim to support groups to build trust and openness and for individuals to gain self-awareness and insight. Feedback exercises should always be conducted with thoughtfulness and high awareness of group dynamics. This is an exercise for groups or teams that have worked together for some time and are familiar with giving and receiving feedback. It uses the words “stop”, “start” and “continue” to guide the feedback messages.

Reflection: Team

All leaders know the value of structured and considered reflection. Teams that take the time to reflect and improve are those that can grow and by creating an environment of reflection, team leaders and managers can help their group move forward together.

This method is effective for both offline and virtual leadership development. It helps a group progress from individual reflection through to full group discussion in a way that encourages constructive thought and minimizes potential frustration or antagonistic conversation. 

Leadership conflict resolution activities

One of the most important leadership skills you’ll want to develop is the ability to mediate and resolve team conflicts. Even the most connected and effective teams can run into conflict and it will fall to managers and team leaders to help get things back on track.

Even for established leaders, navigating conflict can be difficult! These leadership development activities are designed to help groups manage and resolve conflicts more effectively.

Giving leaders a framework they can trust and use with their team right away is always a good use of time, and we’d recommend teaching these methods to all new leaders!

What, So What, Now What?

It’s easy to get lost in the woods when it comes to managing conflict. Helping a group see what happened objectively and without judgment is an important leadership skill, and this framework helps make this process easy.

Start by working with the group to collect facts about what happened before moving towards making sense of them. Once everywhere has been heard and given space to process these facts, you can then move towards suggesting practical actions. By following this kind of framework, you can manage a conflict in a pragmatic way that also ensures everyone in a group can contribute.

Conflict Responses

All of us can be guilty of handling conflicts in a less than ideal manner. Part of developing as a leader is identifying when something didn’t go well before finding ways to do things better next time.

In this leadership activity, ask the group to provide examples of previous conflicts and then reflect on how they handled them. Next, ask everyone to reflect on how they might change their behavior for a better outcome in the future. As a leader, use this opportunity to lead the way and be honest and vulnerable. It’s your role to provide a model for interaction and its always worthwhile to see how you can do better as a people manager dealing with conflict too!

Bright Blurry Blind

Finding opportunities to reframe conflict as an opportunity to solve problems and create clarity is a very useful leadership quality. Often, conflict is a signifier of a deeper problem and so finding ways to surface and work on these issues as a team is a great way to move forward and bring a group together too.

In this leadership activity, start by asking the group to reflect on the central metaphor of bright to blind issues or topics, based on whether the problem is out in the open or unknown. Next, invite small groups to ideate on what issues facing the team are bright, blurry, or blind and then discuss them as a group. By working together to illuminate what is blurry or blind, you can create a one-team mentality and start resolving problems that can lead to conflict too.

The Art of Effective Feedback Workshop

All leaders will need to give effective feedback in order to help their team develop and do great work. The best leaders also solicit feedback from their direct reports and use this is an opportunity to grow. But how can you teach these feedback skills and help leaders develop this important skill?

Check out our Effective Feedback Workshop template for a complete agenda you can use to develop this leadership skill. You’ll find a ready-to-go workshop with a guide and PowerPoint presentation you can use to help anyone in a leadership role give and receive better feedback.

Workshop design made easy

Designing and running effective workshops and meetings is an important leadership skill; whether it’s staying organized and on time during your daily stand-ups or planning more involved sessions.

With SessionLab, it’s easy to create engaging workshops that create impact while engaging every member of your team. Drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda. When you make changes or update your agenda, your session timing adjusts automatically, saving you time on manual adjustments.

Collaborating with stakeholders or clients? Share your agenda with a single click and collaborate in real-time. No more sending documents back and forth over email.

Explore how you and your team might use SessionLab to design more effective sessions or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Now over to you…

I hope you have found some useful tips for leadership development workshops above. Now we’d love to hear from you!

What are your favorite leadership workshop ideas and training exercises for leadership development? Did you incorporate any of them into your facilitation practice?

Have you tried any of the activities above? Let us know about your experiences in the comments.

These activities create space for fun and play in big teams, whatever your environment. In this post, we’ll share our favorite large group games alongside tips for running them too!

Whenever you design a session, you’ll want to consider the number of participants so you can plan activities appropriately. With very large groups, it gets harder to involve everyone, but it’s important that you do. Research has proven that play is vital not only at home or in the classroom, but at work too!

These large group games are designed to help you encourage play, connect and team build with groups of twenty or more people. They are also easy to run in parallel in smaller groups and are designed so that everyone can easily organize themselves easily.

We’ve categorized them for the following purposes, so you can find a suitable activity whether you are running a specific event or are looking for ideas for large group games you might use in the future!

Group games for breaking the ice

Do you need some large group games to get people moving and raise the energy level in the room? Or an activity that helps to break the ice and get participants comfortable talking to each other?

Consider these exercises and group activities for kicking off your next training workshop or large group team building session. They’re great to get large groups comfortable with one another in a fun, playful way.

Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament

This is fun and loud energizer game based on the well-known “Rock, Paper, Scissor” game. People play against each other in pairs until the first win. But instead of the losing players becoming eliminated from the tournament, they become a fan of the winner, and they cheer for them as the winner plays against a new opponent. You repeat the process until there are only two players left with a huge fan base cheering for them. The last two players have to play until one has won twice.

As this group activity tends to get loud, it’s best to play it somewhere outside. The great thing about this game is that it works whether you’re looking for a small group activity or large group game – it scales very easily and requires very little preparation!

Doodling Together

Doodling Together is a fun and creative game where the group gets to collaboratively draw postcards through a series of instructions as participants complete the postcards started by others. You can simply use this technique in parallel groups as the instructions are easy to follow.

It is a great group activity to establish creative confidence, collaborate effortlessly and build capacity for working together as a workshop group. Large group games rarely have the potential to be more hilarious and creative!

Bang!

Bang is a group game, played in a circle, where participants must react quickly or face elimination. One person stands in the middle of the circle as “the sheriff”, pointing at other players who must quickly crouch while those on either side of them quickly “draw”.

This is a good activity to generate laughter and it can also help with name-learning for groups getting to know each other. For a party or event with more than 30 people, it is best to play it in parallel groups. If you’re looking for energizers for large groups, this is one of the best group games to help get people excited and raise their energy level.

3 Question Mingle

In this group game, every participant creates three thoughtful questions that they want to ask other group members to get to know them better. People start to mingle to ask and answer questions in pairs. After asking a question and listening to the answer, they hand over that question. Thus, in each one-on-one meeting, participants will swap one question each.

This allows your team to learn interesting facts about each other and works with a group size of up to 50-60 people. A more thoughtful group game, 3 Question Mingle is great whether you’re working with internal teams or at a conference where you’re trying to encourage participation.

Group Order

Help teams get to know each other better with this fast, simple ordering game. Start with everyone standing and milling around your space and ask them to organize themselves into a line based on a criteria such as height, number of pets, time at your company or something else entirely! Helping friends learn something new about each other while getting into a line is a great addition to a team building session, and can help kick-off any group event.

Though the number of people playing is dependant on available space, I’ve found this quick game a hit, especially playing with ideas and ordering criteria that are a little outside of the box!

Icebreaker: The Group Map

Large group icebreakers are a wonderful opportunity to get to know each other and share a little about yourself with the team. This game invites participants to imagine the available space as a map of the world and place themselves where they are from.

This first step is often energetic as people try to find their relative geographies and move around the space. Next, ask your team to reflect on where they are from and then share some positive memories or experiences from that place. As with any large group activity, it’s helpful to go first and demonstrate the kind of thing people should share and set things off in a fun, light mood.

Apple, Orange and Banana!

Complexity isn’t your friend with a large group. Sometimes, all you need is a quick game with simple instructions in order to get things kicked off!

Apple, Orange and Banana! is a fast, active energizer that is great for teams of any size. Start by asking the group to form a circle and put their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. Next, ask everyone playing to jump forward when you say apple, jump back when you say orange and then jump and turn 180 degrees to put their hands on the shoulders of the person who has behind them. Work up to combining multiple commands to keep your team on their toes and generate lots of laughter too!

One Word Method

Some of the best games for playing with big groups of people are the simplest. This word game invites everyone in the room to contribute a single word to a collective sentence that grows as you go round the group.

I love running this game with kids and adults alike, and it’s really fun to see how things change as every player contributes a word. It also scales well with any number of players and it’s easy for people to learn and improve at with repeated turns. If you’re looking for a hilarious way to spend time with others without a need for equipment, this is a guaranteed hit where everyone wins!

Team building games for large groups

Facilitation techniques that help build team spirit, encourage teamwork and are suitable for running with lots of people are important to have in your toolkit.

These large group games put an emphasis on fostering trust and openness for better collaboration and managing team dynamics effectively. You could use them to initiate meaningful conversation or engage your party in engaging tasks where they work together in order to win.

Working together towards a common goal is often essential to increase cohesion within teams and you should definitely include such activities in a team building or development workshop. They’re also great for bringing a sense of play and fun to proceedings and encouraging everyone in your team to get involved.

Draw your Coat of Arms

This group game helps group members to get to know each other better through a creative drawing exercise: Each participant draws their own coat of arms – a design that is unique to themselves, representing important characteristics, achievements and values of its owner.

If you want to direct the focus of this game then you can instruct your team to the best question to answer in each segment of the Coat of Arms. (E.g. What is something you are very good at? What is something your colleagues don’t know about you?).

When people are finished drawing, they present their work to in their group. The presentation part is practical to do in smaller groups. And whether you have a small or large group, you can arrange a neat Coat of Arms gallery by sticking all the drawings on the wall of the workshop room. Large group games where participants have something to show at the end can be especially effective and can really set the stage for a productive, interactive workshop.

Marshmallow Challenge

In eighteen minutes, teams of 3-5 people must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top.

Since the instructions are fairly simple, it is easy to scale this activity up to 20-30 groups playing in parallel and competing who builds the highest structure. It emphasizes collaboration, group communication, leadership dynamics and problem-solving strategy – everything you want in your large group games. Also, there are marshmallows. All group activities are better with marshmallows!

Helium Stick

The Helium stick group activity gives a simple challenge to teams that require teamwork and coordination to manage. People are lined up in two rows facing each other, 5 to 10 people per row, depending on the length of the sticks you have for the game. Participants point with their index finger and hold their arms out in a way that a stick can be horizontally laid on their index fingers.

The task is to lower the stick to the ground while everyone’s index fingers stay in contact with the rod. Why Helium Stick? Often, the stick will rise first, like helium!

You can easily scale this activity for larger teams, just have as many sticks as the number of lines you will create, and the sub-groups will compete against each other who manages to lower their stick first. A gentle sense of competition can be great for bringing people together – try mixing teams if you’re working with multiple departments and encourage people who don’t normally interact to work together in this group activity.

History Map

Creating something collaboratively is a wonderful way of building team spirit with a large group or party. When we find time to reflect on our shared history and create something tangible as a result, even better!

Begin by rolling out a large piece of paper and draw a timeline representing a shared project, experience or the history of your group. Next, instruct everyone to use the materials provided (colored pens, pencils, even collage materials!) to add memorable experiences and moments to the timeline. History Map is a great activity to run with any number of people, though be sure you bring enough materials for everyone to get involved!

This activity works great on an online whiteboard, and be sure to encourage your virtual team to use GIFs and videos to illustrate the map further! Debrief by going round your team and inviting commentary and reflection.

Cross the Circle

While group discussions can be an effective way of helping bring everyone together, this can be time-consuming and unwieldy, especially with large groups. This activity is a fast, playful way to uncover commonalities and bring everyone together.

Begin with all the players around a circle except for one, who stands in the middle. The person in the middle then makes a statement such as “Cross the circle if you can speak a second language,” or “Cross the circle if you’ve worked here more than three years.” Instruct those who match the statement to cross the circle, though the last person to cross must then stand in the middle and make a new statement.

Continue this game as time allows, and try to give everyone a spot in the middle of the circle! It’s always interesting to note what everyone asks, and this approach allows the team to learn something new about each other too,

Egg drop

This classic group activity is a proven method of bringing a team together for a shared goal while also generating some laughs. Split your participants into two or more teams and provide each team with an egg, a heap of straws, tapes and any other crafting material you wish. Next, ask each group to create a structure that will allow the egg to fall over 7 feet without breaking. To add complexity, add some additional rules for building the structure, a time limit or some other constraint.

When designing a session for groups of more than 20 people, it pays to be organized.

In SessionLab, it’s easy to create a structured agenda for any group event or workshop. Add an opening section, core group activities and closing exercises to build your session in minutes.

Add clear timings and instructions for every activity to stay on track. Need to make changes on the day? Your event timing will automatically adjust so you’ll stay organized, whatever changes!

Party games for large groups

Classic party games are a great way to bring people together, even outside of a party environment. A sense of familiarity can help rouse any hesitant participants and they’re a proven method of helping people having fun.

While all of the games in this post could be used in a party setting, these large group party games are especially conducive to a party atmosphere. Whether at work, home or some other gathering, bring these party games to help engage any large group.

Wink Murder

Inspired by the classic party games Werewolf and Mafia, Wink Murder is a fun game that asks an assassin try to “murder” other players by winking at them.

First, get the group in a circle. Next, get a folded piece of paper for each player and put a cross on one of them. Distribute the papers and let the group know that whoever gets the cross is the assassin. While they attempt to wink and murder the other team, the other players must guess who is the assassin and accuse accordingly. If they guess right, they win. If they guess wrong, they are out of the game.

Snowball

When you bring a large group together, there is almost always a period where everyone is feeling out the room and getting to know each other. Combining this stage with a fun, light activity is a wonderful way of breaking the ice and energizing the team too!

In Snowball, start by asking players to write the answer to five questions relating to a topic of your choosing on a piece of paper. Then, instruct players to join you in a circle in the middle of the room and crumple up their papers into a ball and get ready: you are about to have a snowball fight!

After play has gotten a bit rowdy, stop the game and invite each person to pick up the snowball closest to them. (Pick up another one if someone finds their own!) Finally, ask people to find who wrote the answers on the snowball they’re holding, have a quick chat, and then introduce them to the group!

Human Knot

Solving a puzzle as a team is a great way to bring a large number of people together. In this large group party game, start by organizing people into groups of 7-16 people and ask them to stand in a circle where they are close enough to reach and touch other players. Next, ask each person to close their eyes and connect hands with two other people. Have everyone open their eyes and try to untangle the human knot without breaking the chain.

This activity asks people to engage their problem solving skills while also getting to know each other better! It’s a fun game that scales well to very large groups with multiple human knots being played simultaneously.

What are you doing?

Improv games are a great way to introduce a sense of fun and creativity to any gathering. This group activity asks that a volunteer enters the centre of the room and starts miming an action.

When someone is ready to guess what the action is, they enter the circle and guess the action. The first player then comes up with another action the next player must perform and whispers it to them. They then mime that action for the rest of the group to guess. Encourage participants to be creative in the actions they mime and give to other players and hilarity will often ensue!

Charades

Charades is a classic game for both large and small groups for good reason. It’s fun, easy to teach and often brings a party together around shared jokes and memorable moments.

In a live setting, hand out paper and pens and ask each person to write words that they think would be fun or challenging to act out. Players then draw a a word at random and act it out for the rest of the group to guess.

Below, we’ve also included a version you can use to guess and have fun with teams online. You can replicate the act of writing down prompts using your online whiteboard and have people guess on webcam for a fun alternative that works great in gallery mode, even with groups of more than 20 people.

Active games for large groups

Most teams can benefit from getting away from their desks, standing up and having fun as a group. These activities involve lots of physical activity, running, and movement and can be run in a variety of spaces. There’s some crossover with the outdoor games you’ll see below, but these games can also work great in smaller spaces too!

Whether it’s for a party, team-building session, school event, or conference, try adding one of these ideas to your agenda when you need a burst of energy and physical activity in your schedule.

Giants, Wizards, Elves

This fantasy inspired game where points are awarded to Giants, Elves and Wizards is a fun one to bring to any party or event. To start, split your group into two teams. Each group forms a circle and decides what character they are going to all play for that round. Next, each group stands in a line facing each other and on the count of three, act out the role they have chosen.

Giants put their hands above their heads and roar. Elves put their hands over their ears to make them appear more elvish and make an elvish noise, while Wizards put their hands out as if casting and spell and making a buzzing noise.

When you face off, remember that Giants beat Elves, Elves beat Wizards and Wizards beat Giants. The winning team then has the chance to tag the other team before they get to the safe zone. Everyone who is tagged joins the winning team and you can repeat the game until only one team remains!

Spy

Start by getting all the players to stand in a circle. Tell them they are all spies, and that the aim of the game is not to be caught by the spy catcher. Ask them to silently guess who they believe is the spy catcher and to select one other person who will be their bodyguard. Do this without telling anyone! Next, ask participants to run around and try and position themselves so that their chosen bodyguard is between them and the spy catcher.

This is a great game to get people and energized, and it’s fun to debrief too! Especially if friends may have accused others of being a spy in order to win! Players might try and guess who they thought the spy catcher was or talk about how even a few simple rules can create utter chaos.

Human Machine

Improvisation and silliness combined with physical activity is a sure-fire way of getting a large group engaged in the fun! Start this game by explaining that each team will collaboratively create a machine using their bodies. Choose one person to start by improvising the sounds and movements of a part of a machine or robot. Everyone else observes and then one by one, they join the machine and improvise another part.

This can also be a fun game to play with two teams in tandem, or by briefing the players to create a collaborative machine with a particular purpose, such as generating power or cooking a complex meal. This game is best when played with large teams where the machines can become big and very energetic. Just make sure you have enough room!

The Viking

When looking to engage your team in physical activity, why not take a leaf from the pillaging toolkit of our favorite Nordic invaders? We’ll stop short of any actual raiding, but this game encourages participants to shout Norse words and physical actions to build energy as a team.

Start with everyone standing in a circle. One person begins by shouting the word “Mjolner!” and air punches to the left or right to transfer the role of Viking. Play proceeds loudly and actively, as players respond with different words and by throwing the role of Viking around the room. This is a playful game that works to bring a lot of noise and energy to big teams!

Dance, Dance, Dance.

No prizes for guessing the subject of this active game! Start by organizing everyone into groups of three to five people. Instruct the group that when you start playing a song, one player in each group becomes the leader and starts dancing. Everyone else must follow their moves. When the music changes, another player must then start dancing and lead the group.

This is a fun game to play with friends and for warming up new teams alike. For bonus points, invite participants to contribute a song to a shared playlist before your session so they recognize their favorite song as you go or can guess who contributed what track! I also like to award points after every round for the most exuberant or creative dance moves though when the goal is to have fun, every player wins!

Red Ball

In this improv game for large groups, participants are asked to pass imaginary objects around the circle, beginning with a red ball and ending up with objects like the keys to a Ferrari, a wriggling cat, a sleepy baby and more.

What begins as a quiet group game can quickly become a hotbed of creative chaos that encourages the group to act out the passing of various objects with energy. You might even give the group the opportunity to choose what to pass around next and give players points based on how they correctly (or incorrectly!) handle what’s given to them.

Fun outdoor games for large groups

When the weather allows, it’s great to take your team outside to play group games in the fresh air. These activities benefit from the outdoor setting as they require space to be run effectively.

Some of these games include asking your group to spread out, and a few of them have a bonus angle of including natural elements that can take advantage of your setting too. These are great games to play with young people and adults alike and always help raise the level of group energy!

Blind Square – Rope Game

Seemingly simple games are a wonderful way to engage large teams. We love that this activity encourages everyone to work together towards a common challenge while helping bring individual skills to the surface.

In this outdoor-friendly activity, begin by explaining that all a team has to do is make a length of rope into a perfect square. They have fifteen minutes to plan what they are going to do before everyone is blindfolded and play can commence. It’s so fun to see plans form and fall apart, and this activity works with kids and adults perfectly. Just remember to bring enough blindfolds for everyone! With especially large groups, separate into two teams and see who can create the most perfect square!

Spider Web

Games you can play outdoors with your team are great ways to enjoy the weather, spread out, and also be closer to nature while teambuilding.

This activity requires two ropes, some strong poles or trees, and a supervisor for each team playing. Safety and fun go hand-in-hand when it comes to large groups! Start by tying your ropes from one tree to the other to form a rectangle. Connect string between the top and bottom to form holes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Next, instruct your team that the aim of the game is to get all the members of the group through the web without touching the string or knocking the web.

This is a great game for encouraging players to work together and problem solve in the moment while also having a lot of fun!

Crocodile River

Getting outside is a wonderful way to break up a team-building session and put people into a new frame of mind. This can create a great foundation for setting hypothetical challenges such as trying to cross a treacherous river as a group.

This game asks two teams to work together to collect planks and get everyone in their group across the river. The challenge is that the planks are magic, and sink when not in contact with a person. We love that this game encourages collaboration and critical thinking, while also being fun enough for a party of adults or kids to engage and have fun as a group.

Equilateral Triangles Collaboration

This large group game is a great way to introduce the topic of collaboration in an approachable and fun way. Get all your players standing and start by explaining that everyone in a group should choose two people with whom they will form an equilateral triangle but they do not say who those people are. Next, everyone’s goal is to move around and form that triangle with the other players without verbally communicating.

This game can end up with some hilarious outcomes as your group maneuvers around while aiming to get in sync with one another! It also has some very teachable lessons about clear communication and team alignment you can slot into a larger workshop or conference program. I often like to play a second round to help my team see if they can do better and apply the lessons from the previous round.

Flamingo & Penguins

Getting outside is a great opportunity for movement and running around. Whatever the age of your group, players often benefit from the extra energy and fun of trying to catch other players and

The instructions for this game are simple. One player starts as a flamingo who must then chase the penguins and give them a little peck on the head to make them a flamingo. The last person to be a penguin is the winner!

Demonstrate how each role moves – one arm is raised to imitate the Flamingo‘s head and it lifts its knee with slow, swinging movements, while a Penguin is walking with waddling, fast, small steps – and then send the group on their way!

Stress Balls

Passing information from one person to another in a very large team can be difficult, whether you’re working with adults or kids! Stress balls is a fast paced game where everyone playing gets to practice their communication and teamwork skills in order to win.

Start by getting your team into a circle and as them to throwing a ball around to represent the movement of a message. Run consecutive rounds and increase speed, more balls and rules that reverse direction to keep everyone on their toes. I love using this game to teach some lessons about team communication while also generating energy and laughter!

Near and Far

Warming up a group of more than 20 people at the same time can be a challenge. In this energizing group game, get everyone outside and invite them to silently choose one person to stay close to and another to stay away from. Next, ask your team to start playing, using the near and far rules to move around the space without talking. You’ll quickly notice some interesting dynamics and perhaps a bit of chaos as people try to figure things out!

Near and Far is a wonderfully simple game you can use to teach the importance of communication and connections while having fun and being active. Perfect for a large group session with both new and established teams.

Large group facilitation techniques

Quick games like charades are undeniably effective at getting things rolling, and fun group activities are essential for getting a team engaged, but what if you need to go deeper?

There are dedicated facilitation methods that work really effectively if you need certain conversations to happen in large groups. The techniques below can be used as core group activities for planning and facilitating group workshops with your team. They tend to have only a few guiding principles and rules, which allows smaller groups to organize and manage themselves during a workshop.

Open Space Technology

Open Space Technology – developed by Harrison Owen – is a method perfectly suited for organizing and running large-scale meetings where participants self-organize themselves to find solutions for a complex issue. There are only a few rules guiding the structure of the event, and the agenda is created by the teams attending.

It is a great method for tackling important and complex problems where the solutions are not obvious. The technology can even accommodate hundreds of people!

Open space group activities can be incredibly productive, though remember that there is a degree of self-determination here, and the individual groups in the open space are only as good as their members and the set-up of the session. If you’d like to see a complete open space workshop agenda, you can find an example template here.

World Café

World Café, developed by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs, is a simple yet powerful method to host large group dialogue and is well known among this style of group activity. Facilitators create a cafe-style space and provide simple guidelines for the groups of people to discuss different topics at different tables. Participants switch tables periodically and getting introduced to the previous discussion at their new table by a “table host”.

The structure of this method enables meaningful conversations driven completely by participants and the topics that they find relevant and important. World Cafe works great when slightly informal, with a relaxed cafe-style atmosphere. Group activities like this benefit from the setting of the right tone – make sure to get this right and brief your team before you begin!

Conversation Café

While the World Café is a structured process to encourage the cross-pollination of ideas in a large group, the Conversation Café is structured to begin a dialogue regarding a provocative or complex question. So, here the team members do not switch tables but participate in four rounds of conversation with taking different approaches to exchange opinions and discuss the same topic in depth.

