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22 Unbeatable Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Problem-solving is a critical skill for professionals and with team building problem-solving activities, you can sharpen your skills while having fun at the same time.

Updated: March 1, 2024

In the professional world, one thing is for sure: problem-solving is a vital skill if you want to survive and thrive. It’s a universal job skill that organizations seek in new potential employees and that managers look for when considering candidates for promotions.

But there’s a problem.

According to Payscale, 60% of managers feel that new grads entering the workforce lack problem-solving abilities – making it the most commonly lacking soft skill.

Problem-solving skill needs to be practiced and perfected on an ongoing basis in order to be applied effectively when the time comes. And while there are tons of traditional approaches to becoming a better problem-solver, there’s another (much more interesting) option: team building problem-solving activities.

The good news? This means learning and having fun don’t have to be mutually exclusive. And you can create a stronger team at the same time.

16 In-Person Team Building Problem Solving Activities for Your Work Group

1. cardboard boat building challenge, 2. egg drop , 3. clue murder mystery, 4. marshmallow spaghetti tower , 5. corporate escape room, 6. wild goose chase, 7. lost at sea , 8. domino effect challenge, 9. reverse pyramid , 10. ci: the crime investigators, 11. team pursuit, 12. bridge builders, 13. domino effect challenge, 14. hollywood murder mystery, 15. code break, 16. cardboard boat building challenge, 6 virtual team building problem solving activities for your work group , 1. virtual escape room: mummy’s curse, 2. virtual clue murder mystery, 3. virtual escape room: jewel heist, 4. virtual code break , 5. virtual trivia time machine.

6. Virtual Jeoparty Social

There are a ton of incredible team building problem solving activities available. We’ve hand-picked 16 of our favorites that we think your corporate group will love too.

a cardboard boat building challenge for problem solving team building

Split into teams and create a cardboard boat made out of just the materials provided: cardboard and tape. Team members will have to work together to engineer a functional boat that will float and sail across water without sinking. Once teams have finished making their boats, they will create a presentation to explain why their boat is the best, before putting their boats to the test. The final challenge will have teams racing their boats to test their durability! Nothing says problem-solving like having to make sure you don’t sink into the water!

egg drop is a great team building problem solving activity

Every day at work, you’re forced to make countless decisions – whether they’re massively important or so small you barely think about them.

But your ability to effectively make decisions is critical in solving problems quickly and effectively.

With a classic team building problem solving activity like the Egg Drop, that’s exactly what your team will learn to do.

For this activity, you’ll need some eggs, construction materials, and a place you wouldn’t mind smashing getting dirty with eggshells and yolks.

The goal of this activity is to create a contraption that will encase an egg and protect it from a fall – whether it’s from standing height or the top of a building. But the challenge is that you and your team will only have a short amount of time to build it before it’s time to test it out, so you’ll have to think quickly!

To make it even more challenging, you’ll have to build the casing using only simple materials like:

Newspapers
Plastic wrap
Rubber bands
Popsicle sticks
Cotton balls

Feel free to have some fun in picking the materials. Use whatever you think would be helpful without making things too easy!

Give your group 15 minutes to construct their egg casing before each team drops their eggs. If multiple eggs survive, increase the height gradually to see whose created the sturdiest contraption.

If you’re not comfortable with the idea of using eggs for this activity, consider using another breakable alternative, such as lightbulbs for a vegan Egg Drop experience.

solving a crime is a great way to practice problem solving skills

With Clue Murder Mystery, your team will need to solve the murder of a man named Neil Davidson by figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime.

But it won’t be easy! You’ll need to exercise your best problem-solving skills and channel your inner detectives if you want to keep this case from going cold and to get justice for the victim.

do a spaghetti tower for team building problem solving activity

Collaboration is critical to problem solving.

Why? Because, as the old saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This expression reflects the fact that people are capable of achieving greater things when they work together to do so.

If you’re looking for a team building problem solving activity that helps boost collaboration, you’ll love Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower.

This game involves working in teams to build the tallest possible freestanding tower using only marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string.

The kicker? This all has to be done within an allotted timeframe. We recommend about thirty minutes.

For an added dimension of challenge, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower to make it a little more top heavy.

Whichever team has the highest tower when time runs out is the winner!

corporate escape rooms are unique team building problem solving activities

If you’ve never participated in an escape room, your team is missing out! It’s one of the most effective team building problem solving activities out there because it puts you and your colleagues in a scenario where the only way out is collaboratively solving puzzles and deciphering clues.

The principle is simple: lock your group in a room, hide the key somewhere in that room, and have them work through challenges within a set time frame. Each challenge will lead them one step closer to finding the key and, ultimately, their escape.

At Outback, we offer “done-for-you” escape rooms where we’ll transform your office or meeting room so you don’t have to worry about:

Seeking transportation for your team
Capacity of the escape rooms
High costs
Excessive planning

That way, you and your team can simply step inside and get to work collaborating, using creative problem solving, and thinking outside the box.

wild goose chase is a great scavenger hunt problem solving team building activity for work

In this smartphone-based scavenger hunt team building activity , your group will split into teams and complete fun challenges by taking photos and videos around the city. Some examples of challenges you can do in this activity are:

Parkour: Take a picture of three team members jumping over an object that’s at least waist-high.
Beautiful Mind: Snap a photo of a team member proving a well-known mathematical theorem on a chalkboard.
Puppy Love: Take a photo of all of your team members petting a stranger’s dog at the same time.

It takes a ton of critical thinking and problem-solving to be crowned the Wild Goose Chase Champions!

your teammates will love lost at sea team building activity

Can you imagine a higher-pressure situation than being stranded at sea in a lifeboat with your colleagues?

With this team building problem solving activity, that’s exactly the situation you and your group will put yourselves. But by the time the activity is over, you’ll have gained more experience with the idea of having to solve problems under pressure – a common but difficult thing to do.

Here’s how it works.

Each team member will get a six-columned chart where:

The first column lists the survival items each team has on hand (see the list below)
The second column is empty so that each team member can rank the items in order of importance for survival
The third column is for group rankings
The fourth column is for the “correct” rankings, which are revealed at the end of the activity
The fifth and sixth columns are for the team to enter thee difference between their individual and correct scores and the team and correct rankings

Within this activity, each team will be equipped with the following “survival items,” listed below in order of importance, as well as a pack of matches:

A shaving mirror (this can be used to signal passing ships using the sun)
A can of gas (could be used for signaling as it could be put in the water and lit with the pack of matches)
A water container (for collecting water to re-hydrate )
Emergency food rations (critical survival food)
One plastic sheet (can be helpful for shelter or to collect rainwater)
Chocolate bars (another food supply)
Fishing rods (helpful, but no guarantee of catching food)
Rope (can be handy, but not necessarily essential for survival)
A floating seat cushion (usable as a life preserver)
Shark repellant (could be important when in the water)
A bottle of rum (could be useful for cleaning wounds)
A radio (could be very helpful but there’s a good chance you’re out of range)
A sea chart (this is worthless without navigation equipment)
A mosquito net (unless you’ve been shipwrecked somewhere with a ton of mosquitos, this isn’t very useful)

To get the activity underway, divide your group into teams of five and ask each team member to take ten minutes on their own to rank the items in order of importance in the respective column. Then, give the full team ten minutes as a group to discuss their individual rankings together and take group rankings, listed in that respective column. Ask each group to compare their individual rankings with those of the group as a whole.

Finally, read out the correct order according to the US Coast Guard, listed above.

The goal of this activity is for everyone to be heard and to come to a decision together about what they need most to survive.

If your team works remotely, you can also do this activity online. Using a video conferencing tool like Zoom , you can bring your group together and separate teams into “break-out rooms” where they’ll take their time individually and then regroup together. At the end, you can bring them back to the full video conference to go through the answers together.

colleagues thinking outside the box with a domino effect challenge team building problem solving activity

Many problems are intricately complex and involve a ton of moving parts. And in order to solve this type of problem, you need to be able to examine it systematically, one piece at a time.

Especially in the business world, many problems or challenges involve multiple different teams or departments working through their respective portions of a problem before coming together in the end to create a holistic solution.

As you can imagine, this is often easier said than done. And that’s why it’s so important to practice this ability.

With a collaborative team building problem solving activity like Domino Effect Challenge, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do as you and your group work to create a massive, fully functional chain reaction machine.

Here’s how it goes.

Your group will break up into teams, with each team working to complete their own section of a massive “Rube Goldberg” machine. Then, all teams will regroup and assemble the entire machine together. You’ll need to exercise communication, collaboration, and on-the-fly problem solving in order to make your chain reaction machine go off without a hitch from start to finish.

reverse pyramid is a team building activity that makes colleagues think about problems in new ways

Being a great problem-solver means being adaptable and creative. And if you’re looking for a quick and easy team building problem solving activity, you’ll love the reverse pyramid.

The idea here is simple: break your group out into small teams and then stand in the form of a pyramid.

Your challenge is to flip the base and the peak of the pyramid – but you can only move three people in order to do so.

Alternatively, rather than doing this activity with people as the pyramid, you can do another version – the Pyramid Build – using plastic cups instead.

This version is a little bit different. Rather than flipping the base of a pyramid to the top, you’ll need to build the pyramid instead–but in reverse, starting from the top cup and working down.

With this version, you’ll need 36 cups and one table per group. We recommend groups of five to seven people. Give your group 20 to 30 minutes to complete the activity.

To get started, place one cup face down. Then, lift that cup and place the subsequent two cups underneath it.

The real challenge here? You can only lift your pyramid by the bottom row in order to put a new row underneath – and only one person at a time can do the lifting. The remaining group members will need to act quickly and work together in order to add the next row so that it will balance the rest of the pyramid.

If any part of your pyramid falls, you’ll need to start over. Whichever team has the most complete pyramid when time runs out will be the winner!

solving a crime is a great way for team members to use problem solving skills

The value of being able to approach problems analytically can’t be overstated. Because when problems arise, the best way to solve them is by examining the facts and making a decision based on what you know.

With CI: The Crime Investigators, this is exactly what your team will be called upon to do as you put your detective’s hats on and work to solve a deadly crime.

You’ll be presented with evidence and need to uncover and decipher clues. And using only the information at your disposal, you’ll need to examine the facts in order to crack the case.

