Team building isn’t just a buzzword or a break from “real work” – it’s a secret sauce for a happier, more engaged workplace. In fact, a staggering 79% of employees believe team-building activities strengthen relationships at work, leading to happier and more productive teams. This applies to virtual team building too!
Still think those goofy icebreakers are just fluff? Think again – **companies with fully engaged teams that play fun team building games have been shown to generate twice the revenue of others! Engagement, morale, collaboration – it all gets a boost when colleagues genuinely connect with each other. Discover how to engage employees remotely and in office through play so your team can shine everyday.
Building strong team bonds isn’t just good for feelings – it’s great for business. When people feel connected, they’re more likely to stick around (over 50% of employees have stayed in a job because they felt part of a team) and more likely to go the extra mile. Bottom line: team building matters, and the best part is it works like magic because of science.
What’s the secret sauce behind epic team building?
Turns out, it’s not trust falls or awkward icebreakers—it’s play. Yup, humans are wired to bond through laughter, silliness, and shared challenges. Whether your crew is belly-laughing over a goofy game or high-fiving after solving a puzzle, their brains are actually throwing a feel-good party. (Science says it’s oxytocin, the “let’s be besties” or "bonding" hormone. Thanks, psychologytoday.com 👋)
Translation? Teams that laugh together really do work better together. Shared fun lowers stress levels, builds trust, and makes it way easier to vibe with your coworkers—because hey, it’s a lot easier to collaborate when you’re not just “Jenn from accounting,” but “Jenn who absolutely dominated Friendly Fire last Friday.”
Psychologists also rave about something called psychological safety—basically, it means your team feels comfy being real with each other. That’s where casual games and creative team activities come in. They help break down the serious office vibes and let everyone just be human for a bit. Think: empathy, camaraderie, and that warm fuzzy feeling you get when your boss nails an emoji guessing game.
The result? Better communication. Higher morale. A productivity boost. All from a little structured fun. 🎉
Want to bring some of that joy to your team? We’ve rounded up 12 ridiculously fun and easy team building ideas—perfect for in-person squads and remote teams. From quick, quirky games to creative challenges, each one’s low-lift and high-reward. Let’s get into it! 🚀
⬇️ 12 Fun and Easy Team Building Activities for the Workplace
- Trivia Showdown
- With-Draw
- Charades
- Two Truths and a Lie
- Would You Rather
- Scavenger Hunt
- Show and Tell
- Collaborative Storytelling
- Office Olympics
- Coffee Roulette
- Team Happy Hour
- Escape Room
1. Team Trivia Showdown – A Fun Quiz Game for Teams
Bring out everyone’s competitive spirit with a lively trivia session. Split your group into teams or play individually to crown your office Quiz Champion. You can mix general knowledge questions with funny facts about your own team or company.
How-to: Prepare questions yourself or use a platform like CrowdParty’s Trivia game , which comes loaded with trivia questions (and lets you add custom ones). Fire up a projector or video call, and have a charismatic host (maybe someone with a game show voice?) read out the questions.
Why it works: Trivia gets people thinking and laughing together. Teammates will huddle up to whisper answers, debate silly guesses, and high-five over correct ones. It’s an easy team building exercise that energizes the group and lets different personalities shine (you’d be surprised who the trivia nerds are!). Plus, it’s extremely versatile – great as a quick 15-minute icebreaker or a full-blown quiz night, in person or via Zoom.
2. With-Draw – Quick Draw Challenge
Unleash your inner artists with a drawing guessing game that’s equal parts creative and hilarious. In With-Draw, a CrowdParty game, team members pair up or take turns to draw two clues that together point to a mystery word or phrase. (Think Pictionary with a twist – you might draw a cow and a boy for “cowboy” and watch everyone shout silly answers!)
How-to: Use an online game platform (CrowdParty makes this super simple with built-in prompts and a shared drawing screen) or go old-school with paper and markers in a meeting room. One person (or pair) draws while everyone else guesses. Set a short timer for each round to keep things moving.
Why it works: Drawing games get people out of their shells because it’s supposed to be goofy – no artistic talent required! The ridiculous sketches and wild guesses will have your team in stitches, creating inside jokes for days. Even remote teams can play using screen-sharing. It’s a fantastic way to spark creativity and get colleagues comfortable collaborating in a low-stakes, laughter-filled environment.