This more focused group activity format helps to build trust and connection between teams and is therefore well-suited to handle controversial or difficult topics among diverse participants. Again this method is very practical when dealing with large groups by setting up parallel discussion groups.

1-2-4-All

This is an idea generation method that is really easy to scale into large groups, yet still allows every participant to actively take part in the process. You split your team into groups of four, share the challenge or question that people should focus on, then kick off the following sequence of activities in the parallel groups: at first, silent self-reflection by individuals, then generate ideas in pairs, and then share and develop further the ideas in the circle of four people.

At the end of the process, the best ideas from each group should be shared with the whole audience. This method allows you to leverage the whole group’s intelligence and ensure everyone will be included. We love this activity as it allows any number of people to contribute without difficulty!

Dot voting

Dot voting – or ‘dotmocracy’ – is a method for prioritizing options and making decisions by a group. Every participant receives a set of colorful sticky dots and they place them next to the ideas they find best – the ideas need to be written on post-its or on a board before the voting starts.

There are different variations: you may give multiple dots to people and they can choose how many dots they assign to each option they like. This tool quickly helps a group to recognize – without spending time on discussions – which options are the most popular. Using group activities that are time efficient can help ensure you cover everything in your agenda.

One thing to watch out for is group bias. The more voting dots an option collects during the process, the more appealing it may become to get further votes from the participants who still have to assign their dots. For this reason, it is wise to use dot-voting not as a final instrument to select the best option, but as an indicator of which few options are the most popular.

Curious to see how this activity fits in a complete process? Check out our Design Sprint 2.0 template for inspiration.

Large group activities for closing a session

So you opened your workshop with large group games that were fun and inclusive, and then included group activities that got the group talking and making important decisions. How then, should you finish the day? What group activities help a team reflect and come away from a workshop with a sense of accomplishment?

The below facilitation techniques will help to effectively close a large group session with any number of people. They are simple, time-bound and allow every group member to share their opinion and find the key takeaways after a workshop or event.

Remember that you should close a session with the same attention and enthusiasm you started with. Group activities such as those below help ensure the energy and success of the session are carried forward and followed up upon.

One-breath feedback

‘Feedback’ has a quite controversial perception. Have you ever met this situation? Someone is asked to present back after a group session and it gets unfocused. It goes on long it’s off the point and people start losing concentration It’s sometimes known as ‘death by feedback’ and can change a group’s perception of the entire session.

This team activity helps to maintain attention and forces everyone to stay concise during a closing round with a natural limit: You are only allowed to share your opinion with just one breath – that is usually no longer than 30 seconds for most people.

In case you have a large group, it works most effectively if you split up the group into circles of 10-15 participants, in order to keep the feedback round under five minutes. Remember that group activities that are timeboxed in this manner can help keep the energy up and ensure you cover everything you need to in time.

Feedback Mingle

Feedback Mingle is a great closing group activity to generate positive energy in any team. At the end of the session, group members are invited to give feedback to every other member of the group via post-it notes. You can use prompt questions to direct the feedback, such as “What I appreciate the most about you…” and “My challenge to you going forward is…”.

After people finished writing a post-it note to everyone else in the group, invite them to mingle and deliver the feedback to each other. The feedback should always happen one-on-one, shared verbally. If you have larger groups, create smaller groups of people who worked together on group activities during the event.

Letter to Myself

You can use this group activity at the end of a workshop or training program to inspire future action. Participants write and send a letter to their future self, in relation to how they will apply the insights and learning they got during the course. For instance, you may ask them to focus on a simple question: “What will I achieve by a certain date?”

When explaining the task, tell the group that you will post the cards/letters in X number of months, and that they should take that into account when writing. You can define the timeframe with the group. Since participants reflect individually in this activity, there is no limitation to scaling this exercise in larger groups.

Designing large group events made easy

Running any event or activity with large numbers of people is a lot to handle. A well-structured agenda is key to facilitating with confidence and staying organized.

With SessionLab, it’s easy to build effective, engaging sessions for groups of any size. Drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda. When you make changes to the plan, your session timing adjusts automatically.

When you’re ready to share your group event with participants and clients, you can invite them to collaborate or create a professional printout to help. you keep on track during the session.

Explore how to use SessionLab to design effective workshops and meetings or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Now over to you…

When you run a group activity that generates energy, laughter and connection in your team, it can have a profound effect on the whole team. I hope you have found some useful tips for running large group games and workshop activities above. Now we’d love to hear from you!

What are your favorite facilitation techniques and games that work well with large groups in workshops, meetings or training sessions? Have you tried any of the methods or group activities above? Let us know about your experiences in the comments.

Want to see even more games and activities? Check out the SessionLab library of facilitation techniques for inspiration and proven methods you can use to improve your meetings, events, and workshops.

But how do you choose the right activity, and where do you get started when trying to encourage team bonding or alignement? We’re here to help with this collection of simple and effective team building activities!

Building a highly effective team takes effort, consideration, and the deployment of a thoughtful group process. Remember that teams are composed of relationships between people and all relationships need care and attention. The team-building activities below are a great place to start!

That said, some employees may bristle or cringe at the mention of team building activities, and with good reason. Done badly, team building at work can be frustrating, unproductive, or a waste of time for all involved. 

We’ve put together a collection of proven team-building activities, games, and exercises that cover everything from communication and collaboration to alignment and vision. 

Whether you’re working in a small team or as part of a large organization, taking the time to develop your team and enable everyone in your group to do their best work is time well spent. Let’s take a look!

What are team building activities? 

Team building is an activity or process designed to help build connections between members of a team, create lasting bonds, and enable better teamwork and working practices.

Team building activities might include running team games and activities, holding group discussions, hosting away days, or simply doing things together as a team. They key is that the exercise is designed to bring your team together in a fun and engaging way.

What is the main purpose of a team building activity? 

The main purpose of any team-building activity is on improving some aspects of how a team works together while bringing everyone together in a shared experience.

This might include working on communication, collaboration, alignment, team values, motivation, and anything else that can enable a group to work together more effectively. It might also include resolving conflicts, sharing skills, or simply bringing your group together in a shared experience.

Broadly speaking, any team building effort should be designed to help bring team members closer or find ways to first define and then move towards your shared goals as a group.

As Forbes notes, team building is “most important investment you can make for your people.” On this point, it’s worth noting that team building doesn’t just happen during the activity and so being purposeful your choice of exercise is important.

The best team building activities hold space for building connections in a way that spills over into day-to-day work and creates lasting bonds. It’s not enough to throw your team into an escape room or scavenger hunt without first thinking about why or how this will benefit your team!

After you’ve chosen some engaging team building activities, it’s time to design a complete process that will engage your team while achieving your desired outcomes.

SessionLab makes it easy to build a complete team building agenda in minutes. Start by dragging and dropping blocks, add activity timings and adjust your session flow to create an effective session.

What are the main types of team building activities?

Team building activities are games and exercises that help a group collaborate on a shared goal, discuss important issues constructively, share in a fun experience or find better ways of working together.

These activities can take forms – from quick and funny games you use in your regular meeting, or the may be part of a larger process or team development workshop.

Being purposeful and knowing the objective of your session means you can choose an activity accordingly. Sometimes, your team will come together because they have problems to solve, or you might just want to have fun and celebrate your wins. Pick the right activity for the right time to ensure your team is onboard and ready to engage!

Here are the main categories of team building activity that you might want to use with your team. We’ve made it easy to get started with the right activity for your team by including the length of each game, how many participants can play and how hard it is to run alongside clear instructions.

Team building activities for work

Starting the team building process can be difficult, especially if you’re working with a new team who don’t yet know each other well. The activities in this section are focused on helping teams and employees get to know each other better and start to develop bonds and trust.

Even if your team has been around a while, learning more about one another and building deeper bonds is useful for both team cohesion and group happiness. These are also great activities to use when trying to improve employee engagement and company culture – any organization is only as strong as the bonds between its people!

Try these team building games for work to encourage conversation and break the ice – especially if you’re working with a remote team who might not be in the office together.

3 Question Mingle

Conversation is often the best starting point when it comes to team building, but without structure, it can be difficult for groups to get moving. In 3 Question Mingle, each team member writes three questions on sticky notes and then has a one minute meeting with another person. They each ask another one question and then trade those post-its. Invite the group to move around the room asking questions in pairs and swapping questions afterwards. 

Not only does this team building activity help an entire team get to know each other, but it also invites the group to ask the questions they want to ask. By combining structure with self direction, you can get your team building workshop off to the right start! Bonus points for adding those sticky notes to a memory wall for later reflection!

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity

Building better team relationships and improving group dynamics often means sharing something about ourselves and finding space to discuss and be honest. In this team building exercise, give each team member a set of red, green, yellow and blue dots alongside the 9 dimensions you’ll be looking at. Each participant puts a dot on each dimension based on whether they believe they’re crushing it or need to do more work. 

By sharing some of their 9 dimensions, your team gets to surface things they’re proud of, as well as those that need work. You’ll explore what your group is aligned on in the debriefing section and then move forward together as a team.

Awareness Circle

Getting to know people is easier for some members of a group than it is for others. While extroverts can start chatting to new team members with ease, introverts may find it more difficult to bond with their team and create meaningful team bonds.

In this activity, you’ll encourage a group to get to know each other without speaking and show that everyone in a team has a connection. Another great takeaway from this activity is to take note of the diversity (or lack thereof) in the room and consider this as a point for future team development. 

Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity

Sometimes pictures are better than words when it comes to helping a team get to know one another. Creative games like this one can also be especially effective at helping introverts or distanced teams share with the group.

Start by handing out sheets of paper and inviting each participant to draw a 2×2 grid and pose four questions to the group. Each team member draws their answer in one of the grid squares and once the time limit is up, invite the group to share. If you’re looking for a fun game that encourages creative thinking while being visual and memorable, look no further! 

Just One Lie

Not all team building games need to reinvent the wheel. Particularly with new teams or groups that aren’t used to team building, keeping it simple with a tried and tested method can be your best bet.

Just One Lie is adapted from the well-known icebreaker two truths and a lie, though encourages participants to mingle and share lots of facts about themselves with one another – great for breaking the ice and getting to know one another too!

Life Map

Both groups and individuals go through many twists, turns and changes throughout their life. At its best, team building not only helps create better teams but allows time for reflection and deeper sharing between participants.

With Life Map, encourage your group to draw or create a collage of their life story they can then share with the team. This kind of deeper getting to know your exercise can really help bring a team together and allow for meaningful self-reflection too! 

Personal Presentation

Team building is all about building trust and openness between teammates. Sharing personal experiences and enlarging the social aspects of the group with presentations not only allows everyone to get to know each other but also encourages team development skills too.

For this team building method, ask each participant to prepare a presentation including three things that have shaped who they are as a person. Encourage creative thinking by asking teams to use simple drawings and words to visualize their presentation too.

Passions Tic Tac Toe

Helping employees get to know each other more deeply and connect beyond the scope of their job roles is a great space to explore with a team building exercise. In this activity, your entire team fills in a 3×3 grid with a passion or core value in each of the boxes. Then, ask your group to mingle and compare passions.

When someone finds a match, they each sign for the other person in that square of the grid. Declare your first winner as the person who gets three passions in a row. This team building exercise works well for remote workers and is a great way for your entire team to get to know each other a little better.

Quick team building activities

Team building doesn’t have to take all day. While running dedicated team workshops like a team canvas workshop can have a profound effect on team dynamics, you can also run team building exercises in as little as 5-10 minutes.

In this section, we’ll share some effective yet quick team building activities you might use to warm-up your group or inject some team building into the start of a meeting or event. If you’re looking for 5-minute team building activities to easily slot into your meetings and events, this is a great place to start!

Best and Worst

Teambuilding activities are often at their most effective when you ignite the passions of everyone in a group and bring up talking points that enable people to share something of themselves with the team.

Best and Worst asks each participant to ask one question about the best and worst thing they want to learn from the group. For example, “What’s the best recipe you know?” or “What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?” After putting all the questions in a hat and choosing a random pair, invite the group to share their answers and related stories.

Group Order

Supporting the get-to-know process at the start of a session or with a new team can be as simple as asking participants to group themselves together based on what they know about each other and inviting them to find out what they don’t.

This activity requires nothing more than getting your group together in a room and asking them to line themselves up in an order based on a criterion such as distance from home to the workplace, birth date in the calendar year or number of different countries visited. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to get people talking and sharing when in pursuit of a common goal.

Happiness Exercise

Good teams know how to appreciate one another and share joyful, happy experiences. When a new team is getting to know each other, using an exercise that encourages the sharing of positive stories and experiences not only allows people to connect but also builds a positive atmosphere in the room.

You might also use this team building activity at work or with a more established team. If your team has been going through a challenging period, it can be transformational to share things that make everyone happy and defuse stress or tension as a team.

Name Juggling

Working with new teams means having new names to learn. Team building starts with getting to know everyone, but how can we make this more fun and dynamic than simple introductions?

In this get to know you game, start by having everyone stand in a circle and introduce themselves by name. Introduce a ball and have people state someone’s name before throwing the ball to that person. That person thanks the person who passed the ball by name before then passing the ball on to someone else. Once people get comfortable, spice things up by introducing more balls and trying to keep them in the air!

Open Fist

Finding you have things in common with other team members is one of the cornerstones of effective teamwork and communication. While conversation games or other team building activities might ask for an in-depth approach, Open Fist helps teams bond with a simple, effective activity.

Sharing little known facts about ourselves can help teams be more cohesive and by limiting the number of shared facts to the amount of fingers on a hand, this quick team building activity can fit into an agenda with ease.

Cross the Circle

Finding common ground and shared experiences across a diverse group is what team building is all about. In this playful team building activity, participants are encouraged to cross the circle in response to questions posed by a person in the middle.

For example, “Cross through the circle if you have worked here more than 5 years.” or “Cross through the circle if you can play an instrument.” After each stage, a new person gets to pose a question and your team gets to know one another and their commonalities in a simple, effective way.

Sync Claps

This fast-paced exercise is fun but gently challenging game that helps create focus and presence in a group. Get started by getting your team into a circle and ask them to move a clap around the room quickly by having two members clap at the same time.

By asking your group to synchronize and move quickly, sync claps is a fun way to energize the room and help your group feel more connected.

Fun team building activities

In an increasingly stressful environment of deadlines and meetings, it’s worth remembering the value of joy, play and simply have fun as a team.

Injecting fun and laughter into your team building event is effective on many levels. We often recommend starting a session with one of these activities, as they can help set a more relaxed and personable tone in an instant.

We’ve also found that some of the more memorable moments of our sessions have come out of these kinds of activities. It’s lovely to have something funny to reference in future meetings too!

Bringing team members out of their shells and loosening them up with a funny game can also help prevent existing hierarchies or team structures from affecting the team building session. 

You can also use these funny team building activities to kick off your session, or when the energy levels drop and you need to get your team re-engaged for the team workshop ahead. Let’s take a look.

Bang

Having fun and energizing your team is a great way to kick off your team building event. Bang is a simple and effective game that encourages quick reactions and fun – perfect for both new and established teams to play together! 

Start by electing a sheriff and having the rest of the group stand in a circle around them. The sheriff spins around and points at one person in the circle and says “bang!” That person then crouches as quickly as possible. The two people on either side of the person crouching must quickly point at each other and shout the other’s name. Whoever does not react quickly enough is eliminated. Try using this one at the beginning of a team building event to really loosen up the group!

Build-a-Shake

Creating a secret handshake was something many of us did as kids. This team building activity taps into that same sense of creativity and also encourages team members to get to know each other while sharing and building on their handshake in pairs. By moving between pairs and teaching others the steps of your handshake, this also helps create group closeness and cohesion. We love team building activities or office games that encourage people to bring a little of themselves to the table and Build-a-Shake is a great example of that!  

Count Up

Simple tasks that require team focus, cohesion, and awareness are great for any group working on team building. In Count Up, a team has to come together and count up to twenty with their eyes closed and without any other communication. People cannot say more than one number at a time, and if two people speak at the same time, the group must start over. 

Though it seems simple, this team building exercise can really demonstrate the power of effective teamwork and is a great opener for a team building workshop. 

Follow the Leader

When performing online team building, simple activities are often the best strategy in ensuring participation and removing frustration. Follow the Leader is a great team building energiser suitable for online and offline teams.

In virtual settings, put Zoom into gallery view and invite people to perform an action in the frame of their screen that other participants have to follow. Being a little silly is encouraged and this team building exercise often results in laughter and energy as a result! 

Portrait Gallery

Creative team building activities are great for breaking the ice or energising a team via play. In Portrait Gallery, you and your team will collaboratively create portraits of everyone in the group and have a fun, electric set of portraits to display afterward.

Start by splitting your group into two teams. Team B will draw portraits of Team A, though every 10-15 seconds, they’ll pass their current drawing to the next person to continue. By the end of this team building game, you’ll have a set of eclectic portraits for everyone in the group and have broken the ice significantly too! 

Snowball

Fun team building games are a great way to start any group development process, and they’re even better if they energize the team too! Snowball is a great activity for getting people out of their seats and moving around while also breaking the ice. 

Start by asking a question relevant to your group and ask each participant to write an answer on a piece of paper. Once that’s done, invite everyone to crumple their paper and come to the centre of the room to have a snowball fight! After a few minutes, ask everyone to keep a snowball and find the person who wrote the answer. Not only does this team building exercise invite energy into the room, but it encourages people to get to know each other too.

Celebrity Party

You’ve likely played the game where you stick the name of a random celebrity on your head while then asking questions to help you guess who it is. (Or at least seen a film where someone else does it!) It’s simple, but it absolutely works when you want to break the ice or just generate some laughter and conversation.

This classic team building game is a great way to warm up large groups, encouraging mingling and have fun too. Ask participants to be creative, keep it light and not to give hints and you have all the makings of an effective team building exercise.

Non-verbal improv

Whether you’re working with remote teams or co-located groups, having fun when you get together should never be undervalued. We love simple games that are also ways to begin conversations about how we’d like to work together more effectively.

This improv game is easy to touch and is a great way to build team connections while raising some smiles. Start by preparing some actions on post-it notes, such as drinking a glass of water or eating pasta. Next, invite participants to mime the action without speaking. Include more difficult and amusing scenarios to challenge the group and create some funny opportunities for team connection!

Rock, Paper, Scissors (Tournament)

Encouraging team members to play and have fun is an often overlooked aspect of building better teams. Play is an inherently human activity, and by doing this as a team, we can start to see ourselves as more than just a group of people who work together.

In this version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, large groups pair off until only two players remain for a final showdown. We love that losing players become fans of the winners and cheer them on. This is a quick and easy team game that can build excitement and get the group ready for deeper team building activities to come!

The Viking

Fun team building activities often ask the group to let go of their inhibitions and find space to be playful and silly. This game from Hyper Island encourages the group to perform some loud, exuberant moves to emulate our favourite historical raiders – the Vikings.

You might use this activity during a longer workshop or meeting to energize a group and create a memorable moment with your team. For bonus points, have a group photographer capture those moments and put them on a history wall for reflection later!

Wink Murder

We love team building exercises that include space for friendly competition and laughter. Wink murder is a variation on a classic party game that asks every team member to try and catch the wink assassin, whose job it is to eliminate the other players by winking at them without being caught.

We especially like the fact this game makes team members to use creative thinking while playing. Run multiple rounds with extra rules such as adding an accomplice to spice things up and have even more fun!

Corporate team building activities

Running team building games in the office can be a great way to finish up the week, onboard new team members or just boost employee engagement.

While all of the activities in this post are suitable for the office, the team building games in this section are especially effective in a corporate environment where some team members may need some coaxing or you want to gently introduce important topics.

Try these activities if you want to add an opportunity for your team to bond during a corporate training session, all-hands or other office event.

Appreciations Exercise

Office trivia can be fun, but you know what’s better? Taking a moment to appreciate each team member and uplift everyone in the group.

This method is designed to help everyone in a group receive appreciative feedback on their strengths from others. Start by sitting the group in a circle and having each participant write their name on a piece of paper and pass it to the person on their left. Each person writes down what they have most valued about the person whose name is on the sheet before passing it along.

At the end, share these appreciations and celebrate everyone in the group! You might even include this activity during a happy hour to truly celebrate one another!

Cover Story

Bringing an activity that encourages creative thinking and imagination can be an effective method for getting team mates involved at your next corporate event. In this game, small groups create a magazine cover with your team on it and add headlines and taglines that show the best possible version of your team.

By defining the ideal future state for the organization your group can see what actions they might take today while also creating a fun and useful artefact for the team. Use as many sheets of paper as you need!

Coat of Arms

Even established teams have more to learn about one another. A corporate team building activity is a great time to encourage groups to go deeper and share who they are as a team.

In Coat of Arms, each team member begins by drawing a personal coat of arms and then sharing it with a partner. The partner interprets the coat of arms and then presents it to the rest of the group. This kind of getting to know you activity taps into group creativity and is a fun way of helping your team bond. 

My Favourite Manager

Leaders and managers can be a deciding factor in creating a great company culture and employee happiness. In this game, get started by bringing your team together to discuss their favourite and least favourite managers.

This corporate team building activity is great at creating a safe space to discuss management styles and create empathy between teams. You’ll often find team members can shift their perspective, learn something about how they relate to their leaders and have fun too!

Who are you? The Pirate Ship exercise

Explore team roles and responsibilities in a lighthearted manner is a great way to spend time during an office event.

In this simple but powerful team building exercise, share the image of the crew of a pirate ship. Next, invite participants to reflect on who they most identify with on the ship. Who is the captain? Who is looking out for land or maintaining the deck? By reflecting together around a fun premise, you can encourage meaningful discussions with your grop.

History Map

Building effective teams is often a process of ideation, reflection and iteration over time. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose sight of just how much a team or organization has grown. With this corporate team building activity, invite your group to reflect and build on their collective experience with a memory wall that collects moments over a fixed period of time.

It’s a great way of reinforcing major takeaways, celebrating the highlights and creating a sense of closure and progress. By also encouraging the creation of a shared visual resource, History Map also enables creativity and a sense of fun that can provide the perfect end to a project or working session. 

Birds of a Feather

It’s not uncommon for teams to naturally form sub-groups with common characteristics. This exercise effectively shows how consciously creating more diverse groups can make teams more resilient and productive.

Get started by giving each team member an index card with a single letter on it. Then ask people to form a group of five people as quickly as possible without any further instructions. Next, ask the groups to form the longest word possible from their cards. It will quickly become apparent that the best way to win the game is with a team that has diverse cards.

This simple game is a great introduction to a wider conversation about diversity or inclusion. As always, debrief learnings and invite deeper conversation in the group to make this activity a success.

Human Knot

Corporate meetings can sometimes be heavy going, but they don’t need to be. In this fun teambuilding game, encourage your group to loosen up while working together to solve a puzzle that involves their bodies!

Start by getting your team members into groups of 7-12 people. Ask each group to stand in a circle, close their eyes and then link hands with two other people in the circle. Next, ask each group to work to untangle the human knot they have created without breaking the chain. This is a really fun game that requires clear communication, collaboration and a little flexibility too!

Team building activities for small groups

Team work doesn’t always come naturally, and effective team collaboration needs attention, reflection and work in order to happen. It’s not enough to just assume your team members will be able to work together efficiently: all teams can benefit from a strategic and well-thought approach to how they communicate and collaborate.

Whether you’re having a team away day or using methods expressly designed to improve collaboration and communication in small groups, you’ll find inspiration in the activities here!

These team building games are helpful whether you’re trying to solve miscommunication or collaboration issues, or just want to strengthen your company culture or communication skills in small groups.

Conflict Responses

It’s important to remember that every team is made up of individuals and sometimes, conflicts or disagreements can arise. While its regular working practice to disagree, our responses to conflict and how we deal with them when they arise are in our control and can be improved.

In this exercise, reflect on previous conflicts as a team and collectively create a set of guidelines to use in the future. Resolving issues effectively is a massive part of team collaboration, and by including all team members in this process you can get more meaningful results too.

Heard, Seen, Respected

Team empathy is a vital ingredient of good team work though whatever the size of your organization, it can sometimes be difficult to walk in the shoes of others and see things from other perspectives.

Heard, Seen, Respected is a team building activity designed to help participants practice deeper empathy for colleagues and build the kinds of bonds and working practices that can improve team collaboration. By inviting participants to notice patterns in the stories shared and find common takeaways, it’s a great way to get everyone involved on the same page and improve communication skills too.

