team building activities

Team building is an important foundation of any workshop and running a short activity before the workshop can help setup this important foundation, focusing and uniting the group, allowing participants to work together better and achieve more!

Categories

A fast paced way of getting to know the commonalities among the group. Starting as a single large group, ask the participants to divide into smaller and smaller groups according to categories, i.e. eye colour, shoe size, hair colour, people with brothers and sisters, toothbrush colour or even if they have a cat or dog. Make it quick and fast paced to get everyone moving.

Activity originally from Venture Team Building

Dots

Fix a coloured dot onto the forehead of each participant. Ask the participants to stand up and move around the room in silence. Participants must found out what colour their dot is without talking. Once they know what colour their dot is, they find others with the same colour and that will be their group.

Activity originally from Venture Team Building

All Aboard

Mark out a circle with rope or string that the entire group must fit inside. After each success, the circle will shrink and gradually get smaller and smaller until the group have to rely heavily on support and teamwork to complete the challenge.

Activity originally from Venture Team Building

Human Shapes

Working together, the group have to use their bodies to form letters, words, symbols or shapes based on what the facilitator says. Start out with simple letters such as B, C, D, move up to simple words such as dog, bird, cat and finally to sentences!

Keep this activity fast paced so the participants don’t think too much and are kept energized.

Activity originally from Venture Team Building

Move Tennis Balls

A race against the clock to retrieve and move as many tennis balls from one bucket to another, without using their hands or arms!

Activity originally from Venture Team Building

First/worst job

Beforehand, have everyone write down their first or worst job. The person leading then reads out each job and the group tries to figure out who is who. Alternatively, this can be simplified even further by simply going around in a circle and sharing what your first or worst job experience was. Activity originally from Rise People

Two truths, one lie

Two truths one lie is good for a small group activity. In a circle, each person lists off two truths about themselves and one lie. The truths and lies can be anything or be restricted to a theme, the choice is yours. One after another, the group will decide what the two truths are and which one is a lie. It’s great fun, especially if participants include something funny that has happened to them in the past. Activity originally from Rise People

Fun and Funny questions

If you woke up tomorrow as an animal, what animal would you choose to be and why?

If you could choose one actor to play you, who would that be?

If you could be in the movie of your choice, what movie would you choose and what character would you play?

If you were to change your name, what name would you adopt going forward? Why?

Winner/Loser

Split into pairs. Rules: Partner A shares something negative that happened in their life with Partner B. It can be a personal or work-related memory, but it has to be true. Then Partner A discusses the same experience again, but focuses only on the positive aspects. Partner B helps explore the silver lining of the bad experience. Afterward, they switch roles. Objective: Participants discover how to reframe negative situations into learning experiences together.