You found our list of the best online team building games for remote employees.
Online team building games are any games that you play online to help foster collaboration and team spirit with employees. Examples of these online games include Spreadsheet Wars, Online Office Games, and Virtual Charades. These activities are also known as “virtual team building games,” “remote team building games,” “online team games,” and “virtual office games.”
These games are similar to virtual team building activities, virtual team bonding activities, virtual team games, online team games, and virtual group activities. These games are effective for remote team engagement and virtual team events.
This list includes:
- fun online team games for work
- virtual games for team building
- examples of team games online
- fun online games for virtual teams
- quick games for online meetings
- free virtual games to play with coworkers
- free online team building games
- online group games
- the best virtual office games
So, check out the list!
List of online team building games
Below is a list of the best virtual office games. From Bingo to Lightning Scavenger Hunts to The Ground is Lava, you will find games that are fun, free, and easy to play with virtual teams.
1. Online Team Building Bingo (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)
One of the best virtual games for team building is Online Team Building Bingo. Bingo, a game played across retirement homes and summer camps everywhere, is familiar, fun, and works extremely well in the online format.
Here is an Online Team Building Bingo board you can start with:
You can “Right Click + Save As” to download the Bingo board.
You can freely distribute and use this virtual Bingo board for internal use 🙂
To play Online Team Building Bingo:
- Distribute the board to your team
- Establish rules and a timeline to play
- Track the results and award prizes
Pro tip: Amazon gift cards and bragging rights are usually sufficient prizes for successful team building online.
Learn more about Online Team Building Bingo and icebreaker Bingo.
2. Online Office Games (Hosted Event)
Online Offices Games is a facilitated series of online games and challenges for remote teams. The challenges are specifically designed for remote teams and to help develop the essential skills for working from home.
Key features of this experience include:
- 90 minutes with a talented host
- pub-style trivia and games like “Can You Hear Me Now”
- lightning scavenger hunts, multiple-choice questions, and number games
These games emphasize the precision of communication you need for working remotely. If you are looking to boost your team’s bonds, then check out Online Office Games!
Learn more about Online Office Games.
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3. Murder in Ancient Egypt (Staff Favorite)
One of our most popular online team building games is Murder in Ancient Egypt. This game uses the mechanics of escape rooms, puzzles, and problem-solving to encourage your team to work together. This murder mystery also has an interesting twist! The murder is actually a real mystery from ancient Egypt, and after your teams make their guess, our master storytelling will share the big reveal.
Here is what you can expect:
- a 90-minute session led by a talented facilitator
- in-depth storytelling that sends your team back in time
- complex scavenger hunts, math problems, code-breaking, and riddles
- challenging puzzles and cryptic clues to discover the truth
The event is fun, challenging, and perfect for groups that want to work both collaboratively and competitively.
Learn more about Murder in Ancient Egypt.
4. War of the Wizards (RPG Game)
War of the Wizards is a collaborative storytelling game of wisdom and magic. The story goes that a group of wizards have been at war since ages past, and no one quite remembers why. Your people become the wizards’ minions, working together to collect magic items, cast spells, and overcome obstacles. For example, you may develop a strategy to leap over a wide chasm or challenge an ogre to a battle of wits.
Key features of this experience include:
- 90 minutes with a talented host
- detailed storytelling that sends players into a magical realm
- world-building and role-playing
- chances to overcome challenges and go on quests
War of the Wizards is a little nerdy and a whole lot of fun. You do not have to be a Dungeons & Dragons master, either. The game is simple to follow and fun to participate in for all skill levels!
Learn more about War of the Wizards.
5. Spreadsheet Battleship (Nostalgic)
If you grew up in the late eighties and early nineties, then you will likely remember the energetic proclamation, “You sunk my battleship!”
Over 20 years later, it turns out that Battleship has a perfect format for free online team building games. You can play the game multiplayer, with three to 10 players or more if you are feeling audacious.
Click the image to view the game board.
To play Spreadsheet Battleship, each player needs two things: a game board and the placement of ships. You can use graph paper labeled with letters and numbers for the game board and either randomly assign battleship placement or let each player choose where to place the ships.
Here is a Google Sheets game board you can use.
Spreadsheet Battleship game mechanics are a little like Go Fish. On each player’s turn, that player chooses another player and names a square on the grid, like A-5 or C-10. The receiving player says, “You missed,” “You hit,” or “You sunk my battleship!” depending on what happened. The next player then goes in sequence, which could be in order of age or geographic location.
Continue playing until only one player has ships remaining.
6. Lightning Scavenger Hunts ⚡ (Fast)
In the real world, we run scavenger hunts at some of the coolest locations in the world: like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and Grand Central Terminal. Scavenger Hunts can be a fun way for your people to work together.
Virtual scavenger hunts are more difficult to find that team spirit with. You might have game mechanics that have your team searching Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites without really working together.
The solution for successful online scavenger hunts is to throw away the normal and adopt a lightning version instead. For Lightning Scavenger Hunts, fire off a rapid series of clues that have your team members dashing to find objects, solve clues, and win points. For example, you could have everyone grab their favorite mug and award points to the best mug story.
The fast-paced nature of Lightning Scavenger Hunts is what makes it work for quick games for online meetings.
Here are more ideas for lightning scavenger hunts and virtual scavenger hunt templates.
7. Guess the Refrigerator (Quirky)
My refrigerator mostly contains fatty pork, 100% dark chocolate, and pears. Your refrigerator may be different. A fun game we could play together is Guess the Refrigerator.
To play this game, everyone submits a photo of the inside of their refrigerator to one point of contact. That organizer then posts the photos to a channel where all participants can study the contents and make the best guesses at which refrigerator belongs to who. The players submit answers to the organizer, who then tallies up the scores and announces a winner.
Sharing an inside view of your refrigerator takes a degree of vulnerability, which is a factor that contributes to the success of great online games for virtual teams.
8. “Can You Hear Me Now?”
“Can You Hear Me Now” is one of the most popular online team games we play as part of Online Office Games. You can play this game 100% online and as part of a virtual conference call.
To play, name one person as the Describer and the other players as Artists. The Describer must explain to the Artists how to draw an item like a sunflower, kite, or calculator using only geometric terms.
For example, you could say, “Draw a large square” and then “Add a line at a 45-degree angle from the top,” but not “Draw the letter E.”
You can play each round for as long as you like, and three minutes is usually sufficient. At the end of each round, the Describer gets one point for each Artist that guesses the object correctly, and each Artist that guesses correctly also gets one point. Tally up points and award cool prizes to the winner.
Learn more about “Can you hear me now?”.
9. Five Clicks Away
Five Clicks Away is a logic game for online team building. To play, you select a starting topic and an ending topic, which you can decide on your own or randomly generate. For example, the starting point could be Blackbeard the Pirate, and the endpoint could be grilled cheese sandwiches.
Each player must start on the Wikipedia page for the starting point, and in no more than five clicks, reach the end point. The idea is that Wikipedia has so many internal links that you should be able to follow a chain to reach the end point in less than five clicks.
Five Clicks Away is difficult to get started with, but as you start to understand Wikipedia’s structure, the game becomes easier. Like “Can You Hear Me Now?”, the game is also a proxy for learning a useful remote work skill, which in this case is obscure research.
10. Typing Speed Race (Competitive)
One of my favorite fun online team games for work is a Typing Speed Race with friendly competition. For the Typing Speed Race, you can use a free tool like typingtest.com and have each of your team members do a one-minute challenge. Then, each person posts their test results to Slack, email, or another platform.
The Typing Speed Race is a great way to encourage friendly competition with remote teams. You can make the experience more collaborative by doing a Typing Speed Relay, which requires forming your people into teams and then adding the cumulative score from each person to create a team total.
With the Typing Speed Race, everyone wins because typing quickly is an important skill for remote work.
11. Chair Up! (Positive Powerup 🙂)
Chair Up! is both my favorite pun-inspired name for a chair store and also a fun and easy game for video conference calls.
The game is played over email, messenger, or conference call and is specifically meant to counter the doom and gloom that sometimes guides conversations. Whenever someone calls out, “Chair up!”, everyone must stand up and do something cheerful. For example, you could do yoga sun salutations, clap your hands, laugh, or have a small dance party.
Chair Up! is silly, fun, and an easy way to get started with team building online.
12. Water Shots 💦
When you work from home, taking care of your health and fitness is especially important. You can do squats and eat well, and also make sure you drink enough water.
Water Shots is a game meant to fortify your team around healthy hydration. To play, you first choose a trigger, which could be “every time a pet comes on screen in a video call” or “any time someone says mute.” When the trigger happens, all participants must drink a shot of water, which could be a literal shot or a sip.
Virtual team building games that focus on building healthy habits are a great way to support company culture and development with remote teams.
13. Virtual Charades
Charades is one of those games that nearly everyone plays at school or home while growing up. With this proliferation of Charades, Virtual Charades has the advantage of being fairly familiar while also being fun.
To play Virtual Charades, prepare a set of links that go to Google Image pages or use a random image generator. On each player’s turn, that player must act out what they see in the image, and the player’s teammates can guess each one to earn points. Rinse and repeat until you are all out of fun.
Here is a random charades word generator you can use for your game:
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Here are more improv games.
14. Pub-style Trivia
You don’t need a pub to play online trivia, and beer and peanuts are also optional. Instead, you can play with at least two teams, a series of trivia questions, and positive attitudes.
Playing pub-style trivia online is similar to the in-the-pub version, with one crucial difference: you need an easy way for people to communicate. Instead of mumbling across a table, we recommend using virtual breakout rooms so that each team can discuss the answers openly. Each team can then submit the answers via a web form, and the host can award points as needed.
Here are more instructions on how to play virtual happy hour trivia, and a list of team trivia questions.
Pro tip: Playing virtual happy hour games like pub-style trivia gives you a unique opportunity to include wildly different clues in the game. For example, instead of “guess that tune,” you could have players guess the tune, find it on YouTube, and identify a clue at a specific time stamp. The internet is your oyster for virtual group games.
15. Virtual Werewolf (Team Favorite 🏆)
Werewolf is one of the best remote team building games, as it is full of cunning deceit and tactful manipulation. The game relies primarily on the spoken word, which makes it perfect for remote teams.
To play this game virtually, nominate one person as the narrator and then randomly distribute the following roles to players:
- Werewolf: a werewolf has two jobs: eat villagers, and survive to eat more villagers.
- Villagers: these are the common folks in the game who have no special powers but desperately hope to survive the night.
- Medic: the medic can save up to one villager each round.
- Seer: a seer can peer into the depths of another player’s soul to reveal whether that player is a werewolf or not.
- Hunter: when the hunter dies, the hunter can point a finger at any other player and take that person down with them.
To play, first distribute the roles via private message or email the players in advance. For a group of five people, you should have 1 werewolf, 1 medic, and 3 villagers. For each additional five people, add 1 werewolf, 1 special role, and 3 villagers. The ratios are flexible, so can modify them to suit your needs.
To start the game, the narrator declares that “Night has fallen,” and all players must close their eyes and tap their knees or keyboards to create a pitter-patter sound. After a few seconds, the narrator says, “Werewolves wake up,” and any players with the werewolf role must awake and choose a single victim via private message.
The narrator then puts the werewolves back to sleep and has the medic and seer wake up in sequence. During the medic’s turn to be awake, the medic can point to one player to save that player from the jaws of the werewolf. If the medic selects the same player as the werewolf, then nobody dies during the night. When the seer points to a player, the narrator can answer yes or no to whether that player is a werewolf.
After all the special roles act, the narrator says, “The sun is coming up,” and either the name of the player that the werewolves ate or that no one was eaten if the medic chose correctly. All players can open their eyes and then debate on who the werewolf might be. To end the round, all players vote on one player to eliminate from the game or can pass and wait until the next round. Any player that is eliminated either by the werewolves or by vote becomes a friendly ghost that is not allowed to speak for the rest of the game but may observe it in quiet frustration.
Repeat until the only remaining players are werewolves or villagers.
Learn more about how to play Werewolf.
16. We Didn’t Start the Fire 🔥
We Didn’t Start the Fire is one of the top free virtual games to play with coworkers inspired by Billy Joel’s song of the same name. To play, divide the attendees of your virtual conference call into groups of four or five people, and then give the groups 15 minutes of prep time. During those 15 minutes, each team writes a verse of lyrics that follow the general melody of We Didn’t Start the Fire.
After the 15-minute breakout session, bring everyone back to the main virtual meeting and have the teams present their creation. Vote on the best one with thumbs up and cheers.
17. Spreadsheet Wars (Challenging)
Spreadsheet Wars is one of my favorite virtual team building games to play with coworkers. Like other games on this list, Spreadsheet Wars is a combination of fun and skill-building, which makes it perfect for remote teams and offices.
To play, use a collaborative spreadsheet program like Google Sheets and select a theme like “choose your own adventure” or “scrappy recipe generator.” Each team then has up to 30 minutes to build a tool that matches the theme. The best tool wins, and really everyone wins because you are getting better at using one of the most powerful free tools on the internet.
Because Spreadsheet Wars doesn’t rely on any specific video conferencing platform, you can use it for games on Webex, Slack games, MS Teams games, and other platforms.
18. A World of Risk
Growing up, one of my favorite games to play was Risk, the game of global domination that meshes perfectly with my own aspirations. Risk is a game of cutthroat collaboration, friendly competition, resource management and other strategic dynamics that make it perfect for team building online.
The most flexible way to play Risk-like team games online is to use one of the many clones, for example, Conquer Club, which provides a free browser-based game.
Here are more online board games to play at work.
19. Sudoku Throw-down
In the early 2000s, Sudoku took the world by storm, inspiring nerds everywhere to complete numerical logic games instead of the daily crossword. Today, you can play a version of Sudoku for online team building called Sudoku Throw-down.
Here is how it works:
- Send everyone on your team a free game board from a site like Web Sudoku.
- Challenge each player to complete the game board as quickly as possible.
- The first player to complete the game board with 100% accuracy is the winner.
For Sudoku Throw-down, you can easily up the competitive spirit by including prizes for the top three finishers. I recommend nerd-friendly prizes like more Sudoku puzzles, science kits, and whiteboards.
Here are more problem solving games.
20. Something in Common (Icebreaker)
Something in common is an icebreaker game that works on video conference calls and similar. To play, first organize your attendees into manageable-sized groups of four or five people and gently push them into breakout rooms. Each group has the goal of finding three similarities they have in common with other members of that group. For example, “We all have cats, no one was born in Chicago, and we loved Hamilton.”
For the next round, keep the same teams and add a restriction that you can’t mention locations or physical similarities. For the round after that, remove pets and preferences. The goal is to make the game increasingly difficult and encourage your remote team to deep dive into what they may have in common.
Check out our list of icebreaker games for large groups for more ideas.
21. Quick Draw
Pictionary is a fun game where some people draw while other people guess what the drawing could be. This game is one of the top examples of team games online that includes elements of improv, creative thinking, competition, and more.
You can play online games for virtual teams that are similar to Pictionary:
- Divide your people into breakout rooms.
- Have each person in each room draw three clues. You can use this random word generator do return three nouns.
- Teams accumulate 1 point for each drawing someone on the team guesses correctly. Teams get no points for any clues that players skip or do not guess correctly.
- After 15 minutes, return everyone to the main room and compare scores.
You can play Quick Draw over Zoom, Webex, and other virtual conference call platforms. You can also mix up the game and rules by varying the number of clues each person draws and drawing verbs instead of nouns.
22. Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition
Truth or Dare is a kind of NSFW game that is a fan favorite of students across Canada, America, and other parts of the world. Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition takes those popular game mechanics and optimizes them for team building online.
Here is a tool to generate random truth prompts:
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And this one creates random dares:
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The major guideline for Truth or Dare is to keep the questions and prompts friendly.
Here is a list with more question games.
23. Jackbox Games
A year or two ago, I played Jackbox Games with Tasia, Ethan, and some other close friends. The game prompted me to lie about “How many beers did you have last night?”, and that was game over for Michael “prefers tea” Alexis.
Still, Jackbox Games provides options you can use for online team building games. The game options include trivia and similar, and the virtual games to play with coworkers have some unexpected and creative dynamics. To play online, everyone logs into a website via a special URL.
Learn more about Jackbox Games.
24. Yellow Submarine (Unique)
When I lived in NYC, two dudes at the metro station would play the same two Beatles’ songs over and over. If the train was late and people were standing on the platform longer, sometimes the two dudes would stop playing for a bit. Neither of those songs was Yellow Submarine.
Yellow Submarine is also an online team building game you can play with remote teams. Here is how:
- Each of your remote employees needs to craft a submarine. You can use paper, magazine cutouts, or nearly anything else to craft your ship.