Myers-Briggs Team Reflection

One potential obstacle to effective team collaboration is when members of the group don’t fully understand one another. Team building activities for work that encourage participants to not only try and understand their colleagues but themselves can be especially helpful when helping a team be more cohesive.

In this activity, invite your group to first take a version of the Myers-Briggs personality test. Start by asking each team member to reflect on their own personality type before then moving towards small group discussion. 

When using this activity, it’s important to correctly frame the usage of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) framework: This can be a useful framework to understand different communication preferences between people, but team members should not be labeled or put into boxes based on their self-reported preferences. 

Strength Building exercise

Exercises for team building come in many varieties. In this activity, the emphasis is on the team championing one another and increasing confidence, self esteem and mutual trust.

Start by asking team members to share an event where they accomplished something that made them feel good about themselves. The rest of the team chimes in to suggest two to three strengths they must have exhibited in order to achieve the accomplishment. Team collaboration often means helping others on the team achieve their best, and this activity helps the group uplift one another meaningfully and effectively.

Strength Envelopes

All members of a team have unique strengths, capabilities and working preferences. When working as a group, you can improve engagement and group workflow by having each participant utilize their strengths and do work that interests them the most.

With this team building activity, ask participants to write their name on an envelope and invite other members of their team to spend a few minutes writing down strength statements for that person. Place these in the envelope and pass them along so at the end of the session, each person has a set full of strengths they can use as the basis for reflection. 

Team of Two

Whether you work in a small startup or a multinational organisation, the reality is that a large part of your working day will be spent working in pairs and interacting on a one-to-one basis. Whether in-person, over email or on video chat, finding ways to work together more effectively is vital for effective teams.

Try this team building exercise to help empower your groups toward more effective communication skills and have more meaningful interpersonal relationships at work. As a member of a remote team, I’ve found this method to be personally useful time and time again.

What I Need From You (WINFY)

Some of the best team building activities focus on helping your group improve their teamwork skills and communicate and collaborate better as a team. A sometimes overlooked part of working as a team is clearly articulating what you need from other people and knowing how to ask for it.

What I Need From You is a team building method designed to help team members better articulate their core needs and be transparent with the group. This leads to a more cohesive team that works together with integrity and understanding.

Team building games for problem solving

Teams often come together to solve collective problems as a group. Whether these are large projects or simply finding better ways to work together on a day-to-day basis, solving problems is something all teams should do – in or out of a conference room!

Improving problem solving skills with a game that asks for communication, collaboration and creative thinking is a wonderful way to bring everyone together. We love using these kinds of team building exercises to bring large groups together to solve a fun, simple problem.

By engaging team members in this way, they not only have fun, but they learn how to work together more effectively and reflect on how they can take that learning back to their day work.

In this section, we’ll look at team building exercises you can use to encourage creative thinking, build problem solving skills and teamwork in an experiential way!

Blind Square – Rope Game

Nothing energizes a team workshop like a seemingly simple problem that also gets everyone moving and engaged. In this team problem solving game, start by tying a length of rope into a circle and invite the participants to plan how to make the rope into a perfect square while blindfolded.

After planning time, team members is blindfolded and has ten minutes to form a perfect square. By debriefing afterwards, your group will find communication, planning and attention to detail are all important aspects of creative problem solving – all while having fun too!

Crocodile River

We love team building activities that challenge the group to work together in inventive ways and also help energize a workshop setting. Crocodile River is a team problem solving exercise that challenges team members to support one another physically as they look to move across a wide outdoor space and reach the finish line together.

By changing the setting and inviting problem solving and strategic thinking to solve a challenge, your group not only stretches their problem solving muscles but also works on team communication, leadership and cooperation. As with any more abstract team building game, be sure to debrief afterward for best results!

Egg Drop

Classic team building games like Egg Drop offer tried and tested ways to encourage teams to solve problems together while improving the way they communicate. This game often generates a bunch of laughter and creative thinking too – how can we save this poor egg!

In this team problem solving activity, invite small groups to build a freestanding structure that can support the dropping of an egg from seven feet. Include some caveats and challenges to make it more difficult and encourage an even greater degree of team collaboration. Just make sure you bring a mop for afterwards!

Helium Stick

Bringing team members together with problem solving activities that also encourages play can perform multiple functions. Not only do you encourage teamwork and the building of various team skills but you can have fun and promote laughter too.

Helium Stick is an example of a simple team building game that does double duty by encouraging fun, physical activity while introducing and exploring some core team building concepts. Ask the group to lower a long pole to the ground while keeping all of their fingers in contact with the pole at all times – more difficult than it first appears!

Lego Challenge

Creating something is often the purpose of bringing your team members together. Tap into the engaging process of co-creation and collaboration with this team building game using LEGO.

Building on the concept of LEGO Serious Play, this exercise is a great way of encouraging play, out-of-the-box thinking and creative approaches to existing problems. Additionally, each team member has a secret assignment which increases the challenge and encourages finding inventive ways to cooperate effectively and achieve both personal and team goals. 

Marshmallow Challenge with Debriefing 

Real-life challenges are often time-sensitive and need to be considered thoughtfully and pragmatically. Team building activities for work are especially effective when they help create this same sense of urgency while encouraging team work.

In just eighteen minutes, groups must build the tallest free-standing structure out of materials including: spaghetti, tape, string, and one marshmallow, placing this last item on top. In this version of the team building game, there’s a debriefing section which encourages reflection on the roles of everyone in the team. 

Spider Web

Getting outside and doing fun, physical activity can be a great way to bond teams and mix up a normal working routine. In this team problem solving game, participants are asked to work to make holes in a grid of string and rope that can safely and effectively accommodate everyone in the group getting through at once. Team members are not allowed to touch the string or rope and with diverse groups, the difficulty this presents makes for an interesting problem solving challenge for teams to solve. 

Stress Balls

At one point or another, most teams will be asked to perform effectively under pressure, whether that’s generated by internal or external stressors. By using team building games that help participants work together and communicate effectively even under difficult circumstances you can prepare your team members for almost anything!

Stress Balls is a fun game to help start exploring team resilience and problem solving under pressure, and it’s easy to run with large groups too! Start by simply passing a single ball around the room before adding more complex rules to help team members learn a valuable lesson about communication and teamwork!

Scavenger Hunt

Activities that encourage groups to use teamwork and communication to achieve their goals are great ways to build team spirit. A classic scavenger hunt is a wonderful way to bring large groups together and have fun doing something a bit different!

Be sure to use office trivia, inside jokes or aspects of your company culture to inform this fun team building activity. You’ll find it much more effective if it’s tailored to your group. Bonus points if you can mix in activities that speak to the various departments or skillsets in the group during your scavenger hunt!

In the virtual-friendly version below, you’ll also find rules to help you run this activity with a remote team.

Team bonding activities

Mutual trust is a vital ingredient for any group of people working together, though it doesn’t always emerge organically. Taking the opportunity to build team bonds and create trust creates benefits for team connection, happiness and your company culture too!

While many of the fun team building activities above will bring your team together in some way, these methods are designed to expressly create better team bonds and build trust.

When working on improving team trust, we recommend being open about the goals of the exercise and encouraging the group to be honest. Being intentional during these activities can really help bring the group together!

Trust Battery

Great teamwork isn’t just about bringing a group of people together into the same space. Without honesty, openness, and trust, your team can’t collaborate effectively and can lead to frustration or frazzled relationships.

Trust Battery is a team building activity designed to help all members of your group reflect on their trust levels and rebuild those batteries with lower levels. By encouraging all members of a team to meaningfully reflect, you can enable better team collaboration and help your team feel closer and more cohesive too.

Telling Our Stories

Everyone has a story to tell, though without a framework or guiding principles, surfacing those stories in a way that makes everyone feel safe and head can be tricky – especially for new teams. Team building activities that combine self reflection, sharing and structure are great for helping people to get to know each other deeply and build better bonds.

In Telling Our Stories, invite participants to reflect on childhood, young adulthood and today while answering questions on colored post-it notes. By sharing from the full gamut of our experiences, your team can get to know one another meaningfully and create trust too. 

Better Connections

Great teamwork and collaboration is all about building stronger relationships and connections and this often means taking the time to see each other as more than just our job title. Once we get a fuller picture of who we are outside the office, everyone can feel more seen and understood. This is one of the cornerstones of team bonding and trust!

Encourage people who know each other the least to pair up and create space for meaningful reflection too – your team culture will thank you for it! It’s also a great way to improve communication skills and break down silos.

Feedback: Current Strongest Impression

Giving and receiving feedback is a great team building activity that sees benefits long after your session. When we find ways to be more open with one another and say what we really think, the results can be transformative for any group.

This activity is a great one to bring to any event where you want to improve team bonding, as it creates a safe and simple way to start practicing more honest feedback. The next time you think about how to improve the way your team works together, think about whether you have a good feedback culture. The trust that good, open feedback can create is a fundamental part of any high performing team!

Trust

When a team doesn’t trust one another, the atmosphere and culture of a team suffers. Creating space to align and create a shared understanding of what trust means to your team is a great way to build team bonds and improve the way you all work together.

Start this activity by bringing together a set of trust cards containing characteristics, behaviours, attitudes, habits, values, and beliefs associated with trust in the workplace. Next, ask participants to create their own trust cards and move towards creating three core trust cards for your team.

By co-creating the output together, this team building activity is great for ensuring buy-in and creating long-lasting trust.

Translated Rant

Team building workshops are a great place to give your team room to have fun, vent and be honest with one another. Creating space for honesty while also building communication skills is the goal of this fun team building activity!

Split your group into pairs and have one person rant about a pet peeve for 60 seconds. Next, have the other person translate this rant while focusing on what the person really cares about. This kind of deep listening activity is fundamental to creating team trust, and sharing some of our annoyances in the group is great for building bonds too!

Team building exercises for purpose and alignment

Even the best teams can have differences of opinion and approach. While different viewpoints and perspectives are useful in many situations, it’s also vital that everyone is aligned on team purpose and vision.

Aligning on how the team will work together is an important part of helping the team be happy, productive and pulling in the same direction.

In this section, we’ll look at team work activities to help improve team alignment and get everyone working towards the same purpose. Let’s get started!

Alignment & Autonomy

Activities that help improve each member of your team work more effectively and feel empowered to operate autonomously can be great for improving employee happiness and productivity. If we feel aligned on the core purpose and goals of our team while also being given the space to work in the way that is right for us, we can boost employee engagement and job satisfaction too! 

In Alignment & Autonomy, invite participants to reflect on times when they felt aligned and autonomous versus non-aligned and non-autonomous. By sharing, reflecting, and then ideating on solutions, your whole group can move forward together.

Engineering Your Team OS

When seeking to improve teamwork, it can be useful to think of your team as a system with complex, interlocking parts which may need a gradual refresh and redesign. This kind of abstraction can help prevent discussions from becoming too personal or difficult and ensure that your team alignment efforts are a success.

In this activity, your team designs an ideal working system by making aspirational statements and then methodically chooses a single statement to work towards ahead of the next meeting. By making positive changes incrementally, your team can achieve alignment and better working practices in a meaningful and sustainable manner. 

Generative Relationships STAR

Better working relationships start with shared reflection and the discovery and discussion of existing working patterns. This team alignment activity invites participants to assess their team along four vertices: Separateness, Tuning, Action and Reason and jointly shape next steps and future actions.

By including the whole team in the alignment process from start to finish, you can get meaningful buy-in and see real results! We love using this on an online whiteboard too. It can be a great way to help remote workers consider their inter-personal relationships!

Team Canvas Session

Team alignment isn’t always straightforward. The more large, complex or multi-discipline your team is, the trickier it can be to help the group mesh and understand their roles and responsibilities to the team and each other.

In Team Canvas Session, you and your team create a shared visual resource for understanding and articulating your goals, values and roles of your team. It can be used for general alignment, for onboarding new team members and even for defining the structure and purpose of a brand new team – simply recreate or download the team canvas and get started today!

Team Self Assessment

All groups need to go through a period of reflection and self-assessment in order to grow. But without structure or a guiding framework, these discussions can become bogged down or unproductive. With this reflective team building activity, you can enable a thoughtful and thorough team self-assessment along six guiding dimensions.

Start with individual reflection before bringing everyone back together to debrief and see what you’re aligned on and what needs more work. By then narrowing these down to the most important elements, you can align and enable better co-working practices quickly and efficiently!

Letter from the Future

Without a cohesive shared vision, teams can become unproductive or harbor frustration on team direction. By spending time with visioning activities, you can help everyone push in the same direction while still utilizing their unique talents.

In Letter from the Future, invite your team to imagine all the changes that might impact them in the next 5 years and write a letter back from that point. Ask your team to cover what’s been accomplished in those five years, and what kind of challenges and obstacles were overcome to make this happen. Remember to remind teams that good letters have a beginning, middle, and end and that they should read clearly – this will help during the sharing and debriefing section of this method!

Team Purpose & Culture

Defining your team’s purpose and culture is an integral part of team building. By clearly articulating why your team exists and how you will all work together to fulfill that purpose, you can align and bring focus to all the work you do. This team values and vision activity aims to create a shared visual resource that your team can refer to in the future.

It also uses wisdom from other successful organizations to help enable meaningful conversation and move from individual purpose statements to a single one for the whole team. If you’re looking for a complete process that can guide your team values and vision efforts, this method from Hyper Island is worth a try!

Checkout and recap activities for your team building workshop

The process of team building and enabling a group to work together more effectively can be involved and exhaustive.

As with any group process or workshop, taking the time to reflect, recap and check out can ensure the lasting impact of what was covered in the session.

You’ll often find that finding time to close team building activities creates space for further employee engagement and reflection. Getting team members involved in choosing the next activity or coming up with a theme for the next round of office trivia!

In this section, we’ll take a look at some great team building activities for closing a session and for recapping the main learning points. Let’s dive in!

Check-in / Check-out

Ensuring everyone in a group is present, focused and committed to the work of a session is a vital ingredient in making a team building session a success. With this workshop method from Hyper Island, you can not only start and end your session the right way, but you can help everyone in your group be seen, heard and understood by the rest of the team.

This is especially useful with a remote team, where ensuring clear connection between team members who don’t share a physical office is especially important.

This activity also helps encourage reflection and brings the workshop to an effective close – be sure to give it a try!

Bus Trip

The trip back from a team building event is a great place to share feedback and appreciate one another. Don’t have a bus? No worries! Create a few rows of chairs and simulate the experience for this reflective closing activity.

Once you’ve gotten the chairs of the bus set-up, ask participants to speak the person next to them and share: what they like about the other person, what they appreciate and what about the other person makes them happy. Speak for just 45 seconds each and then ask the group to switch seats.

One Breath Feedback

In particularly large teams, it can be tempting to forgo the closing activity or individual feedback steps just because it will take so long and it can be hard to maintain energy and interest. One Breath Feedback solves this problem by giving each participant the space of a single breath to check out and reflect on the session. By ensuring that everyone has room to speak and be heard while also placing a time limit on the reflection, you can cap off a team building workshop effectively and intelligently.

Team building workshop templates

Building better teams often starts with designing an effective group process. Whether this takes the form of a workshop or meeting, you’ll want a balance of activities, ice breakers and reflective methods in order to help your group align and grow together.    

In this next section, we’ll take a look at some example processes with a complete workshop template you can use to get started. Let’s take a look.

Team development day for a new team

Helping new teams to bond and find a shared purpose and value system is often best achieved with a well designed group process. Try the team development day template when working with a brand new team or one which has seen large growth and is in need of development.

Here, you’ll find a complete one-day group process full of team building activities that can take a group from getting to know each other all the way through to defining their needs and making commitments. 

Emotional Culture Workshop

Good teams are empathetic and in touch with their emotions. Using the emotional culture deck, this workshop can be run in under 3 hours and helps your team define and improve working relationships and the emotional culture of your team.

Taking the time to articulate and define these items ensures that everyone in your group is seen, understood and valued, and that you have a shared language for moving forward.

Team Dynamics Workshop

Cohesive teams that work well together are those with an understanding about what makes a team and how it functions.

Support your team building activities with this half-day workshop template and guide your group through a process of understanding and building on the dynamics of working together. 

Team building sessions made easy

Designing an effective team building workshop means creating a balanced agenda of activities and group discussions while also keeping everything on time.

With SessionLab, you drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda in minutes.

Your session timing adjusts automatically as you make changes and when you’re done, you can share a beautiful printout with your colleagues and participants.

Explore how teams use SessionLab to collaboratively design effective workshops and meetings or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Over to you

Enabling better teamwork and building stronger, more cohesive teams isn’t easy. Whether you’re running a team building day, team workshop, or simply adding some team building activities to your meetings, we hope that some of the methods above can help you and your group come together and do better work. 

Got a team workshop to plan? Check out our complete guide to workshop planning to make the process a breeze. Want to start creating your agenda quickly? Use a meeting or workshop template to save time designing or get inspiration.

Which of these team building activities is your favourite? Is there anything missing from the list above? Let us know in the comments! We’d love to hear about how we can all improve our team building efforts.

In this post, we’ll share a collection of tried and tested ice breaker games you can use to engage and energize groups of any size. Whether you just want to have fun, encourage team building or level-up your meetings, there’s an activity here for you.

An in-depth study from TINYpulse, an employee engagement company, studied more than 40,000 workers’ inputs from more than 300 companies globally. They found a correlation of 0.92 between employee fulfillment and their relationships with colleagues. Since you can end up spending more time with coworkers than with your family or partner, it is a topic that deserves much attention.

But how can you break the ice without also frustrating your team or making them roll their eyes? Using facilitator-tested and proven methods like those below are a surefire way to open your meetings more effectively and engage your team.

You’ll find classic conversation starters like Two truths and One Lie, fun games like The Marshmallow Challenge or even a Virtual Scavenger Hunt! You’ll find our collection of 61 of the best ice breaker games for work separated by category and find some useful tips for running them in your workshop or meeting too!

Purpose of ice breaker games

So how do you avoid creating a frustrating, patronizing ice breaker game that won’t make participants feel like they are wasting their time?

The benefits of a good ice breaker far outweigh any negatives. They can take care of introductions in a much more fun way than just simply going around the room and stating what’s on your business card. They can help people remember names, start conversations and create a positive atmosphere in moments.

When done right, ice breakers can quickly build a sense of community, set the tone for the upcoming session & give participants ownership of the learning ahead.

Icebreaker games are also a great way for people to share their expectations and for facilitators to introduce the topic of the day. They help participants to loosen up, understand each other more and enable better collaboration and networking. Last, but not least, it is a surefire way to energize the group and have everyone focused and ready to go.

Ready to design a session around your chosen icebreaker? SessionLab makes it easy to build a complete agenda in minutes. Start by dragging and dropping blocks, add your timings and adjust with ease to create a minute-perfect session. When you’re ready for feedback, invite collaborators and refine your agenda with ease.

Ice Breaker Games to Get to Know Each Other

Whenever you bring a group of people together for a meeting, project, or event, it’s helpful to get to know each other at the outset.

This does not only mean just memorizing names, but also involves getting the facilitator or leader of the session familiar with everyone and getting a read on the energy of the room.

One of the other major benefits of these games is in allowing group members to break free from dry or boring introductions and get to know each other more meaningfully. Let’s dive in!

• Just One Lie
• Diversity Bingo
• Group Map
• Two truths and One Lie
• Unique and Shared
• Passions Tic Tac Toe
• Jenga Questions
• Quotes
• Speed Dating Icebreaker
• Break the ice with the help of your key
• Whose Story is it?
• Trading Card Icebreaker
• Find Your Pair
• Toilet Paper Icebreaker
• Show and Tell

Just One Lie

This method is an adaptation of the well-known ice breaker ‘Two Truths And A Lie’ to create an activity that can be run throughout a day of a meeting or workshop.

Participants mingle and ask questions from each other while noting the answers on post-its. But everyone includes one lie. The result is that you have a board of interesting facts about all the participants, among them, one lie. Throughout the workshop you can return to these boards for participants to introduce each other and find out what was the lie.

Diversity Bingo

Diversity Bingo is one of our favorite group ice breaker games. This game help participants to get information on each other in a fun, competitive way.

First, create a bingo card containing a grid of squares with a statement or question in each square that will apply to some members of your group and is in line with the objectives of your class, workshop, or event. After each player gets a bingo card, they mingle around introducing themselves and finding other participants who can sign their cards indicating that a statement applies to him/her.

To avoid having people only talk to one or two people and filling up their card, limit the signatures they can give to 1 or 2 per card. When everyone has reached bingo or is super close, you can share something you’ve learned about each other, yourself and the experience of this ice breaker activity.

Group Map

Do you have people who come from many different places to your session? If you’re looking for fun icebreakers for meetings that are active, Group Map is a good bet!

A great way to get to know each other is to have participants place themselves on an imaginary map laid out in the room representing the country according to where they grew up. Ask them to share one internal value they got from that place, and why that is important for them.

Encourage people to share a short story if they want. Sharing customs and values from your childhood can create more understanding and help form stronger bonds – a hallmark of a good icebreaker.

​Two Truths and One Lie

A simple and classic ice breaker game. Each employee shares three statements about themselves – two truths, and one lie. Then, everyone tries to guess which is the lie by asking questions. Try to find out as many details about the statements as possible and watch the speaker’s reactions closely. The whole point is to learn facts about your peers while inserting an element of mystery.

This team icebreaker helps the group learn about each other and gives both introverts and extroverts an equal chance to reveal themselves and discover others’ assumptions. It’s been done before, but if you’re looking for simple ice breaker games for work, this is one everyone is sure to know and requires zero prep from the facilitator.

Unique and Shared

Create groups of 4-5 people, and let them discover what they have in common, along with interesting characteristics that are unique to a person in the group.

This icebreaker promotes unity as it gets people to realize that they have more common ground with their peers than they first might realize. As people become aware of their own unique characteristics, they can also help people feel empowered to offer the group something unique.

Passions Tic Tac Toe

The goal of this icebreaker game is to help the participants to get to know each other at the beginning of an event or to help identify their values during the later part of a training session.

Create a 3 x 3 grid for each participant and have them fill in each block with a different personal passion randomly. After the individual work, have everyone walk around the room and compare notes. When they find the same passion listed in both grids, ask them to sign for each other in the appropriate square. The winner is the participant who manages to have other people’s signatures on three lines (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal). You can continue the game to have as many winners as you like.

​Jenga questions

Jenga is the starting point of many fun gatherings. It’s a super easy ice breaker activity to explain and pick up & anyone can join any time. You can spice up a regular tower-toppling contest by writing intriguing questions on each block (or as many as you can).

When you draw each block, read the question out loud & answer before placing the piece on the top of the tower. This can ignite exciting conversations about everyday topics like favorite downtime activities to more in-depth stuff, like career and self-development goals.

Traditional games with a unique spin can often generate curiosity and engagement in a groups setting. Try having different kinds of icebreaker activities in your toolbox in order to overcome any potential resistance in your group.

Quotes

This fast-paced icebreaker activity allows participants to get acquainted with while also exploring something thought provoking and inspiring. Prepare a set of inspirational quotes prior to the session and the number of participants on individual slips of paper. Put the pile in the center of the room. Each participant picks up one quote, then picks a partner and begins to discuss what the quote says to them, if it is meaningful, and how.

Then after a minute or so the facilitator gives a signal and participants switch partners, and may switch quotes as well if they’d like. This can continue for 4-5 rounds for around 15 minutes. Choose quotes that relate to your meeting topic or company culture for an even more effective opening to your session!

Speed Dating Icebreaker

The goal of this game is to have a succession of very rapid conversations in an extremely short amount of time with as many people as possible. Have people sit in pairs, with colleagues that they don’t directly work with on a day-to-day basis. Determine the time limit (say 3 minutes for each conversation) and set a timer. When it starts, each pair has to start speed networking & find out as much professional info about the other as possible.

While it’s natural for group members to want to spend time with people they know, encouraging your team to mix is an important step to improving team cohesion. Team building icebreakers like this one are great for starting that process!

Break the ice with the help of your key

Games and activities that include physical objects can help ensure the session is memorable and specific to those people present. In this ice breaker, ask participants to sit in a circle and bring their keys with them.

Explain that they will get to know each other through their keys. Ask them that one by one present all the keys they have on their keychain and tell a few sentences about the area the key represents – the city or neighborhood they live in, the activity it represents (bike or locker key) or the person they received it from.

Be sure to start the circle yourself so the participants get the feeling of how it should be done. Bonus points if you can demonstrate openness and vulnerability for your group to follow!

Whose story is it?

Start this ice breaker game by writing your funniest or weirdest story on a small piece of paper. It has to be a true one, no fiction! Then fold the paper up and drop it into a bowl or other container.