3. Charades – Classic Team-Building Game
Sometimes the classics are classics for a reason. Charades is a tried-and-true team building activity that never fails to get people giggling. One person must act out a word or phrase without speaking, and their team (or the whole group) tries to guess it. The catch? You only have a minute or so, and acting skills – or outrageous improv – are key!
How-to: Write down a bunch of phrases, movie titles, or work-related scenarios on slips of paper. (Pro tip: use CrowdParty’s Charades game to generate prompts automatically, which is super handy for virtual play too.) Divide into teams if you have a big group. Each round, an “actor” draws a prompt and pantomimes furiously while everyone shouts guesses. No words or sounds allowed, but feel free to get dramatic with gestures!
Why it works: Charades requires teamwork – guessers often build on each other’s ideas (“Oh I see what Alice is doing – it’s a dinosaur? No, a dragon!”). It’s great for energizing a room and breaking down inhibitions. The communication without words aspect can even mirror workplace situations where reading nonverbal cues is important. Most importantly, it’s pure fun and gets even the quiet folks to participate (who can resist laughing at a coworker pretending to be a T-Rex?).
4. Two Truths and a Lie – Fun Team Icebreaker
This simple icebreaker is a favorite for a reason: you learn surprising facts about your colleagues and share a few laughs along the way. Each person comes up with two true facts and one lie about themselves, and the rest of the team has to guess which one is the lie.
How-to: Give everyone a few minutes to think up their two truths and one fib. Then, either one by one or in small groups, have each person present their three “facts” in random order. The others can discuss or vote on which statement they think is bogus. (If you want to make it high-tech, CrowdParty can facilitate this as a game where everyone submits their entries and votes via their phones – a handy option for hybrid teams).
Why it works: Two Truths and a Lie sparks conversations that wouldn’t normally happen in the workday. You might discover you share a hobby with a teammate or hear a wild story (who knew Jim once backpacked through Mongolia?). It’s easy team building that requires no materials and works for any group, in-person or on a video call. As people reveal what’s true or not, there’s laughter and often follow-up questions – “Wait, you really met Beyoncé? Tell us more!” By the end, everyone knows each other a bit better, building empathy and connection.
5. Would You Rather – Hilarious Dilemma Game
“Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses?” Questions like these have launched many a lively debate, and that’s the fun of Would You Rather. In this game, you pose a crazy (or workplace-themed) either/or scenario and have everyone pick which option they’d choose – and why.
How-to: Come up with a list of creative “would you rather” questions. They can be pure nonsense (“would you rather have to sing every time you speak or dance everywhere you go?”) or tailored to your office life (“would you rather have unlimited coffee at work or never have a deadline?”). You can ask the questions one by one during a team meeting or use CrowdParty’s Would You Rather mode to have people vote anonymously on their phones – which often makes it funnier when the results appear! Make sure to ask a few folks to explain their choice (“I choose dancing everywhere – time to show off my moves!”).
Why it works: This game is zero prep and always gets people laughing at the absurdity of the choices. It reveals a bit of personality in a lighthearted way and sparks friendly banter. Even quieter team members often chime in when defending their silly choices. Whether your team is in the office or distributed across time zones, “Would You Rather” questions are an easy way to inject humor and get everyone engaged simultaneously, no complicated rules needed.
6. Lightning Scavenger Hunt – Quick Fire Fun
Ready, set, find something that...! A Lightning Scavenger Hunt is a fast-paced game perfect for energizing a team in a pinch. The idea is simple: you call out a category or clue, and team members race to grab an item that fits and show it on camera or bring it back to the table.
How-to: Come up with a list of prompts that can be interpreted creatively. If your team is remote, prompts like “something within arm’s reach that’s blue” or “an object that represents your hobby” work well – people then hold the item up to their webcam. In an office, you can broaden it to things around the workspace (“find a coffee mug with a company logo” or “a random office supply”). Award a point for the first person to show a qualifying item, or give everyone who finds something a point for effort. Do about 5–10 rapid rounds.
Why it works: It literally gets people on their feet and thinking spontaneously. A scavenger hunt also brings out fun stories: “This souvenir postcard on my desk is from my trip to Japan!” It’s an easy team building activity that works for hybrid teams (office folks can run, remote folks can rummage their home office). In just 5 minutes, you’ll inject laughter and get to know a little more about everyone’s surroundings or interests. Pro tip: end with a particularly wholesome prompt like “something that makes you happy” to leave everyone smiling.