- Players get one point every time they show the submarine on a video conference call. You can hide the submarine in the background, have it float up from the bottom of the screen, camouflage it into your outfit, or any other incognito method.
- You get one point each time you show the submarine.
- If someone spots your submarine, then you are out. You still get one point for showing your submarine that time.
- Continue playing until everyone is out, and then tally up the points and name a Yellow Submarine Captain.
The mechanics work for online team games because the incentive is for each player to show their submarine as many times as they can. If you wait it out, then you may be one of the last players in the game, but you will also need to catch up on points.
25. Nintendo Game Night
A few years ago, video game cafes took the world by storm. The idea of going to play Mario Kart or Goldeneye 007 while someone delivers you nachos and beer was a strong pull.
You can host a Nintendo Game Night for your team by using an emulator. The emulator allows you to play team building games online via most modern web browsers. Choose a game like Excitebike, Popeye, or Ice Hockey, and host a tournament to see who gets the most points. You should probably make the game night “bring your own nachos.”
Learn more at Emulator.online and start planning your virtual team building games.
26. Ten Strikes (Quick & Easy)
Ten Strikes is a fun icebreaker game for groups, so it’s a good way to get to know new team members or to build deeper relationships with existing teams.
Here is how to play:
- All participants hold up 10 fingers.
- The youngest person on the call goes first and shares one true statement about themselves. For example, “I have a pen pal.”
- Anyone that the statement is true for gets to keep their fingers up, while anyone that the statement is not true for puts one finger down.
- If all of a player’s fingers are down, then they are out of the game.
- Play until only one player remains.
The strategy in Ten Strikes is to share facts about yourself that are unique enough that other players will not be able to say it is true of them and will have to put fingers down.
Pro tip: You can also play Five Strikes or Twenty Strikes. Generally the more fingers and toes you start with, the longer the game will go.
27. The Question Game
The Question Game is a fun and free online team building activity that requires no prep or special equipment. To start playing, ask someone a question, and that person must respond with a question directed back at you or another participant. If you delay for five seconds, then you are out. If you speak without forming a question, then you are out too. 🙂
Here is an example of how this game might go:
- Ally: “It’s a beautiful day, don’t you think Jackie?”
- Jackie: “What do you think makes it beautiful, Michael?”
- Michael: “Sorry, I was writing a blog article.”
In this example, I would be 100% out of the game. A more clever Michael would have said, “Sorry, what was that, Jackie?” and kept moving the game forward.
28. Online Escape Games
Escape games are a popular group activity in person and are increasingly popular online team building games too. These virtual escape games provide opportunities for teamwork, collaboration, and developing team building skills. There are dozens of options to choose from, including free or DIY escape rooms and fully facilitated ones.
Check out this list of online escape rooms for more ideas.
29. Online Murder Mysteries
Virtual murder mysteries are similar to online escape rooms but generally have more theatrical flair. Typically, you either download scripts and choose actors on your team or hire an outside company to perform the murder mystery for you. These online murder mysteries tend to have fun themes that match holidays, entertainment, and other interests.
Here is a list of online murder mystery games.
30. Virtual Game Shows
Game shows are a ubiquitous part of growing up. Your team members have likely seen and maybe even participated in shows like Price is Right, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? You can play online versions of these game shows with remote teams. These games are fun since they are familiar, a little nostalgic, and easy to match with prizes.
Check out our list of virtual game show ideas and this on on how to play Jeopardy online.
31. Lexulous “Scrabble” Style Game (Free)
Lexulous is one of several free team games online that is modeled after Scrabble. The main difference is that Lexulous has eight tiles in play at a time, and the value assigned to each letter is a little different.
You can easily include Lexulous in your options for online games to play with coworkers. You can keep track of points and total scores over a month and award a Lexulous champion at the end.
32. Virtual Crime Scene Investigation
Virtual crime scene investigation games are great for online team building because they involve problem-solving, clue-following, and teamwork. Participants will race against the clock to find clues and answer the ultimate questions: who is the killer, how did it happen, and why?
Here is a list of ideas for virtual crime scene investigation games.
Conclusion
Playing fun team games online is a great way to do team building and create meaningful relationships with coworkers while working from home.
You can play the online team building games on this list, create your own, or check out other resources for more ideas. Be sure to check out our lists of online group games, online games for large groups, and offline team building games too.
With online team building, the most important element is that you dedicate some time to games because all work and no play makes for a pretty dull time.
Next, check out our lists of fun games to play on Zoom, Zoom team building games, Google Meet games, and this one with virtual game night activities.
We also have a list of the best team building activities for conference calls, the best free virtual team building games/activities, the best free online office games, and the best virtual team challenges.
Would love to play the 5 clicks game as well as the bingo, virtual werewolf, and pub style trivia
I would love to see an online game of office Battle Ships! Great way to test your analytical thinking and strategic skills.
Great concepts for those of us currently in weird conditions due to this terrible pandemic and would certainly bring a joyful experience to a work from home environment. Kudos to you men and women
Pub-style trivia would be a great virtual tram building game. This allows teams to openly discuss their answers freely. The game also builds research skills because the teams will need to use the internet or other tools at their disposal to get the answers.
A group of 5-10, with one being elected as a neutral party, have 10 minutes to present individual ideas (logos, products, slogans, etc.) to the appointed team member. The team must come to a consensus on what they think the best contender for the company is. This allows everyone to have an equal opinion and be included simultaneously. By doing this, the team can learn to work together and listen to each other’s ideas without having any bias. With this being more work related, it is not only beneficial to the team members, but also to the company.
A great team-building game I used to play is “Add A Phrase” in which you go around a circle and each member adds a phrase to a story. You can play this either with a topic/title in mind or you can simply choose a person to begin the story and let the team members carry the story in whichever direction they choose.
Two truths and a lie is a great way to get to know somebody. It also helps break down the barriers of quieter co-workers who have a harder time communicating with others.
Vurtiual I Spy with a twist-
Just like evey other game w played as a little kid growing up who doesn’t get a kick out of the old I SPY? I still play it to this day. It’s incorperated into my daily life as a mother!
The only difference is that when your playing it vurtually with everyone you have to choose something out orf what you can see in the other peoples webb cams, Cant be anything infront of you (well you know). And whoever comes up with the most right answers wins!
Team building poker. A simple game of poker is something that not only teaches how to be competitive, but it’s also imperative to remain calm during times of high stress, in order to not be “read” by competitors.
a story by the company
an email goes out from one person who writes 3-4 sentences and emails it to the next person who writes the next 3-4 sentences and so on until the final person write their part and then emails the story to everyone
Remind Myself
This activity is more of a spiritual exercise to help us break through the barriers of a virtual environment by acknowledging the humanity of the people who we cannot touch, have lunch with, or sit down and share a laugh with.
You start by looking the other person in the eyes on screen for a few seconds. You then close your eyes, take a breath, and say to yourself “I remind myself that this person has goals just like I do” “I remind myself that this person has been hurt just like I have” “I remind myself that this person experiences joy just like I do” and so on. Then, after you say 4 or 5 affirmations, you end it by saying “I open my heart and send love to my company, country, and the world.”
I find that fun little games for team building is the BEST! I like the idea of past, present, future. Each member of the team will present a item or story from each their past and present. The item can be a picture of a old house, a old car, or even a story of their first day of work. They then will take turns saying one thing they want to see in the future and a plan of how to achieve this goal. The support and praise of others seem to cause a positive impact on teams and helps them to support each other during the most stressful times.
A fun virtual team-building game is a hybrid of “flip cup” meets “tic-tac-toe”. Home viewers would have (5) red solo cups each. Two viewers face off against one another, competing to flip the cup (off the edge of a table or desk) and place it on a chosen spot on the tic-tac-toe board, viewable by all. First player to 3 in a row on the tic-tac-toe board advances to the next round, until there is a single elimination tournament winner. This is fun because it fuels friendly competition and demonstrates how attendees handle high pressure, plus it’s slightly-active in that it’s best played standing up.
Who did it:
A game of wit, learning, and challenge. One person is “Who did it”, and the rest are detectives. The game starts by the team being given a “crime” and a person “Who did it” is selected secretly by a third party. The goal of the detectives is to find out who did the “Crime” by using communication. The person “Who did it” is to deceive and try to not get caught! The game ends when the team picks who they think did it. The losers then have to share something about themselves that they think the team might find interesting.
Let’s write a story and see where it goes! Designate someone to write the story down and read it at the end. One person starts with a word, the next person has to say a word with the last letter of word the person before them said. As it goes down the line with each employee, they should think of a word that they feel could go along with where the story seems to be going. There will be lots of laughs because some people will try hard to make a story and others will just say a word and it could turn that story upside down or in a different direction. What a fun way to get people listening and play along!
Who doesn’t like getting drunk? Getting drunk makes everything better. I really like pub-style trivia. It helps find out unique and interesting details about each other and really would make everyone a lot friendlier. People tend to be a lot closer after getting drunk together and this would be the perfect online activity. Who likes getting drunk alone anyways?
I love these games so much! Offering virtual games is especially great during this COVID-19 pandemic, but these activities would be a VERY efficient way to plan an activity for my team without having to find/shuffle everyone into an on-site room. We can still grow as a team & have fun from the comfort of our office spaces.
One idea for a virtual activity that I think would be great would be a virtual scavenger hunt. This could work for team members working remotely in their homes or from their company office space. There is a list of items shown (each with differing point values) to all team members (with time given to write them down/take a picture on their phone). Each team member then has a limited amount of time to leave their monitor and collect as many of the items as they can. The person with the most points wins. You could break people up into teams, or everyone can compete individually, depending on group size.
Virtual Never Have I Ever could be a lot of fun. I actually want to get several friends together via Zoom and play since we’re still holed up at home!
One word story could be a lot of fun. Teams create a story, one person and one word at a time. The game is fast enough to get everyone involved and the pacing and unpredictability keeps everyone on their toes while a moderator ensures the flow stays consistent, and the laughter keeps on coming.
Online team-building bingo is a lot of fun, especially if there are colorful pictures used from pop-culture references.
I SPY! Virtual Edition. YES this is a game that can be played remotely. Each participant will leave the room that the call is set up in for 60 seconds. During those 60 seconds, other participants will “Spy” something in the room, and agree on one item they are going to have the person find when they come back to the call. The person who leaves the room will come back, and will have to try and find the item. Once the item is found, they can have some time to talk about the item, where it came from, what its purpose is, etc.
3 Truths and A Lie would be a great team building exercise!
A team member states 3 things about themselves. 2 must be true, and 1 a lie. All other team members have to try and guess the lie. First team member to get it right, can receive a small prize. A great way to get to know more about your team, and share some laughs!
Paranoia Remote:
Paranoia is normally a game that is played in a party setting where a group of people sit together in a circle and one person whispers a question to the person on their right, the person on their right then answers the question out loud for everyone to hear. Next, a player designated to flip a coin does so, if the coin lands on heads, the one who whispered the question must say the question to the entire group, if it lands on tails, the one who whispered does not reveal the question, leaving the rest of the group to wonder what the question is. After the decision of the coin flip is made, the person who was made to answer the question is now the one to ask the person on their right a question, repeating the cycle. To make it more interesting, questions could be asked about those within the group, such as “Who do you think would be more likely to *insert something unsavory*?”
Remote rules:
Since this would be done over a call, the asker would have to ensure that they cannot be heard by the others with a mute function, and if video is enabled, covering their mouth so that lip-readers cannot cheat.
The coin flip can still be done over video or by screen sharing the “flip a coin” google search.
If everyone’s icons appear in a different order in a call establish an order before beginning.
Have fun!
These are all such cool ideas!
I think in times like these, a guided meditation would also be a great way to connect the team. With the levels of stress people are facing, and some now suddenly trying to figure out how to work from home, this would be a way to refocus company goals in connection with company values. I’ve also participated in different types of virtual classes like yoga, so instead of going into a classroom setting just have them host it in an empty space in their home. It keeps people moving and healthy mentally and physically. 🙂
Connect the dots would be a fun and interactive game that allows every one to have something in common.
Person one would Say a fun fact about them selves which equals one tally mark and whoever has the most dots (commonalities ) win the game.
There may be a tie and there would be a speed lightening round and who ever answers first or answer the most win.
I love the idea of Virtual Pub. Not only do you get the feeling of being out after work, it can help take your mind off of stressing about a project at work. This particular game would be great in this time of quarantine to help us all feel a little bit more “normal”.
An idea could be a internet race. Contestants pair up in duos or small teams and must race threw a series of Google forms. Each google form is protected by a password which is a answer to a trivia questions (general or company based) or a screenshot of a completed puzzle/game. Each google form leads them to another, the first team to complete the race wins.
This sounds interesting, can you explain more? Thank you!! =)
Office Charades is the BEST team building activity! Just like regular charades, but each person must act out using well-known offices objects – for example: act out getting frustrated with that pesky fax machine – or – act out what its like to get yelled at by Karen from compliance. This game is fun and funny and will keep the all participants engaged.
I think a great team building activity that you can do virtually is two truths and a lie. This is great for those teams who are just starting out and dont quite know each other yet. each person on the team would come up with two truths and a lie about their selves. they would go around and everyone would guess which one is the lie. and then after everyone guess, the person would then reveal which was the lie.
I think a great virtual team building game would be an ole fashioned game of battleship. Whether it’s team vs team or one on one. We could come up with questions about each other to see how well you know a person. Or it can be questions asked where you end up getting to know a person. The winner/winners sink the other battleship at the end of the game, depending on who got more answers correct. Simple but exciting!
Using video conferencing, the team leader teaches all participants the phrase, “I’ve got no dots, how many dots does ‘somebody’ gots.” While grammatically incorrect, there is a cadence that is followed with the phrase with gently slapping hands twice on upper thighs (sitting down), clapping hands twice, clicking fingers twice, then ending the “somebody gots” by motioning over the shoulders twice.
The somebody will be the participants name. The leader begins and chooses one participant. Once the phrase “is passed” to the next participant, they must choose another participant and not break the chain! If they stumble, break the cadence with the hand motions, then they earn a dot (to be determined but typically a removable, non-allergenic office supply dot). Then, if a participant earns a dot, they MUST say, “I have (how many dots), how many dots some somebody gots?”
Great way to learn names and team members.
I love all of these ideas, such a creative way of engaging remote teams. I believe another fun way to engage teams, and encourage team bonding could be through online Pictionary. Employees are put into teams, and one team member is given an item to draw, through an online app. The team that get the most points by guessing the item drawn correctly wins! This will create lasting memories, laughs galore, and bring teams together.
I think virtual team building, especially nowadays with Covina-19 and social distancing, would be a huge boost to everyone’s morale while also creating a positive, fun and uplifting activity. My teambuilding concept would be a 90 minute Lego-build off to create a 3-dimensional object or design that best represents and/or depicts the company they work for. Each group must use a minimum of 250 pieces and no more than 500, with each group given the exact same pieces to work with. Tick Tock Tick Tock, you are now on the clock!
Team building game idea:
Tik Tok trends are becoming a global phenomenon and something fun for team building is to have everyone take turns dancing, BUT there is a catch team person must copy the last move of the person right before them then add their own move and so on and so on. The person who doesn’t do the move correctly is out and the last one standing is the winner. It’s like a spin on musical chairs.
Virtual charades is a fun and interactive and builds character. You can get to know the personality of your team mates and how they act and react. This is a fun way to build relationships and adds character and builds your motivation with the team by always thinking of new ways to act and be creative with a live experience.
One idea for reconnecting with coworkers, say after the weekend, is as exercise called Rose, Bud, Thorn. Rose is a prompt for sharing about a highlight of your weekend or past week. Bud is a prompt for sharing about something that you are looking forward to. Thorn is a prompt for sharing something that was not ideal. I like to steer this in a more positive direction and not dwell on the negatives by having folks share not only what wasn’t ideal, but what they would do differently or how they could avoid it next time. If there is a lot of negativity floating around, you could skip the thorn part and just stick to Rose and Bud.
Charades is a great opportunity for team members to attempt to effectively communicate to their coworkers. Attempting to get an idea across to another person without using a specific verbiage poses a great challenge for team members to work together on. The competitiveness of the activity scales the efficiency of the activity up even more!
I think all of these activities are wonderful ideas. The activity that stands out to me the most is the water shot activity. This activity can add fun and health in a work environment. I know when I lost over 140 lbs drinking more water was the main contributor to my weight loss success. So, maybe this game can help teams reach their optimal health and have fun while at work.