The facilitator or the person leading the program randomly reads every story and group members guess who the writer is. This is a great way to get to know each other and find out new things, even if you’ve worked together for a long time.

​Trading Card Icebreaker

Starting a meeting by defining your personality and being creative is a great way to kick off a more involved team project.

This activity from Gamestorming works great because it lets people self-define and share their personality outside of their day-to-day work. This approach means people get to connect more meaningfully and authentically while also creating fun and memorable cards that serve as conversation pieces as the meeting progresses.

​Find your pair

Prepare word pairs, like salt and pepper, milk and honey, sail and wind, etc on separate pieces of paper. Tape one to each person’s back. People then have to walk around and ask closed questions (with a yes or no answer) to find out what their phrase is. Once they find out, they have to find their pair & by continuing to ask questions (these can be open or closed) they have to learn 3 new things about the other.

​Toilet Paper Icebreaker

This is one of those ice breaker activities that is easily prepared in most live settings – you only need one roll of toilet paper. Pass this around, and have everyone rip off how much they would usually use. Everyone will feel awkward & will not really see the point at the beginning & possibly think you’ve lost it.

When everyone has taken off a few squares, they should count them. The amount they have is how many fun facts they should reveal about themselves. A warning though: this is an activity that is best suited for more lighthearted occasions and you’ll want to know your audience a bit before trying this!

​Show and tell

Group icebreakers are important, even in teams that know each other well. For more established groups, where people are more familiar with each other, it’s always good to dedicate a day, or an afternoon for “show and tell”. Each team member gets the chance (not all at once of course) to showcase something – an object or a topic that they are interested in.

Try making this activity part of a group routine at the start of every team meeting for bonus points. Creating this habit gives less exhibitionist characters a chance to share and it is also a great practice to hone presentation skills and handle the attention & tricky questions.

Quick ice breaker games

When you have a tightly packed agenda, it’s useful to have some quick icebreakers you can use to warm up the group in a pinch. These activities are simple to explain, fast to run, and work great in large or small groups. They also can double as after-lunch energizers to encourage team members to engage in what’s next!

Here are some of our favorite games you can use to break the ice in a group in ten minutes or less! Prefer something that requires even less set-up? Check out our collection of icebreaker questions for a set of effective conversation starters.

• One Word at a Time
• Apple, Orange and Banana!
• Conversation Questions
• Diversity Welcome
• Stress Balls
• Object Meditation
• Name Game
• Have you ever? (Stand up if)
• Line Up

One Word at a Time

Ice breaker ideas can come from anywhere, and so can great ideas. Create a surprise sentence by saying one word at a time. Give a general topic. The first person in the group says one word to a topic. The next person continues with another word.

Eventually, the group creates a whole sentence by each member contributing only one word at a time. The outcome is always unexpected & almost always funny. Make sure people don’t say two words when using articles or pronouns.

Apple, Orange and Banana!

Some of the best quick icebreakers promote team bonding by simply encouraging the group to be silly and have fun. This game is designed to do just that!

Start by asking your group to stand in a circle with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front. Explain that when you shout either apple, orange or banana they must perform the associated action: moving forward, backward or spinning around. When the group is comfortable, mix it up by saying two or even three words in sequence!

This great icebreaker game gets everyone moving, generates lots of laughter, and is a wonderful activity to use after breaks too.

Conversation Questions

Sometimes the best and fastest icebreakers are also the simplest! Use this collection of 25 icebreaker questions as the basis for letting to group get to know each other, or have participants answer in rapid-fire!

Small groups might wish to mingle and ask questions one on one, while you might invite larger groups to answer questions by raising their hand to answer. Whatever way you go, these icebreaker questions are a great starting point for team bonding and helping participants get to know other group members.

Diversity Welcome

Quick icebreakers also have the potential to set the right tone for your meeting or workshop. The focus of his activity is to promote diversity and help create an inclusive environment for your session. Start by naming a possible trait of someone who may be present and saying they are welcome. For example, “If you love dogs, you are welcome here! If you prefer cats, you are welcome here!”

Slowly move into deeper territory by naming traits and concepts that resonate with your audience. With established groups, invite participants to share their own welcome, focusing on helping everyone in the room feel safe and welcome.

Stress Balls

We love games that not only function as a fun introduction but also offer a way to improve company culture. Stress Balls is a fast-paced icebreaker that helps highlight the importance of communication and teamwork while also encouraging lots of fun.

Begin by simply asking participants to stand in a circle and pass a ball to their left. Debrief and ask how the task went before asking participants to try again while moving the ball faster. Introduce further complexity until the game becomes a mess! While the result is chaotic fun, it also offers a very teachable lesson about how teams can communicate in order to achieve great results.

Object Meditation

Just because an icebreaker can be done quickly doesn’t mean it can’t also be mindful! This focused meditation activity is a wonderful way to open a meeting and encourage everyone to be present.

First, have everyone choose an object that is close to them and invite them to close their eyes. Next, ask the group to notice how they feel and to consider any feelings that aren’t serving them right now. Invite them to transfer these feelings into the object they are holding for the duration of the meeting and then come back to the room.

Combined with a quick debrief, this method is a great way to gently break the ice with your group. Check out the full method below for a script you can follow too!

Name Game

Use this ice breaker activity at, or very near, the start of a course, workshop or meeting where people don’t know each other to help get to know everyone’s names. Have the group sit in a circle where everyone can see the others. The first person says their name. The next person continues, but after saying their own name, they repeat the first person’s name. This continues with each person repeating one more name. Reassure people towards the end that it’s ok if they get stuck & encourage the others to jump in to help if anyone is lost.

​Have you ever? (Stand up if)

Prior to the workshop the facilitator prepares a list of questions which can only be answered with yes or no. These questions should begin with “Have you ever…?” or “Stand up if…”. The facilitator reads out the questions or statements one by one. For each statement the participants stand up if they could answer the statement with yes.

The questions should be designed to not be discriminatory, intimidating or insulting. Possible topics can be countries visited, dishes, games or sports tried, movies seen etc. This should be quite familiar to people before they attend the meeting or workshop and is quick and easy to understand – ice breaker ideas don’t need to be brand new to be effective!

Line Up

This is a quick ice breaker game where players have to form an orderly line without any discussion, or any verbal cues or help at all. The line is formed by predetermined criteria (like height, or color of each person’s eyes etc.). and gently asks people to start working together to get themselves into order.

With a more familiar group, try adding more complication to encourage your team to think more deeply. This icebreaker helps develop team collaboration and non-verbal communication, and it’s great when kicking of a training session with lots of talking later!

Ice Breaker Games for Meetings

Using an ice breaker at the start of a meeting is a great way to encourage group members to be present and get things started on the right foot. Effective opening activities energize everyone, helping them ‘arrive’ mentally and leave behind whatever task or thought they were previously working on.

They can also help clarify the objectives of the meeting and position the group for what’s coming next. While many of the ice breakers in this collection work well for work, we’ve found these ones especially effective. Here are some ice breakers for meetings to help ensure your next team meeting is a success!

• Coat of Arms
• One Word Exercise
• The real reason why you are here
• LEGO Metaphors
• Weather Check-in
• Rain Icebreaker
• Celebrate the wins in your team
• Mindfulness Icebreaker
• Purpose mingle

Coat of Arms

This game is a great way for players to introduce themselves and their colleagues. It’s especially fun for people who think they already know each other very well – almost every time there are at least a few surprises!

Sometimes these new nuggets of wisdom can have an immediate effect on the employees’ relationships, current projects or challenges. Since you have to draw, rather than explain, it serves double duty for topics like problem-solving, creative thinking and innovation. Fun icebreakers for meetings don’t get much better than this!

One Word Exercise

Pick a phrase that is central to the reason you’ve gathered and have everyone write down or say a word that comes to their mind in relation to it. If you’re leading a meeting about planning an upcoming project, ask participants to share one word that they think describes the goal or the processes that are needed.

Once everyone has shared their phrases, discuss the results. This ice breaker helps explore different viewpoints about a common challenge, before starting the meeting.

The real reason why you are here

When we first arrive in a meeting, we’re often carrying other things with us. The stress of unfinished work, thinking about the evening or just what we’re having for lunch. Encourage your team to be present and think about why they are in your meeting or workshop with this simple ice breaker that helps spark conversation.

Begin by asking the group to state the concious reason for being in the meeting, and then invite them to consider the deeper reasons for being in the session. The surfacing of these deeper reasons for being present can be surprising, but are often useful for the group to discuss while breaking the ice!

Weather Check-in

For some meetings, time can be short. Quick but fun icebreaker activities like this one can be an effective way of getting a read of how everyone is doing while still being time efficient.

Begin this ice breaker by asking each member of the group to share how they are feeling & what’s going on for them right now in the language of weather. For example, I’m feeling like it’s mostly sunny skies with a bit of a rain cloud looming or I feel like I’m in the eye of a tornado! I’ve found this game especially useful when working with remote teams, for whom a metaphor can feel like a safe way to share in a group setting.

LEGO Metaphors

Each participant gets a set of few LEGO bricks (identical sets to everyone – a few items, around 5-10 bricks per person will suffice). Everyone builds something that relates to the topic of the meeting.

Afterwards, everyone gets 30 seconds to explain what their building means (e.g ‘My Home’, ‘Interesting Experiment’, ‘The coolest computer ever’) and how it relates to the topic of the meeting. (Optional: the figures/buildings and the metaphors may be used later on to help discussions around the table.) Remember that icebreaker games for work don’t need to sacrifice fun, and some of the best team building icebreakers are creative and allow people to get in touch with their inner child!

Rain icebreaker

Encouraging everyone to be present and engaged at the start of your meeting doesn’t need to be complicated. By simply getting everyone in the room participating in the same goal, this icebreaker can quickly help everyone “arrive” in the session.

Start by having everyone in the front of the room rub their hands together vigorously. Row by row, get more people to join in until you reach the back of the room. Next, have the first row switch to clicking their fingers and proceed through the room in the same way. Go back and forth between clicking and rubbing in order to replicate the sound of rain and then invite the group to stop and enjoy a break in the shower.

Celebrate the wins in your team

An easy icebreaker that will have everyone feeling good before a meeting. Go around a circle and highlight a story – an action, decision or result – that can and should be praised from each team member. Something where they reached beyond their typical responsibilities and excelled.

Have everyone acknowledge and thank each other for surpassing expectations. This is a great mood booster – by lifting each other up, the energy just starts to vibrate in the room. Everyone likes to be recognized. Ice breakers for meetings that give people the chance to celebrate success can be key in setting a great tone for the meeting to come.

Purpose mingle

The best ice breaker games often have a very clear goal. You can use this method at the beginning of any meeting to set the stage and get people thinking about what they can contribute. It’s a simple way to get started and always gets results!

At the beginning of your session, have people walk around & share with others what they will contribute to that particular session. It’s a great way to enhance engagement & help people set goals and hold themselves accountable. It also makes others aware of everyone’s intent and can help prevent misunderstandings.

Mindfulness Icebreaker

Meetings can sometimes become difficult because attendees come in stressing about the topic or are distracted by things outside of the meeting.

In this mindful ice breaker, ask people to take a few moments to “check-in” with themselves and write down their worries, energy levels, and what else is on their mind. After everyone is done, they should rip up their answers and discard them. This helps them identify their state, let go of their worries and have better focus & more empathy towards others.

Fun Ice Breaker Games to Support Team Building

Ice breaker games are not only useful at the beginning of meetings or getting to know new people. They are also a great way to support team building, by creating a positive atmosphere, helping people relax and break down barriers.

Team building icebreakers can also reveal new information about colleagues that otherwise you wouldn’t discover during your everyday routine. Remember that successful teams are often those who’ve gotten to know each other better on a personal level too!

Team icebreakers such as those below are great for enhancing team bonding and empowering everyone in the group to move forward together. Let’s take a look!

• Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity
• Team Jigsaw Puzzle Game
• Back to Back Drawing
• Scavenger Hunt
• Electric Fence Icebreaker
• Low Tech Social Networking

Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity

The Four Quadrants is a fun and creative team icebreaker than can be adapted for any situation. It is super easy to prep for and set up – you only need large sheets of paper (flipcharts or similar) and markers. Have people draw up a 2×2 grid and ask them four questions. They should draw the answers in each quadrant.

Questions can cover topics like current challenges, stressors, defining moments, moments of pride, fears, desired outcome for the current gathering etc. Afterwards they can show each other their drawings and discuss their creations. The exercise is fun, colorful and visual and can be modified to work with any group and/or topic just by changing the questions.

Team Jigsaw Puzzle Game

Separate people into teams. Give each a very different jigsaw puzzle (with equal difficulty & number of pieces). Each group has the same amount of time to complete the puzzle.

The secret twist is to switch up a few pieces with the other groups beforehand! Fun icebreakers can help keep a team on their toes and encourage creative thinking – try ice breakers for meetings that include an edge of competitiveness and fun to really liven things up.

The goal is to finish before the others – so they must figure out collectively how to convince other teams to give up pieces they need. This can be through barter, merging or changing teams, donating minutes, etc.

This is a longer game, but one that is worth doing, since it encourages teamwork on several levels – internally and externally too.

Back to Back Drawing

Two people should sit facing away from each other. One receives a picture of an object or phrase. Without saying directly what they see, they should describe it to their pair without using words that clearly give it away. Their pair has to draw a specific picture.

The game requires two people to sit facing away from each other, where one team member is given a picture of an object or word. Without specifying directly what it is, the other person must describe the image without using words that clearly give away the image. This is a great team building game to develop verbal communication and is a fun alternative to more traditional icebreaker games.

Scavenger Hunt

Many people have great memories from a childhood scavenger hunt. Recreating this experience to let our the inner child and work as a team is one of our favourite icebreaker games for adults too! Start by creating a list of items that need to be gathered and then split your group into small teams to try and find them all to kick off your scavenger hunt.

Working with a remote or hybrid team? Try the virtual scavenger hunt below! Be sure to put in items that require a wide range of skills and thinking and diverse personalities to be completed successfully. A scavenger hunt is also a great opportunity to mix people into teams who don’t typically work together and bring them together with ice breaker games.

Electric Fence Icebreaker

This is a great energiser that requires players to move about as they build an imaginary electric fence. They have to try and cross it without touching it and getting “electrocuted”. The fence can be represented by a rope or a shoe string tied between two objects. It should be about waist high. Players can’t go under it, this is not limbo dancing!

They must also be touching a teammate with at least one hand at all times. This ice breaker activity requires quick brainstorming, problem-solving and negotiating other ideas. Make sure that people who are uncomfortable with physical contact have an option to not participate but still feel involved in the brainstorming part. Inclusive games make for some of the best ice breakers: be sure to bare this in mind when deciding on icebreaker games for work or your next meeting.

Low Tech Social Networking

The object of this ice breaker game is to introduce event participants to each other by co-creating a mural-sized, visual network of their connections. – great for medium size events where participants come from different organisations. All participants will need a 5×8 index card and access to markers or something similar to draw their avatar. They will also need a substantial wall covered in butcher paper to create the actual network.

Once their avatar is ready, they “upload” themselves by sticking their card to the wall. Then they find the people they know and draw lines to make the connections. This is one of our favourite ice breakers when working with large, multi-discipline groups where connections might not be immediately obvious.

Ice Breaker Games for Small Groups

While many of the icebreaker games above can be adapted for any group size, these activities are especially effective when working with groups of less than 15 people.

These small group icebreakers are great at using the extra space to create opportunities for team bonding and deeper sharing between team members. They’re also designed so you’re not left with awkward silences just because you don’t have a massive team taking part!

• Interview icebreaker
• Magic box
• Paper telephone
• Human knot
• Life map

Interview icebreaker

One of the major benefits of small group icebreaker games is space for participants to talk and get to know each other a little more than they would in a group of 20+ people. Interview is a playful way to get team members talking at the start of a session while also introducing the topic of the workshop or meeting.

Start by getting people into pairs. One person begins by being a reporter and then other will be the interviewee. For three minutes, the reporter will interview the other person on a chosen subject and attempt to get as much information as they can before switching roles. Encourage the group to really get into their roles and provide some example questions to guide the group toward the topic of the day.

Magic Box

Spending time in a small group is a great opportunity to get to know people a little more deeply. This game encourages players to share more about themselves than an average icebreaker, and it’s a fun way to kickstart creative thinking too!

Start by assembling a box of interesting objects (photos will do in a pinch!). Next, invite participants to choose an object without overthinking it and then explain who they are, why they chose the object and what they think the connection between the object and the workshop is.

Paper Telephone

Paper telephone is a fun icebreaker that encourages creativity and laughter by combining two classic games: telephone and pictionary. Start by handing out a stack of small papers and pens, and invite each team member to write a sentence on the first piece of paper. Players then pass their stack to the next person who must read the sentence and then create a visual representation of that sentence on the next piece of paper in the stack.

Play proceeds around the circle, with players needing to transform back and forth between words and images. Often, by the time you get your original stack back, the sentence has gone on a weird and wonderful transformation!

While you can play paper telephone with larger groups, the more people you add, the longer it takes. Doing this icebreaker in a small group means you have more time to share what people came up with and the journey you all went on together.

Human Knot

The human knot is a fun, physical icebreaker that is best played in groups of 7-16 people. It’s a great way to break the ice while also creating energy and a sense of fun.

Start by getting the group to stand in a circle and ask them to close their eyes. Next, everyone reaches out and links one hand with someone across the circle. Then they link the other hand with another person in the circle. Then, ask everyone to open their eyes and try to untangle the knot they’ve made without breaking the chain!

Life Map

Working with small groups creates an opportunity for greater depth. In this icebreaker game, invite team members to draw their life as a map, using common symbols and signs you might find on a map. Stop signs, deer crossings, mountainous areas…the choice of how to illustrate your life story is yours!

Give time after drawing for everyone to share and for others to ask questions. The connections, conversations and shared understandings that come out of this reflective icebreaker can set a wonderful right tone for the work ahead.

Ice Breaker Games to Improve Teamwork and Collaboration

Good ice breaker games usually all have a strong aspect of teamwork and collaboration as people work together in groups to accomplish a challenge or solve a puzzle. Therefore these team icebreakers can also be used as part of team building events and team development workshops. They are meant to fast-track group familiarity and increase the socialization process in a new or existing environment.

With increased social interaction, people naturally learn how to work together more productively – the mood can warm up between colleagues who are normally highly formal with each other. The best ice breakers have the power to strengthen coworker bonds, stimulate better brainstorming sessions, and create an atmosphere of inclusivity.

Here, we’ve collected ice breaker activities to help improve teamwork and collaboration in a more involved manner.

• The Marshmallow Challenge
• Egg drop
• Helium Stick
• Blind square – The perfect square
• Desert Island

The Marshmallow Challenge

In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. To complete the marshmallow challenge, the marshmallow needs to be on top and hopefully, not fall off! This icebreaker game emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, collaboration, innovation and problem solving strategy.

Genuinely fun icebreakers for meetings can be hard to find – The Marshmallow Challenge is one of those icebreaker games for work that feels almost like play. The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world. Definitely give it a try.

Egg drop

This fun activity could be used as an icebreaker both for people who have just met and for already existing teams. Breaking people up into groups, each one needs a fresh egg, some straws, masking tape and other items for creating a package to protect the egg.

Using the raw materials provided, the team goal is to build a structure that will support a free-falling egg dropped from a predetermined height (e.g. 7 feet) without the egg breaking. Get to know you games with an element of danger are always fun ice breakers for meetings. This is a method that fosters team communication, collaboration and strategic thinking as well.

Helium Stick

Solving seemingly simple problems as a group to get everyone working together at the start of a workshop. This game requires one long, thin, light rod (e.g. a broom handle) and a bunch of curious participants!

First, line up people in two rows facing each other. Introduce the Helium Stick and ask participants to hold their index fingers out. Lay the Stick on their fingers & before letting go, have everyone adjust their position so the Stick is horizontal and everyone is touching it. The goal is to lower the Stick to the ground in a way that no one lets go of it at any time.

Pinching, grabbing, or holding on properly to the Stick is not allowed. If the group makes a mistake, they start from the beginning. Helium Stick is a fun icebreaker that asks participants to really engage with one another and we’d recommend it for any team building workshop!

Blind square – The perfect square

Blindfold your seated participants. Take a long string or rope with the ends tied together & place it in everyone’s hands. Leave the circle and ask them to form a perfect square from the rope without looking.

When people think they are finished, they can remove their blindfolds to see the result. Ice breakers for meetings don’t always include props or blindfolds, but deploying them effectively can make for a memorable ice breaker.

Blind Square is one of the icebreaker games you can use to highlight leadership and communication – some people will want to take charge, while others are more comfortable following direction. Also, it can be repeated after the first try to see if they can improve their collaboration.

Desert Island

Many of us will have played some variation of this ice breaker game before. This game asks you team: if you were trapped on a desert island, what would you use to survive?

Introduce participants to a list of possible items and have them choose the three they find most essential. Then, they’ll share the items they chose with the rest of the group. This activity works well with a remote team and with larger groups, you may want to separate people into smaller teams where they collaboratively strategize on which items to pick.

Fun Ice Breaker Games

The best ice breakers have the power to strengthen coworker bonds, stimulate better brainstorming sessions, and create an atmosphere of inclusivity.

They’re also incredibly fun to play, making them a welcomed break from regular work activities. They break down barriers that might exist between employees & make it easier for people to communicate with one another.

Ice breakers should also encourage lighthearted interactions that wouldn’t usually take place in the context of a normal workday. When the correct game is chosen, everyone benefits from the energy they bring to any meeting or event. Remember that even some business-critical meetings can benefit from a bit of levity and fun!

Here are some ice breaker ideas for when you just want to have fun with your team.

• Portrait Gallery
• What is my name
• Rock Paper Scissors Tournament
• Minefield
• Crazy Handshake
• The Movie Pitch Icebreaker
• Bang!
• Share a joke
• Sound Ball
• The No Smiling Icebreaker
• Hello Kitty

Portrait Gallery

This ice breaker activity is a fun one that requires some creativity. It enhances a sense of community because people have to draw the others as a group – not just between the drawers, but the recipients of the portraits too. The outcome is very visual and colorful and the result images can be put up in the meeting room afterward! Meeting ice breakers that produce physical results that can be shared can really help ensure the good vibes of the meeting continue afterward!

​What is my name

Stick the name of a well-known celebrity or public figure on people’s backs. Have players mingle and ask each other questions to find out who they are. This is a light game that initiates easy conversations without forced & awkward small talk. Make sure the figures are generally well recognizable. What is my name is one of those icebreaker games for work that is easy to set up and get going and is fun for all involved.

Rock Paper Scissors Tournament

This is a warm-up to really get a group energized. It is a game based on the traditional Rock Paper Scissors game but with a twist. The people who lost become fans and have to cheer for the players still in the game. The final is cheered on by a large crowd & the excitement is through the roof! If there are a larger number of people, you can have multiple tournaments. Fun icebreakers don’t need to be complicated. Keep your ice breaker simple and ensure everyone can get involved easily.

Minefield

Set up harmless obstacles in the room you’re meeting in. Use squeaky toys, whoopie cushions, bubble wrap and the like. Everyone takes turns going around the course while blindfolded, guided by their teammates. The goal is: help each to navigate through the minefield.

While this game often results in lots of laughter, it also helps teach the importance of clear communication and trusting your team.

Crazy Handshake

This ice breaker helps people ease into a group and brings out their creativity without a lot of effort. Splitting the group into pairs, each pair develops a creative handshake. Once done, the pair splits and each individual partners with another group member. The newly formed pair then teaches each other the original handshakes and together creates a new one. You can break up and pair off people as many times as you want.

The Movie Pitch Icebreaker

Divide players into several groups and have each team come up with an idea for a movie they want to make. They should prepare a pitch within 10 minutes. Once everyone had a chance to tell their idea, all players vote on which idea deserves ‘funding’.

The winners won’t start to make their film, but they should get awarded with either a funny object or some treats. We love using creative icebreakers like to ease people in and get used to collaborating and giving feedback ahead of the main discussion.

Bang!

For this game, you have to have quick reactions or you’ll be eliminated. Have everyone stand in a circle with one person in the middle as the ‘sheriff’. They must surprise other players by pointing to them. These people must quickly crouch and those on either side of them have to quickly ‘draw’ their weapons. If you are too slow, you switch places & become the sheriff.

This icebreaker is a wonderful way to increase group energy before starting a meeting in earnest, and it also helps people learn names too! If you’re working with an especially large group, note that it’s better to play in parallel before finishing with a final showdown!