7. Show and Tell – Spotlight Your Life
Throwback to kindergarten in the best way possible! Show and Tell isn’t just for kids – it’s a heartwarming team activity where each person gets a few minutes to share something they’re proud of or excited about. It could be a hobby, a pet, a collection, or a cool project they did.
How-to: Dedicate part of a team meeting each week for one or two team members to do a quick Show and Tell. They can literally show something on camera or in person (like their watercolor painting, or introduce their dog from home), and tell the story behind it. If your team is large or short on time, you can have a “Show and Tell” session as an event where everyone brings one item to share in breakout groups.
Why it works: This is a more personal workplace activity that helps teammates see each other as full people, not just coworkers. It often leads to delightful discoveries (“You built a custom PC by yourself?!”). The tone stays playful and positive – it’s about celebrating each person’s little joys. Even hybrid teams love this, because seeing someone’s home hobby or pet on screen humanizes colleagues. It builds empathy and friendships as you find common interests or simply appreciate each other’s passions. Plus, everyone gets a moment in the spotlight to shine and be heard.
8. Collaborative Storytelling – “Yes, and…” Game
Time to get creative and maybe a little silly: collaborative storytelling is an improv-style team exercise where you build a story together, one line (or one word) at a time. It’s all about embracing the unexpected and saying “Yes, and…” to whatever your teammate adds.
How-to: There are a few ways to do this. One easy version is the One-Word Story: sit (or video-chat) in a circle and take turns adding one word to a sentence as you go around (“There… once… was… a… kangaroo…” etc.). Or try one sentence at a time: Person A starts with a sentence to begin a story, Person B continues with another sentence, and so on. Encourage everyone to accept what was said before and build on it (classic improv rule: no rejecting the previous line – always respond with a spirit of “yes, and then...”). You can set a fun scenario to start (“Our team crash-lands on a deserted island and…”) or let it roam free.
Why it works: This game flexes your team’s collaboration muscles in real-time. You have to listen to each other and adapt quickly. The results are often absurd and laugh-out-loud funny – a shared creative chaos that brings people closer. It’s great for showing that every contribution matters (each word or line affects the outcome). By the end, you’ve collectively created something unique that everyone had a hand in. This builds confidence and camaraderie, proving that when the team’s minds connect, awesome (or at least entertaining) things happen. Perfect for both in-person meetings and virtual calls (just have someone be moderator to keep the order).
9. Office Olympics – Mini Challenge Tournament
Who’s ready for some friendly competition at work? Office Olympics is a series of short, goofy challenges that teams or individuals compete in for bragging rights (and maybe a homemade trophy). Think of those minute-to-win-it games or playground contests, adapted for your workplace.
How-to: Pick 3–5 mini-games that are easy to set up. For example:
- Paper Trash Toss: Who can throw a crumpled paper into a bin from the farthest distance?
- Stack Attack: Race to stack plastic cups into a pyramid and take it down again.
- Balloon Keep-Up: In teams, see how long you can keep a balloon in the air using only one hand.
If in person, you can run these in a conference room or open space. If your team is remote, you can get creative: each person tries a challenge at home on camera (like a desk item balancing challenge) and you time them. Keep score for each event and award a gold, silver, bronze (or just announce the overall winner).
Why it works: These physical (or semi-physical) workplace activities get people moving and bonding through play. It’s amazing how much team spirit can ignite from a silly contest – you’ll see teammates cheering each other on and laughing at epic fails. Office Olympics appeal to our natural camaraderie and competitive fun, and they’re a nice break from cerebral work tasks. Also, different games let different people shine (the quiet analyst might dominate the paper toss!). By the end, everyone’s a bit loosened up and energized, having shared memorable moments. Just remember to keep it light and optional – the goal is joy, not intense pressure.
10. Coffee Roulette (Randomized Coffee Chats)
Building bonds can be as simple as two people having a relaxed chat. Coffee Roulette (popularized by apps like Donut for Slack) randomly pairs coworkers to meet one-on-one for a casual coffee (or tea) chat. It’s an easy way to break out of your usual circle and spark new connections across the team or company.
How-to: If you’re all in one office, you can literally draw names from a hat each week and post the pairings for “coffee buddies.” Remote or hybrid team? Use an app or bot that automates the random pairings and scheduling. Encourage each pair to set up a 15–30 minute video call or go out to a cafe if co-located. Provide an icebreaker question or two for those who might not know each other well (“What’s something you enjoyed doing last weekend?”). Rotate the pairs regularly – say, new matches every two weeks.