Like many of our team building problem solving activities, CI: The Crime Investigators is available in a hosted format, which can take place at your office or an outside venue, as well as a virtually-hosted format that uses video conferencing tools, or a self-hosted version that you can run entirely on your own.

team pursuit team building is great for problem solving skills

Each member of your team has their own unique strengths and skills. And by learning to combine those skills, you can overcome any challenge and solve any problem. With Team Pursuit, you and your team together to tackle challenges as you learn new things about one another, discover your hidden talents, and learn to rely on each other.

This team building problem solving activity is perfect for high-energy groups that love to put their heads together and work strategically to solve problems as a group.

Collaborate with your colleague to design and build different segments of a bridge. At the end, see if the sections come together to create a free-standing structure!

domino effect challenging is a brain busting winter team building activity

Together as a group, see if you and your colleagues can build a gigantic “chain-reaction” machine that really works!

In smaller groups, participants work together to solve the challenge of creating sections of the machine using miscellaneous parts, and at the end, you’ll have to collaborate to connect it all together and put it in motion.

The case is fresh, but here’s what we know so far: we’ve got an up-and-coming actress who’s been found dead in her hotel room following last night’s awards show.

We have several suspects, but we haven’t been able to put the crime on any of them for sure yet. Now, it’s up to you and your team of detectives to crack the case. Together, you’ll review case files and evidence including police reports, coroners’ reports, photo evidence, tabloids, interrogations, and phone calls as you determine the motive, method, and murderer and bring justice for the victim.

You’ll need to put your problem-solving skills to the test as you share theories, collaborate, and think outside the box with your fellow investigators.

code break is a cerebral indoor team building activity

Using Outback’s app, split up into small groups and put your heads together to solve a variety of puzzles, riddles, and trivia. The team who has completed the most challenges when time is up, wins!

Can you stay afloat in a body of water in a boat made entirely of cardboard? Now that is a problem that urgently needs solving.

With this team building problem solving activity, you and your colleagues will split into groups and create a cardboard boat made out of just the materials provided – cardboard and tape.

Team members will have to work together to engineer a functional boat that will float and sail across water without sinking. Once teams have finished making their boats, they will create a presentation to explain why their boat is the best, before putting their boats to the test. The final challenge will have teams racing their boats across the water!

colleagues doing a virtual team building problem solving activity

If you and your team are working remotely, don’t worry. You still have a ton of great virtual team building problem solving options at your disposal.

In this virtual escape room experience, your team will be transported into a pyramid cursed by a restless mummy. You’ll have to work together to uncover clues and solve complex challenges to lift the ancient curse.

team members doing a fun virtual clue murder mystery

You’ve probably never heard of a man named Neil Davidson. But your group will need to come together to solve the mystery of his murder by analyzing clues, resolving challenges, and figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit a deadly crime.

This activity will challenge you and your group to approach problems analytically, read between the lines, and use critical thinking in order to identify a suspect and deliver justice.

escape rooms are fun and unique team building problem solving activities

If you and your team like brainteasers, then Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist will be a big hit.

Here’s the backstory.

There’s been a robbery. Someone has masterminded a heist to steal a priceless collection of precious jewels, and it’s up to you and your team to recover them before time runs out.

Together, you’ll need to uncover hidden clues and solve a series of brain-boggling challenges that require collaboration, creative problem-solving, and outside-the-box thinking. But be quick! The clock is ticking before the stolen score is gone forever.

try virtual code break as a way to use problem solving skills with teammates

With Virtual Code Break, you and your team can learn to be adaptive and dynamic in your thinking in order to tackle any new challenges that come your way. In this activity, your group will connect on a video conferencing platform where your event host will split you out into teams. Together, you’ll have to adapt your problem-solving skills as you race against the clock to tackle a variety of mixed brainteaser challenges ranging from Sudoku to puzzles, a game of Cranium, riddles, and even trivia.

Curious to see how a virtual team building activity works? Check out this video on a Virtual Clue Murder Mystery in action.

trivia is a great problem solving activity for colleagues

Step into the Outback Time Machine and take a trip through time, from pre-pandemic 21st century through the decades all the way to the 60’s.

This exciting, fast-paced virtual trivia game, packed with nostalgia and good vibes, is guaranteed to produce big laughs, friendly competition, and maybe even some chair-dancing.

Your virtual game show host will warm up guests with a couple of “table hopper rounds” (breakout room mixers) and split you out into teams. Within minutes, your home office will be transformed into a game show stage with your very own game show buzzers!

And if your team loves trivia, check out our list of the most incredible virtual trivia games for work teams for even more ideas.

6. Virtual Jeoparty Social

Virtual Jeoparty Social is a fun high energy virtual team building activity

If your remote team is eager to socialize, have some fun as a group, and channel their competitive spirit, we’ve got just the thing for you! With Virtual Jeoparty Social, you and your colleagues will step into your very own virtual Jeopardy-style game show—equipped with a buzzer button, a professional actor as your host, and an immersive game show platform! Best of all, this game has been infused with an ultra-social twist: players will take part in a unique social mixer challenge between each round.

With the right team building problem solving activities, you can help your team sharpen their core skills to ensure they’re prepared when they inevitably face a challenge at work. And best of all, you can have fun in the process.

Do you have any favorite team building activities for building problem-solving skills? If so, tell us about them in the comments section below!

Learn More About Team Building Problem Solving Activities

For more information about how your group can take part in a virtual team building, training, or coaching solution, reach out to our Employee Engagement Consultants.

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I love how this blog provides a variety of problem-solving activities for team building. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to foster teamwork and collaboration!

14 Best Team Building Problem Solving Group Activities For 2024

The best teams see solutions where others see problems. A great company culture is built around a collaborative spirit and the type of unity it takes to find answers to the big business questions.

So how can you get team members working together?

How can you develop a mentality that will help them overcome obstacles they have yet to encounter?

One of the best ways to improve your teams’ problem solving skills is through team building problem solving activities .

“86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.” — Bit.AI

These activities can simulate true-to-life scenarios they’ll find themselves in, or the scenarios can call on your employees or coworkers to dig deep and get creative in a more general sense.

The truth is, on a day-to-day basis, you have to prepare for the unexpected. It just happens that team building activities help with that, but are so fun that they don’t have to feel like work ( consider how you don’t even feel like you’re working out when you’re playing your favorite sport or doing an exercise you actually enjoy! )

Team Building Problem Solving Group Activities

What are the benefits of group problem-solving activities?

The benefits of group problem-solving activities for team building include:

Better communication
Improved collaboration and teamwork
More flexible thinking
Faster problem-solving
Better proactivity and decision making

Without further ado, check out this list of the 14 best team-building problem-solving group activities for 2024!

Page Contents (Click To Jump)

2. Problem-Solving Templates

Problem-Solving Templates are popular problem-solving activities that involve a group of people working together to solve an issue. The challenge generally involves members of the team utilizing pre-made templates and creating solutions for a given problem with the help of visual aids.

This activity is great for teams that need assistance in getting started on their problem-solving journey.

Why this is a fun problem-solving activity: Problem-Solving Templates offer teams an easy and stress-free way to get the creative juices flowing. The visual aids that come with the templates help team members better understand the issue at hand and easily come up with solutions together.

	🎯 Help your team incorporate mindfulness into the workday
	🪐 Use the force to collect valuable feedback
	🦈 Pitch your million dollar idea
	🌮 Sync with your team on Tuesday!
	🗣 Ignite engaging conversations to kick off your next meeting

This activity is great for teams that need assistance in getting started on their problem-solving journey, as it provides an easy and stress-free way to get the creative juices flowing.

Problem Solving Group Activities & Games For Team Building

3. coworker feud, “it’s all fun and games”.

Coworker Feud is a twist on the classic Family Feud game show! This multiple rapid round game keeps the action flowing and the questions going. You can choose from a variety of customizations, including picking the teams yourself, randomized teams, custom themes, and custom rounds.

Best for: Hybrid teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Coworker Feud comes with digital game materials, a digital buzzer, an expert host, and a zoom link to get the participants ready for action! Teams compete with each other to correctly answer the survey questions. At the end of the game, the team with the most competitive answers is declared the winner of the Feud.

How to get started:

Sign up for Coworker Feud
Break into teams of 4 to 10 people
Get the competitive juices flowing and let the games begin!

Learn more here: Coworker Feud

4. Crack The Case

“who’s a bad mamma jamma”.

Crack The Case is a classic WhoDoneIt game that forces employees to depend on their collective wit to stop a deadly murderer dead in his tracks! Remote employees and office commuters can join forces to end this crime spree.

Best for: Remote teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: The Virtual Clue Murder Mystery is an online problem solving activity that uses a proprietary videoconferencing platform to offer the chance for employees and coworkers to study case files, analyze clues, and race to find the motive, the method, and the individual behind the murder of Neil Davidson.

Get a custom quote here
Download the app
Let the mystery-solving collaboration begin!

Learn more here: Crack The Case

5. Catch Meme If You Can

“can’t touch this”.

Purposefully created to enhance leadership skills and team bonding , Catch Meme If You Can is a hybrid between a scavenger hunt and an escape room . Teammates join together to search for clues, solve riddles, and get out — just in time!

Best for: Small teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Catch Meme If You Can is an adventure with a backstory. Each team has to submit their answer to the puzzle in order to continue to the next part of the sequence. May the best team escape!

The teams will be given instructions and the full storyline
Teams will be split into a handful of people each
The moderator will kick off the action!

Learn more here: Catch Meme If You Can

6. Puzzle Games

“just something to puzzle over”.

Puzzle Games is the fresh trivia game to test your employees and blow their minds with puzzles, jokes , and fun facts!

Best for: In-person teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Eight mini brain teaser and trivia style games include word puzzles, name that nonsense, name that tune, and much more. Plus, the points each team earns will go towards planting trees in the precious ecosystems and forests of Uganda

Get a free consultation for your team
Get a custom designed invitation for your members
Use the game link
Dedicated support will help your team enjoy Puzzle Games to the fullest!

Learn more here: Puzzle Games

7. Virtual Code Break

“for virtual teams”.

Virtual Code Break is a virtual team building activity designed for remote participants around the globe. Using a smart video conferencing solution, virtual teams compete against each other to complete challenges, answer trivia questions, and solve brain-busters!

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Virtual Code Break can be played by groups as small as 4 people all the way up to more than 1,000 people at once. However, every team will improve their communication and problem-solving skills as they race against the clock and depend on each other’s strengths to win!

Reach out for a free consultation to align the needs of your team
An event facilitator will be assigned to handle all of the set-up and logistics
They will also provide you with logins and a play-by-play of what to expect
Sign into the Outback video conferencing platform and join your pre-assigned team
Lastly, let the games begin!