Share a joke

Have new teammates tell a joke at their first all-hands meeting. This is a great way to encourage people to be vulnerable and also ensures the meetings start on a cheery note. Remember that opening activities needn’t be complicated to be effective and when looking for ice breaker ideas, don’t discount the simple joy of making others laugh!

Sound Ball

This is a simple icebreaker activity that energizes participants, and it’s also suitable for highlighting spontaneity and teamwork. The activity involves participants standing in a circle and throwing imaginary ball(s) to each other in increasing pace. When throwing the first ball, the person starting should make a special sound that has to be repeated by the catcher upon receiving the ball.

Once the ball is being thrown around at a fairly brisk pace, you can introduce another imaginary ball and start throwing it. When the group gets proficient at it, you can have three or four balls in play!

The No Smiling Icebreaker

This is a seemingly contradictory ice breaker that actually results in lots of smiles. Instruct everyone to keep a straight face and do not smile under ANY circumstance in the first five minutes of the meeting. People turn into children with an instruction like this, and immediately start looking at others, seeing how they are coping. The anticipation makes everyone giggly, so after a while they cannot suppress their laughter anymore. This activity takes zero prep and so is a great one to pull out at the last minute!

Hello Kitty

Starting a meeting with smiles and laughter is a great way to set the tone for the session. In this fun icebreaker, separate your group into teams of kittens and puppiess. Puppies try to make the kittens laugh or crack a smile by simply saying, “Hello Kitty” in an amusing manner. Any kittens who smile or laugh join the puppies until their is only one kitten left standing!

Encourage the group to be creative and be sure to give kudos to the funniest participants or those who manage to keep a straight face!

From icebreaker to completed agenda

Now you’ve discovered the perfect icebreaker, it’s time to create the rest of your meeting!

With SessionLab, you drag, drop and reorder blocks to create your agenda in a snap. Your session timing adjusts automatically as you make changes and when you’re done, you can share a beautiful printout with your colleagues and participants.

Explore how facilitators use SessionLab to build effective workshops and meetings or watch this five minute video to get started!

Now over to you!

Your meetings and workshops don’t have to be boring. We hope you have found some useful tips for practical and fun ice breaker games you can use in your next session!

What are your favorite ice breaker activities? Have you tried any of the methods above? How did you find them? Let us know about your experiences in the comments. Want to see even more great icebreaker ideas? Our collection of icebreaker questions contains heaps of conversation starters you can bring to your next session.

Want to go further? Check out our guide to planning an effective workshop to start building more engaging sessions with better outcomes!

In this post, we’ll share the best icebreaker questions for work and any other scenarios where you might want to help people get to know each other. We’ll also share some tips for ensuring your icebreakers are productive and help the group bring themselves to the table without anxiety or frustration. Let’s jump in! 

What are Icebreaker Questions?

Want to go beyond asking someone what they did at the weekend? Icebreaker questions are conversation starters designed to break down social barriers, encourage interaction and help individuals get to know one another. When chosen well, icebreaker questions can help supercharge a team building process and open up conversations that can create bonds and connections.

They are particularly useful when people are meeting for the first time, such as team-building activities, networking events or virtual workshops and meetings. They can also be effective when kicking off a project or injecting something different into a recurring team meeting. These questions are meant to be light-hearted, inclusive, and thought-provoking, fostering a positive and open atmosphere for communication.

Icebreaker questions range from fun and creative prompts to more reflective and personal inquiries, providing participants with opportunities to share aspects of their personalities, experiences, and perspectives. They can also be incorporated into dynamic games like those featured in our icebreaker games collection. 

Whatever the format, the best icebreaker questions create a simple and effective opportunity to get people talking and help people feel welcome and included at the start of a session.

What Makes a Good Icebreaker Question?

A good icebreaker question possesses certain qualities that contribute to its effectiveness in initiating meaningful conversations. Here are some key attributes:

• Relevance: The question should be relevant to the context and purpose of the gathering. Whether it’s a team meeting, a virtual workshop, or a social event, the question should align with the overall objectives.
• Inclusivity: An ideal icebreaker question is inclusive, ensuring that everyone in the group feels comfortable participating. Avoid questions that may make individuals feel singled out or uncomfortable.
• Versatility: A good icebreaker question is adaptable to various settings and audiences. It should be versatile enough to spark engagement among diverse groups with different interests and backgrounds.
• Open-ended: Questions that invite more than a simple “yes” or “no” answer encourage deeper and more meaningful discussions. Open-ended questions provide individuals with the opportunity to share more about themselves.
• Positive Tone: Icebreaker questions should set a positive and light-hearted tone for the interaction. Funny icebreaker questions or humor can be a great addition, but it’s crucial to be mindful of cultural sensitivities and preferences.
• Icebreaking Potential: The primary goal is to break the ice and create a relaxed environment. A good icebreaker question should help people feel more at ease, paving the way for smoother communication and collaboration.

Often, the best icebreaker is one that sets the stage for the workshop or meeting to come. They typically help a group start thinking about the topic or theme of the session before the facilitator then guides the group to deeper discussions or activities.

In SessionLab, it’s easy to create a structured session flow in minutes. Create your ideal meeting agenda by dragging and dropping blocks into place in the Session Planner. Easily transition from an icebreaker into a group discussion and add additional activities and items as you need them!

Ensure your session stays on time by adding clear timing to your chosen icebreaker and additional activities. And when you’re done, create a beautiful PDF or Powerpoint export to help you facilitate with confidence.

Team Icebreaker Questions

Even established teams can benefit from using icebreakers to get to know each other more deeply and open up a conversation about they’d like to work together.

These questions are especially effective when used alongside team building activities where you might focus on helping align the team or improve collaboration.

1. If our team was a landscape, what would it be and why?
2. What would you like the team to look like in one year from now? 
3. What fictional team from a movie or TV show do you think our team resembles the most?
4. If our team had a theme song, what would it be?
5. Where in the world would you most like to go with your team and why?
6. Share a team achievement or project you’re most proud of and why.
7. What’s one word you would use to describe our team culture?
8. If our team were a sports team, what sport would we play, and what would be our team name?
9. Share a team-building activity you’ve enjoyed in the past and why it was memorable.
10. If our team had a mascot, what would it be, and why?
11. What’s one skill or talent you bring to the team that others might not know about?
12. If our team were a superhero squad, what powers would each team member have?
13. If you were to give your team an alignment score from 1-10, what would it be and why?
14. What does the rest of the team need to know this week?
15. What’s the best advice about how to work well with others you’ve received?
16. How would you prefer to receive feedback from someone else on the team? 
17. What piece of gratitude would you like to express to someone else on the team?

Want to get your team on the same page and align on how you’d like to work together? The Team Canvas Workshop is an effective session where you and your team will co-create your working culture.

You’ll cover your team goals, roles, responsibilities, rituals and more while working towards creating a more cohesive and connected team. 

Check-in Icebreaker Questions 

Checking in at the beginning of a workshop or meeting is something many teams miss, but it can be an essential element of a productive session.

These check-in icebreaker questions can help set a positive tone for meetings, allowing team members to share their current state of mind and create a supportive atmosphere.

They can be especially helpful for team leaders and facilitators who may want to gauge how the group is feeling before launching into deeper topics. 

1. What are you hoping to get from the session today?
2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your energy levels today?
3. Share one thing you’re looking forward to this week.
4. If today were a weather forecast for your mood, what would it be?
5. What’s a small victory or accomplishment you’ve had recently?
6. Share one positive aspect of your day so far.
7. If your day had a theme song, what would it be?
8. What’s something that made you smile today?
9. Is there a goal you’re aiming to achieve by the end of the day?
10. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your work-life balance this week?
11. Share one thing you’re grateful for right now.

Most effective workshops and meetings start with an icebreaker of some description.

Whether it’s in the form of a question or an experiential icebreaker activity, checking in is an effective way of ritually opening a session. Try Hyper Island’s Check-in/Check-out activity to bring this concept to your next session.

Fun Icebreaker Questions

For many meetings, the intention of an icebreaker is to loosen people up and help create a lighthearted atmosphere. These funny icebreaker questions are designed to do just that.

You might use these fun icebreaker questions in a round-robin format to kick-off a team meeting or simply to break the ice at a networking event without resorting to talking about your job. 

1. How would your primary school teacher have described you?
2. What’s the most unusual talent or party trick you have?
3. If you were a meme, which one would you be?
4. What’s your plan in the event of a zombie apocalypse?
5. Share a funny or embarrassing work story that still makes you laugh.
6. If you could swap lives with a cartoon character for a day, who would it be?
7. What’s your weirdest food combination that you secretly enjoy?
8. If aliens visited Earth and you were the first person they met, how would you explain your job?
9. What’s the worst ice cream flavor you can come up with?
10. What item of clothing are you wearing that could start a new fashion trend? 
11. Share a joke or funny anecdote related to your profession.
12. What’s the silliest goal you’ve ever set for yourself?
13. What actor would play you in a film about your life?
14. What’s the last TV show or film you hate-watched? 

Icebreaker games are a great way to help your team have fun and get energized at the beginning of a session.

If you’d prefer using a more experiential activity to get your team engaged and having fun, try a simple icebreaker activity like Soundball or a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament to generate some laughter while warming up your group. 

This or That Icebreaker Questions

Would you rather and this or that style icebreaker questions are a favourite of many teams who want a quick way to get to know a little more about someone and not get too deep. These are typically fun icebreaker questions that elicit silly answers and can be run in pairs or larger groups.

As with any of the icebreaker questions on this list, be sure to consider your audience with these questions. What might work well for college students might not be right for a group of executives. Even better, tailor your choice of question to start the process of engaging your group in the topic of your session.

1. Coffee or tea?
2. Morning person or night owl?
3. Beach vacation or mountain retreat?
4. Fiction or non-fiction?
5. Cat person or dog person?
6. Sweet or savory?
7. Phone call or text message?
8. Introvert or extrovert?
9. Early bird or night owl?
10. City living or countryside escape?
11. Netflix or YouTube?
12. Reading or watching TV?
13. Summer or winter?
14. Indoor or outdoor activities?
15. Movie theater or streaming at home?
16. Cake or pie?
17. Android or iPhone?
18. Travel by car or plane?
19. Comedy or drama?
20. Facebook or Instagram?
21. Home-cooked meal or takeout?
22. Fictional or documentary films?
23. Mac or PC?
24. Music or podcasts?
25. Formal or casual attire?
26. Pen and paper or digital notes?
27. Classical or pop music?
28. Sunrises or sunsets?
29. Books or e-books?
30. DIY or hire a professional?
31. Pizza with pineapple or pizza without cheese?
32. Sneezing glitter or farting confetti?
33. Always feeling itchy or always feeling sticky?
34. Communicate only in GIFs or speak in rhymes for a day?
35. Only be able to whisper or only be able to shout?
36. Have a pet dinosaur or a pet unicorn?
37. Wear socks with sandals or a clown wig to work?
38. Have a personal theme song that plays everywhere you go or have a laugh track follow you?
39. Eat chocolate-flavored broccoli or broccoli-flavored chocolate?
40. Have a third eye or a third arm?
41. Communicate with interpretive dance or through charades?
42. Live in a house made of jello or have a floor made of bubble wrap?
43. Accidentally send a text to your boss that was meant for your friend or to your friend that was meant for your boss?
44. Have a talking pet fish or a pet parrot that only speaks in movie quotes?
45. Eat dessert for every meal or never have dessert again?
46. Be able to teleport but always end up in a random bathroom or fly at a snail’s pace?
47. Have a conversation with a talking plant or a talking lamp?
48. Accidentally like a post from your ex on social media or accidentally send a screenshot of your conversation about them to them?
49. Speak in puns for a day or use emojis instead of words?
50. Have the ability to mute people in real life or fast forward through awkward situations?
51. Eat a sandwich with every condiment imaginable or a plain sandwich with no condiments at all?
52. Sneak into a private VIP party or accidentally photobomb every picture you’re not supposed to be in?
53. Have a personal theme song that plays loudly every time you enter a room or a drumroll before you speak?
54. Eat a bowl of cereal with ketchup or a peanut butter and pickle sandwich?
55. Dance like no one is watching whenever someone says your name or burst into song when you hear a specific word?
56. Be chased by a swarm of bees or a troop of angry squirrels?
57. Have a wardrobe that only consists of neon colors or mismatched socks every day?
58. Always have a piece of food stuck in your teeth or a perpetual bad hair day?
59. Communicate only through interpretive dance or have your life narrated by Morgan Freeman?
60. Have a pet rock that tells dad jokes or a pet cloud that makes puns?

Want to go further in this format? Stand up if is an effective icebreaker game that works in a similar manner to this or that icebreaker questions, but can be used to engage entire groups at the same time.

Icebreaker Questions for Work

Whether you’re running an all-hands meeting or training session at work, there are times when you may want to break the ice in your group and prepare them for the session ahead.

These icebreaker questions for work are especially effective at getting groups to start thinking about workplace culture and their role in an organization. Try bringing them your next culture workshop to get things started on the right foot.

1. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
2. If you could choose any historical figure to join the company, who would it be?
3. If you could change the name of the company, what would you change it to? 
4. What’s the first thing you do when you start work in the morning?
5. What’s the most unexpected skill or experience you’ve brought to your current role?
6. If you could redesign our office space, what changes would you make?
7. Share a challenge you’ve overcome at work and the lessons you learned.
8. If you had a work-related superpower, what would it be, and how would you use it?
9. What’s your favorite aspect of your job, and why?
10. If you could implement one new workplace policy, what would it be?
11. What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
12. Share a project or accomplishment that exceeded your expectations.
13. If you were the CEO for a day, what changes would you make?
14. What’s one thing you wish everyone knew about your role or department?
15. What’s the hardest thing about your role?
16. What was your worst ever job? 
17. What was your first job and what did you learn from it? 
18. Which of your competitors do you most admire and why? 

Workshops designed to improve workplace culture or bring a group together to solve key organizational challenges can especially benefit from questions like the above.

Such workshops also benefit from a clear structure and robust planning. Discover how to create and run an effective workshop in our comprehensive guide. 

Unique Icebreaker Questions

When we’re able to reveal something unique about ourselves to the people around us, it can pave the way for deeper connections and bonds. They’re also a great way to get people to think outside of the box and engage the creative part of their brain.

If you’re running an ideation workshop or brainstorming session, these questions a great way to warm up your group and help them to start thinking creatively. 

1. If you could have a conversation with any animal, which one would it be, and what would you talk about?
2. If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
3. What hidden talents or skills do you have that people might not expect from you?
4. If you could choose any historical era to live in for a week, which one would it be, and why?
5. Describe your job using only emojis.
6. If your life was a movie genre, what would it be?
7. Share a unique fact about your hometown or place of origin.
8. If you could have a dinner party with three fictional characters, who would they be?
9. How many countries have you visited and which was your favorite?
10. Describe your personality using three unrelated objects.
11. What’s your favorite word in a language other than your native one?
12. If you could be an expert in any field overnight, what would it be?
13. If you could have a conversation with any historical figure, but they had to wear a silly hat the entire time, who would it be?
14. Describe your current mood using only emojis.
15. If you could live in any fictional world, which would it be and why? 
16. Share a funny childhood nickname or a story related to your nickname.
17. If you were a flavor of ice cream, what would you be, and why?
18. If your life had a theme song that played every time you entered a room, what would it be?
19. Invent a holiday and describe its traditions and celebrations.
20. Share a made-up fact about yourself, and let others guess if it’s true or false.
21. If you could have a conversation with an alien, what’s the first thing you would ask them?
22. What’s your earliest childhood memory? 
23. If you were a punctuation mark, which one would you be, and why?
24. Share a talent you have that no one at work knows about.
25. If you could bring one fictional character to life for a day, who would it be, and what adventures would you have?
26. Describe your dream job title and what it entails.
27. If you were a type of transportation, would you be a hot air balloon, a submarine, or a hovercraft?
28. Share a unique item from your bucket list that others might find surprising.
29. If you could have a dinner party with any three people, living or dead, who would they be, and what’s on the menu?
30. Describe your work style using a weather metaphor (e.g., I’m a brainstorm with occasional creative thunderstorms).
31. If your pet could talk, what do you think they would say about you?
32. If you could swap lives with any fictional character for a week, who would it be, and why?
33. Share a strange or interesting fact about your hometown or place of origin.
34. If you had a magic remote control that could pause, rewind, or fast-forward your day, how would you use it?
35. Describe your ideal day off without using the words “work” or “responsibilities.”
36. Share a metaphor for your life using an object commonly found in a kitchen.
37. If you were a plant, what type of plant would you be, and why?
38. Invent a new word and provide its definition.
39. If you could have a conversation with your future self, what advice would you ask for?
40. Share a fictional scenario: If you were the protagonist in a movie, what would be your mission or quest?
41. Describe your dream house workspace—include colors, decorations, and any unique features.
42. If you could have a one-hour conversation with any animal, which one would it be, and what would you discuss?
43. Share a fun and unexpected use for a common household item. 

Running an event with various small groups? Try using the Common and Unique icebreaker to encourage participants to discover what they have in common and what is unique among members of the group. It’s a great way to help create team bonds and get people talking in breakout rooms too. 

Thought-Provoking Icebreaker Questions

When a team knows each other deeply, they tend to be more connected, resilient and able to support each other in their day to day work.

While fun icebreaker questions have their place for teams getting to know each other for the first time, with established teams, you may want to go further. These thought provoking icebreaker questions are a great method of creating space for deeper sharing, vulnerability and team bonding. 

1. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be and why?
2. Share a personal or professional goal you’re currently working towards.
3. If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
4. What’s the most challenging ethical dilemma you’ve faced at work, and how did you handle it?
5. What mentor figure had the greatest influence on your life? What did they tell you?
6. If you had to teach a class on any subject, what would it be?
7. Share a book, TED Talk, or podcast that has had a significant impact on your perspective.
8. If you could solve one global issue, what would it be and why?
9. What’s a lesson you learned from a failure or setback in your career?
10. If you could have a conversation with your role model, what would you ask them?
11. Share a quote that inspires or motivates you in your professional life.
12. What is your definition of success? 
13. What is your definition of happiness? 
14. What question would you like other people to ask you?
15. What’s something you’d like to do in life but don’t know how to start?
16. What do you most value in a relationship?
17. What cause or purpose do you deeply believe in?
18. What do you wish you understood better?

Stories about our lives and who we are as people have long been effective ways to bring people together and deepen the bonds between them.

Use an icebreaker game like Telling our Stories to take this concept further and build relationships and trust among your team members. 

Icebreaker Questions for Virtual Meetings

While most of the questions above work equally well in an online setting, it can often be effective for workshop facilitators to use questions that reference the virtual environment or ask people to bring their experiences of working remotely to the table.

Shared experiences are a great way to bring people together. Opening a conversation about how to cope with the ups and downs of remote working can have a positive effect on team culture too! 

1. Share a virtual background that represents your ideal workspace and let us know why you chose it.
2. If your webcam froze on the last facial expression you made, what would your colleagues see?
3. What’s your morning routine when working from home? 
4. What’s one positive thing that happened to you this week, even if it’s small?
5. If you could swap offices with a colleague for a day, whose workspace would you choose?
6. Share a fun fact about your hometown or current location.
7. What’s the most interesting thing within arm’s reach of your workspace?
8. If you could choose a virtual background for the entire team meeting, what would it be?
9. Share a virtual meeting etiquette tip that you find helpful.
10. What’s the most unusual item in your home office?
11. If you had a virtual reality headset for work, how would you use it?
12. What’s the best thing about working remotely? 
13. Where are you calling from? 
14. What’s the favourite thing on your desk? 
15. What did you last eat and what are you going to eat next?

Running icebreakers and other activities in an online setting can sometimes require bespoke software or engagement tools. Check out our post on online tools for workshops and meetings to explore how you might enrich your tech stack and find the best tool for your needs. 

Looking for dynamic games you might run in an online setting? In this post, you’ll find dozens of effective virtual icebreakers you can bring to your next virtual meeting. 

Diversity and Inclusion Icebreaker Questions

A diverse and inclusive workplace is one which celebrates and champions every member of the team equally. While creating a diversity and inclusivity conscious organization is often the work of many workshops and changes in policy, bringing such topics into the awareness of your team can be a good way to start.

These questions can be an effective way of opening a diversity workshop or to engage your group in thinking about these important aspects of workplace inclusivity. 

With these questions, it’s absolutely essential that you consider the context of your session and the participants of the group. A wider conversation about inclusivity in a diverse group is one thing, but essentially asking people from minority groups to educate the rest of the team on their culture is a no-no. Bring in an expert facilitator where possible and consult people from across the team on topics of diversity and inclusion before jumping into the deep end.  

1. What does diversity mean to you?
2. What does inclusion mean to you?
3. What does equity mean to you?
4. Share a cultural tradition or celebration that is important to you.
5. What’s one thing you wish more people understood about your cultural background?
6. If you could travel to any country to experience its culture, where would you go?
7. Share a personal experience where you felt included and valued at work.
8. What’s one way we can create a more inclusive workplace for everyone?
9. What’s one thing you appreciate about the diversity in our team?
10. If you could attend any cultural festival in the world, which one would it be?
11. What’s a book, movie, or TV show that you believe promotes diversity and inclusion effectively?
12. Where did you grow up and how do you think it shaped you as a person?

Approaching inclusion in the workplace can be a challenging prospect without a solid knowledge of group dynamics, DEI and facilitation. Brush up on your facilitation skills in order to best lead a group through a productive discussion on DEI principles.

Wellness Icebreaker Questions

A common focus of many organizations is improving the wellbeing and general wellness of people on their team.

A dedicated workshop on various aspects of wellness can be an effective way to get people thinking more consciously about their wellbeing, and these wellness icebreaker questions can be a great way to get those sessions started! 

1. What’s guaranteed to make you smile? 
2. Describe your perfect relaxing day. 
3. Share a self-care ritual or activity that helps you recharge.
4. What’s your favorite snack or comfort food? 
5. If you could have a wellness day at work, what activities would you include?
6. Share a mindfulness or meditation technique that works for you.
7. What’s your go-to method for relieving stress during a busy day?
8. If you could have any wellness amenity in the office, what would it be?
9. Share a wellness goal you’re currently working on.
10. What’s your favorite way to stay active during the workweek?
11. If you could take a wellness retreat anywhere in the world, where would it be?
12. What’s one small change you’ve made to improve your overall well-being?
13. What book or podcast has had a positive impact on your wellbeing and what was a major takeaway? 
14. What’s a wellness technique that doesn’t work for you and why?

Emotional intelligence and our overall wellbeing often go hand in hand. When we are more self aware and able to recongise our emotions, we can then take action, whether that’s taking time to check-in with ourselves or practice self care.

This blog post on emotional intelligence techniques is a trove of effective exercises you can use to help a team build their EQ skills. Want to go further? You might even run a self awareness workshop to help your team practice and build those skills as a group! 

Tips for asking Good Icebreaker Questions

Whether you’re asking weird icebreaker questions about plans for the zombie apocalypse or going deeper, there are some best practices for asking effective questions that can help people feel safe, included and able to converse freely. Let’s take a look!

• Know Your Audience: Tailor your icebreaker questions to the preferences and demographics of your audience. Consider their professional backgrounds, interests, and cultural diversity.
• Balance Fun and Professionalism: Strike a balance between fostering a fun atmosphere and maintaining professionalism. Choose questions that are appropriate for the setting and the nature of the group.
• Test the Waters: Start with less personal or intense questions to gauge the comfort level of the group. Gradually progress to deeper or more creative inquiries as the atmosphere becomes more relaxed.
• Mix and Match: Incorporate a variety of icebreaker questions into your repertoire. This ensures that you have options suitable for different occasions and preferences.
• Be Mindful of Time: Consider the time available and the overall agenda. Icebreaker questions should be engaging but not overly time-consuming, especially in a work-related setting. The icebreaker you run during a week long training course can (and likely should) be more involved than the one you run for a weekly stand-up, for example. 
• Encourage Active Listening: Emphasize the importance of active listening during icebreaker activities. This fosters a culture of respect and attentiveness within the group. Remember that the purpose of these activities is to create connection and this requires the presence of others in the group. 
• Create a Safe Space: Establish an environment where participants feel comfortable sharing. Emphasize that there are no right or wrong answers, promoting a non-judgmental atmosphere.
• Make non-participation an option: Even when we know people quite well, we can’t possible know everything that’s going on for them or what has happened in their past. Some questions can be difficult or triggering for some people and in addition to carefully considering the questions you use, it’s also important that you leave space for people to non-participate or answer another question if they don’t feel comfortable.