These are all great ideas for team building! I really like joanna benanzer’s idea of two truths and a lie, always a fun way to find out who has some fun hobbies in the office! I am a big fan of telestrations, the game where everyone in the team emails a sentence describing a scene or image to the next person on the list who then has to draw that sentence out. Once they have done their best to draw out the sentence they email it to the next person who must try to figure out what the last person drew and write their own sentence describing what they saw and so on and so on. It’s fun to see the creative side of our work teams!
I am in LOVE with the “Water Shot” game. Specifically, my company is always promoting health and fitness. This game would be great to play on a Thursday or Friday to ready for the weekend and keep morale high. Even more, I would like to see my HR tie this team builder into the ability for employees to gain health points to cash in for prizes or give a $20, $40 or $50 HSA credit. We could produce our progress results at the end of the game for the winner.
Finally, since Tik Tok has become so popular, perhaps Teambuilding.com can incorporate some dance moves to coincide with the health and fitness model intended for the “Water Shot” game.
I can’t wait to try some of these team building events! Another event I think would be fun is a hand puppet contest, each person creates their hand puppet with nontoxic washable markers and puts on a miniplay telling everyone else something about their hand puppet(really about themselves) and everyone votes for the winner while also trying to guess whose hand puppet belongs to which person! This allows creativity, learning something about a team member and learning names as well!
Each call completed will equal a certain amount of points, closed sales will add a multiplier to your score. During breaks or at the end of the workday, you can use your points as currency in a virtual game store or marketplace. OR they can translate into ‘chances’ or ‘turns’ for you to spend on inclusive group games like hangman, crossword, jeopardy, etc. Winners are displayed on a leaderboard and are eligible for small prizes like an extra break or an hour lunch. This will promote productivity through friendly competition, and capitalize on our desire to be recognized amongst our peers.
Since we are all at home it would be fun to do a virtual activity involving Tik Tok and acting out some of our favorite things. Whoever gets the most votes by the end of the week wins a Postmates/UberEats/Door Dash gift card.
The team I currently work with has had weekly virtual happy hours and played games using Zoom. It has certainly helped us in our “new-normal” work life.
I loved the water shots idea to stay healthy and hydrated. I’m all about being mindful of personal health. As someone that used to drink almost a gallon of water a day, prior to the pandemic, this is a great way to get motivated and back to it with others! It’s a fun way to stay motivated and energized.
The On-Line Team Building Bingo is probably my favorite because it brings the at-home experience of work to a personal level, especially while many have been recently transitioned to remote work as opposed to an office setting. We have had to mix the personal space with a professional life and are trying to find that balance for our clients and co-workers. This particular bingo platform helps us realize that we are doing life differently for now, and that we are OK in our PJs (when appropriate) and home life occasionally interrupting the “normal” work flow. Let’s submit photos of us succeeding in the adjusting period that fit the Bingo criterion. It’s a fun and visual way that shows we are finding new ways, being a little awkward, but still doing it well.
One of the better games in my opinion is Mr. Rogers Calls. One thing that will keep people that work remotely from performing is boredom. Randomly matching two of your employees together and not allowing them to talk about work will definitely help resolve that issue.
“Pass It On”
We all have a need to be recognized and feel appreciated. In a virtual work environment sometimes we don’t get the opportunity or even think about telling our teammates how much we appreciate them or that we noticed how well they have done.
“Pass It On” could be a program to connect with co-workers, recognize great works (big or small) and have some fun together!
This could be done in a virtual office space, group, or even a closed company Facebook page, where people could make posts about their teammates. (The posts could be review by a moderator prior to being published to ensure they are appropriate, etc.) For each post written for a teammate, points could be earned. Encouraging people to take the time to say “thank you” for help they received, shoutout someone for their great work on a project or assignment, or just acknowledgment for a time that a teammate went above and beyond for a client or co-worker. Points would also be earned for receiving recognition.
Points could have a $ value be redeemed for gift cards, helping virtual teams that can, many times feel alone or unnoticed, feel appreciated. And who doesn’t like a little extra Amazon cash for doing a great job or being a good teammate!
Would like to see who finishes there lunch and drink blind folded.
There could be an online Painting/art class. People involved in the activity can use whatever mediums they have (pencils, pens, paints, markers, etc.) Everyone follows an Instructor video and does their best to replicate the piece or freestyle and do their own rendition. At the end people can vote for the pieces that closest replicate the instructor piece and vote for the most unique rendition.
The TP Game!
Everyone grabs a roll of toilet paper from their house. The leader of the group tells people to unravel the toilet paper and tear of as many pieces as they want. (P.S. DON’T TELL THE TEAM WHAT WE’RE DOING WITH IT FIRST!) Then, once everyone has their squares of toilet paper, you reveal that you need to come up with as many facts about yourself to share with the team as you have toilet paper squares.
Immediate Surrounding Charades — Everyone is paired up and leader/moderator uses a charades generator (yep…that’s a thing) to assign topics one pair at a time. The person who is giving clues is muted. They can use anything within their reach to give clues to their partner. The two rules are they cannot write anything (or it would be Pictionary) and they cannot reach for anything that takes them out of camera view — anything within reach is fair game!
These are some great ideas! I’ve always wanted to try something like this:
You and your team pick famous works of art to mimic, using only 3-5 items at hand while on the zoom/video call. Bonus points for changing your background. Winner determined by team vote. Must stay in costume/role for remainder of the meeting. Bonus points if you speak with an accent if the original painting is French/English/Dutch/South African/Brazilian/etc for the rest of the meeting. Bonus points for staying in character for the rest of the meeting. No offensive or racist comments or impressions!
Another virtual game you could play with remote workers would be Team Building Hangman. It has the normal rules of hangman, but the person choosing the word or phrase, has to choose a word or phrase that either describes their favorite parts of their job, or a hobby/activity they like to do often.
A work from home version of ‘I Spy’ could be interesting. The rules are basically the same as regular ‘I Spy’, but the items should be something related to work or your colleagues in some way. You could use video chat or Zoom to play or play through messenger apps. Be sure to give as much detail as possible without giving it away. This will also help your team grow their communication skills.
Great Article with some wonderful Ideas. I really like the 5 Clicks game, and would love to try now during the COVID-19, safer at home time period, with even friends or family. Great way to connect and have fun. I was thinking a great game to play virtually would be to story game, one word at a time. If on a conference call you could record the story and play it back as well. The topics could be work or industry related. The way the game works is there is a topic and you decide an order and the team has to tell a story or a pitch, but can only say one word at a time. I think recording them and playing them back at a later team meeting about a simular topic would be even more fun.
Virtual Charades is an amazing team building activity. Who doesn’t love a good game of charades?! Not only is this activity fun but it’s a awesome way to just relax and get to know your coworkers a little more!
Let’s create and eat! I don’t know about anyone else, but one way I have been able to keep my sanity through this quarantine is cooking! I love to cook, and I can proudly say that my husband and I have been cooking three meals a day, everyday! I propose an online cooking contest! Every course is a challenge that will be timed and judged! Everyone has to create a meal within the allotted time, that every member would eat! Feel free to pre-boil the water if a pasta or rice dish is within your vision! Everyone likes a yummy snack when working from home, so let us have a remote cooking contest!!
A game that would be exciting as a small team cohesion building exercise would be a “tabletop RPG”, such as Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, or Star Wars Saga edition. Multiple online clients exist to provide group interaction. Learning to overcome challenges, and defeat enemies as a team can provide valuable clues to how each member of the team best functions, and these games provide a fun and engaging place to explore and engage.
Great ideas, i would also like to see a speed trivia game, as well as games involving improving individual as well as company produtivity. These could also be incentivized with gift cards like uber eats etc…
In order to improve our lunch-learns , I’ve developed memory styled-trivia with coworkers split into teams. The focus is taking your standard webinar to something interactive and competitive to improve learning retention!
I love the idea of virtual team building exercises to get closer and more acquainted with your team! I think this is so important since working remotely you are not in a normal office environment physically interacting with your team on a daily basis.
I think a great team activity that I would love to do with my team would be something like a murder mystery dinner!
The murder mystery would include all in one box with lots of puzzles and clues for the team to problem solve together or individually making the game intense!
You could include a small dinner recipe with ingredients included that the team could cook up and eat together since it would be a murder mystery dinner.
The box could include a detective badge to wear with a magnifying glass so the team could look like real detectives!
I think this would bring everyone out of their shells and really get the whole team excited, especially as everyone starts unraveling clues.
One fun game is trivia but with a productivity twist. There are 4 rounds of trivia (one round every 2 hours). You get to participate if you hit a certain productivity metric (Calls per hour, sales, new appointments set, etc.) Each player will accumulate points for each question answered correctly, the top 2 players at the end of the day get a prize (gift card, bottle of wine, company swag, etc.) Gives employees a boost in productivity but something fun to look forward to after the hard work.
An idea: virtual telephone with a twist! instead of audio, the first person is given an image to replicate as best they can. half of the image is then obscured, and it is sent to the next person, who attempts to reproduce the other half. the resulting image is obscured again, sent on, and this can continue according to the size of the team. everyone shares at the end!
Be a 1-Upper!
Everyone knows a 1-upper. You know, that person who always has to tell or embellish a story right after you to make yours seem less significant? Well, what if 1-upping WAS a competition?
1. Start with a simple story about a simple thing that happened. For example, “My electric toothbrush died this morning in the middle of brushing my teeth. I had to finish brushing manually. It was so hard to brush that way!”
2. The next person has to tell a story to 1-up the previous story, and so on. Continue telling stories for a certain number of rounds or until a story is so awesome that it just can’t be 1-upped!
3. Stories must be true but try using lots of descriptions to develop the story!
4. Remember, 1-uppers usually tell a story related to the story their 1-upping so it is easier to compare. If stories are disjointed, the game won’t flow as well.
This is a great way to get people talking and learning how to tell stories!
A great virtual team building exercise is a scavenger hunt. For the scavenger hunt you could pick things that would be in someone’s house and they have to go around and find them. You can have a tiered level of winner too, so the first person to get all 10 items wins X, then second wins X and so on and so forth. This would be fun too if you had the representatives on video chat during this time. Then everyone could see everyone running around just like a real scavenger hunt.
Virtual Talent Show
Everyone gets on a video chat together, and has 2 minutes to show off their special talent or skill. At the end, everyone can vote for a winner.
I have notice with the office working remotely the communication between employees has gone down. This program will help everyone connect. With the diversity of games you could change it weekly. I look forward to some funny replies that will be coming my way.
Turtle Tank TM
This is exactly like Shark Tank TM except much slower!
The concept of this game would be to either divide the participants into teams or have each individual present a new concept for the company to sell or an operational improvement.
There can be a Turtle Panel to ask questions and ultimately decide an idea winner or if there is concern about a winner/loser make the presenters/ employees a tiered contribution to there 401K or Health Savings Account or gift cash card…
Google Doc spelling word game.
Everyone on the team opens the same shared doc. You only have 10 seconds to spell a difficult word like, ‘Quarantine’. Continue with multiple rounds until you are left with a winning. This is something everyone can do right now.
Any activity can be used as a team building game, it’s simply about framing the activity properly so that there is a takeaway message.
This could be as simple as “I am”. This could be done in pairs in person, or just take turns remotely. Simply say sentences starting with “I am”. Individuals will inevitably start with things like their job descriptions, their physical description, etc. After enough time passes, they may shift to compliments, struggles, etc. Everyone leaves feeling a little more honest, a little more connected, and a little more educated about their coworkers.
You then frame the activity by pointing out some of the most surprising answers. “Bet you didn’t know that about Greg!”. Or “see how easy it is to appreciate yourself when you’re looking for ways to do so?”.
Seems like a wonderful idea. Games like pub style trivia really could bring a lot of joy to employees working from home. Seems like this service is desperately needed in these troubled times.
Lots of really awesome ideas. What about a list of work, life and misc. related questions. You would ask one person and they would say the first thing that comes to their head. The next person would then do the same for what participant one said and further down the line for back to back answers. While providing comedic relief and an opportunity for the participants to express themselves, it may reveal some constructive information that the team can grow from.
Fairytale Rhyme Singing Competition:
Every person is creative whether they realize it or not. And as a musician, I am a believer in the power of creativity and expression through making music. While everyone may not be able to instantly play an instrument, everyone can belt out a song. I think a great teambuilding game would be singing Fairytale Rhymes. It’s fun and people could substitute/add names of co-workers into Fairytale Rhymes/Songs. For example, “I can show ________ (name of co-worker) the world,” or “Mirror mirror on the wall, __________ (name of co-worker) is the fairest of them all.”
The most creative song version/best fairytale rendition using names and info of other co-workers, wins! (Facilitator can provide fairytale/song lyrics to refer to, and everyone votes at the end, facilitator of game tallies votes, and gives out a fairytale themed prize)
Categories:
This is a fast paced game focused on the mind and quick thinking. So initially someone would say a category ex. Food, tv shows, movies, color. There are so many options you could choose from in this case it could be something to do with their workplace. The point of the game is to keep typing/saying different things in the categories without getting hung up and hesitating and if you are the one who hesitates you are out. This game goes on for hours depending on how many people are playing.
I love the idea of coming together and connecting beyond the tasks of the position. I like the idea of a “3-Feelings And” activity. Each person on the team has a few minutes (maybe 5) to think of three words to describe how they are feeling in that moment. They can listen to only music during this time – as sometimes music can help one identify how they are feeling – but it will be encouraged they maintain their focus on breathing deeply and identifying their emotions. Once the 5 minutes are up, it would start with one person reading their 3 feelings first. Once they have gone, the team will have a chance to speak up if they have the same (or a very similar) feeling written down themselves. Whoever raises their hand first will now get to speak their 3 feelings, and so on, so forth. If there are multiple members responding, remember to go with the person who spoke up first. This creates a fun, competitive & engaging environment while also showing that we are all more similar than we seem.
All these games are great and creative very colorful and fun to play you can print them out and just have fun .
Bucket filler Minecraft world would be a great way to allow adults to give one another ego boosters for the “craftworld” to see.
Musical chairs! But with one chair. Play the music, run around the one chair and when the music stops. The last person in the chair has to yell out an idea. If it’s not to come up with creative thoughts, it’s also a good way to get the blood flowing and some exercise going. With lots of laughs in the process. Also could be a fun happy hour game.
Let’s all stretch for 2 minutes.
This is the perfect time to practice “sharing” so teammates can benefit from each-other’s secrets of well being…
Every day 2-3 folks demo their moves for 10-15 seconds, and everyone does it for 90-120 seconds…ALL TOGETHER
What if we took Water Shots to a whole new level?! Let’s add some fitness to it too! After we‘ve seen 6 dogs, 8 cats, a bird and a chameleon, we’re going to need a bathroom break! Every bathroom break you take, choose either 5 squats or 5 push-ups. Just like the water shots, it’s not too much to handle at once, yet after a while, you start to see results!
I think a fun icebreaker/ warmup game for remote teams would be Never Have I ever but for office related culture and etiquette. Everyone can start with three points and the last one standing wins. Some props can include “Never have I ever heated up fish in the microwave.” or “Never have I ever jammed the printer.” This would be great to subconsciously teach office culture and norms to new members and a refresher for old one. Lots of laughs can be had while playing also!
Using your computers as the paper, Pictionary would be an amazing way to get to know your teammates as well as work with them better!
Wow, these are all such fun games and ideas!
A virtual push up contest or wall sit contest would be super fun. Put a timer on and see who can do the most push ups in 1 minute. Or have everyone do a wall sit and see who can last the longest. This is easy, quick, active, and fun!
Something like this can also be mixed up with activities that arent centered around physical abilities. Maybe – who can write down the most words that rhyme with “BEAN” in 1 minute? Or who can name the most types of species of birds. It’s easy to make it fun for everyone.
MUTED MOUTH MIME
This game is so much fun- laugh out loud hysterical. I facilitated the game in a Zoom call with friends, and it can totally be used in a work setting. One facilitator has a list of phrases/sentences. We break the groups up (groups of 2 or more). The giver gets sent a private phrase/sentence by the facilitator and the “giver” goes on mute. The giver has to read the phrase/sentence and their teammates have to figure out what they are saying by reading their mouth. Teams have 60 seconds each round.
I love all of these virtual game ideas!! A fun game to play would be “Virtual Odds Are.” The idea of the game is player A asks player B in the group “what are the odds you’ll…” and includes a silly activity such as a wacky dance or sit holding their hands in the air for the next ten min. Player B then says what the odds are- for this example lets say 18. Both players count to three and must say a number between 1 – 18. If they say the same number, Player B has to do whatever activity was stated. Player B then becomes Player A and chooses a new opponent. This is a favorite with my friend group- it is hysterical to hear some of the activities some people come up with!