Why it works: Coffee chats are low-key but build real camaraderie over time. People get to know colleagues in a setting totally apart from work tasks. This can lead to friendships or at least a better understanding of what everyone does, which improves teamwork later. It’s especially great in larger teams or remote companies where you might not interact with everyone often. By making these meetups random (and a routine part of work life), you ensure even the more introverted folks participate and benefit. It’s not a “game” per se, but it adds an element of surprise and delight – “Oh neat, I get to chat with someone from the design team this week!” Over a cup of coffee, hierarchies fade and human connection grows, strengthening the team’s overall sense of unity.
11. Team Happy Hour (With a Twist)
Sometimes the easiest way to bond is simply hanging out in a relaxed setting. Organizing a team happy hour – whether at a local spot after work or a virtual BYO-drink call – can work wonders for team morale. To keep things playful, add a fun twist or activity to the mix.
How-to: Pick a theme or mini-activity for your happy hour to break the ice. For example, you could do a happy hour trivia round (combining this with Idea #1 Trivia, but in a casual environment), a karaoke session (yes, even on Zoom you can belt out tunes – there are online karaoke platforms to use), or a simple question of the day everyone answers (fun or deep questions that get conversations going). If in person, maybe choose a quirky venue (bowling alley, anyone?) or bring a deck of “conversation starter” cards to the bar. Virtual happy hours benefit from structure, so consider using a game platform like CrowdParty to play a quick party game during the call, then let it flow into freeform chatting.
Why it works: The change of scenery (or tone) lets people unwind and relate as people. You’d be surprised how much more you learn about your coworkers when everyone’s not in work mode for a moment. Adding a “twist” game ensures there’s shared laughter or a topic to bond over (rather than awkwardly talking only about work). It reinforces friendships and signals that having fun is part of your workplace culture. A joyful team that can laugh together over a drink or a game is going to communicate and collaborate better back on the job. Cheers to that!
12. Escape Room Adventure – Team Problem-Solving
Put your team’s collective wits to the test with an escape room – a themed puzzle adventure that you have to solve under time pressure. Whether you go to a physical escape room venue or tackle a virtual escape room online, this challenge requires teamwork, communication, and a pinch of creativity.
How-to: If in person is an option and budget allows, book an escape room for a team outing (many cities have them, with various themes from heists to haunted houses). For virtual teams or tighter budgets, there are online escape room games and kits that you can run over a video call (some are guided by a host, others you self-manage by printing clues or using a website). Split a larger group into teams of 4–6 for manageability. Once inside the game, players must find clues, solve riddles, and crack codes to “escape” or complete the mission, usually within 60 minutes. Make sure everyone has a role – searching, note-taking, puzzle-solving – and encourage loud thinking and ideas from all.
Why it works: Nothing brings people together like a ticking clock and a shared goal. 😊 An escape room adventure pushes colleagues to problem-solve collaboratively under pressure, just like in real projects (but a lot more fun!). You’ll see natural leaders emerge, quiet analysts crack codes, and plenty of light-bulb moments and high-fives. It’s excellent for highlighting the value of diverse skills – someone with a keen eye might spot a hidden clue, another with a math brain deciphers a code. After escaping (or even if you don’t make it out in time), the team will have a great story to reminisce about. The adrenaline and excitement translate into stronger bonds and a sense of accomplishment as a team. Plus, overcoming a fictional challenge together makes tackling work challenges feel easier by comparison!
🔐 Wrapping Up: Team Bonding for the Win
Team building doesn’t have to be an awkward trust fall or a forced corporate seminar. It can be easy, playful, and woven into the fabric of your work culture, from a 5-minute game at the start of a meeting to a monthly fun tradition. The twelve ideas above prove that when people come together to play, chat, or create, good things happen: walls come down, communication flows, and that spark of camaraderie carries over into work. Whether your team is co-located, fully remote, or hybrid, a dash of intentional bonding can transform “colleagues” into real teammates who have each other’s backs.
So go ahead – pick an idea and run with it! 🎉 Maybe start with a quick round of trivia or a “Would You Rather” at your next team gathering and see the mood lift. The key is to keep the tone genuine and joyful (very much in the spirit of CrowdParty’s approach to games). When people are laughing and learning about each other, team building truly works – and you’ll soon notice the proof in better collaboration, morale and overall team success. Here’s to a happier team and a workplace where having fun and working hard go hand in hand!