By understanding what makes a good icebreaker question and following these tips, you can enhance the effectiveness of these prompts in your professional and social interactions.

Conclusion 

Creating a powerful connection with another person often begins with a single good conversation.

Icebreaker questions serve as valuable tools for creating connections, fostering collaboration, and building a positive group dynamic. Whether you’re running a virtual workshop, a conference or a recurring team meeting, we hope these questions help you get your session off to a fun, engaging start.

Want to go further? Explore our selection of team building activities to discover experiential ways of building group connections. You can also find more examples of icebreakers in our comprehensive collection of effective icebreaker games.

Was there a game or question style we were missing in this post? Let us know in the comments below!

Innovation is important for many businesses, but what brainstorming activities might you use to help make true innovation a reality? Find out in this collection of effective brainstorming techniques!

In this post, we’ll explore a host of effective brainstorming techniques in categories such as creative exercises and visual idea generation games, all of which can be used to help your group brainstorm be more effective and gratifying for all involved.

We’ll also explore talk about the benefits of group ideation and share some examples of brainstorming sessions that utilize these methods. Let’s get started! 

What are brainstorming techniques?

Brainstorming is a process of enabling people to think freely and creatively when trying to come up with ideas, solutions, or sharing knowledge.

Brainstorming techniques are proven activities and frameworks for coming up with lots of ideas quickly. They’ll often include steps to shift perspective, facilitate team collaboration and refine initial ideas into something even better.

Some examples of brainstorming activities include classic mind mapping and brain writing where you quickly try to generate as many ideas as possible.

Teams often use these techniques to generate creative ideas to tough problems and to explore possible solutions. They can also be used as part of more in-depth brainstorming workshops where team members then refine and choose ideas to put into action.

Some of the core concepts of brainstorming include: reserving judgment, go for quality over quantity, listen to all ideas, and think outside of the box in the pursuit of radical new ideas and creative solutions. Bring these concepts and a proven technique to your session and you’re already on the route to success!

If you’re finding your team with a problem they don’t know how to solve, a technique that encourages creative thinking might be just the ticket! Use these activities as part of a complete workshop process to refine those ideas into something actionable.

In SessionLab, it’s quick an easy to create an effective agenda for a brainstorming workshop in minutes. Drag and drop blocks in the session planner to create your structure. Add timing for each item to ensure you stay on time. Color-code your blocks to get an instant sense of your learning flow.

Core group brainstorming techniques

Brainstorming has been around as long as individuals and teams have tried to find creative and innovative solutions, or come up with new ideas or products. Whether a group is ideating on how to solve an organizational problem or generate ideas for new features or initiatives, getting people together to quickly ideate and come up with something new is time well spent.

In this section, we’ll first explore some of the core techniques that have been used time and again to create meaningful results and great ideas.

Popcorn Brainstorming

One of the classic brainstorming techniques, chances are you’ve done a popcorn brainstorm already. It’s been used by everyone from school teachers to CEOs to generate ideas and create energy around new initiatives – much like the popping of corn in a microwave!

Start by posing a question or problem statement and invite participants to take a minutes silence to think on it. Once the minute is up, start a timer and invite everyone to contribute ideas out-loud and build on each other’s ideas too. Have a single person take notes and encourage quality over quantity: no evaluation, no criticism or discussion yet – just rapid ideation!

Round-Robin Brainstorming

A tried and tested idea generation technique, Round-Robin Brainstorming provides a little more structure and ensures everyone in a group can contribute to a brainstorm by ensuring the discussion isn’t dominated by the loudest voices. 

In this group method, seat everyone in a circle and hand them an index card. In silence, everyone writes an idea on their index card before passing it to the person to their left. Each participant then writes an idea based on their neighbour’s card and passes that along.

The result is a more relaxed session that encourages a combination of idea development and co-creation while ensuring everyone is heard. Perfect for teams with big personalities!

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is a tried and tested technique that teams often using when planning new initiatives or solving problems. It also happens to be a great tool for generating new ideas while also taking into account potential problems and opportunities.

The act of brainstorming around your weaknesses or threats can result in innovative solutions and ideas you might not have otherwise come up with. Try using each point of the process as a jumping off point for ideation or explore a topic from each of the different angles for best results.

Brainwriting

No single person is as smart or as creative as a group. With the brain writing technique, tap into the ideas and approaches of multiple collaborators and co-create effectively.

Start by writing down the topic or area for which you’ll be generating ideas. Have all team members silently write down an idea related to the topic on a card and then, pass that idea to the person to their right. The receiving player reads the card and then adds an idea inspired by the original OR enhances the original idea before passing the card along.

By asking participants to grow and improve on one another’s ideas, Brain writing helps a group ideate effectively and come up with better ideas. You can even bring this to an online brainstorming session by using an online whiteboard and have participants pass post-its to the working spaces of their partners.

Question storming

Sometimes, shifting perspective and starting from a different angle can generate the best ideas. Q-Storming, or question storming invites participants to brainstorm questions, rather than solutions.

After rounds of gathering qualifying data and assumptions, ask your group to think of all those questions that they still have which might help the team think the matter through. This approach can be really useful at finding ideas your team might not have considered and ensuring that what you come up with is truly going to solve the problem at hand.

Walking Brainstorm

Brainstorming methods come in many forms – you might have a quick-fire session that encourages excitement and verbal exchanges. Alternatively, you might find your group will create better ideas by working together in a more relaxed, introvert-friendly manner.

Walking Brainstorm is designed to help large groups work on idea generation dynamically but without creating scenarios where only the loudest participants are heard. 

Create a space where different topics or questions are spread on posters/post-its around a room or virtual space. Silently and individually, each participant is encouraged to walk around and visit each question/topic in turn and add ideas to each. By moving around and working individually, this method helps create a more reflective, dynamic ideation session and can also help ensure group-think doesn’t set in! 

Mind Map

For those who prefer a more organized approach to idea generation, mind mapping is a great activity for creating ideas quickly and effectively. 

Begin by writing the key topic in the center of a piece of paper or in an online whiteboard. Invite participants to brainstorm related topics and ideas by adding branches to the central idea and create new nodes or elements. As a facilitator, you’ll want to group ideas by color and also amend the thickness of the branches to show the strength of various ideas and concepts. 

When you’re done mind mapping, the result will be a diagram that visually represents your ideas and makes it clear how the various parts interrelate – a great resource for idea development or for future sessions!

Brain Netting

The concept of brain netting is to not only take your brainstorming online, but to use online tools and virtual spaces to make the session a truly engaging experience. 

The key is to use an online tool that the group is familiar with, can co-create in easily and which works both synchronously or asynchronously. Using an online whiteboard or shared document for brain netting means participants can contribute in both a live online workshop as well as in their own time. This is a unique benefit of online brainstorming, and it’s one we’d recommend taking advantage of with your team!

We’d especially recommend using an online tool that supports easy commenting, images, videos and links – encourage your group to use whatever assets best communicate their ideas!

Six Thinking Hats

Exploring a problem or idea from multiple perspectives is a great way to generate new ideas and inform your brainstorming process. In this brainstorming activity, start by explaining the six different hats and that at various points, each person will wear the different hats to explore your chosen topic. For example, the green hat is for creative thinking while the white hat is all about information and facts.

Invite the group to start with the blue hat, which is to control the process and then move between hats to explore, define, ideate, identify risk and gather information around a topic in a sequence. By asking the group to all wear the same hat at the same time, you can ensure your brainstorm moves forward while also ensure all perspectives are explored.

Rapid writing

Different teams and workshops need different approaches to generating fresh ideas. While a carefully structured approach can be effective, using quick-fire brainstorming techniques like Rapid Writing can help create a sense of energy, urgency, and get heaps of ideas out quickly.

For this method of brainstorming, start by setting a timer and encouraging your participants to get as many ideas out as possible within that time limit. Remember that at this stage in the idea generation process, there is no such thing as a bad idea and by quickly ideating without being critical, your group can be creative without prematurely shutting down possible ideas. Be sure to collect all the ideas and share them without judgment at the end, whether you’re brainstorming online or in person!

Lotus Blossom

Some of the most effective techniques are those that encourage free-thinking and rapid ideation while also having some rules that can keep things structured. Lotus Blossom combines these concepts while also creating a great visual representation of your brainstorming activity. 

Lotus Blossom helps facilitate idea generation by working out from a central concept and adding eight additional themes or ideas inspired by the first on sticky notes. Once you have those eight ideas, you then invite participants to take each of those and add another eight and effectively blossom them around the original. By clustering ideas in this way, this ideation method also creates a visual resource you can come back to later and follow the brainstorming process from start to finish.

Starbursting

Complete freedom without an ideation framework isn’t always the best way to find and develop ideas. Structured techniques like Starbursting can help guide a team through more effective idea generation and ensure all key elements are considered at an early stage.

To begin, create a six-pointed star on a large piece of paper or online whiteboard. At the tip of each point of the star, write down the words Who, What, Why, Where, When and How. Invite the group to brainstorm ideas and questions related to each of these points in turn.

At this stage, the group only needs to brainstorm questions in each of these sections, leaving answers until later, though creating follow-up questions can also be helpful in effectively ideating on your central concept or problem.

The 5 Whys

When ideating on solutions to problems, it’s very easy to come to the table with underlying assumptions that can affect the course of the idea generation process. You can avoid this potential pitfall by using The 5 Whys to go further and deeper in a very simple, group-friendly manner.

Kick-off by working as a group to create a problem statement that you’ll work on solving. Once you have a concise statement, ask the group why you have this problem and discuss the answer. After working together to form a cohesive answer, ask the group why you have the problem again. By repeating the process, you and your team can dig deeper and find the root cause of the issue and move past the first, most obvious ideas.

Creative brainstorming techniques 

All brainstorming is creative. Generating ideas and finding solutions often asks groups and teams to find new ways of looking at things but in this next section, we’ll look at techniques that aim to approach the ideation process from a unique or especially creative starting point.

If you’re finding your typical exercises aren’t yielding results or want to try something new, creative games like those below can create space for innovation. Let’s dig in!

Imagie-ination

Words are often our primary tool when it comes to starting a brainstorm or kicking off an idea generation workshop. While these kinds of techniques are tried and tested, it can also be useful to try something different that can unlock your team’s creativity. 

With Imagie-ination, you’ll use images to help your group generate ideas that go beyond the norm. First, collect an assortment of images for your brainstorm and write down a simple description of the topic you want to generate new ideas around. Have each participant select an image and then come up with as many ideas as they can for how the image relates to the topic. 

After the first round, you’ll then cluster ideas together and find an image and title to best illustrate those clusters. This kind of clustering and titling can help refine the ideas your team has generated and move them towards action – a great outcome for any brainstorming session!

Bad idea brainstorming

Idea generation is at its best when groups are encouraged to add their ideas without being self critical or overthinking. Often, individuals involved in ideation can put pressure on themselves to offer only great ideas and so don’t contribute everything that comes to their minds.

Use this brainstorming technique to help free your group’s creativity and encourage them to come up with the absolute worst ideas they can in relation to a central topic or problem. Like reverse brainstorming, this brainstorming technique is a great way to find alternative routes to more creative ideas. Just be sure to use a swot analysis to figure out what should make it into reality!

Brainstorm questions instead of solutions

Our first instinct when it comes to problem-solving can often be to jump straight to giving answers and finding solutions. Though this can be effective, when it comes to generating creative ideas, a different tact can be more effective. 

With this reverse brainstorming game, challenge participants to offer questions instead of solutions so they can respond to a central concept creatively and from a new angle. If you’re finding your group can become blocked when generating ideas, it might be that your existing questions or frameworks aren’t sufficient. By taking a new ideation approach, you can unblock your team!

Stakeholder Round Robin Brainstorm

Bringing together groups of different stakeholders with their own areas of expertise is a great idea whether you’re brainstorming or finding solutions. That said, it’s worth noting that in these kinds of mixed groups, participants will be coming from different places and have different priorities and approaches to idea generation. 

Start by creating a flipchart or whiteboard space for each stakeholder’s perspective and writing this at the top. Give each stakeholder two minutes to brainstorm on the central idea from their perspective and add those to their flipchart before then inviting each participant to move to the next one and brainstorm from this different perspective. By using this round-robin brainstorming exercise, you can help the group understand the perspectives and insights each member brings to the table while also generating fresh ideas as a result!  

Backcasting

A simple change in perspective can have a massive impact on how your team approaches solving a problem. Backcasting is a simple but effective brainstorming exercise where a team is invited to work backwards from an ideal future state in order to come up with concrete actions they can take today.

Start by listing your long term goals in a time frame of 1-20 years. Then work backwards from that state to today, listing every action necessary to achieve that goal state. Collect insights on what difficulties might come up, what steps your team needs to take and what resources you might need in order to brainstorm effectively and find a new way to reach your team’s long term goals!

Walking Questions

A brainstorming technique with a What if learning style, Walking Questions is a great way of encouraging group members to share knowledge, ask questions to personal problems, and explore a topic dynamically. 

Best used at the end of a training session or workshop, each participant writes a question they have on the top of a sheet of paper then hands it to the person to their right. The person receiving the paper then writes any ideas or answers they have underneath and passes it to the next person.

By the end, the original piece of paper will be returned to the owner filled with ideas and answers from the entire group. It’s a great way of generating ideas from a group quickly and efficiently and of utilizing everyone’s expertise in a structured way. Give it a go! 

Guided Imagery

Coming up with new ideas doesn’t always have to be boisterous! You can also get the creative juices flowing in a relaxed way by tapping into mindfulness and imagination with this method.

Start by inviting participants to close their eyes and get comfortable. Next, progress through a guided meditation designed to inspire creativity. Afterward, ask your group to reflect on what came up for them in the meditation and use this as the basis for further brainstorming!

Headlines from the future

Starting from the desired outcome and working backward with a reverse brainstorming technique can be a great way to solve a problem. Thinking into the future can also be inspiring in a way that encourages free thinking and big ideas – a great result for any brainstorming workshop.

In this idea generation game, ask your group to imagine it’s twenty years in the future and that your project or organisation has been a huge success. Invite each participant to draft a headline and sketch an image for a New York Times feature of this reality. Encourage big, bold ideas and debrief by discussing any common themes or ideas before moving onto idea development as a team! 

Brainstorming techniques for problem solving and refining ideas

When you want to go beyond initial brainstorming and generate more refined ideas, the following complex idea generation techniques can effectively guide you through the process.

These activities combine brainstorming with idea evaluation, idea selection, and then going into concept development to help you come up with the best options. Let’s dig in! 

25/10 Crowd Sourcing

Group ideation can be tricky to manage, and not all techniques are up to the task of managing creative input from large groups effectively. 25/10 Crowd Sourcing is a fantastic exercise that not only invites big, bold ideas, but can ensure everyone takes part in generating ideas as a group.

After first inviting participants to write a big, bold idea on an index card, start a timer and invite the group to move around the space and exchange cards without reading. Stop the timer and ask each person to read the idea and give it a score from 1 to 5. Repeat five times so that each idea has a score out of twenty-five and then find and share the top ten ideas with the group.

Group brainstorming techniques with a mix of blind scoring and sharing can be especially useful in avoiding bias and encouraging bold ideas – especially useful when ideating in large groups!

3-12-3 Brainstorm

Brainstorming is often associated with fast ideation and energetic idea generation sessions. While many standard techniques can be slowed down and run in different ways, there can be obvious benefits to maintaining energy and proving the value of short working bursts to your ideation group. 

The 3-12-3 Brainstorm technique taps into the power of speed to generate great ideas and can help a team generate, develop, and present ideas in just less than twenty minutes. By combining speed and structure, this ideation method can help a group pressed for time use the session effectively, and we love how much ground can be covered by a group with this exercise!

Mash-Up Innovation

Some of the best ideas come from taking existing ideas and putting them together. Brainstorming that takes advantage of what your group already knows and loves can really supercharge the idea generation process and this creative exercise is a perfect example of that.

In Mash-Up innovation, first ask your group to brainstorm around three different topics or areas and add them to a shared space or whiteboard. Next, organize your participants into small groups who will spend the next twelve minutes combining and mashing up as many of the elements as possible to make even better ideas. After a short idea presentation, you can even take your group through an idea development stage to really make the most out of this activity. You’ll be surprised at what comes out!

1-2-4-All

Large group brainstorming can be dynamic, exciting, and productive but without structure and strong facilitation, it can also become disorganized and frustrating. 1-2-4-All is a classic idea generation process that not only helps ideas find space to allow idea development but also ensures the entire group can contribute to the session. 

Start by inviting silent self-reflection on a shared challenge or question before then moving to pairs, foursomes, and then entire group ideation. One of the many benefits of this brainstorming technique is that everyone gets a chance to contribute freely and share their ideas in a structured way. In groups where conversation can become dominated by strong personalities or not everyone gets a chance to speak, this method is well worth employing. 

One will get you Ten

Ideas most often spring from other ideas, and the sharing and co-creation of ideas during a brainstorm or idea generation workshop is where the magic really happens. This technique uses the sharing of ideas between teams as a central concept and it’s a great way of having participants communicate and learn from one another’s ideas meaningfully. 

After first generating ideas solo and as a team, this ideation game asks team members to pair up with members of another team and share ideas. Each member then returns to their own team and presents two ideas – one of their own, and one from the other team – while the rest of the team guesses whose is whose. It’s interesting to see how participants package and present generated ideas and find ways to improve them organically as part of a rapid ideation.  

The Creativity Dice

When approaching the idea generation process it can be tempting for a team to go with what’s worked in the past and get locked into what appears to be working. Games that challenge the status quo and challenge teams in ways they don’t expect can be especially effective when generating ideas. 

The Creative Dice is a brainstorming technique that encourages participants to work in three minute bursts and work on either specification, investigation, ideation, incubation, Iteration or integration based on a roll of the dice. By moving between different modes, this method prevents premature closure of one line of ideation and keeps the session energized and engaging. What’s more, the non-linear thinking can help with idea development too!

Affinity Map

Using brainstorming techniques to get a large number of ideas together quickly and efficiently is a great first step to developing new solutions or solving problems. But what to do once you’ve generated lots of ideas and want to work on idea development? Affinity Map is a great method for organizing your group’s brainstormed ideas and for both seeing and challenging existing patterns.

Starting with a simple brainstorm, Affinity Map asks that the group collectively organizes the ideas into columns or groups based on relationships. By doing this idea clustering as a group, your team can take ownership of the idea generation process and discover patterns of thinking together! It’s a great way of identifying and improving a group’s natural inclinations while also creating meaningful ideas.

Fun brainstorming games

Brainstorming is often a fast-paced and engaging process that results in a group having fun. Creative brainstorming games that help participants have fun while generating ideas are also effective ways of loosening folks up and getting into new ways of thinking. If you’re finding your group stuck

In this section, we’ll look at brainstorming games that intentionally take a fun angle as a means to create better ideas.

MindSpin

Energy, fun, and creativity go hand-in-hand, and brainstorming techniques that encourage these items and generate ideas quickly and effectively – especially with large groups!

In MindSpin, teams of 3-5 participants are challenged to write as many ideas as they can in two five-minute rounds. Whenever a person writes an idea, they slam it down on the table. If they cannot think of one, they can take an idea from the person on their left and hopefully be inspired to write an additional card they also slam on the table. Remember that this brainstorming game is designed to be fast and loud while getting creative juices flowing. Encourage all participants to really slam their ideas down and keep things moving!

Figure storming

One potential difficulty when generating ideas is that not everyone feels comfortable sharing or holds back their ideas for fear of judgment. Creative brainstorming is all about removing restrictions or hesitation, and enabling your group to ideate freely – figure storming is a great method for achieving this!

Start by asking the group how a famous person, fictional character or well-known creative would approach the problem or topic at hand. You might ask how Albert Einstein, Elizabeth Bennett or Barack Obama might think about the ideas or concepts at hand. By inhabiting a different person’s perspective, not only can teams and individuals access new ideas, but they can also do so free of judgment. Also, it can be great fun to invite Atilla the Hun or Cleopatra to your creative exercises!

Flip and Rip

Images can often unlock our creativity but when using them to generate ideas, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to start. This visual brainstorming technique places some rules on how a group will both source and use images, and can encourage some really creative ideas!

Start by giving participants two magazines or image sets each. Then, invite each person to tear our whatever images stand out to them or grab their attention. Next, give them a problem statement and encourage them to find the connections between the problem and their chosen images. These unexpected connections between visuals can then be used as the foundation for further ideas! Plus, who doesn’t love the sound and feeling of tearing paper!

Forced Connections

An important part of the ideation process is giving your team permission to be silly and bring ideas to the table without fear of judgement or inhibitions. Empowering your team to be creative without limiting themselves can massively affect the effectiveness of your brainstorming and so it’s worth spending time to unblock your participants early.

Assemble a collection of random objects or images and invite participants to choose two or more items and brainstorm how they might be used together or connected in some way. Encourage out-of-the-box thinking and unusual ideas by bringing a collection of odd items to the table and you’ll be surprised at all the ideas your team can generate!

The Thing from the Future

Science fiction and speculative thinking about the future has long been a great source of ideas. In this brainstorming exercise, invite groups to co-design their ideal future by creating tangible objects with their imaginations.

Begin by sourcing a heap of prototyping materials and craft supplies. Invite participants to imagine an ideal future state and create an object that has time travelled back to the present. After spending some time creating strange and wonderful objects, participants then present them to the group and tell stories about the objects to inform future strategies and ideas.

If you’re looking for a fun, practical exercise to bring to your brainstorming session and encourage creative thinking, this activity is a great choice!

Making Lemonade

Sometimes, the best ideas come from moments of adversity or struggle. This brainstorming exercises leverages the power of positive thinking and attempting to make the best of a bad situation to generate creative ideas.

Start by sharing a couple of negative scenarios that might radically change something in the world. For example, everyone in the world has a cold, it rains constantly or we lost all our customers over night.

Next, ask your group to take something that appears negative and aim to reframe it to be as positive as possible while coming up with ideas of how that change might actually have a positive impact. Rain every day? That might be the end of drought and a boom to umbrella sales!

Visual brainstorming techniques

Visual brainstorming is a great way of helping your teams out of creative roadblocks and encouraging fresh ideas. When words fail, images can enliven, invigorate and inspire your process. In this section, we’ll look at some great brainstorming techniques that focus on drawing or creating visual responses when ideating. Let’s take a look! 

6-8-5

Brainstorming shouldn’t stop when you have your first good idea. Fast iteration and refinement can help your group discover better ideas and develop ideas in record time. With 6-8-5, you can encourage your team to move from brainstorming to idea development in just a few minutes, and by asking participants to draw, you can keep things flowing easily!

Start by inviting your group to sketch 6-8 ideas in response to a central question or topic in five minutes. Encourage your team to be rough and not to worry about finesse at this stage – remember that the first stage of brainstorming works best when it’s free and unrestricted!

After a quick round of presenting ideas, go through the sketching process again and encourage idea development or ideas that have come out of group sharing. The result will be a heap of ideas and sketches you can move forward with too! 

Four Step Sketch

Visual brainstorming techniques can be great right at the start of the process but they can be equally effective later on when it comes to idea development. In this exercise pulled from the design sprint playbook, take your group through a structured ideation process that encourages reflection, quick sketching and a completed idea too.

Begin by reviewing any existing materials or outputs from earlier exercises before then having your group do a round of Crazy 8’s, where they create eight sketched variations on their idea. At this stage, you then invite participants to finesse their idea and create a final polished sketch to share with the team. By mixing reflection, ideation and development, this brainstorming technique offers a structured path towards better ideas!

Drawing Together

Visual thinking is a powerful tool for any creative process or brainstorming workshop. This brainstorming game asks teams to tell stories about a personal or group challenge personal by expressing themselves with just five simple symbols drawn on paper. After a first draft, participants are then invited to refine their stories with colour, size and placement before the group interprets them.

By expressing themselves in a novel way, participants can exercise their creative muscles and consider new ways to express ideas nonverbally.

Brainstorming games for warming up

Generating ideas and thinking creatively isn’t always easy. Finding ways to energize and prepare your group for brainstorming with simple and fun warm-ups can help ensure the success of the workshop or session and introduce key idea generation concepts too.

While these creative games don’t necessarily create ideas in themselves, they are a great way to get teams ready for the next step. Let’s take a look!

Draw Toast

When it comes to warming people up for an idea generation workshop, simple is best. With Draw Toast, you can introduce your group to visual thinking, working memory and systems thinking, all through the prism of a simple warm-up that works well online or offline!