Anyone who works from home knows that the days are what you make it, and what better way to inject some health and silliness than with the Chair Up game?! In this fun, remote game, the anticipation builds while the team listens for the words “Chair Up!” With that said, everyone must get up and do something cheery, anything that moves your body and puts a smile on your face! This is a wonderful way to wake up the body and mind and Chair Up!
a great team building game to crack the ice and get to know each other is 2 Truths and 1 Lie. Each person says 3 facts about themselves, one is not true and the other two are real. While everyone else has to guess what is the lie. A fun way to learn silly facts about one an other.
Virtual Charades only because it will give you the experience to get to know your coworkers while at home and while having fun.
Cooking Classes could be a fun team building experience as well!
I think a fun icebreaker would be a self portrait guessing game. Have everyone in the group open MSPaint (or another limited photo editor if not on windows) and draw their self portrait including something unique to themselves as well within in a given time limit (perhaps 10 min? make sure to keep it on the lower end) Then when time is up everyone adds it to a shared document and the group votes on who they think each one is.
Truth or Dare, or Never have I ever.
A Team Building game could be, a trivia of words or situations that are common in the daily life of a remote worker. 5 things writing down with 2 clues. the person that is chosen has to guess what situation was the right one.
I think a virtual “blind” maze would be cool! So you can split your workforce up into multiple teams and the maze “runner” would be in control of the game piece but wouldn’t be able to see the full maze. The other coworkers on their team would have access to the maze map and communication is key for this. they have to help their runner get to the end of the maze before the other team does!
I think online BATTLESHIP would be a great team building game. Not only would it test how well each team can come up with a strategy, but test the honesty and trustworthiness of the opposing team! It wouldn’t take long to set up, each team would have the same grid and choose where their “battleships” went.
Word chain or word snake. You say a word and the other person quickly thinks of a word that start with the last letter of your word. This is a fun game I have played with coworkers on a short break to energize and regain focus.
Example: Person one: Trio
Person two: Orient
A fun Team Building game could be a virtual version of James Corden’s “Fill Your Guts or Spill Your Guts” Where each member of the team is required to get the 5 most unappetizing items from their kitchen. The game would follow like this:
Team Member 1 asks Team Member 2 a wholesome, yet somewhat personal/ funny HR friendly question. Team Member 2 chooses to either “Spill their Guts” and share their answer, or “Fill their Guts” and eat one of the unappetizing items from their kitchen.
Current events trivia is always fun in todays age, things happen daily that others would never think its real but relevant to keep up to date
My favorite team building game from my past is Mindfield. For this game, you will need four playing cards (52-deck, uno deck, using cards from a matching game, etc.), and the facilitator assigns one person per team to each card. It is important to acknowledge that only 4 people in the group will be included, but the entire team must decide which four team members belong to the cards. Using answers like, “2 people are on the right card”, or “1 person is on the wrong card”, or “3 people are correct and on the right card”, the team must determine which team players are on the right cards. This exercise shows you the roles of the certain people within a common group. You’ll identify team leaders and followers, and the introverted members compared to the extroverted ones.
I like the idea of the charades as this will get your people up and interactive with each other. It helps to break the mold of the of sitting all day online and gets each person moving. I t will allow team members to see each other personalities come out as they try to act things out. One game I like to play is ABC. This is fun as you can play it in various ways even in charade style if you want to make it harder. With team members you have to pick the order you will go in then pick a category. Examples: office items, dream vacation spots, hobbies etcc. It’s a great way to to get to know team members while having fun.
A fun way to mix trivia with current events is to adapt your own Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me game modeled after the NPR radio show. Each person chooses three strange news stories, two are real and one is made up, and the others guess which is the fake story. A group can either form teams or keep track of how many each person guesses correctly, but either way the topics will get people talking, having fun, and learning about new events–although strange ones.
Loved all the ideas! I think my favorite is the Bingo game.
I have a few ideas for some fun, interactive activities –
1- A simple, silly time of sharing corny jokes, combined with a version of “causal Friday” where everyone has to wear a predetermined item/outfit (crazy hat, Hawaiian lua, cowboy, etc)
2- A version of Flat Stanley for companies with a mascot – print out a cutout of the mascot and take pictures of it doing various chores around your house with you and then share with group
3- Who is That? Have a short questionnaire with non-evasive questions (how many pets do you have, how many different places have you lived, how many states have you been to, etc) for each participant to fill out and send to the moderator. The moderator will choose one or more of the answers from each person and share it with the group. Everyone has to guess who each answer belongs to.
My favorite is definitely Bingo I have some ideas like building team Monopoly or building team Uno now I love some Uno that game will never get old lol
One team building game that could be played with a virtual team is an Office Desk Scavenger Hunt. The team could be given a list of items to see if they have them on their desks. The person with the most items wins the game, but little wins can go to individuals with the most unique items. For example, everyone will probably have a mug, but there may be someone with a fancy or funny mug that is more unique than the others. This game could also spark discussion because other team members would ask where they got the unique mug from!
I really love the ideas given! One game I know to have always broken ice in fun, creative, and engaging game is the One-word story. This game is quick paced and involves everyone. To begin someone can pick a starting theme, then the first person will start the story with one word and the story will continue down the line-up of people. This gives the story a chance to take unsuspecting turns at a moments notice, also a chance to show peoples creative side. Being creative among a group of people really inspires a confidence in yourself and those around you, not to mention the increasing comfort level experienced as the game goes on. This comfort level can then transgress into the work environment.
I absolutely love the idea of getting everyone involved in these virtual tam building events.
It’s easy for my team to participate and outside the box of normal. My favorite is “Water Shots” We love the idea of reminding our team to stay healthy and hydrated. We our team get to working hard we tend to forget about, SELF CARE! This helps us during our virtual meetings to stay well and alert.
Virtual L.I.F.E. would allow for the questions to be a mix of work or industry related subjects and everyday life or future aspirations. Collectively allowing the team to share new ideas, encourage one another and grow into a tighter knit team, that understands one another more. It is a classic game that while familiar provides great customization for various companies. Easy to moderate and provides the ability to have multiple people in teams or individuals as well. Fun, flexible, engaging and ultimately successful.
A fun team building activity would be a game in which participants are divided into two teams. A player on the first team is given a category at random (Countries of Europe, Madonna Songs, 2020 Chevrolet Models, etc), and that player, after consulting with his/her team, comes up with a number of answers that they can collectively provide that would be on the list. Let’s say that the player indicates that the team can name 15 items on the list. A player on the opposing team decides if the first team will name 15 items, or if their team will attempt to one-up them by naming 16 items from the same list. If a team successfully gives the number of answers that they indicated they could, they are awarded with one point per answer. They cannot earn more points than the number that they indicated that they could correctly give, though. So, if your team says that they can name eight Dustin Hoffman movies, and, after seven correct answers are given, you remember that he was in both “Outbreak” and “Rain Man,”….. sorry. You can only get credit for one of those. If a team is unsuccessful in meeting the target, the opposing team gets those points. First team to a predetermined score wins!
A fun virtual team building virtual activity is called: “Office Chopped.” This activity is a virtual, team building spin-off of the Food Network TV show “Chopped.” Before the activity begins, each participant should choose one food item from their pantry or fridge. They should keep these items a secret from all other participants. Choose or draw straws to identify three participants to be judges and split the remaining participants into 3 teams. Have the teams meet in separate virtual meeting spaces. Each team will have 10 minutes to create a recipe based on the ingredients chosen by the people in their team before the activity began. After the 10 minutes are up, have each team present their recipe, including a delectable description of their food to the judges. Have the judges determine a winner based on creativity and the overall likelihood of the food being creatable. The winning team receives grocery-store gift cards!
I love all of these ideas and they seem very fun and productive. I have an idea that would suit really well for designers. So this is Pictionary with a twist. The person gets 3 minutes instead of one to make a quick design of an item using Sketchup(which is a software). They are divided into two teams and like Pictionary people on their get to guess on what is being designed. This will make people develop a quicker sense of design due to competitiveness and there for making them more efficient in their jobs. The winning team can get cool design pens.
One of my favorite games to play with my team is called “Office Feud”. Just like the game show “Family Feud”, you split the everyone up into two teams. In my company, the management team sent out a survey to all employees months in advance so we had no idea what the questionnaire was for. They used the results of those questionnaires to determine the top 3-5 answers on each board. Each question revolved around topics like product offerings and features, technology, and the overall industry in general. Just like the game show, each member of each team gets to face off and the winner chooses for their entire team to pass or play. Points are then awarded based on each board’s difficulty. The best part – the winners get a prize! And, if they win the final round, the entire team wins an even bigger prize! While each game is only suited for two teams of 5-10, our company actually did it in a mini tournament format. So if you won, you kept going until a final champion was crowned. Things like that make the competition incredibly fun and intense! We had so much fun!
I think one of the challenges to working remotely is to stay fit. Not only are remote workers sitting most of the day, as with any other desk job, but remote workers are also working very closely to their kitchen full of tempting food. One great team building challenge would be to have team members develop personal fitness goals to achieve over the next month and then use these goals to form a Bingo sheet for the month. Some of the activities could be “Join a gym,” “Try a Zumba Class,” or “Experiment with Yoga,” etc. The team would feel a little healthy competition to win the month’s Bingo game (with an appropriate fitness oriented prize) while improving their health, mood and productivity. Nothing to lose but a few pounds!!
I think it would be fun to do a cup pong challenge. Almost like iMessage games except you have to actually play. It’ll also allow a big tournament and friendly competition for a team looking to bond!
I think that an online “Clue” or mystery solving game like an online escape room would be a great way for online teams to work together to solve a puzzle or challenge and also have fun.
I think an amazing game would be, WORD JUMBLE, it is an easy game if you have earphones and music! How you would play is each person would go one by one wearing their headphones while playing music. The person playing the music would have a sentence to complete. It is called word jumble because when the song is playing, it would jumble your mind to try and complete the sentence! Everyone else in the game would then have to try to figure out what the person is trying to say!
A fun game my coworkers and I used to like to play during downtime was “Guess the Phrase”. Basically, over Zoom/WebEx/some other video conferencing app, you have one player mouth a phrase, and the other player (or players) has to guess what that player is mouthing. The answers can get pretty outrageous and ridiculous very fast! Just make sure to keep it work-appropriate. 🙂
An exciting game to try for small groups in video conferences would be Game of Possibilities! Each player grabs a random object from around the house, then has to come up with an alternate use for it. Each player demonstrates the alternate use for the conference, and everyone else has to figure out what the function is. It’s similar to charades, but requires players to think even further outside the box!
I have not seen any remote or online teambuilder art activities. i.e. painting or crafts. Each activity/event could be something different, maybe starting with DIY Succulent Plants for the home/ home office. Each time someone different would lead a different project, (online photo scrap booking, DIY ornaments, etc. and give each person a turn to showcase their work!
A cornhole Tournament could be a great team building because you can have a little competition but at the same time bringing the team together.
Can you hear me now sounds like an amazing game!
This is a great resource of virtual games. I like the game Island, each person has to list 3 things they would bring if they were going to be stranded on an island. It is a good ice breaker and always good for getting to know people better based on their choices. You can also adapt it and give a list where they pick 1 item and have to work together as a team to establish a survival plan.
A game of survival! Each team member must bring 3 items in their home that they cannot live without in their regular day-to-day lives. This is different from the typical stranded island game where you bring things to survive the island… This is focused on getting to know eachother better and the things that are most important to each team member.
A fun virtual game would be to play a version of two truths and a lie. This game could be paired with an online quiz. You could either get everyone to submit a phrase/word that describes them and everyone poles on who’s phrase it is. Another version would be to actual do the two truths and a lie. You submit a pole and people have to guess which is the actual lie. You not only get to learn about each other but you also get to use your creative side.
An activity that helps build up a team is called Mimic. Each person comes up with a motion, such as tugging on their ear or touching their nose, and then someone is chosen to close their eyes. While this person is not looking, one person starts by doing their own motion; this individual is the one who can pick a new motion that belongs to someone else and has the team change what they are doing. Then the individual who had their eyes closed, opens them and attempts to find who is in charge of changing the motion. This means that you must pay close attention to everyone involved because you don’t know who is changing it. The more people there are, the more challenging it is. And once the person is found out, they share something about themselves, their ideas, or what the team is working on.
One of my favorite games to play virtually is something like Pictionary, where a person receives a prompt they have to draw while the other players try to guess what they’re drawing. It’s very similar to charades, but offers lots of laughs in its own special way. Not everyone is an accomplished artist, which is all part of the fun, since each person will utilize their own way of communicating to get their point across, celebrating their unique strengths and weaknesses as all part of the game. It works especially well as a team-building exercise in this way, bringing people closer together through appreciation for each individual’s creativity, and practicing the communication of abstract ideas.
In our current difficult social environment, remote team building can be a great bonding activity. I have always found that a Pub-style Trivia exercise can be a rewarding one for learning, discussion and fun. Different topics i.e. music, TV, movies, sports, history etc. will generate endless sources of possibilities.
Moops, anyone?
In a conference call (or something similar), have the leader think of 2 words that are completely different from each other (i.e. chocolate and a door). Then, each person in the call has exactly one minute to come up with a crazy conspiracy theory linking the two things. Once everyone has one, they take turns telling everyone their conspiracy theory and then vote on who has the best and that person gets a point. At the end, the person with the most points is crowned The Crazed Conspirator!
Virtual werewolf sounds like an awesome team game for remote teams. Everyone has a role and contributes in their own unique way. It’s interactive and engaging through each aspect of the game!
Water Shots is super simple and fun to integrate into any meeting, virtual or otherwise! Select a “trigger” (this could be a word or an action, such as someone touching their nose). Each time the trigger happens, participants must take a drink of water! Of course, this healthful game could be played with beer or adult beverages if that’s how your company rolls! 🍸 Cheers!
A game suggestion that has a little improv, story crafting, and madlib style silliness. One person is in charge of mediating and running the word/number generator. Find a character/motivation generator. Hit Generate. That is the stories main character and motivation. It is now the generators responsibility to generate a number (1, 2 ,3) to be given to each participant, as the story goes, at the beginning of each sentence.
1-Adjective, 2-verb, 3- adjective and verb. The participant then has their own word generator pulled up and generates an adjective, verb, or both, respective to their given number. The goal is to go person to person, giving one sentence at a time, until the motivation of the main character is realized. For more active participation, break into small groups.
I love the idea of scavengers hunts and hosting one via video conferencing would be tons of fun! You can ask for photos, your pet, your favorite house plant, basically anything that you normally wouldn’t see from your co-workers. This would be a great way to get to know everyone. You could also have a virtual dance competition. Players would each have a different dance move (the funkier the better) and everyone else has to guess the move!
Collaborative Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Each team member takes three sheets of blank paper and, as large as possible, writes one pre-selected word on each page.
You could use the words “rock, paper scissors,” “red, blue, green,” or something relevant to your team, as long as each piece of paper has a unique word shared by all.
Once everyone has prepped their three sheets, the game can commence.
Next, everyone secretly selects one of the three options and reveals it on the count of 3.
The goal is to be in the majority. All team members who selected the most popular word move on to Round 2 while everyone else sits out.
For example, if you have 20 team members and 10 choose red, 5 choose blue, and 5 choose green, everyone who selected “red” moves on to Round 2.
In the event of a tie (10 red, 10 blue), everyone moves on.
Rinse and repeat until all remaining team members select the same word and are declared the winners.
Can either be done for pure fun or to illustrate the importance of having everyone on the same page!
Another example you can play with remote teams is something I call, “Why so down, clown?” This game is sort of like charades. However, instead of acting out an action to come to the conclusion, participants will be given a certain number. This number correlates to an emotion and the participants have to try and mimic that emotion on their face. The person who guesses correctly gets a point. The person with the most points win. This game can be fun as there is a lot of laughter when everyone sees their different emotions while being able to grow the team on more of an empathetic level.
Virtual Mad Gab. You can put together a game where you have to guess the phrase that the person is trying to say with words that are put in order to create the phrase. It is something everyone would enjoy and get a great laugh out of them!
One of my favorite games to play that can easily be done remotely is the memory alphabet game. You pick s location, a topic and then go around the alphabet. You have to remember all that was said and repeat it too. Now this can get intense because it can be true it can be fictional and it can be anything you can think of.
Example: in grandmas attic, I found an aardvark. In grandmas attic I found an aardvark and a badger. And so on. Put a speed twist to it to make it more engaging.
Some people have mentioned doing virtual charades, but I think virtual Rollick could be even more interesting. You’d have to collaborate with the other team members to all act out the same thing for one person to guess via a video chat. It could certainly end with some hilarious stories.