Learn more here: Virtual Code Break

8. Stranded

“survivor: office edition”.

Stranded is the perfect scenario-based problem solving group activity. The doors of the office are locked and obviously your team can’t just knock them down or break the windows.

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Your team has less than half an hour to choose 10 items around the office that will help them survive. They then rank the items in order of importance. It’s a bit like the classic game of being lost at sea without a lifeboat.

Get everyone together in the office
Lock the doors
Let them start working together to plan their survival

Learn more here: Stranded

9. Letting Go Game

“for conscious healing”.

The Letting Go Game is a game of meditation and mindfulness training for helping teammates thrive under pressure and reduce stress in the process. The tasks of the Letting Go Game boost resiliency, attentiveness, and collaboration.

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Expert-guided activities and awareness exercises encourage team members to think altruistically and demonstrate acts of kindness. Between yoga, face painting, and fun photography, your employees or coworkers will have more than enough to keep them laughing and growing together with this mindfulness activity!

Reach out for a free consultation
A guide will then help lead the exercises
Let the funny videos, pictures, and playing begin!

Learn more here: Letting Go Game

10. Wild Goose Chase

“city time”.

Wild Goose Chase is the creative problem solving activity that will take teams all around your city and bring them together as a group! This scavenger hunt works for teams as small as 10 up to groups of over 5000 people.

Best for: Large teams

Why this is an effective group problem solving activity: As employees and group members are coming back to the office, there are going to be times that they’re itching to get outside. Wild Goose Chase is the perfect excuse to satisfy the desire to go out-of-office every now and then. Plus, having things to look at and see around the city will get employees talking in ways they never have before.

Download the Outback app to access the Wild Goose Chase
Take photos and videos from around the city
The most successful team at completing challenges on time is the champ!

Learn more here: Wild Goose Chase

11. Human Knot

“for a knotty good time”.

The Human Knot is one of the best icebreaker team building activities! In fact, there’s a decent chance you played it in grade school. It’s fun, silly, and best of all — free!

Why this is an effective group problem solving activity: Participants start in a circle and connect hands with two other people in the group to form a human knot. The team then has to work together and focus on clear communication to unravel the human knot by maneuvering their way out of this hands-on conundrum. But there’s a catch — they can’t let go of each other’s hands in this team building exercise.

Form a circle
Tell each person to grab a random hand until all hands are holding another
They can’t hold anyone’s hand who is directly next to them
Now they have to get to untangling
If the chain breaks before everyone is untangled, they have to start over again

Learn more here: Human Knot

12. What Would You Do?

“because it’s fun to imagine”.

What Would You Do? Is the hypothetical question game that gets your team talking and brainstorming about what they’d do in a variety of fun, intriguing, and sometimes, whacky scenarios.

Best for: Distributed teams

Why this is an effective group problem solving activity: After employees or coworkers start talking about their What Would You Do? responses, they won’t be able to stop. That’s what makes this such an incredible team building activity . For example, you could ask questions like “If you could live forever, what would you do with your time?” or “If you never had to sleep, what would you do?”

In addition to hypothetical questions, you could also give teammates some optional answers to get them started
After that, let them do the talking — then they’ll be laughing and thinking and dreaming, too!

13. Crossing The River

“quite the conundrum”.

Crossing The River is a river-crossing challenge with one correct answer. Your team gets five essential elements — a chicken, a fox, a rowboat, a woman, and a bag of corn. You see, the woman has a bit of a problem, you tell them. She has to get the fox, the bag of corn, and the chicken to the other side of the river as efficiently as possible.

Why this is an effective group problem solving activity: She has a rowboat, but it can only carry her and one other item at a time. She cannot leave the chicken and the fox alone — for obvious reasons. And she can’t leave the chicken with the corn because it will gobble it right up. So the question for your team is how does the woman get all five elements to the other side of the river safely in this fun activity?

Form teams of 2 to 5 people
Each team has to solve the imaginary riddle
Just make sure that each group understands that the rowboat can only carry one animal and one item at a time; the fox and chicken can’t be alone; and the bag of corn and the chicken cannot be left alone
Give the verbal instructions for getting everything over to the other side

14. End-Hunger Games

“philanthropic fun”.

Does anything bond people quite like acts of kindness and compassion? The End-Hunger Games will get your team to rally around solving the serious problem of hunger.

Best for: Medium-sized teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Teams join forces to complete challenges based around non-perishable food items in the End-Hunger Games. Groups can range in size from 25 to more than 2000 people, who will all work together to collect food for the local food bank.

Split into teams and compete to earn boxes and cans of non-perishable food
Each team attempts to build the most impressive food item construction
Donate all of the non-perishable foods to a local food bank

Learn more here: End-Hunger Games

Q: What kind of skills do group problem solving activities & games improve?

A: Group problem solving activities and games improve collaboration, leadership, and communication skills.

Q: What are problem solving based team building activities & games?

A: Problem solving based team building activities and games are activities that challenge teams to work together in order to complete them.

Q: What are some fun free problem solving games for groups?

A: Some fun free problem solving games for groups are kinesthetic puzzles like the human knot game, which you can read more about in this article. You can also use all sorts of random items like whiteboards, straws, building blocks, sticky notes, blindfolds, rubber bands, and legos to invent a game that will get the whole team involved.

Q: How do I choose the most effective problem solving exercise for my team?

A: The most effective problem solving exercise for your team is one that will challenge them to be their best selves and expand their creative thinking.

Q: How do I know if my group problem solving activity was successful?

A: In the short-term, you’ll know if your group problem solving activity was successful because your team will bond over it; however, that should also translate to more productivity in the mid to long-term.

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What Are Problem Solving Activities?

Problem-solving activities or problem-solving exercises are interactive games requiring critical thinking to solve puzzles. They enhance teamwork & critical thinking. Examples include building towers, navigating simulated challenges, and fostering creativity and communication.

For instance, imagine a team working together to construct the tallest tower using limited materials. They strategize, communicate ideas, and problem-solve to create the best structure, promoting collaboration and inventive thinking among team members.

Some widely practiced problem-solving activities include:

A Shrinking Vessel: Teams must fit into a shrinking space, testing their cooperation and adaptability.
Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower: Participants build a tower using marshmallows and spaghetti, promoting creative engineering.
Egg Drop: Protecting an egg from a fall challenges problem-solving skills.
Desert Island Survival: Teams simulate survival scenarios, encouraging creative solutions.
Rolling Dice: A simple yet effective game involving chance and decision-making.
Build a Tower: Constructing a stable tower with limited resources fosters teamwork and innovation, etc.

13 Easy Activities For Problem-Solving Ideas to Enhance Team Collaboration

Team building activities offer a great opportunity to test problem-solving abilities and promote effective collaboration within a group to problem solving group activities. By engaging in these activities, teams can break the monotony of the workplace and create a more inclusive and welcoming environment.

Here are nine easy-to-implement activities that can bring substantial change to your team culture and overall workplace dynamics.

#1. Crossword Puzzles

Objective: To enhance problem-solving skills, vocabulary, and cognitive abilities through engaging crossword puzzles.

Estimated Time: 15-20 Minutes

Materials Needed:

Crossword puzzle sheets
Pens or pencils
Distribute crossword puzzle sheets and pens/pencils to each participant.
Explain the rules of crossword puzzles and the goal of completing as many clues as possible within the given time.
Participants individually or in pairs work on solving the crossword puzzle by filling in the correct words.
Encourage critical thinking, word association, and collaborative discussions for solving challenging clues.
At the end of the time limit, review the answers and discuss any interesting or challenging clues as a group.
Enhanced Problem-Solving: Participants engage in critical thinking while deciphering clues, promoting effective problem-solving skills.
Vocabulary Expansion: Exposure to new words and phrases within the crossword improves vocabulary and comprehension.
Cognitive Stimulation: The mental exercise of solving the puzzle stimulates the brain, enhancing cognitive abilities.
Team Collaboration: If done in pairs, participants practice collaboration and communication to solve clues together.
Achievement and Motivation: Successfully completing the crossword brings a sense of accomplishment and motivates individuals to explore more puzzles.

Tips for Facilitators:

Provide varying levels of crossword puzzles to accommodate different skill levels.
Encourage participants to share strategies for solving challenging clues.
Emphasize the fun and educational aspects of the activity to keep participants engaged.

#2. A Shrinking Vessel

Estimated Time: 10-15 Minutes

Materials Needed: A rope and a ball of yarn
Prepare the Setting: Lay a rope on the floor in a shape that allows all team members to stand comfortably inside it. For larger teams, multiple ropes can be used, dividing them into smaller groups.
Enter the Circle: Have all team members stand inside the rope, ensuring that nobody steps outside its boundaries.
Shrinking the Circle: Begin gradually shrinking the rope’s size, reducing the available space inside the circle.
Adapt and Maintain Balance: As the circle shrinks, team members must make subtle adjustments to maintain their positions and balance within the shrinking area.
The Challenge: The objective for the team is to collectively brainstorm and find innovative ways to keep every team member inside the circle without anyone stepping outside.
Collaboration and Communication: The activity promotes teamwork and open communication as participants strategize to stay within the shrinking circle.
Adaptability: Team members learn to adapt swiftly to changing circumstances, fostering agility and flexibility.
Creative Problem-Solving: The challenge encourages inventive thinking and brainstorming to find unique solutions.
Trust Building: By relying on each other’s actions, participants build trust and cohesion among team members.
Time-Efficient: The short duration makes it an ideal icebreaker or energizer during meetings or workshops.
Observe and Facilitate: Monitor the team’s dynamics and offer guidance to encourage equal participation and effective problem-solving.
Encourage Verbalization: Prompt participants to voice their ideas and collaborate vocally, aiding in real-time adjustments.
Debrief Thoughtfully: Engage the team in a discussion afterward, reflecting on strategies employed and lessons learned.
Emphasize Adaptability: Highlight the transferable skill of adaptability and its significance in both professional and personal contexts.