For this creative exercise, invite your participants to illustrate how to make toast with a sketch or diagram without using any text. Afterward, share observations and insights as a group and outline the fact that there is no right or wrong diagram, and that differing and unique approaches to a problem or concept are all valid and useful. Not only is this a fun, fast brainstorming technique, but it prepares a group for the next stages of idea generation too!

The Paper Clip Method

Even established and successful groups have preconceptions about brainstorming or how to generate ideas. Warming up a team by introducing the power of brainstorming practically can prevent stumbling blocks later on and ensure everyone is on the same page when approaching the brainstorming process.

The Paper Clip Method is a creative exercise that challenges your group to brainstorm all possible uses for a paper clip. After some silent brainstorming, debrief by sharing what the group has come up with and highlight how the group has cumulatively come up with a greater quality and quantity of ideas than any single person could.

Apple-Drawing Ideation

Learning how to approach creative brainstorming as a group is a worthwhile way to kick-off your idea generation workshop. In this simple creative game, split your participants into groups and invite them to take it in turns to fill a grid with drawings of apples, with the challenge that no apple can be the same as another. 

When the time is done or the grid is full, debrief and highlight some of key concepts for effective brainstorming including the fact quantity is a precursor to quality and that we should try to build on the ideas of others. This brainstorming game is flexible by design  and you can use it with something other than apples for a more practical application: e.g., draw 30 logos, write 30 taglines, draw 30 new cars.

Activities to support a brainstorming workshop

We’ve covered everything from fast and fun creative games to in-depth brainstorming techniques, but what about if you’re looking for ways to improve or kick start your brainstorming process? Preparing for a brainstorming workshop with research on inspiration collection can really help your team make the most of the upcoming session.

In this section, we’ll look at some techniques and methods you can use to inform, enable and improve your group brainstorm and bring better quality ideas to the table! 

Rapid Research

Like all effective workshops, idea generation sessions generally want to limit the number of participants in the room to ensure productivity. That said, ideas and insight can come from anywhere in an organisation and this brainstorming technique can tap into the expertise of people outside of the room.

Start by asking participants to think of a colleague or peer outside the room and call them to get a perspective on the topic or question at hand. For remote teams, you can arrange quick calls or use Slack or other tools to get quick and useful feedback. After collecting input, bring the group back together to share and document insights. You’ll be surprised at how quickly and effectively you can get a wide variety of useful information!

Lightning Demos

No idea is wholly original. Brainstorming is all about taking existing ideas and learning from others while also bringing our own insights to the table.

With this activity, you and your group will look for inspiration from how other organizations, products or thought leaders have solved or approached the problem or topic at hand. Invite participants to spend a little time gathering 2-3 examples before then presenting ideas back to the group. By the end of the exercise, you’ll have a set of ideas you can use as the basis for further discussion or idea development.

If you’re working online, collect demos in an online whiteboard and even explore the possibility of gathering inspiration before the workshop if your team has a busy schedule.

The Medici Effect

Great ideas can often come from sources outside of your own industry or field. The Medici Effect is inspired by Frans Johansson’s book The Medici Effect, which explores how game-changing ideas and breakthroughs can occur when concepts and ideas from one area are applied to another and used as the basis for innovation.

In this exercise, invite participants to find examples of how individuals from other fields have achieved their goals and come up with great ideas. Think of successful scientists, creatives, business owners, musicians, entrepreneurs, educators etc. have found success and what inspiration you and your team might take from them. If working online, encourage participants to include images, links and quotes so you can create an inspiration wall for further exploration of the problem you are trying to solve!

Brainstorming session templates

Are you looking to run a workshop or meeting where you need a complete group process to come up with ideas and turn those into actions? 

Check out the brainstorming session templates below to see how to build upon an initial brainstorming session with appropriate idea selection and prioritization tools to arrive at sound group decisions.!

Ideation Workshop

In this one-day workshop template, follow an entire ideation process from start to finish, going from brainstorming and idea generation through to idea development and pitching. Tap into concepts such as disruptive cases, future tech & trends and opposite thinking to create innovative ideas and empower your team!

One Hour Brain Sprint

Have imited time for group brainstorming? Try the One Hour Brain Sprint to generate ideas quickly and effectively, all while avoiding unproductive discussions and the pitfalls of some brainstorming approaches.

Remote Problem Solving Workshop

Want to solve problems with your remote team? This virtual workshop template includes several stages of ideation and development and provides a great example of how you might utilize lightning demos and research as a basis for experimental ideas and solutions.

What are the benefits of group brainstorming?

While the primary measure of success for a brainstorming workshop will be the quantity and quality of ideas generated, the benefits of this kind of session can go much further.

Establishing an ideation mindset and encouraging creative thinking will benefit your organization in the long term, and finding new ways to push your team in the direction of generating effective ideas has positive effects for your whole organization. Let’s see some of the benefits that can come from bringing team members together for a brainstorming session.

Encourage creativity 

Creative games and exercises can yield instant results when it comes to creatively engaging a team and generating ideas but beyond that, regular brainstorming can help participants be more creative in their regular work and find methods of finding new ideas and solutions that work for them. Being creative is a wonderful way to engage a group and getting out of a regular workflow can be the key that unlocks innovation.

Inclusive, easy-to-understand activities

Brainstorming is a simple group activity that is easy to understand and contribute to. Whatever skill level or competency a person has, the first stage of the idea generation process is something that can be involved in with little overhead or difficulty. This can have massive value in helping a team come together toward a shared goal in an inclusive and simple way!

Diverse ideas

Relying on certain teams or individuals to generate ideas alone can lead to stagnation. By pooling together a diverse group of people to contribute to generating and developing ideas, brainstorming can be a great way to find innovative approaches and diverse ways of thinking. Every point of view you bring to the table is another way of approaching the issue and the results generated by diverse groups are often more robust and multi-facted than those made in a silo.

Quantity of ideas

When it comes to brainstorming techniques, quantity often comes before quality. In order to find great ideas, a group first needs to flush out as many ideas as possible and share before moving onto idea development. The best brainstorming exercises encourage the creation of large amounts of ideas in a short period of time, providing a great foundation for the next steps! 

Get past creative blocks

Problem solving or idea generation can go around in circles if a team isn’t given the freedom to think creatively and approach things from a new angle. Brainstorming methods like those featured here are great ways to unblock a team’s creative and find new ways to approach stalled conversations.

Improve team morale

Brainstorm sessions are often fun and energetic by their nature, and games and exercises that focus on idea generation allow for everyone to contribute and feel heard as part of their team. These kinds of idea generation activities can really help bring a team together and improve team morale too – everyone wants to take part in developing new ideas and being creative!

Get project buy-in

Involving participants across departments and specialties early in the process by inviting them to contribute to generating and developing ideas can not only lead to great ideas but also ensure that a project is followed through on. Get buy-in early by involving stakeholders in early brainstorming sessions and help that creative energy continue throughout your project!

Kickstart projects with energy

The opening stages of a project can determine the tone for the rest of it, and by kicking off your projects with a fun, energetic brainstorming workshop, you can ensure everyone is energised for the work ahead. Try creative games to help your team approach the project with a sense of creativity and experimentation and use brainstorming techniques that see proven results to help move a team forward effectively.

Brainstorming sessions made simple

An effective brainstorming session means creating a balanced agenda of activities and group discussions while keeping everyone engaged.

With SessionLab, you drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your step-by-step agenda.

Your session timing adjusts automatically as you make changes and when you’re done, you can share a beautiful printout with your colleagues and participants.

Explore how facilitators use SessionLab to design effective workshops that create results or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Over to you

Brainstorming can be simple or complex, visual or virtual, but whatever method you choose to use, the results should be the same – great ideas. Finding new ways to facilitate innovation is something we’re passionate about here at SessionLab, and we hope you find the above brainstorming techniques useful! 

Did we miss anything? Are there any great brainstorming or idea generation methods you’d like to add? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

The Agile methodology has revolutionised the way teams approach project management by emphasizing the importance of flexibility. This 2022 report states that after adopting Agile, companies have experienced a 60% growth in revenue and profit. Agile teams are reported to be 25% more productive, and 88% of workers believe Agile improves their quality of life.

But is it hard to adopt? When I first studied Agile, my main concern was that it would be complicated. After all, the Agile manifesto comes from Agile software development. Would Agile be like learning a new language? No, thank goodness.

Agile empowers teams to self-organise and collaborate on solutions between themselves and with customers. Agile encourages learning, growth and continuous improvement to deliver value. Teaching the principles is straight-forward, but putting them into practice is the challenge.

This is where Agile games and activities come out to play!

Playfulness and gamification are no longer seen as frivolous but as powerful tools to enhance positivity, learning and application, and team collaboration. Positive emotions like excitement, curiosity, and enjoyment have been linked to increased attention and improved learning outcomes. Games are a wonderful way to learn and integrate Agile principles.

In this article, you’ll find 25 Agile games and activities that teach Agile principles and support the Agile manifesto. Many of the games will teach three or more of the principles and are often designed with real-life scenarios in mind. You’ll find activities grouped into the five key stages of the Agile process alongside facilitation tips and advice for engaging team members in the process.

What are Agile Games & Activities?  

Agile games are interactive activities designed to enhance a team’s understanding and application of Agile principles, practices, and values. An experiential approach allows participants to learn Agile concepts that they can use in their day-to-day work.

Agile games reinforce key principles, such as the importance of collaboration, iterative development, and continuous improvement. By incorporating Agile games into coaching and facilitation sessions, teams can gain a deeper understanding of the methodologies and strengthen their Agile mindset.

Many of the agile team building games and activities here are specifically designed with Agile concepts in mind, or have been selected from the SessionLab library as they facilitate Agile learning. They’re a great way to teach Agile concepts or to use in your Agile projects.

You’ll find clear instructions on how to implement and integrate Agile principles and how the learning objectives align with the scenario. To maximise the benefits, it’s best to allow time for feedback and a meaningful debrief.

Taking this space to bridge learning about the agile production process and how the techniques can be practically implemented can ensure your team is fully prepared for your next project.

When you’re ready to run an Agile kickoff or retrospective, it can be helpful to create an agenda that you and your team can follow.

SessionLab makes it easy to build a complete workshop agenda in minutes. Start by dragging and dropping blocks, add activity timings and adjust your session flow to create an effective session.

Agile games for improving team self–organisation

Self-motivated and self-organising teams are the foundation of any successful Agile project. In this section, I’ve grouped together introductory activities that set teams in good stead to self-organise. They teach the Agile principles and facilitate team interaction.

You’ll also find games that introduce Kanban and Scrum, two processes designed for organising workflows.

Scrum comes from rugby-lingo where teams huddle together to move the ball forward. In the context of projects, the team comes together to move the product forward. Cross-functional teams work in sprints and gather in a daily stand-up meeting to discuss progress, plan work and address any obstacles. Scrum emphasizes flexibility and continuous improvement, enabling teams to deliver value throughout the project.

Kanban was developed by Toyota in the 1950s and adopted by Agile teams to better manage workflow collaboration. It uses a visual board with columns representing different stages of work, such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.”

Work items are represented as cards, and move across the board as they progress through the workflow. Kanban focuses on limiting work in progress (WIP) to improve flow and ensures that teams can complete tasks efficiently.

There are many other Agile frameworks to explore though for a solid foundation, playing agile games such as those below are a great way to get started.

Kanban Pizza

Step into the busy kitchen of an Italian pizzeria to learn the principles of Agile and Lean in the most delicious way possible! This educational cooking experience introduces the concept of Kanban and can help teams transition from their current process to a more efficient system. By comparing the workflow with and without using the Kanban process, the team can see the benefits of using a visual workflow.

Create pizza parlour names for each team and show an example of a pizza slice you’d like them to produce. Don’t tell them how long they have, but set a timer for 8 minutes. The challenge is to make as many as possible without waste. When you shout, “Stop!”’ quality assess and score each team on their pizza-making skills.

Next, you’ll introduce Kanban principles: 

• Visualize the Workflow
• Limit your Work in Progress (WIP)
• Manage the Flow
• Implement Feedback Loops
• Make Process Policies Explicit
• Improve Collaboration

Teams will work for a second round, this time tell them they have 8 minutes to make pizzas. Before they start, they’ll have five minutes of planning using the Kanban principles. Teams reflect individually and share in the group to discuss behaviours, feelings and workflows.

Using Post-its or a digital whiteboard, they should see the impact of visualizing workflows. Limiting the work in progress and managing flow improves team organization and efficiency! By making the Kanban process as easy as pizza pie, it won’t feel intimidating!

Presto Manifesto

Success can be measured in different ways. Is it simply about meeting deadlines and staying within budget? Or should customer satisfaction be a key factor as well? This exercise introduces participants to the Agile manifesto and encourages teams to find their own path to success.

Participants are divided into groups and asked to draw upon their project experiences to identify critical elements of successful projects. Each team member signs off on the criteria that they agree with and the lists are compared for patterns. 

And hey Presto! Regardless of their Agile experience, teams recognize the importance of customer collaboration, communication, and team dynamics. These criteria align with the fundamental principles of the Agile manifesto, highlighting its intuitive and practical approach!

Daily Scrum Meeting

Even without a comprehensive Agile strategy, a simple morning meeting like the daily scrum can help team members align and remove bottlenecks for better project organisation. 

The daily scrum is a concise, 15-minute exercise that revolves around three fundamental questions: What did I complete yesterday? What will I do today? And what obstacles, if any, are impeding my progress? 

For remote teams like ours at SessionLab, a daily scrum can be invaluable. We have an asynchronous daily stand-up on our Slack channel to allow us to stay connected, aligned and support each other. This practice serves as an efficient high-level to-do list, ensuring clarity and team cohesion. It not only saves time but also provides a platform for quick updates across the entire team.

Personal Kanban

Teams are often faced with the challenge of juggling multiple projects at once. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and try to tackle everything, but this is not the most effective approach. 

The personal kanban gives teams the autonomy to self-organize and prioritize their own projects. By focusing on a smaller number of tasks at a time, team members can dedicate their attention and effort to a manageable workload. This method not only enhances productivity but also leads to higher-quality outcomes. 

Visualising a backlog and accepting it as a normal part of a time-boxed project helps relieve the pressure of trying to address everything. A Kanban board provides a structured system for managing priorities, bringing order and balance that lead to successful results!

Agile Clock 

To facilitate the understanding of the Agile principles it is helpful to visualize them and be able to explain them briefly in a few words.

Each team is given a copy of the Agile manifesto and the goal is to distill each principle into three words or less. Words should be written on stickers and hung within the circle on a flip chart. The clock is created with each number corresponding to one of the twelve principles. 

You can also incorporate the corresponding icon from the Bikablo set (or draw your own if you’re feeling creative). Adding a fun visual element to your clock helps give a quick reference point for each principle. 

So any time you’re stuck or unsure in your Agile practice, take a quick glance at your trusty Agile Clock.

Agile games to improve team collaboration

When teams are aligned and transparent they are far more likely to succeed in their projects. With effective communication and collaboration, groups of any size are able to overcome bottlenecks and avoid siloing.

In this section, you’ll find games and activities that improve team collaboration. These games are immersive and will give participants a taste of what an Agile project could look like.

While playing, teams will organically learn other Agile principles, such as welcoming changing requirements and promoting sustainable development. Use these activities whenever trying to bring a new team up to speed or simply improve how team members work together in an Agile production process.

The Marshmallow Challenge with Debriefing 

Discover the power of collaboration in this well-known exercise developed by technologist, designer and facilitator Tom Wujec. The Marshmallow Challenge is a key activity for demonstrating the Agile framework and has been played by hundreds of teams around the world. 

The goal is to build the tallest freestanding structure using spaghetti, tape, string and a marshmallow in 18 minutes. Afterwards, facilitate a debriefing. This challenge builds teamwork and encourages self-reflection and improvement.

The discoveries in the debrief highlight how teams can improve their planning processes, and how prototyping and testing play a part in forming the right solution. Teams will improve their collaborative skills, such as active listening, valuing others’ ideas and co-operating. 

LEGO Challenge

Finding the equilibrium of cooperation and problem-solving can be challenging. In this game, teams come together to construct a LEGO masterpiece, but there’s a twist: each person is assigned a secret mission! 🕵️ 

One individual may be responsible for ensuring that adjacent bricks have different colors, while another person aims to build the entire structure using only blue bricks! To add an extra layer of challenge, participants are not allowed to communicate verbally during the 20-minute game.

Reflection is crucial to any Agile game. Following the LEGO Challenge, participants can identify their blind spots by asking:

• What transpired during the task?
• How effectively did they function as a group? 
• How did the experience impact their emotions? 
• What valuable insights did they gain about themselves and group dynamics? 

Go further by identifying parallels between the game and how your team communicates and collaborates.

Ball Point Game

The Ballpoint game, invented by Boris Gloger, is a well-known Agile game that can help a scrum team improve collaboration and deliver effective solutions. Teams pass as many balls as possible through the group in 2 minutes following specific rules. The game is played in five iterations, recording estimates and actual scores.

Teams reflect on how they self-organize and communicate, and perhaps how their estimates become more accurate as they change their process. The lesson is that all processes have a natural velocity, and changing the process is often more effective than working harder or faster.

There are many parallels with Agile, and the game poses several questions: 

• what happened? 
• which iteration felt best? 
• were there improvements achieved by working harder or faster? 
• were there any bottlenecks, and how were they identified? 
• how well did the team self-organize?

Demonstrate the value of Agile and have fun while doing it!

Penny Game

This activity teaches us the importance of iteration and how to self-organize to deliver value. And don’t worry, you don’t need to be a coin collector to join in!

Through play, teams will discover that size of the batches has a direct impact on delivery. With larger batches, there’s more pressure to get the batch to the next person. With smaller batches, the pressure is lower but more constant. It’s all about finding the right balance.

But it’s not all about speed. The Penny Game also teaches us the importance of customer feedback and iteration. By delivering the product in batches, we have the opportunity to make changes and improvements along the way. 

Open Space Technology

When working on complex challenges, the traditional set-up of meetings can stifle collaboration and creativity. 

Open Space Technology (OST) gives Agile teams the opportunity to choose which challenges they need to solve and how. It encourages autonomy and ownership by creating a space for workshop agendas and solutions to emerge. Participants discuss relevant issues, follow their passions, and take action together. 

The “Law of Two Feet” principle guides engagement. If a participant is not learning or contributing in one session, move to a more relevant one. This exercise provides structure while allowing for emergent ideas. OST encourages active participation and leads Agile teams toward relevant outcomes.

Agile games designed to improve prioritisation

Agile values adaptability and flexibility to respond to changing requirements, customer feedback and market conditions. Through the processes of prioritisation, timeboxing and iterative development, every team member can deliver high-quality results and navigate any changes to a project. Sounds ideal, right?

Prioritization helps teams focus on what matters most. By effectively allocating time and resources teams can focus on high-importance items. Agile teams can quickly deliver valuable increments of work and meet customer needs.

Timeboxing is a short block of time allocated to getting things done, usually lasting 2-4 weeks. Within that block, teams can make course corrections and incorporate new insights at the end.

Through feedback and continuous improvement, teams can refine their processes, enhance efficiency and deliver higher-quality results. In this section, you’ll discover games that uncover the power of processes and prioritisation in Agile!

Ecocycle Planning

A pre-project discussion ensures that only projects that align with both business and solution requirements are started. But what about ongoing projects? Ecocycle Planning enables teams to collaborate, organize and prioritize each project.

The primary objective is to identify areas that require additional attention and resources, as well as areas that impede progress and hinder the overall performance of the company.

What I find appealing about the exercise is its emphasis on transparency throughout the entire organization. Everyone gains a holistic view of both the larger organizational landscape and its individual projects.

This visibility enables teams to see both the broader context and the specific details of ongoing projects. The result is a shared understanding that facilitates better decision-making!

Paper Plane Game

Timeboxing is a process of providing a clear time frame for task completion. It helps users estimate future work based on past performance and helps stakeholders know when to expect results.

The power of timeboxing is demonstrated in the Paper Plane Game. The goal is to build quality paper planes that fly 30 meters in 3 minutes. Each iteration lasts 9 minutes: 3 for planning, 3 minutes to build and test, and 3 minutes to review. Only planes that fly 30 metres count as successful constructions.

Teams then propose improvements during retrospectives. The game encourages reflection and prompts discussions on design decisions and waste reduction for better performance!

Impact and Effort Matrix

Agile is all about keeping things simple while making informed decisions. This exercise covers both concepts and helps an agile team prioritorize possible actions.

The matrix design invites participants to map possible actions based on the effort required and the potential impact. By categorizing ideas along these lines, teams are obliged to balance and evaluate actions before committing to them.

Facilitate the exercise by giving the group an objective. This can be as simple as asking: “What do we need to do to reach our goal?” Everyone generates ideas individually on sticky notes before presenting their ideas back to the group. Ideas are discussed and placed within the two-by-four matrix organised by impact and effort. 

The Impact and Effort Matrix allows teams to effectively prioritize and achieve successful outcomes!

Estimation Game – Cup of Tea

Even the simple task of estimating the time it takes to make a cup of tea leads to varying results. This playful estimation exercise highlights the importance of not making assumptions when estimating. 

For example, assuming that everyone has access to the necessary tools to make a cup of tea – hot water, a kettle, a cup, a spoon, sugar, and tea bags. When it comes to estimating time for tasks in a team setting, it’s important to have these conversations and not assume everyone has the same information or tools at hand!

Estimation Game can be applied to many areas of business, from estimating the time it takes to write a blog post 😶‍🌫, to estimating the time it takes to develop a new feature (such as SessionLab’s new sharable agenda!) It is important to take into consideration all of the variables to improve accuracy and better manage time and resources!

The White Elephant Sizing Game

Estimating timelines, resources and effort is crucial for project success. This exercise focuses on sizing user stories. Shuffle story cards and have team members take turns picking, reading, and assigning them to size columns (XS-XL). They provide reasoning based on expertise, past experiences or observations. 

Iterative adjustments allow moving cards between columns, providing a reason to support the decision. The game ends when all cards are on the board and team members signal that they agree.

The obvious elephant in the room is the lack of a reference point. But once the cards start being assigned, the team can see the bigger picture. Encourage everyone to share their expertise and observations. In real-life scenarios, prioritisation enhances estimation skills and helps everyone understand what’s most important.

Agile Games for building effective solutions

Iteration and delivering value are two core principles that play a pivotal role in any project.

Agile promotes short iterations, known as sprints, which allow teams to adapt and respond quickly. The iterative approach allows groups to gather user feedback, validate their assumptions and pivot if needed –  all while maintaining a shorter time-to-market.

Delivering value refers to meeting customer needs and effectively improving user experience. The emphasis on delivering value fosters a sense of purpose with Agile teams to take ownership of their work and make a positive impact

In this section, you’ll uncover fun activities and games that will help teams understand and apply the Agile principles of iteration and delivering value through experiential learning. Some of the activities weave in techniques used in Design Thinking to create a user journey and work on iterative development. Let’s dive in!

Resort Brochure

Dreaming of far-flung destinations or campervan escapades by a lake? Let’s turn those daydreams into a Resort Brochure! This fun game uses the Scrum process to work on a mini-simulation that can help teams improve their incremental building skills.

First, decide on a wishlist for your ultimate resort. Capture initial user stories on index cards and prioritize them. Each story is broken down into a task list, for example, they may need to find a picture of a sandy beach or choose a resort name. 

By using a progress board, teams can simulate a scrum scenario on a smaller scale before tackling bigger processes. Each participant has a sense of control and visibility into all the work that is going on.

After the rounds of iteration, the team holds a retrospective where they list what they did well and what they can improve for the next iteration. Try it out for a fun and engaging way to apply Agile processes while creating a resort brochure for the ultimate holiday of their dreams!

Design Sprint for any team

Design sprints are a fantastic way to iterate and deliver value through ideating, prototyping and testing new concepts! Inspired by Google’s design sprint process, this seven-step workshop provides structure and tools to help teams work creatively and quickly.

First, teams create a visual representation of the challenge, write a brief, set a goal and add sprint questions. Next, target five experts and note down their insights and perspectives. 

In the sketching stage, individuals come up with solutions to the challenge and pick one to sketch in more detail. Translate this final design into a storyboard and prototype the solution.

Finally, test the prototype, collate the feedback and wrap up the sprint with your team. This process encourages rapid prototyping and testing that will improve your team’s creativity and agility.

Four Step Sketch

The 4-Step Sketch folds in elements of design thinking to help teams improve their iteration process.

The first step invites participants to take notes and look at write-ups and drawings from previous activities. Next, they turn their own ideas into sketches. These sketches don’t have to be perfect, they just need to capture the essence of the idea.