A game musical chairs, where when the music starts playing they can use this time as a break. To do a couple quick task such as grab a snack, bathroom breaks or even a quick work out. Whatever it is they have to leave their seats. But when the music stops the first person back in their seats win. Similar to the “The Channel Closing Game” where everyone that participates wins while also keeping employees active while working long hours.
A good classic game you can always play remotely is, never have I ever office style. You start by setting ground rules to make sure it does not get too personal and out of hand. Then just go ahead and say things you’ve never done at work, or at a previous job, and you’ll quickly start to learn more fun facts and stories about one another that you would have never guessed.
Rap Battles
List all team members in alphabetical order, order of tenure, or any other way you choose. Take the first two names on the list and they will each rap battle for 30 seconds and the rest of the team votes in a winner. The winner goes on to battle the next person and so on until there is one person left standing as the winner.
You can choose a random topic for them to battle about as well. A current project your team is working on, describing themselves, a fruit literally any topic can be pulled out of a hat so they know what they have to rap about!
A virtual Jackbox-style game would be so much fun! My favorite is when all players are asked to draw three pictures and separately come up with as many random slogans as possible. Then, they’re randomly distributed to the other participants to put together T shirt designs. Then everyone votes on their favorite T shirt! It’s hilarious!
Great ideas!
Another great game would be to think of niche new business ideas and try to come up with fun details like what they do/sell and what their logo design/office design/target audience would be.
How about a scavenger hunt of sorts. Fun and goofy tasks such as taking a selfie with a stranger or making a new friend in a coffee shop. Silly things such as this could lead to more personal relationships in the workplace and decrease tensions of employees working for hours at a time in an office setting.
Great Article! It’s always fun and interesting when coworkers call one another out about funny habits and tell tale signs they leave behind in the refrigerator, desktops and in their desk drawers. For example, a coworker may be often heard clipping their nails so if I we had a “guess what’s in the office drawer at home game” I would guess nail clipper! The same theme could be applied to a “Lunch Box” game where coworkers could guess what’s in a coworkers lunch box. Online tools such as Google Sheets… could be used as part of these games.
I would love to play the team building bingo. We are quarantined and I love my co-workers. Because life has changed so drastically, it is hard for us to stay in contact. I feel like this would help us stay connected. Time apart can make relationships fall apart and I’ve built amazing relationships with my co-workers and I’m sure they feel the same about one another. I feel as though the bingo would bring some stress relief, help us stay connected, and still allow us to take care of out family during covid-19.
A game I would suggest that can be employed both in-house or remotely if need be, is Employee Bingo. Classic and simple to play, with different variations of the game from a line (horizontal/vertical/down or across) to full outer perimeter, to an X, or whatever. The game is very simple to produce, to issue, to monitor in person or verified online. Various rewards can be offered for winning, with the greater difficulty bringing the greater reward. This game will engage your employees through interaction, investment for reward, laughter and camaraderie.
The water shots idea is amazing. I would suggest even adding an exercise prior to taking the shot or sip. An example is when you hear the trigger get up and do 5 squats and then the shot of water.
I believe a very fun game with variations could be a word game that goes along the lines of creating a story with one word per person in a cycle with an outstanding condition, such as “words must have the first letter in alphabetical order” or have every other word rhyme; practically any pre-established condition to see how creative our stories can be!
A great one to play is Translator Telephone. You start off with a phrase and the first person runs the phrase through google translate to a new language and then pass it on. The next person sends it through again but this time a different language. This continues until the final person translates the phrase back to the origin language.
All of the above ideas are so creative and fun! My best friends and I are going to use your ideas for our “Houseparty” app to stay connected during this time of #ALONE TOGETHER.”
My friends and I play 25 Words or Less as well; 2 teams and each have a captain that has to tell the mediator (one of our children/grandchildren always gets to be our game mediator and they love being included) and the captains get 5 different words they see and they have to tell the mediator how many words they need total (25 or below) to get their team to guess the words. Each team has to get all 5 words in a minute, if you use too many hint words or your team doesn’t get all the words, the other team gets your points. My friends and I play 6 rounds, each round rotates the captain, and we play 200 points a round. We then do a lightening round where each team gets 200 points per words guessed (this round is 10 words in 1 minute). Team wins with the most points at the end. Whichever team loses has to bake cookies and send to each member of the winning team.
One of my all-time favorite theater games can be used as a great team builder. It’s called Human Pretzel. Everyone stands in a circle facing center, shoulders touching if possible. Everyone closes their eyes and sticks their hands straight out into the circle, attempting to grab any hand they can. Once everyone is ‘attached’, everyone opens their eyes and tries to work out how to get untangled without disconnecting. This teaches communication as well as teamwork.
One that can be done remotely is called the Count. Everyone again closes their eyes and together, you try to count to 10, one person at a time. It doesn’t sound hard but I’ve not told you the restrictions yet. You cannot speak over anyone else, and once one person says a number, they cannot immediately go again. So for an example – Person A says 1, they cannot say 2. Each time someone speaks over someone else, you need to start from the beginning again. It teaches listening and communication.
All of the above games are GREAT ideas!
I think a “guess who” virtual game would be awesome, everyone picks a colleague and lists off 3 things about them and everyone can take a guess, as to who they think it is.
These ideas are all fantastic!
I have played two lies and a truth with my past in person office teams and really learned quite a bit about one another (as well as really laughed a ton!) This would be a great addition to the games!
Build a house would be a fun team building game. Have each player be in charge of making something properly. If someone doesn’t do it or doesn’t do it correctly the house then fails. Go until you build a perfect house.
Virtual Werewolf is a great idea! It’s a versatile game that you can change up depending on the amount of players. It can be rather interesting to see how skillful some people are at persuasion, and how some players in their efforts to get everyone to kill the wolf end up getting killed because they come off sounding too suspicious.
WATER 💦 SHOTS, life does not stop because we are working an the odds of something happening while on a video conference is going to happen. Why not make it fun I believe this is something as well many schools could do with their classrooms on zoom etc. while being out due to COVID19.
What great concepts for meeting the needs of the remote managers and staff. Necessity is the mother of invention and you have invented a great way to pull together remote teams. Energetic participation in Team Building Games can be a challenge for most managers. You provide a platform, with proven success, making it easy for managers to jump right in and still be able to focus on important parts of their job while easily meeting this need. I am especially interested in Spreadsheet Wars and being able to combine team building with a level of learning functionality. Great Idea!
Virtual Flip-Cup game. Employees can be separated into two teams and the first team to successfully chug their beverage and flip the cup wins! This is as easy as having a plastic or red solo cup at home and making sure you are sitting at a desk or counter. It of course does not need to be alcohol that the employees are drinking.
Virtual Apples to Apples (which is really a PG version of Cards Against Humanity!) – a fun way for employees to get creative and think outside the box while having a good laugh.
I would love to try Virtual Musical Chairs. Let’s see who has the moves.
Virtual finish the story improv game. In improv “yes, and” is the key. Have someone begin the story and have everyone add an element to the story with every turn. It’s a great way to get employees laughing and talking as well as getting them out of their comfort zone!
Movement telephone!
On a live video chat platform where all members can see each other, you each choose a number. If there are 10 team members each member would have a number 1-10. Starting with number 1, each member gets to create their own dance move or moves while only the next person is watching. So, member number 1 is dancing, member number 2 is watching, and all other members are closing their eyes. After member number 1 completes their move they sit still while the next member, member number 3 opens their eyes and watches member number 2 execute your dance move. From there, each person gets a chance to watch the person before them execute the move (you only get to watch it once) and by the time it gets to member number 10, the move may be completely different than the original move member number 1 did. Each member gets the chance to create their move and watch how it changes as it goes to each member.
The task that this exercise aids team members with is being able to truly see another person and what they are doing. It is easy to make assumptions without truly seeing a team mate for the awesome person they are. Spending time practicing how to really pay attention to someone and their actions is a great way to practice awareness of others and this game adds a fun and silly twist to it.
The States Game!
In this game, every person writes down the numbers 1-50. Then everyone has 10 minutes to try and list every single state in the United States. Without fail, people will forget at least one state. Once the 10 minutes is over, the team will start going over the states and figure out which one/ones they missed. This may sound like an easy game, but trust me it is not! Unless you are someone who has the song memorized, so no cheating!! Also, it is so funny when you realize what state/states you forgot. “How did I forget the state I live in?!” It’s always the closest ones we forget! Happy gaming!!
Friday lunch hour CHOPPED! In this episode of virtual chopped, contestants may only use the leftovers from the top shelf of their refrigerator. Each contestant will have 20 minutes to design a note worthy dish. Judges will base their decision on presentation and whether or not the family pet would eat each creation.
Let the leftover madness commence.
There are so many great ideas to think about! My coworkers and I play Seinfeld trivia remotely. One person starts with a line from a Seinfeld episode but leaves out part of the line. The next person completes the line and starts the next one and sends it on. For example:
why do they call it ovaltine?
What motivates you? Pictionary edition
One member of the opposing team starts a timer. They can use their cell phone clock function as the the timer.
Using screen sharing and whatever generic paint app they have available on their PC, the current team artist draws a person, place, or thing, that motivates them to work. It could be family, taking vacations, a new car, or that feeling of winning a new account. It opens the team up to each other and you find what will truly drive your team to success. Some answers may be surprising.
Build a Band
Give each member of the team 5 minutes to create a band or musical act. They can use examples of current artists (Run DMC meets Foo Fighters)
After each team member has shared, they’ll all have to decide which artist(s) they would chose to sign as if they were on a record label.
I started playing this game with my friends on road trips and parties and it was always a hit! I call it, “macgyver.” The point of the game is to give Macgyver a situation to escape from using three items: one, household item, one tool, and one food item. The crazier the better! Macgyver gets to pick the tool he/she could use and the next two players in line get to pick the household item and the food item. Once Macgyver successfully finishes narrating his/her clevery menuvered escape, the whole group gets to vote weather or not he escaped base on how well they believe he used his tools or how funny it was, etc… (MacGyver must use all of his tools). MacGyver’s fait depends on a majority vote from the group! The next person in the lineup becomes MacGyver, the former MacGyver now give the new scenario and the next two players in line get to pick the household item and the food item that MacGyver must use to escape; and once again, the new MacGyver gets to pick the tool that he/she will used to escape. The duty of choosing the new scenario always goes to the former MacGyver and the duties of choosing the food item and household item always fall on the next two players after MacGyver! Whoever reaches three successful escapes first wins the game!
Example- Senario: Stuck on a leaking raft in the middle of the ocean.
Tool: Leave blower
Food item: 100 pound of bubble gum
House hold item: the Book Moby Dick
MacGyver: I use some bubble gum to plug the leaks! I use the leaf blower to blow the raft back up. Then I chewed nearly 100 pounds of gum and used the leaf blower to blow a giant bubble that could be seen for miles. It just so happens that the bubble made a great sail! I read Moby Dick for days while my bubble raft blew to shore!
Hint: the more creative you are and the more involve you get with your escape story, the better the chances that the group will vote yes for you!!!
I remember doing this in school and it was so much fun that I still remember it to this day! A future date will be set for a virtual meeting to take place. When this meeting happens, everyone will be dressed up as anyone or anything that inspires them. Actors, philosophers, singers, famous historians, Piff the Magic Dragon; It could be that person’s mother if they wanted. The possibilities are infinite. As soon as the meeting is in session, everyone is in character. A list of all the employees and their chosen person/creature will be previously made and sent to a third party, who will then draw those character’s names randomly. As soon as that characters name is called, that person will start with their characters personal story describing an event or whatever reason they find their character inspiring.
Example: Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart’s name is randomly called by the third party person
Amelia Earhart: It was the day I’d been waiting for my whole life! I got inside my good ol’ plane and as the crowd was cheering my name, I took off. What a beautiful site it was, being high in the clouds, not a worry in the world. I was going to make history today…..etc.
After everyone has told their story, the third person will choose who they’d like to guess who that person’s character was. After that person reveals who their character is and why they inspire them, that person will get to choose who they want to guess the character of, and so on. Everyone plays their own special role, gets to step outside themselves and be someone/something that inspires them, and everyone gets to understand each other better afterwards. It’s a fun way to get everyone’s mind off of being stuck inside, and gets those imaginations and creative juices flowing. Plus-who doesn’t like dressing up as someone/something awesome?
I think a great team-building game could be an online or in-person game of “Escape the Room”. Each team member will be given a separate riddle leading to them to one of the pieces needed to “Escape the Room”. Team members are allowed to work together, solving the riddles, in order to fully escape the room. In order to win, every riddle must be solved, and all the pieces must be collected to “Escape the Room”. It can be done both virtually and in person, with the idea of escaping the room as a metaphor for breaking down barriers and connecting more with your team members.
Virtual Pictionary! This stuck out to me, immediately. I love drawing. And drawing with friends is ten times more fun. Working together to complete a drawing while some are guessing, gives you a very strategic look on the game. Imagination is KEY. Love all the ideas.
An office mystery game! Using all members of the office as the characters, a mystery can unfold. Whether it may be a simple mystery like who stole the potato salad, or even to a much more crazy mystery like who murdered the CEO! (obviously would want to gauge the personalities in your office haha). The clues could be given each day or each week depending on what you are attempting to accomplish and how quickly you want it done.
ex: “The mystery of the stolen potato salad”
Week 1: Backstory, Characters, Plot
Week 2: New character with a love for Potato Salad, new developing plot twists
Week 3: More plot twists, now missing: mac n cheese and potato salad, narrow down suspects
Week 4: Mystery results must be turned in and winners announced!
Week 5: New Mystery!
Guess Who!
With this unique virtual game each individual will dress up like a famous or noteworthy individual. The group will be given 3 clues. Those who are guessing are allowed yes or no questions only. Depending on the size of the event you can break them out into smaller groups for multiple rounds of play.
Team building game of office trivia. Everyone emails an interesting fact about themself to one central contact on the team. They type up the list and email it out to the participants. They then have to match the person to the fact. They can ask 3 closed ended questions to each employee to narrow down the results.
One thing that might also be fun is Virtual Office Clue. There are many options like an office themed murder mystery or more ridiculous options like “who ate the pudding cup”, “who took the last of the toilet paper”, “who keeps saving documents to the incorrect file” just to name a few. There can be visual clues like pictures and digital bread crumbs to follow.
I recently got introduced to a virtual game called “Psych” which was created by the creators of “Heads Up”. The game is where players make up fake answers to real trivia questions and players try to guess the right answer. I think this could be a very good addition to online team building games. There’s so many different varieties of topics to choose from like “Movie Bluff” where you try and create your own one sentence synopsis of a movie title. Other topics include word definitions, animals, name that show, is that a fact, plus much more.
All in all, I believe work from home environments will begin to be the new norm and one of the biggest challenges for employees working from home, is missing the relationships we build while we are at work. Teambuilding.com is a great way to start building back up those office relationships virtually.
It would be fun to do a virtual talent show/show and tell. Most people usually have a passion and don’t always get the chance to share it. This would be fun to be able to see a different side of our coworkers that we wouldn’t see otherwise.
Since I love food, Guess the Refrigerator sounds brilliant! You can tell a lot about a person by the food that they eat. It would be hilarious to see what everyone on our team actually has in their refrigerators right about now. I know where all the toilet paper went! Got it stuff right there in the back behind the water and milk LOL!
But another great one would be Shoe Clue…where we have to guess whose shoe closet belongs to who. Hey pay me for that!!
Thanks for the great ideas-they can each be adapted to a multitude of businesses. I have a game in mind-Where’s the dog/mascot/product-the leader picks a place in the world and give clues throughout a meeting to pinpoint the exact location of the item. Using clues specific to their business/sales promo. Winner receives a food delivery gift card.
Water Shots sounds like a fun way to stay hydrated and acknowledge the variables that are encountered while working remotely. Incorporating this idea with Chair Up! would get you excited just because you have been sitting to long, Stand UP! What fun ways to engage the participants and keep the mood light.
I would love to play a game to get to know my fellow co-workers like who has the most icons on their desk top. You would hold up a card and guess the co-worker. Its almost like the dating game. You then have to say why you think “Joseph” would of had the most and so on. Then the person who has the most has to tell everyone ok its me! Then you have to share how many you have any why! You can do other things like guess who has mace in their purse or other funny questions.
I’d love to see a virtual Scavenger Hunt! Leaders could create a list of clues, the first of which would be given out at the beginning of the activity. Participants could be paired up or grouped up, depending on the size of the group. Each pair or group would have to solve the first clue, and look up something on either Google or even the company website, in order to find the next clue. The first pair or group to complete the search would win a prize of some sort. This could be a multi-day event as well!