#3. Human Knots

Objective: Improving Collaboration & enhancing Communication Skills

Estimated Time: 15-20 minutes

Materials: None required

Procedure:

Organize your team into a compact circle. For more sizable teams, subdivide them into smaller clusters, with each cluster forming its own circle.
Direct each individual to grasp the hands of two other people in the circle, with the exception of those positioned directly adjacent to them. This action will result in the formation of a complex “human knot” within the circle.
Present the challenge to the group: to unravel themselves from this entanglement while maintaining their hold on each other’s hands. If preferred, you can establish a specific time limit.
Observe the team members collaborating to unravel the knot, witnessing their collective effort to devise solutions and free themselves from the intricate puzzle.
Team Cohesion: The activity encourages team members to interact closely, promoting bonding and understanding among participants.
Effective Communication: Participants practice clear and concise communication as they coordinate movements to untangle the knot.
Problem-Solving: The challenge stimulates creative thinking and problem-solving skills as individuals work collectively to find the optimal path for untangling.
Adaptability: Participants learn to adapt their actions based on the evolving dynamics of the human knot, fostering adaptability.
Trust Building: As individuals rely on each other to navigate the intricate knot, trust and cooperation naturally develop.
Set a Positive Tone: Create an inclusive and supportive atmosphere, emphasizing that the focus is on collaboration rather than competition.
Encourage Verbalization: Urge participants to articulate their intentions and listen to others’ suggestions, promoting effective teamwork.
Observe Group Dynamics: Monitor interactions and step in if needed to ensure everyone is actively engaged and included.
Reflect and Share: Conclude the activity with a debriefing session, allowing participants to share their experiences, strategies, and key takeaways.
Vary Grouping: Change group compositions for subsequent rounds to enhance interactions among different team members.

#4. Egg Drop

Helps With: Decision Making, Collaboration

A carton of eggs
Construction materials (balloons, rubber bands, straws, tape, plastic wrap, etc.)
A suitable location for the activity
Assign each team a single egg and random construction materials.
Teams must create a carrier to protect the egg from breaking.
Drop the carriers one by one and increase the height if necessary to determine the most durable carrier.
The winning team is the one with the carrier that survives the highest drop.
Decision Making: Participants engage in critical decision-making processes as they select construction materials and determine carrier designs.
Collaboration: The activity necessitates collaboration and coordination among team members to construct an effective carrier.
Problem-Solving: Teams apply creative problem-solving skills to devise innovative methods for safeguarding the egg.
Risk Management: Participants learn to assess potential risks and consequences while making design choices to prevent egg breakage.
Celebrating Success: The victorious team experiences a sense of accomplishment, boosting morale and promoting a positive team spirit.
Provide Diverse Materials: Offer a wide range of construction materials to stimulate creativity and allow teams to explore various design options.
Set Safety Guidelines: Prioritize safety by specifying a safe drop height and ensuring participants follow safety protocols during construction.
Encourage Brainstorming: Prompt teams to brainstorm multiple carrier ideas before finalizing their designs, fostering diverse perspectives.
Facilitate Reflection: After the activity, lead a discussion where teams share their design strategies, challenges faced, and lessons learned.
Highlight Collaboration: Emphasize the significance of teamwork in achieving success, acknowledging effective communication and cooperation.

As a teamwork activity, Egg Drop can help team members solve problems through collaboration and communication.

Each team can design and customize their own balloons and can display their team logo, slogan, or elements related to team culture through custom balloons . Awards can also be set up, such as the most creative balloon design, the strongest frangipani structure, etc., to increase the motivation for competition and participation.

After the activity, team sharing and feedback can be conducted to allow everyone to share their learning experience and feelings about teamwork.

This combination allows team members to experience the importance of teamwork in creativity and practice, and strengthen team cohesion by completing challenges and sharing experiences.

#5. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Helps With: Collaboration

Estimated Time: 20-30 Minutes

Materials Needed (per team):

Raw spaghetti: 20 sticks
Marshmallow: 1
String: 1 yard
Masking tape: 1 roll
Tower Construction: Instruct teams to collaborate and utilize the provided materials to construct the tallest tower possible within a designated time frame.
Marshmallow Support: Emphasize that the tower must be capable of standing independently and supporting a marshmallow at its highest point.
Prototype and Iterate: Encourage teams to engage in prototyping and iteration, testing different design approaches and refining their tower structures.
T eamwork and Communication: Promote effective teamwork and communication as team members coordinate their efforts to build a stable and tall tower.
Evaluation Criteria: Evaluate each tower based on its height, stability, and the successful placement of the marshmallow at the top.
Collaboration: Participants collaborate closely, sharing ideas and working together to design and construct the tower.
Innovative Thinking: The activity encourages innovative thinking as teams experiment with different strategies to build a stable tower.
Time Management: Teams practice time management skills as they work within a specified time limit to complete the task.
Problem-Solving: Participants engage in creative problem-solving to address challenges such as balancing the marshmallow and constructing a sturdy tower.
Adaptability: Teams adapt their approaches based on trial and error, learning from each iteration to improve their tower designs.
Set Clear Guidelines: Clearly explain the materials, objectives, and evaluation criteria to ensure teams understand the task.
Foster Creativity: Encourage teams to think outside the box and explore unconventional methods for constructing their towers.
Emphasize Collaboration: Highlight the importance of effective communication and teamwork to accomplish the task successfully.
Time Management: Remind teams of the time limit and encourage them to allocate their time wisely between planning and construction.
Reflect and Share: Facilitate a discussion after the activity, allowing teams to share their design choices, challenges faced, and lessons learned.

Objective: To engage participants in the strategic and analytical world of Sudoku, enhancing logical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Estimated Time: 20-25 Minutes

Sudoku puzzle sheets
Pencils with erasers
Distribute Sudoku puzzle sheets and pencils to each participant.
Familiarize participants with the rules and mechanics of Sudoku puzzles.
Explain the goal: to fill in the empty cells with numbers from 1 to 9 while adhering to the rules of no repetition in rows, columns, or subgrids.
Encourage participants to analyze the puzzle’s layout, identify potential numbers, and strategically fill in cells.
Emphasize the importance of logical deduction and step-by-step approach in solving the puzzle.
Provide hints or guidance if needed, ensuring participants remain engaged and challenged.
Logical Thinking: Sudoku challenges participants’ logical and deductive reasoning, fostering analytical skills.
Problem-Solving: The intricate interplay of numbers and constraints hones problem-solving abilities.
Focus and Patience: Participants practice patience and attention to detail while gradually unveiling the solution.
Pattern Recognition: Identifying number patterns and possibilities contributes to enhanced pattern recognition skills.
Personal Achievement: Successfully completing a Sudoku puzzle provides a sense of accomplishment and boosts confidence.
Offer varying levels of Sudoku puzzles to cater to different skill levels.
Encourage participants to share strategies and techniques for solving specific challenges.
Highlight the mental workout Sudoku provides and its transferable skills to real-life problem-solving.

Helps With: Communication, Problem-solving, & Management

A lockable room
5-10 puzzles or clues
Hide the key and a set of clues around the room.
Lock the room and provide team members with a specific time limit to find the key and escape.
Instruct the team to work together, solving the puzzles and deciphering the clues to locate the key.
Encourage efficient communication and effective problem-solving under time pressure.
Communication Skills: Participants enhance their communication abilities by sharing observations, ideas, and findings to collectively solve puzzles.
Problem-solving Proficiency: The activity challenges teams to think critically, apply logical reasoning, and collaboratively tackle intricate challenges.
Team Management: The experience promotes effective team management as members assign tasks, prioritize efforts, and coordinate actions.
Time Management: The imposed time limit sharpens time management skills as teams strategize and allocate time wisely.
Adaptability: Teams learn to adapt and adjust strategies based on progress, evolving clues, and time constraints.
Clear Introduction: Provide a concise overview of the activity, emphasizing the importance of communication, problem-solving, and time management.
Diverse Challenges: Offer a mix of puzzles and clues to engage various problem-solving skills, catering to different team strengths.
Supportive Role: Act as a facilitator, offering subtle guidance if needed while allowing teams to independently explore and solve challenges.
Debriefing Session: Organize a debriefing session afterward to discuss the experience, highlight successful strategies, and identify areas for improvement.
Encourage Reflection: Encourage participants to reflect on their teamwork, communication effectiveness, and problem-solving approach.

#8. Frostbite for Group Problem Solving Activities

Helps With: Decision Making, Trust, Leadership

An electric fan
Construction materials (toothpicks, cardstock, rubber bands, sticky notes, etc.)
Divide the team into groups of 4-5 people, each with a designated leader.
Blindfold team members and prohibit leaders from using their hands.
Provide teams with construction materials and challenge them to build a tent within 30 minutes.
Test the tents using the fan to see which can withstand high winds.
Decision-Making Proficiency: Participants are exposed to critical decision-making situations under constraints, allowing them to practice effective and efficient decision-making.
Trust Development: Blindfolding team members and relying on the designated leaders fosters trust and collaboration among team members.
Leadership Skills: Designated leaders navigate the challenge without hands-on involvement, enhancing their leadership and communication skills.
Creative Problem Solving: Teams employ creative thinking and resourcefulness to construct stable tents with limited sensory input.
Team Cohesion: The shared task and unique constraints promote team cohesion and mutual understanding.
Role of the Facilitator: Act as an observer, allowing teams to navigate the challenge with minimal intervention. Offer assistance only when necessary.
Clarity in Instructions: Provide clear instructions regarding blindfolding, leader restrictions, and time limits to ensure a consistent experience.
Debriefing Session: After the activity, conduct a debriefing session to discuss team dynamics, leadership approaches, and decision-making strategies.
Encourage Communication: Emphasize the importance of effective communication within teams to ensure smooth coordination and successful tent construction.
Acknowledge Creativity: Celebrate creative solutions and innovative approaches exhibited by teams during the tent-building process.

#9. Dumbest Idea First

Helps With: Critical Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Activity

Estimated Time: 15-20 Minutes

Materials Needed: A piece of paper, pen, and pencil

Problem Presentation: Introduce a specific problem to the team, either a real-world challenge or a hypothetical scenario that requires a solution.
Brainstorming Dumb Ideas: Instruct team members to quickly generate and jot down the most unconventional and seemingly “dumb” ideas they can think of to address the problem.
Idea Sharing: Encourage each participant to share their generated ideas with the group, fostering a relaxed and open atmosphere for creative expression.
Viability Assessment: As a team, review and evaluate each idea, considering potential benefits and drawbacks. Emphasize the goal of identifying unconventional approaches.
Selecting Promising Solutions: Identify which seemingly “dumb” ideas could hold hidden potential or innovative insights. Discuss how these ideas could be adapted into workable solutions.
Divergent Thinking: Participants engage in divergent thinking, pushing beyond conventional boundaries to explore unconventional solutions.
Creative Exploration: The activity sparks creative exploration by encouraging participants to let go of inhibitions and embrace imaginative thinking.
Critical Analysis: Through evaluating each idea, participants practice critical analysis and learn to identify unique angles and aspects of potential solutions.
Open Communication: The lighthearted approach of sharing “dumb” ideas fosters open communication, reducing fear of judgment and promoting active participation.
Solution Adaptation: Identifying elements of seemingly “dumb” ideas that have merit encourages participants to adapt and refine their approaches creatively.
Safe Environment: Foster a safe and non-judgmental environment where participants feel comfortable sharing unconventional ideas.
Time Management: Set clear time limits for idea generation and sharing to maintain the activity’s energetic pace.
Encourage Wild Ideas: Emphasize that the goal is to explore the unconventional, urging participants to push the boundaries of creativity.
Facilitator Participation: Participate in idea generation to demonstrate an open-minded approach and encourage involvement.
Debriefing Discussion: After the activity, facilitate a discussion on how seemingly “dumb” ideas can inspire innovative solutions and stimulate fresh thinking.