The part of this exercise that demonstrates how teams can iterate, is when participants draw their idea eight different times, spending one minute on each square. The goal is to keep sketching and moving forward, asking themselves what could be a possible solution.

Finally, participants move on to a solution sketch, where they sketch a potential concept onto a storyboard. They must ensure that their sketch is self-explanatory and clear, using an explanation next to the sketch.

Remember, this isn’t a drawing competition. The goal is to collaborate, share ideas, and create clear and concise solutions. The value of the 4 Step Sketch is that it helps teams improve their iteration process and generate innovative ideas!

User Day-Parting

What I love about Agile and Design Thinking is their human-centred approach. In this exercise you’ll create an imaginary user, also known as a persona, mapping out their average day and identifying challenges they experience. 

Once the teams have mapped out the user’s day, they should identify the biggest pain points that the user encountered. The teams should then brainstorm ideas for products or services that could help overcome challenges and increase efficiency and happiness.

Finally, you’ll present your ideas for feedback and reflection. Teams will create innovative solutions that are focused on the user’s needs and challenges. It’s a great way to develop a user-centred approach to product and service innovation!

Chocolate Bar Game

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “A chocolate bar game? Is this really helpful for my practice?” This scrum simulation game can teach teams a lot about product ownership, feedback and customer value. 

The challenge is to create the most attractive chocolate bar for your customers within a certain set of constraints. In the role of product owner, participants practice listening to customers and taking their feedback into consideration. 

The game also teaches the importance of iteration. You may not get the perfect chocolate bar on your first try, but by taking feedback and making improvements, you can create a product that truly satisfies your customers.

The game concludes with a debrief. Participants discuss how they made design decisions, how useful the feedback was, and how they measured the value of the chocolate bar. You might end up with a delicious new product idea!

Agile games for reflection and continuous improvement

A lot of workshops or processes end with a reflection. But in Agile, we ensure that we regularly review throughout the process. The Agile principle of reflection is often referred to as “Inspect and Adapt.” It emphasizes the importance of regular evaluations of the team’s work, processes, and interactions to identify areas of improvement and make necessary adjustments. 

Read on for games and team building activities that create a safe environment for teams to openly discuss their challenges, successes, and potential improvements!

Pre-Mortem

What if you could identify and prevent risks before they derail your project? This exercise is a reflection technique that taps into your team’s collective experience to proactively mitigate risks.

Begin by laying out project goals and ask, “What will go wrong?” 🤷 This simple question uncovers potential risks and pitfalls, so you can intervene early!

Encourage open discussion as team members voice their concerns. Create a list of identified risks, ensuring that all perspectives are heard. Then, prioritize the risks and define actionable steps to address them. Pre-Mortem is a proactive approach that minimizes the likelihood of failure and paves the way for project success!

Start, Stop, Continue

Regular review and adaptation are key components of success. This method is a simple way to demonstrate how to regularly assess and develop next steps.

Ask the group to consider the current situation or goal and individually brainstorm in these three categories:

1. Start: What are the things that we need to start doing? This category is all about identifying new actions or behaviors that will help the team move forward and achieve their goals.

2. Stop: What are the things that we can or should stop doing? Here, the team recognize and address behaviors that are hindering progress or causing problems.

3. Continue: What are we doing now that works and should continue? This category is about acknowledging and reinforcing the positive behaviors and actions that are contributing to success.

Once everyone has completed their brainstorming, the group shares their results and works together to prioritize and implement the suggested actions. By regularly incorporating Start, Stop, and Continue into their processes, Agile teams can continuously improve and adapt to achieve better outcomes!

Alignment & Autonomy

Groups reflect honestly and openly on previous projects using Peter Smith’s model of alignment and autonomy. Alignment refers to shared goals, clear communication and a common understanding of the project’s objectives. Autonomy is the degree of freedom and empowerment given to the team to make decisions and execute their work.

Start by asking the team to identify the actions for a successful project. These actions may include improving communication channels, clarifying project objectives, fostering a culture of trust or empowering team members to make decisions. Improving autonomy and alignment can hugely increase company productivity, and better navigate change:

As Peter Smith says “Self-organising systems are adaptive, in that they do not just passively respond to events, the way a rock might roll around in an earthquake. They actively try to turn whatever has happened to their advantage” 

Let’s make sure your team doesn’t roll around. Empowering people to find the best possible solution, is a huge part of Agile. This exercise demonstrates both the value of regular reflection and the power of self-organisation!

Actions for Retrospectives

This activity uncovers ways your next project, meeting or conference can be a success by allowing teams to generate ideas for future improvements.

Players write their thoughts about puzzles, risks, appreciations and wishes and cluster related ones together. As a team, they discuss the novelty, feasibility and impact of the ideas and analyze how they can be applied to the next event. The process is a brilliant way to create practical and efficient actions!

Break free from boring retrospective analysis strategies and create a more productive and enjoyable experience for your team!

Challenging Team Agility Using White Elephant Principles

We all know that good enough is never really good enough, this exercise helps teams kick things up a notch! This reflection activity is designed to challenge your team’s agility and inspire them to continuously improve. It’s ideal for retrospectives or any time you want to reinvigorate how your team works together.

To start, print out a set of Agile principle cards and create a poster for the team to arrange them on. Each team member will take turns doing one of the following actions:

1. Pick up a card and place it somewhere on the poster, indicating an area where the team needs improvement. Provide a one-sentence explanation of why.

2. Move a card that has already been placed on the poster. Again, provide a one-sentence explanation for the move.

3. Pass, indicating that you are satisfied with the current placement of the cards and believe it accurately represents the team.

In the beginning, teams may have a tendency to play it safe, but set the expectation that the more they put into this exercise, the more they’ll get out of it. Real growth comes from new challenges and understanding different perspectives!

It’s totally okay to disagree. The purpose is to learn and encourage different opinions. If you’re using this activity as part of a retrospective, consider following up with a round of lean coffee to discuss the principles that emerged. Together, you can come up with experiments that will help conquer any stale vibes and challenge team agility!

Share your Agile games & facilitation tips 

I hope you’ve found some inspiring ways to weave Agile principles into your team projects and create a more Agile team. Try bringing these activities to your next sprint to help your scrum team get off to a good start and improve their collaboration and project management skills.

Do you have any favourite Agile games and activities you use in your workshops? Why not add them to the SessionLab library and share them in the comments?

And before I go here are some facilitation tips from me to you: 

1. Make it fun: Agile games are meant to be playful and engaging, so don’t be afraid to get creative! Use props, role-playing, and other interactive elements to make the experience enjoyable for every team member.

2. Focus on learning: While it’s important to have fun, don’t forget that the ultimate goal is to learn and improve. Make sure each game has clear learning objectives and debrief afterwards to discuss key takeaways.

3. Keep it brief: Agile games are meant to be short and sweet, so don’t drag them out for too long. Aim for 15-30 minutes per game to keep participants engaged and focused. This is especially important when working with remote teams!

4. Stay positive: Remember, the goal is to foster a collaborative and positive environment. Encourage open communication, active listening and constructive feedback throughout the game.

Do you have any tips of your own? I’d love to hear them in the comments!
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In live settings, facilitators often use activities to increase group energy and focus. These energizers might include physical activity, encourage creative thinking, or simply create space for fun. Here’s a secret: the same can be true in online workshops and remote meetings!

While connecting virtual teams over video chat and other online tools has become the norm, too many teams still have unengaging and draining meetings. Even when connecting online, you can still engage and enliven your team by using team building activities and energizers that have been tailored or adjusted to the remote setting. 

In this post, we’ve collected 29 energizers and games for virtual teams. You’ll find tips for running each one and we’ll explore the benefits of using them during your virtual calls. Let’s dive in!

Contents:

• What is the purpose of online energizers?
• What are the benefits of online energizers?
• When should I use an online energizer?
• Warm-up energizers
• Fun online energizers
• Skills-based online energizers
• Energizers for online teambuilding
• Conference call energizers
• Tips for running online energizers

What is the purpose of online energizers? 

Meetings and workshops are at their most effective when your participants are engaged and have the energy to get involved and bring themselves fully to the session. The purpose of an online energizer is to raise energy levels, help your team be present, and center themselves in the session.

In an online workshop, maintaining and energizing your remote attendees can be crucial in making it an enjoyable and productive experience. You might use an icebreaker game to start your meeting or when you find engagement dipping.

Particularly for people new to participating in online video calls, it can be hugely beneficial to help them have fun and engage with one another in a virtual space. Online sessions can be made instantly more approachable with a simple virtual activity that breaks the ice and creates connections.

Let’s look at the various benefits of using these activities before jumping into our collection of energizers!

What are the benefits of online energizers?

Online energizers have a variety of benefits for participants and facilitators alike. Creating space in your agenda for energizers not only increases energy and engagement, but they can improve team connection too. When your group is more focused and energized, it can have a massive impact on the outcomes of your session too.

• Engagement
• Create variation in your agenda
• Make it fun 
• Relieve awkwardness
• Create connections

Engagement

Keeping a team engaged in an online meeting is important in ensuring that your team finds them valuable and productive. Meetings that feature lots of unfocused discussions, difficult tasks without sufficient variation, or lots of information-heavy sessions can be draining for any team – even more so when participants are all logging in to their computers and chatting over a webcam. 

In remote settings, it’s often easier for participants to become disengaged or distracted. Whether through not being physically present or the dozens of other tabs open in their browser! It can also be difficult for a facilitator to effectively gauge the energy levels of the room without the benefit of physical cues and body language. 

Using energizers to activate different skills and get moving can inject energy into a group and refocus their engagement. They are also useful for helping the facilitator understand group dnyamics and change up the agenda if necessary.

Create variation in your agenda

Workshops and meetings often benefit from variation in the methods or exercises employed. This might mean shifting between creative and critical skill-based activities or encouraging small group discussions after leading a training session. In an online setting, the possibility for meaningful variation is limited, just for the fact that your remote participants are all likely seated at their desks and watching their screen. 

A virtual energizer that encourages people to get up from their desks, engage in a game or stretch skills that aren’t being worked out during the main workshop can really help keep things fresh and create a dynamic workshop. 

Energizers are often a good way to prepare or give closure on a particular task. If you need a palette cleanse after a tricky group discussion, do a fun energizer. If you know the next task is going to require your participants to be fully engaged, do a more restful activity. For example, running an online energizer for students after a heavy theory section can create space for reflection.

Use SessionLab’s workshop planner to plan your agenda and include energizers at the right time. You can even search the library for energizers during your session to find the right activity to give your group a lift.

Make it fun 

Online meetings can be notorious for being a drag. Particularly under challenging circumstances such as self-isolation, helping inject some fun and creating space for teams to bond and get to know each other can really help elevate a workshop and make a team more cohesive and motivated. 

Good energizers are great not only for boosting energy levels but for helping improve the tone of the entire session and improving the perception of remote meetings in your organization overall. If you are facing tough organizational challenges and have workshop tasks to match, it can be good to provide a counterpoint and balance to your agenda. Fun online games for like those below can be the perfect way to achieve that!

In remote environments, remember that virtual meetings are often the only time your team sees and speaks to one another directly without text. Use this opportunity to bring your team together with a fun energizer that can help them work together more effectively not only in the immediate workshop but throughout their remote career.  

Relieve awkwardness

If the participants of your online workshop don’t know each other well, working in a remote environment can be challenging. For those introverts or sufferers of anxiety on your team, speaking up in an online meeting with the whole company present can be daunting. Energizers are great for encouraging people to speak up and engage, and can often help lay the groundwork for more difficult conversations later on.

In some online energizers, you might end up looking a bit silly, but if you’re doing so with everyone else on your team, it can be an equalizing force that helps people get on the same page. This can be particularly useful if you have people at different management levels interacting in the same session. Seeing your executive team be silly, or working together with your CEO on a simple game can really help make those later conversations easier to initiate.

Create connections

Creating connections in virtual teams is a challenge. Creating memorable moments and opportunities for conversation and connection in your agenda is a great way to create these bonds, and it can help with your team building too.

Think of an all-hands meeting with hundreds of employees. A dry presentation might leave many employees cold. Using conference call energizers and team building activities can elevate the event and connect people who may not even work together directly. Alongside considered facilitation and effective meeting management software, energizers can be the secret sauce to a a connective meetings.

When should I use an online energizer?

We’ve all felt the effects of zoom fatigue during an online session. Even in virtual teams who have gotten used to collaborating online, it’s possible to run out of steam or lose focus during a long video call.

We recommend adding energizers to the agenda of all longer meetings and workshops. In our own online sessions, we try to schedule an energizer at least once for every meeting over an hour long. Alongside proper breaks, this can help every team member feel present and engaged.

Energizers can also be used whenever the energy is low in your virtual meeting. Mixing up a packed virtual schedule with a game can also spark creativity and resolve those awkward silences!

If you feel a drop in energy, ask your team members if they feel like they need a break and follow their return with an energizer. In just a few minutes, your group be refreshed and ready for the next challenge!

Online energizers for workshops and meetings

When selecting an online energizer, it’s worth looking at your agenda and figuring out what style will be most effective. If you’re doing quite a discussion-heavy workshop, your virtual energizer might benefit from being non-verbal or physical in nature.

If your team is made up of a lot of visual thinkers, perhaps try an energizer than involves drawing or being creative. You might just decide that your team needs some light relief to have fun and recharge!

Remember that energizers are designed to engage and uplift the group and provide some balance to your agenda design. While these energizers will work for any remote meeting, it’s worth tailoring them to your group where possible. 

Warm up activities for virtual meetings

Warming up at the start of your online meetings can have a profound impact on how effective the session is. Whether its encouraging a group to arrive mentally in the space or wake up their bodies, energizers are great way to warm everyone up.

Though these online warm ups could be run at any point in your virtual workshop, they’re particularly useful at the start of a session, after a break or in that post-lunch downturn.

• Looking around
• Story around the circle
• Shake down
• Three wishes
• Who’s the artist
• The Time Machine
• Count up

Looking around

Working in a virtual world does not mean you cannot physically engage your participants. In fact, we’d recommend that you do! Energizers that incorporate bodily movement can really help lift the energy level after lunch or an in-depth exercise!

Looking around is an easy-to-perform energizer with a simple online variation. Get everyone on their webcams to stand up in the room where possible (sitting down is fine) and follow along with the instructions. If you’re looking for virtual ice breakers for Zoom, try this exercise to set the tone without a need for additional set-up or equipment. This is a great remote energizer for generating laughs and teaching a valuable lesson about learning new concepts and procedures. 

Story around the circle

Human beings are naturally born storytellers. With this online energizer, you’ll take some time to connect to one another by telling a shared story and be encouraged to have fun while improvising too!

The organiser starts with a line like “Once upon a time, in a land far away, 5 people got together to solve all the world’s problems. Everything seemed easy, until one day one of the people saw on the horizon…” and invites the next person in the group to continue the story and add the next line. This keeps going until everyone’s contributed to the story.

This one needs no other tools than video software and someone to write down the story as it develops, and can be used just for fun or with a purpose in mind. If you want people to explore a certain topic such as company communication, start the story with an appropriate line. If you want them to just have fun and be energized, maybe start with something ridiculous! 

When it comes to recording the story – do so either in Google Docs or in your online whiteboard tool. If someone wants to draw images to go with the story, that’s great too! Online meeting games like this one can have a lasting impact if records are kept!

If you want to keep participants on their toes, add rules like the lines have to rhyme in couplets or have a word that people can’t use or must use. You could even choose who does the next line, rather than going around in order. We love this exercise as it’s simple, engaging, and can be easily amended to your needs.

Shake down

Some of the best energizers for online meetings and workshops are super simple and are primarily designed to get people moving and serve as a palette cleanser between more complex tasks.

Shake down is a tried and tested energizer for live settings and works well with a webcam too! Start by inviting people to stand if they have room, though let them know staying seated is fine. It’s also worth checking with your participants that they’re in a suitable location! As a group, perform 8 shakes of the right arm, 8 shakes of the left, 8 shakes of the right leg, and 8 shakes of the left leg. Each time count each shake as a group from one to eight. 

After a sequence of four shakes, two shakes then one shake of each limb, you end the exercise with a big cheer while inviting everyone to do a signature move – whatever feels right for them! It is worth confirming with all participants that they are comfortable with a short activity that requires physical movement while standing/sitting in front of the screen. Have a plan B in your back pocket if people can’t perform this activity or aren’t comfortable – energizers work best when everyone is onboard!

Three wishes

Talking about wishes and dreams can be a great way to energize a room and get people talking. In this virtual energizer, participants are encouraged to choose three wishes and discuss them with the group. 

We find one great approach is to use an online whiteboard or Google Doc and invite people to post a GIF or an image that best represents each of their wishes. Other participants can then leave comments or sticky notes to guess what they represent! Encouraging your group to be creative and find GIFs or images that speak to them personally can be a great way to help a team bond and generate conversation. Timebox this part of the exercise to create a bit of pressure and get people moving quickly!

Who’s the artist

This is a great, creative online energizer that remote teams can prepare beforehand or during the online meeting. Invite each participant to draw an image that tells a unique story or fact about their lives. They can use pen and paper, and draw it digitally or directly into your online whiteboard tool.

If you want to make it more challenging, give participants only thirty seconds to draw their picture, or have them use a desktop drawing app and do not permit any erasing or editing. Drawings that are drawn at speed and contain mistakes can help this exercise generate extra laughs.

We love this exercise as it encourages people to be creative, changes up the flow of the workshop and allows people to share personal experiences in an effective, safe environment. It’s also very easy to run and can be amended to suit your online workshop setup. 

If you’re using an online whiteboard tool, have everyone post their images and curate them into a gallery. The result will be a nice reminder of what you’ve accomplished that day! If you’re using video conferencing software alone, you can also have participants hold their images up to the camera. 

The Time Machine

Everyone has had dreams of going back in time to particular periods – whether they’re into pirates, dinosaurs or knights on horseback. The Time Machine energizer is a fun exercise that can encourage some interesting discussion and can be run in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the group and the tools you’re using.

In its simplest variant, you can conduct The Time Machine as an open group discussion. As with all online activities, it’s useful if the facilitator controls these discussions and invites people to speak in turn to avoid crosstalk or frustration. 

If you’re using online collaboration tools such as an online whiteboard or Google Doc, invite people to spend five minutes to find an image or GIF that best illustrates their chosen period of time (funny is best!) and have other teammates guess the time period. 

Count up

Reducing crosstalk and promoting good online meeting etiquette is one of the tasks of the remote facilitator. Count up is a great energizer in itself but can also serve to highlight the importance of structured and thoughtful conversation in an online environment. 

In this short virtual energizer, a group must count up to a number (usually twenty), taking turns at random, with no two people speaking at the same time. If two people speak at the same time, even for a second, the group must start over at number 1. The group has succeeded when they have counted up to the set number. 

The key with this energizer is that people cannot communicate beyond saying the numbers, and so must work together non-verbally. It’s a great exercise for helping people work together in a calm, focused manner and gently teaching the importance of speaking purposefully when collaborating online.

Depending on the group, this exercise may fail and that’s okay: the failure itself can be instructional! Debrief this exercise to highlight some examples of good meeting etiquette, and to emphasize the importance of good communication.

Fun online energizers 

Games for virtual meetings should be fun! The primary purpose of these online energizers is to have fun, create laughter, energy, and create space between more complex tasks. Fun energizers can be a vital element of meetings for any virtual team and mixing things up with more involved energizers and some designed just to get a laugh can be a good way to go. Let’s take a look!

• GIF challenge
• Touch blue
• Dance, Dance, Dance
• What are you doing?
• Hello Kitty

GIF challenge 

GIFs are the lifeblood of the internet and when working with virtual teams, they can be a great way of injecting humor and creativity into an online meeting. If you’re wondering how to make virtual meetings fun, activities like the GIF challenge are a great place to start!

For this online game, set-up an online whiteboard or shared Google Doc and post a phrase or statement that participants then have to search for a suitable GIF in response. It might be something as simple as, “That Monday morning feeling,” or “Good management looks like this.” You can have a couple of questions just for fun, then include some that invite each team member to creatively respond to organizational challenges and prepare them for the next exercises.

After each round, you can invite everyone to comment or vote on their favorites, and have additional rounds to crown a winner if you wish. One great way to use this energizer is by sprinkling several rounds of questions throughout the workshop to keep energy levels up and create some moments of fun and creativity as counterpoint to other exercises.

Touch Blue

Touch blue is an energizer that’s been around for decades, and it works equally well in an online environment!

Start by having the facilitator call out something to touch such as “touch blue” or “touch something warm.” Each participant then has to move and touch something that is blue or warm. This might be something on their desk, an item of clothing, or something they have to go and find on their bookshelf. The last person to find an object then has to select the next attribute.

If you want to make it a little more competitive, give everyone fifteen seconds to find something and eliminate those players who don’t find anything in time. Keep playing and make things more complicated or reduce the time until one player remains. It can also be effective to do quick-fire rounds of this energizer throughout a workshop to keep participants on their toes! 

Dance Dance Dance

Energizers in traditional live workshops often include physical activity to get the blood flowing and mix up the flow: there’s no reason online workshops can’t do the same! Team building games on Zoom or other online chat platforms can be especially effective by mixing things up and getting people out of their office chairs!

In Dance Dance Dance, explain that when the music starts, one person in each group starts dancing on the camera and the others follow the leader. When the song changes, another member in each group becomes the new dance leader. Change the song every twenty to thirty seconds and try to play enough songs that everyone gets a chance as leader. Encourage participants to dance in their chairs or with their upper bodies only if room is an issue!

This energizer isn’t for all teams, but can be a fun and ridiculous way to energize a virtual team and have fun before moving onto the rest of the workshop. You might have this as an optional exercise during a break if you want to let people sit it out, or you can keep it short by having one or two songs that people on your team love that you play in full. 

What are you doing

Virtual improv games can be highly effective when it comes to engaging and energizing a team while also allowing for an opportunity to encourage fun and teambuilding. 

In this energizer, you begin by inviting a participant to mime an action in their webcam screen. The first person to guess the action correctly then mimes an action themselves. This one is simple and fun, and can be a great way to bring people out of their shells.

Want to make it a little more interesting? When someone guesses correctly, the last person to mime private messages them with an action to mime next. Be sure to set ground rules for what actions are acceptable for the group to mime and which aren’t! Encouraging the use of imagination is useful for many workshop groups, and just because you’re facilitating online doesn’t mean you can’t get people to engage with their silly, creative sides!

Hello Kitty

Some of the most effective energizers are also the most fun. We love this energizer as it’s really simple, generates laughter and can help equalize a room of people instantly. Running this in your meeting or workshop whether people are strangers or long-term colleagues can be really effective when it comes to bringing up the energy levels!

First, separate the room into two groups: puppies and kitties. You can have the groups either use nonverbal feedback icons or put their hands up to delineate which team they’re on. If you’re being particularly creative, have them change their background image to either a puppy or kitten!

The aim of the game is for the puppies, one at a time, to say hello to the kittens in any way possible and try to make any of them smile or laugh. Use speaker view in Zoom so that each puppy is seen and heard clearly when it’s their turn. Whenever a kitten smiles or laughs, they join the puppy team. Continue until only one kitten remains or everyone becomes a puppy!

This method is quick and easy and encourages people to overcome their shyness and be silly: particularly useful for remote teams that may be stressed or anxious over current world events.

Quick energizers for meetings

For those moments when you want to energize a meeting in less than 5 minutes, these exercises are an effective way to get your team engaged. While it might be tempting to plough ahead and get through your agenda, a quick brain break can actually improve engagement and outcomes. When in doubt, just ask your team if they need an energizer!

With clear instructions, minimal set-up and a quick run-time, these quick energizers can easily slot into your agenda when you need them. Let’s take a look!

One Word Method

Online icebreakers that encourage people to start speaking in the virtual space are great ways to get things started and build momentum. With this method, start by setting a topic and then say the first word of a sentence on that topic. The group then completes the sentence by contributing one word each.

In an online setting, you can either have people go in alphabetical name order or have people contribute at random, but asking that any cross-talk means the group must start over! While this game is incredibly simple, I often find it very effective at getting a group energized and engaged, whatever the format of your meeting.

Sit, Stand, Disappear

Want to bring some movement and laughter to your next meeting? In Sit, Stand, Disappear, you use the gallery mode of Zoom to try and build a perfect row where one person is sitting, standing and out of frame.

The reality is that getting everyone in the meeting to perfectly organize is HARD, but the choas that ensues while people try to coordinate without speaking certainly energizes the room!