Storytelling is one of my favorite team building games. The moderator starts the story with something that is outlandish and very descriptive. For example “I looked out the window and saw a squirrel dancing to “stayin alive” on top of a blue mustang car that was driving down the street” I called Larry (who is another participant) and he told me … at which point the next participant makes up his part of the story. The rule is that you only tag in one person at a time and the last person needs to end the story. By the end, everyone is usually on the floor laughing and you learn a lot about your co-workers. Many will surprise you.
I feel that an awesome virtual team building activity would be a personalized office version of the Match Game! Over group video chat, one person is assigned the “Host”, who then asks a team member a question such as “What is your favorite office snack?” or “Who in the office is most likely to go skydiving?”, and each person fills out their card and holds them up, and the people who have the same answer as the person who was asked the question gets a point! You can learn a lot about your team members and have some laughs along the way.
It would be awesome to go through decision-based storylines as a team! Say the story starts with the decision to make breakfast, but you see you’re running late. Do you: a) take your time and make eggs and bacon; b) grab an apple and head out the door; etc. and just keep the story building from there until the group either reaches the end goal or winds up in a pickle.
I SPY 🙂
When in a meeting a person could view an object in the background and have that in mind. Set a number of questions the person can ask before they are told the answer. That would keep and activity going!
I woukd love to plan a virtual game similar to what John Krasinski has done with SGN (Some Good News). You can check it out on YouTube. It’s my favorite thing righg now and makes me smile during tough times. Maybe, what would wr as a team call our blog or channel and what kind of content would we make based on today’s current events and/or even take it a step further and make a virtual team video for the company on Zoom.
Heads Up could be a fun game to play remotely. It’s an app on your phone that displays a name or thing. Whoever is up holds their phone up to their forehead with the screen facing their webcam. Everyone else has to give them clues to figure out the word on the screen. When you get it right you tilt you flick your phone up to go on to the next word until the timer runs out.
How about “Office Shakespeare”? First player pics a random word or an object and creates a rhyme, using that word. Next player continues the poem and so on. Each player has no more than 30 sec to come up with the rhyme, and they have to recite tbe poem from the very beginning. The player that cant come up with the next rhyme taps out, until eventually only two are left, then just one – the winner, aka Office Shakespeare! The first player that taps out has to keep recording the poem as it unfolds – then the final poem is posted on a virtual board or shared with everyone. Its always fun to read back, these poems are hilarious!! You could even play this as departments against one another, doesnt have to be individual “poets”.
Storytelling Game, would have be my favorite. As I believe the best music comes from artists who tell a story that you cant help but envision
and I would like to incorporate that into a marketing and sales teambuilding game.
That would be one person would tell a story that doesn’t directly relate to any of the products or services but indirectly would paint a remarkable picture for the potential client and his or hers company and its people his or her pain points or needs in the details of the story and the ending of the story would be the feature benefit,
tie down and how it correlates to them and their specific needa and how are service would be the best soution and they lived happily ever after..
At my job now we started to play “what movie is it”. Basically we have to one liners from movies. Kind of known one liners, and the first guess it without using the internet for help gets a point. We cover many generations of movies so it gets hard. The person with the most points at the end of the week usually gets to leave early on Friday, only a few hours but still get to be ahead of traffic.
I would love to play any of these games with my coworkers! The idea of everyone sharing a pic of our refrigerator is so hilarious!
Do you know that Logo?
We all see logos and emblems in our every day life and think we recognize them, but do we really? Have random printed grids with different logos in every square, then the first person to connect a vertical, a diagonal or a horizontal row correctly wins. I would quite quickly open up our eyes to just how many logos that we see and pass by every day are not actually understood.
Let’s all discuss our proudest and most embarrassing sports moments growing up.
“Date me” is an online game that “dates” the “era” from which each member belongs by asking them game master type questions that reveal their favorite shows, music, celebrities, trends and toys from their “time”. This can improve understanding among the team members of both their differences and similarities between the generations.
Random object game. You choose the most random object near you at the moment and share a story behind it. This could be a true story or a made-up story and the team has to decide which it is. Like a virtual game of show and tell mixed with bullshit.
Wow!! These are all amazing ideas!
One team building exercise that I think will be extremely fun and will aid in communication and expression would be a “Art Therapy/ Art Gallery” session. Having all members of the team paint freely in an abstract way and then having them express their work would be a great way for team members to learn more about each other. This is something that can be done remotely or in person! I imagine this event will be full of laughter and will break down any walls or barriers that may be present among the team members – who knows you may even discover you have some Picasso’s on your team!
Lots of amazing ideas here.
I think a good team building activity that would be fun and maybe a little embarrassing would be to do a version of the Masked Singer. Contestants would need to put on a mask and sing their favorite song. Members on the team would need to try to guess who is behind the mask. I’m sure this would lighten the mood in these dark and scary times.
Another idea would be a virtual scavenger hunt based around a theme. Maybe like a sport or a decade. The whole idea is to get out there and have some fun it.
I think another fun game would be for employees to submit a picture to the facilitator- either of a vacation , a view outside their window, a picture from high school etc- and then the team would have to guess who’s picture it is. Of course the more difficult (or embarrassing) the better! This would open up great conversation and show the rest of the team a little glimpse into the life of their coworkers.
Virtual Pictionary! How much fun to draw on your device and have the rest of your team guess what you are drawing?
As someone who has always enjoyed music, I love using music to create a wonderful team environment, especially online. Lately, the idea of karaoke from home has been quite popular, so why not use something like that to enjoy some online fun with your team. I recently played a “Finish the song” game with a team that was both fun and challenging. You simply pick a song from a category, sing a few words and your team shouts out the answer. First one with the correct answer wins that round. It’s simple and exciting with hours of fun. Music is something everyone loves.
A silly game that hopefully wont leave anyone feeling… Sour
This mini game makes it easy to build comradery and have some fun in the process. The only thing you need to play sour candy.
Before starting we will send every participant a bag of sour candy. Next, break into two teams. Each team will pick a member to have the sour candy in their mouth. It will be the responsibility of each team to both guess who on the opposite team has the candy; as well as hide who on their own team is feeling extra sour! Get ready for a fun time of excitement and fun faces.
Selfie Photoshoot via Facetime or Zoom
In times of Covid, we can still do fun photoshoots with you, via Zoom or Facetime! Or any day, really! You need a headshot?! No worries! We can do it virtually!
Grab a glass of wine or your favorite beverage, for your relaxation and all you need to bring is your beautiful self!
Office Taboo—each person is given a word they have to get their partner to guess but there are “taboo” words they can’t use or they’ll be buzzed by the moderator.
There are a lot of great ideas. I think a completely virtual scavenger hunt would be fun stimulating. Virtual charades is another good idea. Being able to relax and communicate with other team members would be a great way to build confidence remotely among team members.
Online office themed charades!
I love these! I think that one great idea that could be a game, is what I call Grammy night at home, where each person is walking down the red carpet dressed as their favorite celebrity and the hosts asks them questions relevant to the meeting and the person answers them as if they were the celebrity.
An awesome virtual game to play is office never have I ever. Basically, make it HR-approved never have I ever cards sourced out on a platform in regards to the office. Everyone gets in teams to vote for the best answer etc.
Virtual musical chairs!!!
Gets people up and moving while listening to your favorite tunes and having a good time with your time.
Loving all these ideas!
The Winking Assassin game would be fun! The host will pick the winker. Everyone will have to turn their video mode on and when they are winked at they will turn video mode off or change their background. The objective is for the assassin to kill as many other players as possible without being identified.
Saying three objects with the first initial of your name. Telling how many cities you have been at in 30 seconds.
How about a musical game? Have genres, levels of difficulty… More of a musical trivia game! Songs played in short clips without words, backwards…ect.
A great team building game to do remotely would be along the lines of hangman, call in on Zoom or similar platform, assign teams, use business training topics as subject matter. Example: name of the program you would offer the client if xyz were true”.
A great team building activity is a game called skribble. It allows everyone on the team to show off their drawing skills and other team mates make guesses at what it is. Another game I love here is the refrigerator game. This is not something most people would expect to do for a work activity which makes it a surprising and quirky initiative to get people to laugh and be vulnerable. I think this is key in bringing people together and laughing at what might be some embarrassing findings!
Blind Solutions
Goal: Build a habit of approaching a problem from a playful, creative perspective instead of stressed or boxed in perspective.
Have team members submit a problem they are facing, but remove identifiable clues. For example, instead of, “I have a problem getting the widgets to the ABC company by the deadline.” change it up to “How can we get small, mass produced product to a factory 500 miles away in 2 days.” It could also be non-work related. “What is the best way to get your husband to take out the trash?” or “Where can I get an extra $50 a week?” Each member of the team is given 5 minutes to tackle the “problem” as creatively as possible. Share the ideas around the group and have everyone vote on their favorite.
Lightning Scavenger Hunt:
So I feel this is a pretty reasonable, simple, and fun game, that encourages self sufficiency, and creativity.
Allows for a winner, and can be set up as a team or individual player. This is a perfect way to enjoy each other’s company and fun way to encourage camaraderie.
Really great ideas! Has anyone thought of the possibility of some sort of word search? Maybe have it timed….
I can’t wait to play all of these at some point!
I could see an at-home craft challenge.
Everyone gets into a virtual call. The instructor gives everyone 1 hour to craft something in their homes using the materials they can find and whatever each person comes up with must try and sell their creation to the rest of the call.
Goal: To spark creativity in the each person. Giving them a tight deadline to create a great product to sell to the rest of the team.
We Didn’t Start The Fire~
Music, lyrics, and videos bring people of all walks of life together. They create a feeling, vibe, and fun. This activity allows a group of remote employees to collaborate, be creative, and create art. Through this experience, employees will immediately feel a bond with their teammates, feel more relaxed, less alone, and heard. The ability to feel comfortable and connect with your teammates in an unconventional environment is an excellent outlet for all remote workers. Next stop — party-town/ remote happy hour/ productivity to the moon 🙂
Zombie Infection:
Goal: Determine who has been bit, and prevent them from infecting the rest of the party.
One person is informed that they have been bitten. Their goal is to slowly infect other teammates, perhaps via personal messages within Slack outside of the group chat with the whole group. The remaining players are provided one clue each to help determine who is the first zombie, and stop them from being able to continue to infect the other players. Once a player has been infected (maybe once per few minutes?) they are no longer able to aid in determining the initial zombie and must try to deter the other players from finding the initial zombie.
This game would be a neat team building exercise because it requires constant communication about the hints they were given, it encourages learning more about your other coworkers, and the additional tension could aid in building communication with coworkers even in times of stress.
One of the games I use to play with my teams, virtual hangman! One person chooses a word or phrase and shares a board/poster/paper on the video chat with the blanks and the hangman. The team has to guess before the man is fully drawn. Alternatively, instead of a hangman you can use a drawing work related like a jammed printer and the phrase/word can be an action to to fix/address it. For instance with the printer, Beat the side” or “scream and shout”.
How fun these all sound!!!
A few ideas off the top of the head…
Each person hums a song until someone figures it out. The person who guesses correctly first gets to go next. If there were to be a winner it would be the person who hummed the most amount of songs.
Decade Dress-up. Pick the 80’s, 20’s, 50’s etc and go put on your best attire. You could have multiple rounds and see who is the most creative.
Have one person at a time mute their video and speak a common phrase or something job related and have everyone else guess what that person is saying just by reading their lips.
Make a complicated recipe. Find a recipe needing a lot of ingredients online and have everyone bring ingredients to their screen and see if as a team you’d have all the ingredients to make that dish.
Have everyone discuss their high school mascots and colors and find out who would have been your rival teams based on others answers (fun way to talk about yourself from the past and connect on something most of us have gone through.
Who has the oldest expired food in their pantry or freezer.
Go and make the the crazy food combination someone challenges you to based off the ingredients in your fridge/pantry and then eat it.
Musical challenge where employees recreate their favorite songs using homemade instruments such as pots and pans, toys, harmonicas, whatever they have. Bonus points if they dress up as that musician while performing for the group. Also, they can use voice distortion apps to make it more fun!
I think it would be cool to have a online white elephant gift exchange team building game.
An Apple Pie a Day – Everyone gets an Apple Pie and a Banana Cream Pie. One person will share an embarrassing story-that could be real or fake and everybody has to guess. If they’re wrong they eat a slice. the game goes on until someone gives up and cant eat anymore. The loser will get hit by all the Banana Cream Pies!
So…when can I start? hehe
An online Jeopardy game that allows player to select their answers on an interactive page would be competitive and fun! The game could include company specific questions.
These games sound like a productive, powerful blast!! Having played werewolf for the first time this past summer, I believe virtual werewolf would be a very practical game to play in a remote setting given the minimal physical requirements for game play. I this it is an incredibly involved, social game that helps players to learn more about other players by reading social cues, body language, and working together in teams! This sounds like a great way to cultivate teamwork and a lighthearted, productive atmosphere amongst team members. I never would have thought to initiate this game in an online setting, and I think it’s so cool that this is listed as one of your options. Awesome ideas here in this article!
Take your pet to work day (similar to Elf on a Shelf). You must make a pet with whatever is on your desk. The pet must have a name, a background story, and a work related purpose. Make up a crazy story about 4 places the pet likes in your house (must submit pictures of pet in said places). Pet must be fed, go to the bathroom, and get up to no good.
Heads up seven up was one of my favorite classroom games to play as a kid, and I will still participate to this day. A way to play online would actually be very simple. Everyone will put their heads down, on their own phones there will be a sound that only the people who are picked to touch thumbs will get. When they get it they will pick there two people to “touch” and those two people will get there own alert system letting them know they were picked. After that there will be a sound that allows everyone to lift their heads up and the people picked will try to figure out who out of everybody ringed their alert system.
I think it would be cool to incorporate music into the equation “R&B RNG” if you will, where you play snippets of popular songs the other people can guess the title for prizes.
I LOVE , Chair up, small energetic actions with intention can really shift your work day. Just getting out of your chair to stretch or even better do a silly dance can really uplift your mood and refocus you to do your best work & Online Team Building bingo Is also awesome ! As someone who has had to manage a team with daily tasks In a past career I wish I thought of this ! What a great way to get everyone engaged & and also see how much of your tasks you cleared on the board ! And if I was the boss I’d even Door Dash the winning team some Starbucks :).
See a yawn drop your BonBon
Do you ever catch your self or your team members yawning uncontrollably in video calls, conferences call or meetings…… don’t you hate it how contagious a yawn can be…..? Suffer no more as you and your team can all participate in “see a yawn drop your Bon-Bon”.
Whenever you or another team member is caught yawning in action everyone must get up and preform any exercise that requires you to jump, squat, push or pull. As we know sitting on a chair for a prolong period of time can drain any one and start making our eyes do the sleepy dance. With constant movement and hydration you can prevent This from happening.
I’m sure something like this has been suggested, but I am trying to be original here to give me a bit of credit! Now take a look around you work area, and notice the things most people will find. Paperclips, pens, notepads, mouse pad, etc. I propose a team building exercise for remote teams called The Scavenger Desk! Each team will have a turn to let the team leader describe an object that is typically found on the desk of an at home work place. The opposing team will take turns individually presenting these items to the webcam before the timer expires! Each team starts with 10 points, if you cant produce the required item in the allotted seconds, then your team loses a point! I think a great incentive to this would be to help us all organize our work areas and take some perspective away from the game on how an efficient work space should function.
Great ideas! Remote Work Bingo would be a lot of fun.
Here are a couple of ideas to promote communications that could be done during virtual meetings:
Virtual Meeting Telephone
This would be a take off of the old “telephone” game.
1. Divide participants into two teams and either assign or have each team pick a captain.
2. Give each team captain the same phrase, such as “Bobby kissed Betty last Saturday under the moon”.
3. The captain sends that message by private message to the person on their team who’s name is first alphabetically.
4. Proceed sending the message from one team mate to the next alphabetically by first name via private message. (No cut and paste!)
5. The last person on each team sends the message to the supervisor.
6. Winner is determined by speed and accuracy.
Video Conference Simon Says
Play just like regular Simon Says. Leader of the meeting gives instructions of varying degrees of complication. If you follow direction and Simon didn’t tell you to…you’re out!
I have always loved clearing my mind with physical activity. I think a healthy competition of walking, running, pushups, or squats from your team members can remove the mental cobwebs and get you back to focusing on your work tasks at hand.
One example of a Team building exercise that is offered here is tiny campfire, in which you get sent a campfire candle, matches, s’mores ingredients and you and your team share experiences, s’mores & ghost stories while bonding and growing closer together.
Virtual “Amazing Race” participants will be given clues of basic household or outdoor items and will need to work together to complete the race. Challenges will include, collaborative problem solving such as an interactive word game or breakout room. The first team to get to the final clue wins!