This activity encourages out-of-the-box thinking and creative problem-solving. It allows teams to explore unconventional ideas that may lead to unexpected, yet effective, solutions.

#10: Legoman

Helps With: Foster teamwork, communication, and creativity through a collaborative Lego-building activity.

Estimated Time: 20-30 minutes

Lego bricks
Lego instruction manuals

Procedure :

Divide participants into small teams of 3-5 members.
Provide each team with an equal set of Lego bricks and a Lego instruction manual.
Explain that the goal is for teams to work together to construct the Lego model shown in the manual.
Set a time limit for the building activity based on model complexity.
Allow teams to self-organize, build, and collaborate to complete the model within the time limit.
Evaluate each team’s final model compared to the manual’s original design.
Enhanced Communication: Participants must communicate clearly and listen actively to collaborate effectively.
Strengthened Teamwork: Combining efforts toward a shared goal promotes camaraderie and team cohesion.
Creative Problem-Solving: Teams must creatively problem-solve if pieces are missing or instructions unclear.
Planning and Resource Allocation: Following instructions fosters planning skills and efficient use of resources.
Sense of Achievement: Completing a challenging build provides a sense of collective accomplishment.
Encourage Participation: Urge quieter members to contribute ideas and take an active role.
Highlight Teamwork: Emphasize how cooperation and task coordination are key to success.
Ensure Equal Engagement: Monitor group dynamics to ensure all members are engaged.
Allow Creativity: Permit modifications if teams lack exact pieces or wish to get creative.
Focus on Enjoyment: Create a lively atmosphere so the activity remains energizing and fun.

#11: Minefield

Helps With: Trust, Communication, Patience

Materials Needed: Open space, blindfolds

Mark a “minefield” on the ground using ropes, cones, or tape. Add toy mines or paper cups.
Pair up participants and blindfold one partner.
Position blindfolded partners at the start of the minefield. Direct seeing partners to verbally guide them through to the other side without hitting “mines.”
Partners switch roles once finished and repeat.
Time partnerships and provide prizes for the fastest safe crossing.
Trust Building: Blindfolded partners must trust their partner’s instructions.
Effective Communication: Giving clear, specific directions is essential for navigating the minefield.
Active Listening: Partners must listen closely and follow directions precisely.
Patience & Support: The exercise requires patience and encouraging guidance between partners.
Team Coordination: Partners must work in sync, coordinating movements and communication.
Test Boundaries: Ensure the minefield’s size accommodates safe movement and communication.
Monitor Interactions: Watch for dominant guidance and ensure both partners participate fully.
Time Strategically: Adjust time limits based on the minefield size and difficulty.
Add Obstacles: Introduce additional non-mine objects to increase challenge and communication needs.
Foster Discussion: Debrief afterward to discuss communication approaches and trust-building takeaways.

#12: Reverse Pyramid

Helps With: Teamwork, Communication, Creativity

Materials Needed: 36 cups per group, tables

Form small groups of 5-7 participants.
Provide each group with a stack of 36 cups and a designated building area.
Explain the objective: Build the tallest pyramid starting with just one cup on top.
Place the first cup on the table, and anyone in the group can add two cups beneath it to form the second row.
From this point, only the bottom row can be lifted to add the next row underneath.
Cups in the pyramid can only be touched or supported by index fingers.
If the structure falls, start over from one cup.
Offer more cups if a group uses all provided.
Allow 15 minutes for building.

Teamwork: Collaborate to construct the pyramid.

Communication: Discuss and execute the building strategy.

Creativity: Find innovative ways to build a tall, stable pyramid.

Clarify Expectations: Emphasize the definition of a pyramid with each row having one less cup.

Encourage Perseverance: Motivate groups to continue despite challenges.

Promote Consensus: Encourage groups to work together and help each other.

Reflect on Failure: Use collapses as a metaphor for overcoming obstacles and improving.

Consider Competitions: Modify the activity for competitive teams and scoring.

#13: Stranded

Helps With: Decision-making, Prioritization, Teamwork

Materials Needed: List of salvaged items, paper, pens

Present a scenario where teams are stranded and must prioritize items salvaged from a plane crash.
Provide teams with the same list of ~15 salvaged items.
Instruct teams to agree on an item ranking with #1 being the most important for survival.
Teams share and compare their prioritized lists. Identify differences in approach.
Discuss what factors influenced decisions and how teams worked together to agree on priorities.
Critical Thinking: Weighing item importance requires analytical thinking and discussion.
Team Decision-Making: Coming to a consensus fosters team decision-making capabilities.
Prioritization Skills: Ranking items strengthen prioritization and justification abilities.
Perspective-Taking: Understanding different prioritizations builds perspective-taking skills.
Team Cohesion: Collaborating toward a shared goal brings teams closer together.
Encourage Discussion: Urge teams to discuss all ideas rather than allow single members to dominate.
Be Engaged: Circulate to listen in on team discussions and pose thought-provoking questions.
Add Complexity: Introduce scenarios with additional constraints to expand critical thinking.
Highlight Disagreements: When priorities differ, facilitate constructive discussions on influencing factors.
Recognize Collaboration: Acknowledge teams that demonstrate exceptional teamwork and communication.

Now let’s look at some common types of problem-solving activities.

Types of Problem-Solving Activities

The most common types of problem-solving activities/exercises are:

Creative problem-solving activities
Group problem-solving activities
Individual problem-solving activities
Fun problem-solving activities, etc.

In the next segments, we’ll be discussing these types of problem-solving activities in detail. So, keep reading!

Creative Problem-Solving Activities

Creative problem solving (CPS) means using creativity to find new solutions. It involves thinking creatively at first and then evaluating ideas later. For example, think of it like brainstorming fun game ideas, discussing them, and then picking the best one to play.

Some of the most common creative problem-solving activities include:

Legoman: Building creative structures with LEGO.
Escape: Solving puzzles to escape a room.
Frostbite: Finding solutions in challenging situations.
Minefield: Navigating a field of obstacles.

Group Problem-Solving Activities

Group problem-solving activities are challenges that make teams work together to solve puzzles or overcome obstacles. They enhance teamwork and critical thinking.

For instance, think of a puzzle-solving game where a group must find hidden clues to escape a locked room.

Here are the most common group problem-solving activities you can try in groups:

A Shrinking Vessel
Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower
Cardboard Boat Building Challenge
Clue Murder Mystery
Escape Room: Jewel Heist
Escape Room: Virtual Team Building
Scavenger Hunt
Dumbest Idea First

Individual Problem-Solving Activities

As the name suggests, individual problem-solving activities are the tasks that you need to play alone to boost your critical thinking ability. They help you solve problems and stay calm while facing challenges in real life. Like puzzles, they make your brain sharper. Imagine it’s like training your brain muscles to handle tricky situations.

Here are some of the most common individual problem-solving activities:

Puzzles (jigsaw, crossword, sudoku, etc.)
Brain teasers
Logic problems
Optical illusions
“Escape room” style games

Fun Problem-Solving Activities

Fun problem-solving activities are enjoyable games that sharpen your critical thinking skills while having a blast. Think of activities like the Legoman challenge, escape rooms, or rolling dice games – they make problem-solving exciting and engaging!

And to be frank, all of the mentioned problem-solving activities are fun if you know how to play and enjoy them as all of them are game-like activities.

Team Problems You Can Address Through Problem Solving Activities

Fun problem-solving activities serve as dynamic tools to address a range of challenges that teams often encounter. These engaging activities foster an environment of collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, enabling teams to tackle various problems head-on. Here are some common team problems that can be effectively addressed through these activities:

Communication Breakdowns:

Activities like “Escape,” “A Shrinking Vessel,” and “Human Knots” emphasize the importance of clear and effective communication. They require teams to work together, exchange ideas, and devise strategies to accomplish a shared goal. By engaging in these activities, team members learn to communicate more efficiently, enhancing overall team communication in real-world situations.

Lack of Trust and Cohesion:

Problem-solving activities promote trust and cohesiveness within teams. For instance, “Frostbite” and “Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower” require teams to collaborate closely, trust each other’s ideas, and rely on each member’s strengths. These activities build a sense of unity and trust, which can translate into improved teamwork and collaboration.

Innovative Thinking:

“Dumbest Idea First” and “Egg Drop” encourage teams to think outside the box and explore unconventional solutions. These activities challenge teams to be creative and innovative in their problem-solving approaches, fostering a culture of thinking beyond traditional boundaries when faced with complex issues.

Decision-Making Challenges:

Activities like “Onethread” facilitate group decision-making by providing a platform for open discussions and collaborative choices. Problem-solving activities require teams to make decisions collectively, teaching them to weigh options, consider different viewpoints, and arrive at informed conclusions—a skill that is transferable to real-world decision-making scenarios.

Leadership and Role Clarification:

Activities such as “Frostbite” and “Egg Drop” designate team leaders and roles within groups. This provides an opportunity for team members to practice leadership, delegation, and role-specific tasks. By experiencing leadership dynamics in a controlled setting, teams can improve their leadership skills and better understand their roles in actual projects.

Problem-Solving Strategies:

All of the problem-solving activities involve the application of different strategies. Teams learn to analyze problems, break them down into manageable components, and develop systematic approaches for resolution. These strategies can be adapted to real-world challenges, enabling teams to approach complex issues with confidence.

Team Morale and Engagement:

Participating in engaging and enjoyable activities boosts team morale and engagement. These activities provide a break from routine tasks, energize team members, and create a positive and fun atmosphere. Elevated team morale can lead to increased motivation and productivity.

The incentives of event prizes can further stimulate the enthusiasm and participation of team members. The choice of prizes is crucial, as it can directly affect the attractiveness and participation of the event. Among them, Medals are essential prizes.

Medals are symbols of honor awarded to winners and represent the value and achievement of an event.

Medals also have a motivational effect, they encourage team members to pursue higher achievements and progress.

Medals are artistic and aesthetic. They are usually designed by designers according to different occasions and themes and have high collection value.

By incorporating these fun problem-solving activities, teams can address a variety of challenges, foster skill development, and build a more cohesive and effective working environment. As teams learn to collaborate, communicate, innovate, and make decisions collectively, they are better equipped to overcome obstacles and achieve shared goals.

The Benefits of Problem Solving Activities for Your Team

#1 Better Thinking

Problem-solving activities bring out the best in team members by encouraging them to contribute their unique ideas. This stimulates better thinking as team managers evaluate different solutions and choose the most suitable ones.

For example, a remote team struggling with communication benefited from quick thinking and the sharing of ideas, leading to the adoption of various communication modes for improved collaboration.

#2 Better Risk Handling

Team building problem solving activities condition individuals to handle risks more effectively. By engaging in challenging situations and finding solutions, team members develop the ability to respond better to stressful circumstances.

#3 Better Communication

Regular communication among team members is crucial for efficient problem-solving. Engaging in problem-solving activities fosters cooperation and communication within the team, resulting in better understanding and collaboration. Using tools like OneThread can further enhance team communication and accountability.

#4 Improved Productivity Output

When teams work cohesively, overall productivity improves, leading to enhanced profit margins for the company or organization. Involving managers and team members in problem-solving activities can positively impact the company’s growth and profitability.

How Onethread Enhances the Effect of Problem Solving Activities

Problem-solving activities within teams thrive on collaborative efforts and shared perspectives. Onethread emerges as a potent facilitator, enabling teams to collectively tackle challenges and harness diverse viewpoints with precision. Here’s a comprehensive view of how Onethread amplifies team collaboration in problem-solving initiatives:

Open Channels for Discussion:

Onethread’s real-time messaging feature serves as a dedicated hub for open and seamless discussions. Teams can engage in brainstorming sessions, share insightful observations, and propose innovative solutions within a flexible environment. Asynchronous communication empowers members to contribute their insights at their convenience, fostering comprehensive problem analysis with ample deliberation.

Centralized Sharing of Resources:

Effective problem-solving often hinges on access to pertinent resources. Onethread’s document sharing functionality ensures that critical information, references, and research findings are centralized and readily accessible. This eradicates the need for cumbersome email attachments and enables team members to collaborate with precise and up-to-date data.

Efficient Task Allocation and Monitoring:

Problem-solving journeys comprise a series of tasks and actions. Onethread’s task management capability streamlines the delegation of specific responsibilities to team members. Assign tasks related to research, data analysis, or solution implementation and monitor progress in real time. This cultivates a sense of accountability and guarantees comprehensive coverage of every facet of the problem-solving process.

Facilitated Collaborative Decision-Making: Navigating intricate problems often demands collective decision-making. Onethread’s collaborative ecosystem empowers teams to deliberate over potential solutions, assess pros and cons, and make well-informed choices. Transparent discussions ensure that decisions are comprehensively comprehended and supported by the entire team.

Seamless Documentation and Insights Sharing:

As the problem-solving journey unfolds, the accumulation of insights and conclusions becomes pivotal. Onethread’s collaborative document editing feature empowers teams to document their discoveries, chronicle the steps undertaken, and showcase successful solutions. This shared repository of documentation serves as a valuable resource for future reference and continuous learning.

With Onethread orchestrating the backdrop, team collaboration during problem-solving activities transforms into a harmonious fusion of insights, ideas, and actionable steps.

What are the 5 problem-solving skills?

The top 5 problem-solving skills in 2023 are critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, adaptability, and data literacy. Most employers seek these skills in their workforce.

What are the steps of problem-solving?

Problem-solving steps are as follows: 1. Define the problem clearly. 2. Analyze the issue in detail. 3. Generate potential solutions. 4. Evaluate these options. 5. Choose the best solution. 6. Put the chosen solution into action. 7. Measure the outcomes to assess effectiveness and improvements made. These sequential steps assist in efficient and effective problem resolution.

How do you teach problem-solving skills?

Teaching problem-solving involves modelling effective methods within a context, helping students grasp the problem, dedicating ample time, asking guiding questions, and giving suggestions. Connect errors to misconceptions to enhance understanding, fostering a straightforward approach to building problem-solving skills.

So here is all about “activities for problem solving”.No matter which activity you choose, engaging in problem-solving activities not only provides entertainment but also helps enhance cognitive abilities such as critical thinking, decision making, and creativity. So why not make problem solving a regular part of your routine?

Take some time each day or week to engage in these activities and watch as your problem-solving skills grow stronger. Plus, it’s an enjoyable way to pass the time and challenge yourself mentally.

So go ahead, grab a puzzle or gather some friends for a game night – get ready to have fun while sharpening your problem-solving skills!

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15 Team Building Problem Solving Activities for Work

Some employers focus more on practical skills than problem-solving abilities. However, no team can overcome various challenges without solving problems together. As such, problem-solving skills are critical whether you work in a physical office or remotely.

If an entire team cannot work together, their synergy crumbles, and all other teams are affected equally.

One fun and exciting way to bring together a successful team and promote creative problem-solving is by holding team-building problem-solving activities.

These team-building activities boost communication skills, critical thinking, and collaboration in various games, mental tests, and situations.

If you want to learn more about how we can help upgrade your next team building activity, book a demo with us and explore our various options and activities.

From competitive yet creative challenges to exciting races across an office room or city, our guide to these team-building games will help bring team members closer and boost problem-solving processes for everyone.

1. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Whenever a problem comes up at work, every team member has various creative solutions that reflect their strengths and abilities.

However, the Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower requires unified critical thinking and communication skills for an entire team to win.

How the Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower Challenge Works

This fun game uses only four construction materials: marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti pasta, tape, and string.

As the name suggests, this game has one goal: build an entire random structure using these four materials and ensure it does not break apart afterward . The group with the sturdiest and most functional design wins the game.

From the premise alone, this game already sounds like an interesting problem. The difference in the marshmallow’s softness and the pasta’s rigid shape makes combining both items into one unified build a unique challenge.

Additional rules, like a height and time limit, may be added to increase teamwork . Some players can even receive limits, such as using only a set number of pasta and marshmallows to build a free-standing tower.

All the teams must work together and use creative problem-solving to build the structure. The group members pitch various unique ideas to build the structure, and team dynamics are tested as they race to finish building within the time limit.

Every member gets to help out, increasing speed and precision. Whether it is to think of the initial design or to ensure every marshmallow keeps multiple pasta noodles together, everybody has to use their skills with speed and accuracy to ensure a win.

How Building Marshmallow Towers Strengthens Collaboration

With this team-building activity, every material used to combine everything matters . If one part falls apart, the team must redo everything and start again.

Despite this, their collaboration increases as everyone tries to reason with one another to combine all ideas into one . They will have to check that everyone suggests an idea, helps in the building, and does not clash with others over their design ideas.

More than racing against other teams while building the tower, it allows all teams to implement combined ideas.

Each player contributes their idea for the structure — such as the areas where the marshmallows go and how to construct it best so it does not fall over. When the real challenge of constructing their build idea starts, players are tested on how well they follow team instructions .

As they synchronize as a group and use their problem-solving abilities, all group members gain more creative thinking abilities while having fun. This game even brings out the leadership skills in everyone, as each team player guides and helps one another while building the tower.

Their communication and collaboration skills strengthen, boosting the company culture and forming new bonds. Every group ends the game with more respect, understanding, and knowledge of the creative talents and logical ideas of other people in the team.

2. Egg Drop

What better way to spend a day with your coworkers than with an egg-throwing competition? The egg drop is a classic team-building activity that tests critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills.

While some may have experienced playing this fun game during their school years, it remains one of the best team-building problem-solving activities that can carry over to your working life.

Like the Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower challenge, this game tests your physics skills while pushing your creative ideas to the limits to ensure the egg does not break.

How to Play the Egg Drop Challenge

To play the egg drop challenge, every team member must help make a contraption that protects only one egg . The contraption may be any shape or size as long as it only uses the given materials and does not crack the egg when released from a certain height.

Each team will be given thirty minutes to an hour to brainstorm and construct a shape housing the egg. After giving a signal, each team drops their contraption from a higher level to the ground. A judge checks for an unbroken egg to decide the winning team.

The egg drop team-building game requires eggs, basic construction materials, and outdoor free space for team-building activities. It is recommended that the outdoor space is more on a grassy area to make the activity less messy.

However, a concrete space provides an exciting twist to the existing challenge if you want to test each team’s construction and building skills.

These are the common construction materials needed for the egg drop game:

Plastic wrap
Rubber bands
Popsicle sticks
Cotton balls

While these are commonly used, the decision over what materials to use is in the hands of the team leader. What matters is that the team uses their best construction and brainstorming skills to protect the egg while working with their creative abilities.

Why the Egg Drop Game Helps Team Harmony

With their leader’s direction and the team’s collective creative thinking, this team-building exercise tests the creativity of everyone in the team and helps develop problem-solving skills.

Will they use geometric shapes or be more creative?

The possibilities for what structure they can build to encase an egg are endless. Since they can build in so many ways, every member has the chance to contribute, strengthening team synergy and self-confidence.

As they use these basic construction materials and work together to protect the egg, each moment helps improve team collaboration and critical thinking .

Not only are the teams working better together, but they also discover new skills within themselves. With their logical thinking and creative talents strengthened, all members learn to work efficiently while forming bonds with each other.

3. Minefield

Another popular option for team-building problem-solving activities is playing Minefield. This exciting game requires small teams, such as two team members each, to work together and get from one end of a room to another without bumping into “mines.”

How to Play Minefield

This game starts with team members filling an empty room with objects that work as “mines” or things you cannot touch . These mines can be anything, from a stack of books to a chair.

After putting the objects around the room, players must go through the room without walking into the obstacles. The goal locations may be from one end of the room to another or in a different direction, adding to the challenge.

When you form two teams (or more), only one person per team wears a blindfold. The non-blindfolded team member must guide the blindfolded member with their directions to get through the mine-filled room before the other teams.

After the two teams complete the challenge, the other team member gets to wear the blindfold. The “mines” can be rearranged or changed into larger objects to increase the challenge.