I would like to see a game of bingo be played as a team building game, but with a twist. Instead of regular bingo, it’s Never Have I Ever. Each square will be made up of some preselected prompt, and if you have done it then you cover the space…so on and so forth.
I think an awesome virtual team building activity would be Speak Out. It is absolutely hilarious and such a fun game to play. It would get everyone comfortable around each other and not make things awkward. You’d be able to laugh and have fun as well as learn more about each other’s personalities.
Around The House in 60 seconds
This is a game where a set of parameters are given each round. The team members have 1 minute to find an object around the house that fits into those characteristics. For example: find something that is red and round. Team members would scatter in their own homes to find an object before the buzzer. Team members yielding red and round objects gets a point.
Other examples include:
Find something soft and green
Find something yellow and made of metal
Find something liquid that is sweet
This list could go on and on, leading to many laughable objects.
Maybe it’s because I love Stephen King, but I think Werewolf would be a lot of fun to play with my co-workers! It would give us a chance to flex our theatrical muscles and make each other laugh! And then then next day we could compare scary dreams!
Zoom Charades! Everyone sends the host charades subjects prior to starting the game. Each charade is assigned a number. Each player picks a number at their turn and must act out the charade and their team mates must guess the correct answer. This can be done over any video conference platform.
A virtual team building activity based on the game headbands.
The company would send out 5 cards with headbands to hold the cards to each employee. I would suggest creating different “packs” for the team to choose ie; A day in the office pack, After hours pack, and a Whats for lunch pack. Each card having a person, place, or thing on it. Employees would be instructed not to peak at their cards. Once, the game begins first player puts card in headband on head and begins asking questions until the correct answer is reached. The game would then proceed until all employees have completed.
Whats the strangest thing you have on your desk? While on a video call, to break the ice, ask everyone to show the strangest thing they have on their desk and why?
So this is a total bias since i’m a big history buff, but a Total War game would be a great fit. It’s turn based and keeps a nice competitive spirit going as everyone can argue who the better Roman general is.
Get your team enthused by introducing an activity that is completely outside of their every day workplace duties — teach them to knit! Knitting is scientifically proven to increase mental stimulation and focus, and it’s as effective as note-taking for memory retention. Plus, it’s helpful for achy hands from too much keyboard time.
How about a work-appropriate take on Cards Against Humanity? You’d need a Zoom (or similar) meeting (cuz you gotta see those facial expressions) and a team Slack channel. The facilitator will have a stack of prompts that first need to be tailored to each team, mad-lib style. Once everyone joins the call, the facilitator will ask for names, locations around the office, office tasks, etc… to complete the prompts. This ensures they are as hilarious as possible and tailored to each office. Then the facilitator reads out a prompt. It could be something like “Every morning (NAME) shuffles into the office like…” The players/ team members then have 1 minute to find a gif that most hilariously completes the sentence. They share it in the Slack channel. Then the team has 2 minutes to vote with an emoji for which gif they like best! This would be an awesome ice breaker to get everyone’s spirits up and set a high-energy tone at the start of a remote meeting!
Being a naturally nosy woman, Guess the Refrigerator sounds like a blast. When you get a glance at people’s personal choices it’s always a surprise! You think you have someone penned so perfectly only to find out they like yellow mustard, not spicy mustard, yellow. Yellow, I never would have thought!
“Two truths and a lie”
A fun, quick and easy way for everyone to get to now each other! The game also revels which teammates already know a lot about each other and who they may need to spend more time with! Each member takes turns telling three things about themselves, two things are true and one is false. The other teammates try to guess which statement was a lie.
Nothing better than taking you back to your childhood times when there were no cell phones to play games on and all you had was your imagination. The Ground is Lava is the best for teams to let loose and get out of your comfort shell. I remember even pretending the ground is lava when I was little with my parents at the mall while they shopped. Who hasn’t come across a floor with squares and say “only step in these squares otherwise you’re going to fall in the hot lava.” Overall it is just fun to see how people go out and grab different items.
“Mind Meld” – adapted from the improvisational theatre game “Mind Meld” or “Jinx”
While everyone is on zoom or another platform with multi-cam capabilities, one person will start by saying “one” and holding up one finger. Then, someone who feels ready will say “two” and hold up two fingers. Then one and two “look at each other” and count to three together “one, two, three” and then say a word. The first word that comes to their mind.
Lets say “one” said banana, and “two” said tractor.
The goal, then, is for the next two players to (hopefully) say the next word at the same time. How do they do that? They need to think “what is the common denominator between banana and tractor?”
So a new person, when they feel they have an idea, will say “one” and hold up a finger. Someone else who feels they may have the same word will say “two” – they then look at each other and say “one, two, three” and then say their word at the same time.
With tractor and banana, the new “one” may say agriculture, and “two” may say field – now we have to find the common denominator between agriculture and field.
This repeats until “one” and “two” say the same word at the same time. Maybe they’ll both say farmer or they’ll both say harvest.
When they do, everyone cheers and then sings “we did a miiind meld, we did a miiind meld, we did a muh-muh-muh-muh-muh-muh-muh-muh miiind meld!”
The game then restarts with a new “one” and “two” saying the first words that come to their mind to start the new round.
Ideally everyone is getting the chance to be a “one” as well as a “two” and hopefully multiple times, depending on how many rounds you play.
Important: once one word is said, it cannot be used again in the same round. So after say banana, we can’t use banana again until we get a mind meld.
Important 2: If more than one person responds to “one” then it is up to “one” to designate a “two” by saying their name and then together they count and say their word.
Important 3: If it is too difficult with multiple people going, you can create an order so you know exactly who will be “one” and who will be “two” for each time/round.
This game facilitates good-natured teamwork, celebrates each others’ successes as our own, and is a fun puzzle/mind game to get everyone’s blood pumping to their brain.
I love the Five Clicks Away game, and have definitely used that one myself at school to keep occupied during down time with friends.
I might be biased because of how much I played this in high school, but I love the game of Mafia and I think it translates perfectly well to an online environment. Each round, one person would have to be assigned the mediator (which is a great chance to get people out of their comfort zone and weave a story about the night), and the rest would be divided up between townsfolk and Mafia. The Mafia know each other’s identities, and the townsfolk do not know anyone’s besides their own. Each “night”, the Mafia collaborates on one town player to eliminate, and in the morning, the town has to try and make a majority vote on who they think is a member of the Mafia to eliminate that day.
Virtual garden where each person receives a starter kit. The “teacher” would go through the process of starting a mini garden and some fun facts about the earth and plants and the process of gardening with a questionnaire at the end.
Simon Says Dance Revolution
This a great virtual game to get the blood flowing, get everyone laughing, and keep people engaged. This can be played in teams to keep score or together just for fun.
Object of the game: Get the highest score (teams) or keep the dance revolution going in the group.
How to Play:
Choose one player from each team or from the group to be the DJ for the round. Each person will receive a set of 10 cards, each with the name of a fun dance move. Have each player (Dancer) shuffle their deck and draw 5 cards. These will be your dances for this round.
The DJ will select a song from the setlist (have TeamBuilding create one or make your own!) and is charged with keeping note of the routine for the round. The first dancer will pull a dance card from their deck. Once the music begins, the first dancer will do their thang! The DJ will then stop the music and call on the second dancer. The second dancer will pull a dance card from their deck, dance the first dancer’s move and then add the move listed on their card. The round continues with each dancer adding their move to the previous routine until the song is over, the DJ stops the music or the routine gets botched.
If the routine gets botched, that team’s turn ends and the next teams DJ picks a song and calls the first dancer on their team.
Scoring:
Each dancer earns one point for each completed routine-so pay attention! The team or person with the most points wins the round. The team or person with the number of rounds won wins the game.
Rules:
1. One song/routine equals one round.
2. The DJ must let the music play for at least one minute before moving on to the next round. They can’t just shorten a routine to avoid a mistake.
3. Dancers must use all five cards. Once used they can either reuse those same five cards for that round or draw from their deck.
4. Dancers must shuffle their cards at the beginning of each new round.
Tips:
1. You can play as many rounds as you like!
2. Rotate the DJ role each round so everyone gets a chance to rock out!
3. If you play over Zoom or web conference, have teams shut off their camera when it is not their round.
4. It is best to do individual play with 7 or fewer people. If you have an odd number of people, let one person be the DJ/Scorekeeper for the entire game.
5. Don’t forget to record your video call to keep the fun going even after your game night!
A great team building game to play remotely would be three truths and one lie, it can easily be played over video conference and help break the ice and awkwardness for new employees or employees who are camera shy. It also allows employees to get to know each other a little deeper depending on the examples used.
Wow! Let the games begin. I say play Name that Tune and simply choose someone to be the vocalist or choose a group to sing the lyrics to one team and then have another team or other teams identify the tune. A spinning wheel can decide the genre. Now ready? Let’s take a spin! Meanwhile spin in circles by your office desk. A data collection graph can record who has the most correct guesses and the most rapid responses. Clearly the first to answer wins that round!
Another great game to play would be virtual charades. Acting things that you can do while sitting down. That would be fun and cause each fo us to really think about what we were going to perform. (The added bonus is activating brain power in a fun way.)
I believe that Ten Strikes would be a great game to play to get to know each other and to break the ice with new or developing teams! Especially to get our facts about each other that you may not generally know, such as, “I have been skydiving,” or, “I have more than two tattoos,” or even, “I can recite the alphabet in another language.” If you take out mundane things, it would be neat to see who all has the same odd things in common!
One great game that you can play is training jeopardy. The information and criteria that you go over during the training, will be the type of info that you place on flash cards in a jeopardy game. This jeopardy game can be in 2 rounds, and also will dispaly the amount of attention paid during the onboading process, and also will display the degree of attention exerted in seekng to understand the organizational structure while also displaying a hunger for goal achievement.
The end result being: the harder the team works, the more answers they will get correct, and the more information they will retain will be displayed by going along with the organizational flow.
The Mini Campfire is a great activity! It takes us all back to a simpler time when imagination and joy prevailed! Who does not like sitting around a lambent flame listening to ghost stories while remembering how good a Smores tastes! Forget the fact that we are isolated. This event, gives us all the tools we need to help remember our deepest joys as a kid. Feeling happy again is the greatest gift, and what better way to help your team connect than to share this feeling together.
These all seem like a ton of fun! What would be fun as well would be an internet scavenger hunt! So the rules are you would have a list of things to find on the internet, and each or team would need to find those things on a webpage. Optional rules are google is off-limits, and you must find the items in order. Here’s an example item list!\
-A picture of a man holding a cup
-A cartoon fox
-A Starbucks cup (Cannot be from their own website)
-The word “know-it-all”
-A screencap from a zoom meeting
It can be from all over the internet or it can be all from a single source! This list can actually be completed entirely on the teambuilding.com website!
We played “Can you hear me now?” on a group conference call. It was so much fun! We had about 7 artists following the cues of the Director. We awarded the winners with 2 tickets each to a local upcoming concert. These types of games are definitely great team building activities that give everyone a fun reset, and help with team work and employee loyalty.
We did this game once which I think would work virtually as well.
Each person gets four paper slips and write down down three truths and one lie.
Then you go around the group reading the slips and once finished discuss what is true and what is a lie from each person.
This got us very at ease with each other as at points we almost completely forgot that we were teambuilding and among co-workers; we all couldn’t wait for our turn!
Draw my words! One person describes an image with very simple words, everyone else has to draw what is being described. For example, the image of a Flower would be described as:
Two lines very close together that go two thirds of the way up the page. At the Top draw a circle. That circle is filled with specks. Coming off the circle there are long ovals that attach all the way around. They key is to not give away what the drawing is of so that the results are creative. It is always fun to see what everyone’s interpretation is.
Jackbox games is a GREAT program to use for work or for fun! Even better it is perfect for remote workers since all it requires is an internet connection, a computer/laptop, and a URL. They have a lot of great games that allow a lot of players to interact with each other. it is a very simple thing to use and a lot of fun! The amount of games to choose from makes sure employees and users never get bored.
Especially during this stay-at-home order, finding ways to get my employees active is more important than ever! Of course we have the typical wellness programs, but I would love to figure out a way to get employees active while still learning. For example, for every mile they walk during the day or for every 5,000 steps they take, they would be able to unlock informational “games” on a provided platform. These games would be interactive educational games where they are either learning about current world topics or topics specific to their job/employer. For each “game” they complete, they will be entered to win gift cards.
Incentivising exercising, while promoting intelligence for the chance to win free gift cards, will help increase their work IQ while also staying healthy.
Healthy employees = more productive employees = longer retention of employee = more money for the employer!
A great online team building activity would be two truths, and a lie. Each member of the team will submit two “un-ordinary” truths about themselves to the moderator with one obnoxious lie. The team will then guess via chat box who they think the truths and lie belongs to. The first person who guesses the correct individual will then have to guess what the lie is. They will win a prize if they are correct, if not the next person who guessed the individual takes a turn to discover the lie.
Quarantine Bingo. Everyone gets a card with different common quarantine activities (binged a whole show in a day, ate dessert before noon, wore sweat pants all day, worked out inside etc.) A bingo is getting four in a row and the winner gets a prize.
Everyone privately gives one thing that they have done that is completely unbelievable and that thing is read and everyone has to guess who it was. I did this on FB recently and learned crazy things about my friends! It was so cool!
There are so many great games here it’s difficult to choose just one. I’m choosing Virtual Charades! It get’s everybody excited and each person a chance to get up and move, interact with each other, and everyone get’s to play.
A great way to give your Team a break from their work day and engage them in an escape by having some fun together and build the Team while exercising their minds is to challenge them with trying to survive the night by playing Virtual Werewolf.
Join in the fun of being a medic, villager, or friendly ghost while trying to identify who the Werewolf may be. Scary fun for your Team to build their relationships and grow your business results!
I love Guess the Refrigerator! Pre-quarantine we used to do weekly catchups at the local pub before dispersing for the weekend, it was our chance to connect, be let our hair down and reflect on what we’ve learnt during the week. Since most of us work from home now, we’ve incorporated this game into making sure we don’t take ourselves too seriously, discuss ways we are keeping healthy and engaged, and have a good laugh when we see that half-eaten bar of chocolate! Always fun to guess who finishes a whole carton of milk but keeps the empty box back in the fridge 🙂
I think that something that would be really fun would be an office dance party game. I got this idea from TikTok, but the concept is you play music and someone starts, they do two short dance moves like the running man and the cabbage patch and then the person following must repeat the second move and then initiate their own move. With this example, the second person would do the cabbage patch and then do the twist. The third person would then do the twist followed by their own move which could be the “Single Ladies” hand. People would continue until someone messes up and then they are eliminated.
This activity would be great for people as it would allow them to get up and move but doesn’t require them to do a lot of movement as they can move at their own ability as well as allow them to get goofy together. When people can relax and be goofy together, it allows people to break walls down and allows them to build stronger connections with each other. It would also tailor itself to people of all ages.
I love these ideas!
An ice breaker game that I’ve done in sales meetings with sales people that meet only once a year is the “Matching Game”. Each person submits one thing about them that is unique or that they think that no one woud know about them. Have everyone guess who matches with which unique statement. The ones who have the most correct wins. (Maybe a first and second prize). It’s a great way to find out new and interesting things about co workers. I worked with a lady that is very fashion forward…it was very interesting to find out she grew up on a farm and had clothes made from feed sacks when she was a child!! No one knew and it provides for alot of fun!
Virtual “Busta Rhymes” –
You start out by playing a rap/hip-hop style beat, after that there are several different ways to play:
-The person who starts can “rap” two lines to the beat, then the person that follows has to make their two lines rhyme and so on.
-The group can agree on a word that each person has to rhyme their two lines with.
-Each person says one line and every line has to start with the last word of the previous person’s line.
It can be a lot of fun to see what people come up with, especially when the pressure is on!
Online Personal Jeopardy Game.
Jeopardy game held with all the staff members on teams, but the answers are something unique about their fellow colleagues. It is a game to not only have fun, but give the opportunity to learn more about the people they work with.
I love the idea of Spreadsheet Wars. I think that it’s intuitive because utilizing spreadsheets is one of the most important tools that you can use in any sort of business environments, and while it might not be required by every employee depending on what their job is, it’s still good for everyone to know how to use them efficiently. I would guess that the ratio of fun/skill-building would be about 50/50, as you’re having fun and thinking quickly, while furthering your skills with spreadsheets.
I really enjoyed reading this article. One game on this list I never played which sounds pretty interesting would be the question game. Seems like a good thinking game to be honest.
A few games that I always liked playing face to face or even remote would be 2 truths 1 lie. Each person takes a turn telling everyone 3 statements in which 2 are the truth and one is a lie and everyone else guesses which they believe is the lie. Another game we use to play when there wasn’t much to do was the name game were we would decide on a topic like music artists or food. Next a person would say a name like Eric Clapton and the next person would have to say a name using the last letter of that name like Neil Diamond.
It’s always fun to play a team building game that takes your mind off one thing and forces you to think about something else.
A great game to play that doesn’t require anything more than your phone is a Wikipedia race! Two or more people start with a Wikipedia page, let’s say “Justin Timberlake” for instance, and using only the links to other pages within the “Justin Timberlake” and subsequent pages have to get to a totally unrelated page, such as “Sourdough Bread”. The first person who finishes wins and shares with the group how they got to the answer. It usually leads to some really funny connections and the other players see how close or totally off they were from winning.
A game I play over voice/video calls is a makeshift Dungeons and Dragons-esque game where you have continuously stronger enemies to fight and you use your move sets to damage. In order to do moves, you need to complete once activity (something pulled from a hat like “find a fruit in your house and show it on camera” or “Say your action but all the words are backwards”) and then your move succeeds. If you don’t do the activity in a set time, you take an amount of damage from the monster. If you lose all your life points, a team member can take their turn to revive you and the game continues. The goal is to win as quickly as possible and works very well if competing with another group. Record breaking always was a big drive for me and my team
I love the idea behind Online Office Games! It has a very personable feel to it. It lets you engage with your coworkers on a more human scale and not so rigid. This would definitely be good for breaking the ice with new and veteran employees, and especially good for management.
A virtual Monopoly game that could potentially be tailored to a certain team, office or company.
IRON CHEF (INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE)
Team building at it’s best. This activity is fun, competitive, requires team work, and hilarious.
If you’re familiar with Iron Chef America, you’ve already got the gist of it.
Except the difference is… You probably don’t have a team full of professional chefs. This is makes it hilarious.
How to play: Chose a classic dish for the competing teams or players to prepare. Add a randomly selected ingredient to be REQUIRED as part of the dish. (Make these random ingredients ridiculous cheese whiz, spam, tuna… etc)
Give the teams a time limit…….. GO!
Seriously, this is an all time favorite for me. We do this at family gatherings, parties, and get togethers. Tons of fun. Tons of collaboration. Tons of laughing.
In this new normal of isolation, what better time to create and incorporate these fabulous team-building games to remind everyone “we’re all in this together” and “we will get through it together”.
With all this sitting around, staring at the screen, another great idea might be a more physical session incorporating, stretches, pilates, or yoga as well as the team’s memory where a sequence of movements is created by one team, presented to the other, and then teams can get points per perfect performance by each player. This game gets people moving while simultaneously working on memory skills. The session can perhaps conclude with a stress-reducing, short meditation session with motivation and inspiration for envisioning the successful completion of goals. This might be a good way to hit all physical, intellectual, and spiritual areas of the virtual work team.
I think a decent team building idea, especially with the times we face now, would be something along the lines of a paper airplane contest. Each team would have around 30 or so minutes to come up with a decent idea for a paper airplane which can stay in the air the longest, and utilize different concepts from each person’s design to craft an airplane which they believe will last longer than the other’s. Then, when the time comes, someone can utilize a mobile camera to track the throw and the amount of time in the air, instead of using a fixed webcam, as a way to show legitimacy in the flight and provide a fair playing ground for everyone. This can utilize primarily the concept of collaboration, as well as crunch time, due to the limit on time and the different ways to fold an airplane. It would cost relatively cheap and be something different for the times we face today.
Great ideas and especially now with our definition of new normal for office life. A great idea for an online team building would be to have each person put in the background, 10 random items from their house in the background. You could start with an icebreaker, possibly each person telling a small story 2 minutes or less about themselves, their house, their kids or their pet, incorporating the items they have placed in the background. After everyone has finished with their icebreaker, everyone would need to turn off the camera and remove the 10 random items from their background. The camera is back on and the other team members would need to see if they could remember the random items in the background. This would see what type of storytellers each team member is, how they can entertain each other and the one that can remember the most items wins.
The online office games are a good icebreaker and it also encourages team building and collaboration.
I have an idea for a game that would work remotely! It would work similarly to apples-to-apples, but with a twist.
Essentially there would be “templates”, for commonly identifiable animals or characters, in a digital picture format (jpg, bmp, etc.)
Guests would take turns choosing a blank “template” for the others to draw on and complete with faces or accessories. They would simply send their completed additions to the guest who’s turn it is, who would then decide on their favorite! Whoever’s drawing gets chose gets a point. Continue playing for a set amount of rotations, or until a score limit is reached.
Each participant would just need their personal cellphone, along with a collection of “templates”. This could also be performed with a chat service that allows pictures to be sent between clients.
A great team building game you can play with remote teams could include utilizing the features of Tik Tok, or the like. The participants would make a short video, with a music clip, and any other edits offered, using a smart phone. The members of the team would submit the dance style, song, and suggested edits. These submissions would be randomly assigned to all group members, and the participant would have to incorporate these all together into a funny and challenging “Tik Tok”. The team could vote on and take into consideration different aspects of the challenge, to ensure all participants are a winner and that everyone enjoyed the experience. Utilizing technology during this pandemic, this activity can prove that teams can still collaboratively work together remotely and foster a creative environment.
Break into pairs and have one person hold a landscape picture (without showing it to their partner), or a picture of an object, and describe to the other person what to draw without saying the actual name of anything on the picture. Show off your artwork to the larger team and reveal what the “real” picture looked like.
Hello! A game I always love is 21 questions! The game can be as narrow or as specific as you want! I love playing with my 9 year-old brother–coming up with fun animals and cartoon references! But this could also be a fun and more sophisticated game with co-workers–coming up with new parameters or categories to learn more about each other! This would make for a great virtual game because each person involved can make guesses, or come up with an idea!
Jeopardy makes a fun team building game! The host will have a board with categories and answers ranging in several different values. You can split everyone up into teams or have individuals play depending on how many people are playing. Each team will have the opportunity to pick a category and a value. This is a great way to test your team on their product knowledge, and to learn more information about the company! The team with the highest points wins!
I like the idea of a team building team activity called distractions. The distractions would be made up of different actions items that need to be completed by end of desired time.
This could be a good on-boarding activity for a training. Often times when when teams engage in virtual training their are action items that need to be completed. It would be interesting to have them titled distractions but as a result you’re completing a task as a team.
Name that Tune!!
Company demographics can be used to select genres of music and the like.
Pair people off. The host plays a 15 second snippet of the music and teams chime in to win. Points are added for correct answers and subtracted for incorrect ones! The team with the most points win! People LOVE Music…plain and simple.
Each member of every team always has their own talent, hobby, or something they’re good at. I think it would be a cool idea to have sessions facilitated by a member of the team showcasing their talent and teaching other team members how to do it. Cooking, baking, drawing, making jewelry, painting, even navigating the stock market, the opportunities are endless! This would be a great way to have fun, strengthen the team, and learn a new skill!
Guess the Refrigerator!!! What a great game to play right now during this pandemic. You really think you know someone you work with on a daily basis? It’d be even better if we could have a pic now and one after the world goes back to a semblance of normalcy. Maybe this would make for a great 2 parter. Guess the Refrigerator – the Sequel.
I enjoy 2 truths one lie as a team builder. Each person writes two true things about them and one lie. All of the other team members vote stating which is the lie. Scores are kept just for fun but the best part is hearing the person telling the story of each of their selections. I find it’s a great way to get to know your remote workers and feel more connected.
Three Truths!
This is a fun and quick ice breaking game for new employees or interdepartmental rapport building. Separate into teams, each person then writes down four things, three truths and one lie. Each person takes a turn reading what they wrote down and it is up to the other team(s) to guess what statement was the lie. If your team guesses correctly, you get a point. Simple, most points win. This is a fun way to get to know co-workers better.
Guess that Netflix Show!
Each person writes down 1 show on Netflix that they love and 2 shows that they either never watched or dislike. Based on the personally of that person, the other players must guess which show they think the person has actually watched.
Online Team Bingo seems like an awesome game to play with remote teams. Who doesn’t love bingo?. The game almost works as in ice breaker too. I think it would be a simple and fun way to connect with collegues.
We Didn’t Start The Fire…but we might have started this COVID virus!
Music speaks to the soul and is known to reduce stress, anxiety and relax the mind and body. What better way to bring your virtual team together than rewriting an oldie but a goodie.
No singing required!
Guess the drawing! Each person has to draw something (could have topics), then everybody else has to guess the drawing. Could make it into teams or each person plays individually.
I think a virtual scavenger hunt to help build teams would be super fun!
How about another scavenger hunt-but for sales leads! More of a head-hunting type of game you could say. The team has to try to sell to (or a hiring/hr group could try to recruit) from list of different people- such as a fireman, a policeman, an executive, a writer, a judge, a teacher etc. The team lists the people they have successfully recruited/done business with and at the end of the week, the person with the most diversity gets a prize or bonus! Or points could be assigned for each occupation type, and the person with the most points wins!
Loved the guess what is in my refrigerator game. Might be fun to break up into groups, and vote on best contents in one refrigerator. Then the groups must create a meal and dessert out of that voted refrigerator contents. Groups now vote on meat that should win. Winning group gets to go out to dinner on the company!
A great remote team-building activity would be everyone posting a baby picture of themselves anonymously onto an online board, and the employees then have to make their guesses on who is who! It is a funny game to get everyone laughing and also a conversation starter to get to know your coworkers on a more personal level.
What Am I? – Team game, one member of the team knows the word the rest of the member need to find out what the word is by asking questions answerable by Yes or No
Werewolf – One person is the moderator and the votes are cast via your chat platform. We use google chat.
Avalon Resistance – similar to the above, one person is a moderator and the votes are cast using your chat platform. I create a slide to mimic the board and share my screen during the conference call
Most creative zoom background image (nothing inappropriate of course). Voted on by an assigned panel of judges.
My friends and I like to play “Pun Intended”. Pick 5 or 6 categories (animals, cars, sports, etc.) and whoever starts it off has to use a pun within that category. Bonus points if you can piggy back off the persons pun that went before you.
It’s hilarious and it’s funny to see how creative you all can get. It’s a really good icebreaker too.
Great Ideas!
Here’s another one- Whisper Down the Alley, virtual style. Everyone is on the video call and has to turn the sound off on their computers (no cheating!) until it is their turn. The first person tells a story to the second person, after each person tells the story, they mute the computer so the only people who can hear sound are the two who are “whispering” and listening. After the last person hears the story, everyone turns their computer volume back up and listens to the last person tell the story and have a laugh!
How fun are all of these ideas! I would add that combining two or more of these games into a 90 minute session could be useful for an engaging team building experience, especially if you include games that engage different skill sets, ie. one that engages trivia and one that engages creativity. If this were done, I think that having a small game that could be used in the beginning, transition and ending would make for a smooth itinerary. One example of a simple game would be to have a list of household items. The first person to produce one of those items on the screen wins a gift card.
Awesome ideas! I’d love to see an Alphabets of praise game. Each member takes a turn starting at the letter “A” using each letter to come up with a corresponding positive word of praise all the way to Z!
These team building games all sound like a wonderful time! A game that I enjoy playing is Virtual Fishbowl. It combines elements of a few games and is similar to charades in that there are words or phrases that an individual is trying to get their teammates to guess. Fishbowl consists of 3 rounds. The first round, players describe the “guess word” and try to have their team guess as many as they can within a minute. For the second round, the “guess words” from the first round are re-entered, only this time you can only act them out and cannot use any words. In the final round, the same “guess words” are entered again and this time, you can only use one word to help your teammates guess the word or phrase. Each round poses new challenges, but does not become too difficult because the “guess words” become more familiar as they are repeated each round. I have played Virtual Fishbowl many times with friends and family and it is always a great bonding and skill-building experience!
These team building games all sound like a wonderful time! But I would prefer Typing Speed Race because race is always fun, whatever how. This game is also good for slow typing person like myself to improve our own speed, that would improve working capability.
A form of telephone — One person begins with a message. all other parties except for the beginning message party and the first link in the chain. Once the message is transmitted each person takes turns passing the message to another person while the rest of the team is muted. Once the message has fully gone around the team. The last person gets everyone unmuted and relays the starting message.
The Ground is Lava is a quick easy fun way to shake things up spontaneously throughout the day. Randomly yell the Ground is Lava and watch your employees get both feet off the floor. It’s a great way to boost energy, and keeps your mind quick to react, increasing happiness and productivity.
Word Boards – This game is great for groups in Customer Service. Divide teams into groups of 3-6 people, each group having their own way to record answers. Moderator gives a definition of a word, a synonym, or an incorrect spelling/pronunciation of a word; each team then writes their interpretation or answer. Often answers are silly or fun, but also a good way for leadership to see how their team members interpret communications with customers or within the company.
Lots of fun games in here! One idea is a relay race baton exchange. Not only will it get you some exercise in but you are encouraging your teammates. Running around the track and passing the baton to your team mate and cheering them on.
Looking to play an exciting whodunnit game that will keep you and your remote work family on your toes? If so, I’ve got the perfect card based game for you! Let me further explain.
The name of the game is “Where is Marie Jones?” The concept? A thrill packed mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. From a torrid love affair with a mysterious politician to a plane ticket receipt to a flight that never landed, the game starts with a series of clues presented to each player. Get your detective caps ready because Marie Jones has vanished into thin air and it’s up to your team to find out just where she’s gone.
There are so many cool ideas here. How about a bidding game? Each participant is allocated a certain amount of tokens, and given a persona to portray for example the rich oil well owner or the movie star. The auctioneer then starts presenting items to be auctioned off tells their history and worth, some are wacky, some priceless, some are qualities like courage, or patience. At the end of the auction the participants in character explain how their bid was the steal of the auction because it bettered their life or business in whatever way they can imagine.
It is so great to see the many ways everyone can remain connected virtually, especially during these tough times with Covid-19.
Another idea for a fun virtual game is a play off of the game mad libs, the working from home edition!
Everyone would share their video on a conference call and be sure their screen shows everyone on the call. One person would call out whether the word needed is an adjective, noun, etc. Everyone would take turns providing the necessary word and it will go down the line in order of everyone on the screen. The fun part about it all is that the story line would include all team members names talking about funny different things each team member does while working from home or in an office setting, etc so it is somewhat relatable. The entire video could be recorded for everyone to laugh and joke about it forever!
One of the most interesting is Multiplayer Battleship. It can be both fun and challenging. Not to mention, it’s very competitive which will lead to more engagement from everyone.
These are all great ideas! I would add that just because you are playing games online, doesn’t mean that they have to be electronic games. You could play a variation of “knockout” only instead of using basket balls you could use ping pong balls and cups, or quarters and shot glasses. Your goal is just to hit your shot before the person behind you does!
Bingo, who doesn’t love bingo? This one is virtual and and very interactive to keep you on your toes. If your board at home this is the game for you and your friends. The more people the marrier. Want to sign up and try?
It would be interesting to see a game revolving around story telling. One employee starts with a word. Each employee following adds another word.
The way you to play this virtually would be to have employees take turns in alphabetical order, or by order in which they joined the Zoom or Skype session. They have to include whatever the person before them wrote. You can put a time limit. If you have 10 employees in the session, you can set it to 5 minutes. At the end, have the lead read the story the employees have written. Of course, you can set the time/length/number of employees. You can even divide up the sessioins by the different divisions.
Example: First person can start with “The” (or any other word they so choose). The next person would type “The story”. And then “The story begins”. So on and so forth.
Hang man is fun. Also playing virtual flip cup with real cups on either side!
How about I Wish I Could Travel.
1st member = I Wish I Could Travel and when I do, I’m going to bring: a laptop.
2nd member = I Wish I Could Travel and when I do, I’m going to bring: a cell phone and a laptop.
3rd member = I Wish I Could Travel and when I do, I’m going to bring: a toothbrush, a cell phone, and a laptop.
And so on.
Each member has to mention an item they would carry with them or pack in their luggage. As each member goes along, they have to mention one item and also mention what the previous member(s) have also mentioned in backward order. From the most recent one mentioned until the first one mentioned. Whoever misses mentioning one previous item or in the wrong order, they’re out!
Name, Place, Animal, Thing. Pick a letter. Each player has to list a famous person’s name, a place, an animal, and a thing that begins with that letter. The first person to type them in the chat wins.
Any ideas for a virtual Holiday party for 100 employees? Not sure if it makes sense with such a large group.
Hi Regina! We have a list of virtual holiday party ideas here: https://teambuilding.com/blog/virtual-holiday-party
We also offer virtual holiday parties as a service, and work with many large groups 🙂
Thank you for sharing these great idea for team building!