You can even shorten the time limit to make things more exciting or change the goal location entirely. Another fun idea is to swap teams after each player gets to navigate through the mines, strengthening the skills of a larger group while providing a thrilling experience.

Why Is Minefield a Good Team-Building Game?

This problem-solving exercise tests how well each team member communicates with the other. Since only one person can direct the other, the blindfolded member must use their listening and creative problem-solving skills to win the game.

The other exercises their coaching and leadership skills. This added skill is especially beneficial to team members who are soft-spoken or do not have as much leadership experience.

The minefield game makes team-building problem-solving activities more fun and thrilling. It also boosts the decision-making muscles of each team on how to best communicate directions to one another.

These are skills they can use for various work-related conflicts over time. It is also fun to build happy memories and trust as players struggle not to bump into the mines and listen to the instructions of their teammates.

4. Reverse Pyramid

While building a pyramid out of plastic cups from the bottom upwards is easy, have you ever tried building an entire pyramid from the top downwards?

Now, you can try making a reverse pyramid with this challenging and creative team-building activity.

How to Do the Reverse Pyramid Game

The Reverse Pyramid game requires five to seven team members to construct a pyramid out of plastic cups, but with a twist: they need to start from the top and only move its base to add new levels.

To add to the challenge, only one person at a time can move the plastic cups and build the pyramid. Other team members must act quickly and hold the plastic cups in place so they do not fall over .

Such a unique challenge causes everyone to cooperate, think quickly, and move as one to win the game.

With the added challenge of the lighter weight of a plastic cup and limited movements, everyone will surely face a challenging yet rewarding experience.

If any part of their pyramid falls, they must start over . With the added pressure from a time limit and competition from other teams, the patience and ability of everyone involved to solve problems quickly is tested.

After building the reverse pyramid, a judge checks each team’s area to see which group managed to keep theirs standing.

How the Reverse Pyramid Game Strengthens Adaptability

These creative problem-solving activities measure how well every team member adapts to a challenging situation. Additionally, it tests how efficiently everyone communicates and collaborates to succeed.

Since no more than one person can move the plastic cups on the bottom row, everyone must agree on the responsibilities of each member, building their leadership skill and team synergy.

Not only does it push their team-building problem-solving skills, but it also encourages them to work fast and rely on the strengths of fellow teammates.

Even if some high-pressure moments show weaknesses, the team helps one another continue and do their best to win. As every second passes, you see how each team learns to work together on the spot to match the abilities of others.

This strategy carries over past the game and into their work as the team unites to help each other during challenging moments and stressful situations . With their adaptability increased, working as a united team becomes easier than before the challenge.

Despite the limitations, every team learns to grow from their mistakes and work efficiently. Even as parts of the pyramid fall, strong teams can power through it rather than blaming each other for such mistakes.

Whether they win or not, all team members end the game feeling more mentally stimulated and closer to their team. By understanding their roles, they gain more confidence.

5. Cardboard Boat Building Challenge

While most team-building activities gain their challenging nature from time or material limitations, what happens when team members need to adjust and work with natural challenges that are out of their control?

The cardboard boat-building challenge pushes everyone to solve problems most creatively and functionally. After all, how often do you get to build a boat out of cardboard while including all of the structural ideas your team comes up with?

What Is the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge?

To play the cardboard boat-building challenge, all team members must construct a boat that floats and sails across a body of water using only one large piece of cardboard and tape .

With the added difficulty of the water current and cardboard quickly falling apart when wet, this problem-solving challenge will test every player’s creativity and building skills.

The game moderator can encourage participants to exercise their creative thinking skills, consider the movements of the water, and build a functional cardboard boat within a time limit.

With just a few materials, everyone must provide ideas, agree on a final design, and help each other create the boat. Not only will they have to face the strength of the water, but they also have to race against time and other teams to construct a functional boat .

Regardless of whether one team member suggests the most unusual idea or the most functional one, each team has complete freedom to decide what their boat will look like.

After finishing the boat, they explain to the other groups why their boat is the best before testing it on the water.

You may add additional criteria to pick the winner, such as the best-designed boat or the boat that lasts the longest before falling apart.

Why the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge Promotes Collaboration

This fun problem-solving activity has everyone collaborating and doing their best to help the team.

From brainstorming the best design that lasts on the water to using the limited, weak materials to build the boat, everyone plays their part to ensure the team’s success.

Every small win they have strengthens their bonds and improves the overall company culture.

Afterward, each group can carry these learned skills to their work. They will know how to work better together when a new challenge arises.

Collaboration is more than simply working together to reach a goal. Thanks to the cardboard boat-building challenge, every member understands how their teammates collaborate and how they can use these abilities to help the entire company.

6. Lost at Sea

If the last team-building game had each player working together to build a boat, how challenging would it be to be stuck on a boat with your team members?

This next team-building activity will simulate an interesting situation that will have everyone thinking outside the box.

What is the Lost at Sea Game?

The Lost at Sea team-building activity is an exciting game with one main goal: letting every team member decide on the most essential survival items while on a stranded boat.

This game pushes everyone to solve problems logically, individually, and as a group while surviving on the open water.

Playing Lost at Sea requires everyone to have a chart, writing materials, and their imagination. It is a relatively quick yet fun mental challenge that provides insight into how different employees prioritize the same materials for survival.

How to Play Lost at Sea

The game starts with all team members receiving a six-column chart. If you are setting up this game, check that everyone receives a copy of it and a pen first before starting. Here are the details included in the chart:

First Column: This column includes various survival items that team members must use. The complete list will be included below.
Second Column: This column should remain empty so that team members can rank the items in the first column in order. The order should go from the most important survival item to the least important.
Third Column: This column is meant for the team’s overall ranking, where they combine individual rankings and put them into an order that everyone agrees on.
Fourth Column : This column is used to write the correct ranking in order of importance. Specific criteria from the US Coast Guard determine the most essential survival items for getting help.
Fifth and Sixth Columns: These two columns are reserved for the team members to note the difference between their individual and correct scores from the ranking by the US Coast Guard.

Using their problem-solving skills, each member needs to analyze various items and imagine how they would use them if stuck at sea.

These are the survival items that team members must work with and note in the correct order of importance:

Pack of Matches: Though some believe a pack of matches would be useless out on the sea, it has many benefits if paired with good problem-solving skills. Additionally, this item helps keep you warm during cold evenings out in the open water.
Shaving Mirror: When a mirror is faced towards the sun, its light reflects onto the mirror and acts as a signaling beacon to passing ships.
Can of Gas: While some believe it useless, it is incredibly helpful with a lit match. By causing a large flame and using it like a torch, calling for help to ships passing by significantly boosts survival.
Water Container: As many people lost in the sea die quickly from dehydration, having a water container with you helps collect rainwater and stay hydrated.
Emergency Food Rations: These quick meals fight off starvation, especially when lost at sea for a long time.
Plastic Sheet: Plastic sheets are a great alternative to a water container as they help collect rainwater and provide shelter.
Chocolate Bars: Other than being a necessary food supply, the sugar within chocolate bars provides a quick boost of energy that keeps a survivor going while waiting for help.
Fishing Rods: While this item helps catch food, the chances of successfully catching fish are small, especially without bait or fishing experience.
Rope : Though rope may be helpful to repair the surface or boat you are standing on, it does not guarantee survival and sees little usage.
Floating Seat Cushion: If your raft or boat sinks, a floating seat cushion may be helpful as a life preserver.
Shark Repellant: Shark repellents are useful for protecting yourself in the open sea, but the chances of running into sharks or even having shark repellents are minimal.
Bottle of Rum : Rum helps clean wounds, which is crucial, especially at sea. While it may also be a way to combat dehydration, rum may not be the best choice to keep you hydrated for a long time.
Radio: Radios help you call for help from nearby ships or coast guards, but there may also be a high chance that you are out of their range. The radio may also break easily, especially when surrounded by water.
Sea Chart or Map: Though helpful, sea charts or maps are useless without navigational equipment. Without knowing your direction, these items are more useful for building a fire.
Mosquito Net: This net would be useless unless you are near an area with many mosquitos.

The first step to playing this game is dividing everyone into groups of five. After each member gets a paper and pen with the listed materials, give them ten minutes to rank each item depending on how useful they are for survival.

After ten minutes, let them discuss their rankings with their group. The group then combines individual rankings into their group ranking. Afterward, show each team the correct order listed above and explain the reasons why.

This team-building game may also be played virtually. Using video conferencing platforms, remote teams can be divided into small teams, and their ranking can be decided individually and as a group.

How the Lost at Sea Game Impacts Communication

The Lost at Sea game helps encourage participants to think logically yet creatively while boosting their communication abilities.

Since the game requires you to explain why you ranked various materials in such an order, it increases confidence in presenting thoughts and opinions.

This game also teaches team members to boost their listening skills while collaborating.

Do you want to experience fun and customized team building activities? Book a demo to see how we can improve your next team building sesssion.

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7. Escape Room

Imagine being stuck in an eerie room with your coworkers, with puzzles and cryptic escape instructions.

With an added time limit challenge and a prize for the winning team, members need to use the best of their problem-solving skills to survive an escape room .

What Are Escape Rooms?

Escape rooms are popular team-building activities that strengthen teamwork, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. These rooms often have a dark, foreboding design, such as an abandoned basement or a broken, horror house-esque bedroom.

Each team is placed inside a room where they must solve puzzles, decipher codes, and use clues to figure out ways to escape before the timer ends. You can add a competitive factor by pitting two teams together and seeing which group escapes first.

Escape rooms combine exciting challenges and problem-solving opportunities, from challenging logic puzzles to math equations. These unique rooms have a variety of themes, puzzles, and limitations that let everyone exercise their brain and work fast.

Escape room puzzles are popular among players for various difficulty levels . They may sometimes be as simple as memorizing a number pattern or as tricky as using answers from previous puzzles to decode them.

The best part about escape rooms is that they can also be done as a virtual team-building activity. A virtual escape room mimics the challenge, suspense, and intrigue of an in-person escape room but with the added element of it all being completely online.

The virtual escape room experience allows remote teams to collaborate outside work and encounter problem-solving games and puzzles.

The remote team strengthens their collaboration skills while trying to escape and work in the same direction.

The Benefits of Escape Rooms

As every team faces a puzzle, they hear and experience each member’s logical and creative ideas.

Since everyone tries to solve puzzles differently, the team must communicate and learn the most efficient way to solve the puzzle while combining solutions from everyone.

Such a challenging situation often happens in our real working lives, especially when faced with difficult team decisions or deadlines.

By knowing the logical and creative strengths of each team member when faced with an unforeseen situation, everyone is better prepared for when real-life puzzles come their way. This strengthened teamwork is incredibly important for any company to survive.

Whether these problem-solving games are done as a virtual team-building activity or in-person, everyone plays a vital role in the group’s success, enhancing company culture and friendships.

8. Code Break

While escape rooms combine our innate sense of survival in unfamiliar territory with challenging puzzles, Code Break is a fun team-building activity filled with brainteasers, interesting trivia, and tricky codes.

How to Play Code Break

In Code Break, teams must finish fun problem-solving activities like deciphering codes, answering trivia questions, and unlocking riddle answers within a time limit.

You can make Code Break even more exciting with a time limit and sought-after prize . As every team player works together to determine the meaning of a code and answer riddles, they learn to listen to one another and discover how each person views puzzles differently.

Why Is Code Break Great for Team Building?

These team-building exercises simultaneously test everyone’s mental skills, creativity, and logic capabilities while strengthening collaboration and quick thinking within a team.

Even a remote team can enjoy the fun with a virtual code break. Like the in-person equivalent of the game, virtual code break provides challenging problem-solving group activities requiring the input and cooperation of everyone involved.

By understanding how each player understands the challenge and uses creative thinking to solve it, they work better as a team by complementing the strengths and weaknesses of everyone involved.

If you want to test logic skills, then this is the team-building problem-solving activity for you.

9. Murder Mystery

Suppose escape rooms and code-breaking games get your excitement flowing.

In that case, murder mysteries are thrilling team-building problem-solving activities that combine suspense, logic, and teamwork into one gruesome mystery.

The Murder Mystery Game Defined

In a murder mystery game, a group is given key details about an unsolved murder case . These murders are sometimes explained in gruesome detail, so ensure that team players can handle the suspense before splitting into groups.

Using various pieces of evidence like coroner reports, police statements, witness testimonials, and possible suspects, each member must review the case details and work together to determine the culprit.

Each member gets to see how their teammate views and makes inferences about the situation. Not only do they need to name a suspect, but they have to figure out how the murder happened and its motive.

A significant aspect of murder mystery games is that they can also be done as a virtual team-building game. A virtual murder mystery tests collaboration as the team races toward the truth and solves a gruesome mystery before the time runs out.

How Murder Mysteries Increase Critical Thinking

These problem-solving group activities put collaboration and critical thinking skills at the forefront.

By roleplaying as investigators, the thrill of chasing after the suspect and solving the case brings everyone together to agree on the correct answers.

Whether done virtually or in person, murder mystery problem-solving activities allow everyone to flex their logical thinking muscles, listen to everyone’s opinions, and agree on the actual suspect.

10. Wild Goose Chase

Have you ever wanted to explore a city and solve puzzles like “The Amazing Race” but do not want the added pressure of a time limit as you go around?

With team-building activities like Wild Goose Chase, you experience a combination of an escape room, code break, and scavenger hunt in one fun package.

How to Do the Wild Goose Chase Challenge

Armed with a list of items or places to take pictures of , each team must work together to solve puzzles and codes that block directions.

A wild goose chase event can start from within your office and extend to your surrounding city. As each team goes from one location to another, they must finish a set of problem-solving activities to proceed.

For example, they will have to take a photo of a nearby building from a particular viewpoint with a specific group pose.

They could solve a puzzle detailing where to go next or decipher a code that explains the group activities required to reach the next spot.

You can even increase the fun and challenge by setting up a points system for groups to reach every location or various fun prizes whenever they answer a puzzle.

Another idea is to instruct everyone to take videos instead of photos for more funny moments between players.

Wild Goose Chase Benefits

With the Wild Goose Chase game, teams boost their collaboration and relationship.

Whether they need to take a funny photo or search for a hidden spot in the city, these problem-solving group activities mix the thrill of an adventure with newfound knowledge for their office or city.

Whichever additional feature you add, each player will have fun unlocking new locations and creating enjoyable memories with everyone while exploring a city.

11. Shrinking Vessel

As a child, you may have played musical chairs at least once.

Team problem-solving group activities like the Shrinking Vessel game work similarly, where everyone aims to stay within a “safe spot” as the areas around them shrink gradually.

Shrinking Vessel Game Mechanics

This exciting problem-solving game only needs a rope or string. First, you will have to gather everyone into teams. Each team will have to stand together and be surrounded by the rope.

After a minute passes, the rope or string is adjusted to be smaller than before. This smaller space forces everyone to stick closer together until the circle is so small that all players must start thinking of creative ways to stay within the circle.

Whether some players carry the others or keep one foot in the circle and the other raised above the rope, every team has to think of a unique problem-solving way to keep everyone inside and not lose the challenge.

Adaptability With the Shrinking Vessel

As the shrinking vessel game tests teamwork and collaboration skills, it also increases adaptability .

Adapting to various situations and challenges in the workplace is a vital skill for any employee, but the best solutions come from teams working together to face these issues.

Throughout the game, everyone shares their ideas about keeping their teammates in their safe spots without falling over themselves.

As the circle shrinks around them, they must think quickly and work with the challenge to keep everyone within the circle. This quick-thinking ability helps in adapting to real-life difficulties and work conflicts.

This game gives more opportunities for funny memories with all the teams and teaches everyone to work as one unit and help each other succeed.

Thanks to this exciting problem-solving activity, everyone reaches the end feeling more appreciation for one another and a stronger sense of community.

12. Dumbest Idea First

All the team-building activities we discussed up until now required at least one material.

However, the Dumbest Idea First game is a unique challenge that does not require physical materials or preparation. Instead, it only needs a mix of humor, creativity, and logic to win.

How to Play Dumbest Idea First

This unique problem-solving game requires players to form teams and solve problems with the most unusual, useless, or dumb ideas.

The team with the dumbest idea out of everyone else wins the challenge, especially if their idea actually ends up solving the problem.

This game is perfect for teams without thinking of logically intricate or complicated solutions to various problems. It is a hilarious game that makes everyone see solutions to different issues with an entirely new perspective , opting for more funny than practical solutions.

For example, the situation concerns leaving your home to go to the office, but you forget to bring your wallet.

Team players will have to think of unusual answers to solve this problem, like doing an “invisible wallet song” where you chant for your wallet to magically appear in your pocket on your way to work.

After everyone gives their idea, compile all the dumb answers within a list and run through them to decide which idea may realistically solve the problem . You may also choose a winning idea depending on how much it makes everyone laugh.

Why the Dumbest Idea First Game Matters

As everyone laughs at each other’s ideas, the creativity and communication between the team strengthen.

It gets everyone to think outside the box and go beyond what basic logic and common sense tell them. Additionally, it puts a spotlight on the creative ideas of each member.

The Dumbest Idea First game may be part of virtual team-building activities, where a remote team uses video conferencing programs to discuss hilarious problem-solving ideas.

13. What Would X Do

Suppose the murder mystery game had teams roleplaying as detectives. What Would X Do is an exciting problem-solving activity that lets everyone act like a famous Hollywood celebrity, writer, or musician.

However, it is not just a roleplaying game. What Would X Do pushes everyone to solve various challenges simultaneously without breaking character .

What Would X Do? Rules and Benefits

Each person and their celebrity character is given a specific challenge or problem. As their character, they have to solve it with key characteristics that the celebrity they chose will do.

Let us say that a player chooses to act like Tom Cruise and is faced with a situation where they are stuck in an office building with no escape.

They could suggest ideas similar to Mission Impossible, acting out lines Cruise said or daring actions he would make to get out. The main rule is that their solutions have to explicitly match their character .

As everyone acts like their celebrity and gives answers to the problems, the team decides which person acted out their celebrity the best or used the specific talents of their celebrity to solve the problem best.

With many possible celebrity options and unusual situations to give players, this problem-solving game is a huge favorite among many.

It teaches everyone to go beyond conventional ideas and think like their character, adapting quickly to limitations, boosting self-confidence, and increasing creativity.

14. Domino Effect Challenge

Have you ever seen videos where a machine is set to produce a chain reaction through different triggers and points?

Those are called Rube Goldberg machines, and with strategic team-building activities like the Domino Effect challenge, players work together to build their machines.

What Do You Need to Play the Domino Effect Challenge?

The Domino Effect challenge requires deep collaboration, teamwork, and problem-solving to build a structure that produces a chain reaction.

Everyone works together for a shared goal, whether to get dominoes moving together to form a particular shape or create intricate designs and words.

Materials used in the domino effect challenge may range from various things. Some players use smaller items and more straightforward mechanics, while more skilled teams include a wider range of materials and goals for their chain reaction to reach.

Every team must work together to brainstorm the best design their structure can have and how the chain reaction does not stop.

You can add an extra challenge by setting a time limit for everyone to adapt and work better under pressure or a smaller space to place their designs.

After everyone completes their structure, each team presents what they built and demonstrates the chain reaction. The team with the most intricate, structurally sound, and best-designed Rube Goldberg machine wins the challenge.

How the Domino Effect Increases Collaboration

This team-building game is more than just building machines and winning prizes.

Whether a team wins or loses, the Domino Effect perfectly symbolizes how team collaboration is essential to reach any goal using each member’s talents, strengths, and innate skills.

Teams composed of employees who have not previously worked together complete the challenge, feeling closer and more in tune with one another.

Everyone gains a new perspective on how each person strategizes, conceptualizes, and applies various ideas to one working product.

15. Bridge Builders

Among the various team-building activities discussed on this list, the Bridge Builders problem-solving challenge is one of the many activities that take creative inspiration from real-life items.

Bridge Builders Game Definition and Mechanics

Bridge Builders requires teams to come together and build different bridge segments, connecting one or multiple points.

Using only a few materials, such as straws or popsicle sticks, each team must construct a sturdy bridge that does not fall over after a few minutes.

These bridges face challenges similar to those of the Domino Effect or Cardboard Boat Building. Not only are teams limited to weak materials , but they also face a time and space limit.

After each person builds their segment of a bridge, they bring their portion to their team and combine it into one free-standing bridge.

To ensure the bridge works properly, every player must do their best to work with a unified structure while adding their creative ideas.

How the Bridge Builders Game Affects Team Creativity

Rather than hindering teams, these problem-solving challenges further boost their creative and teamwork skills.

Teams may have many possible strategies to build a bridge while working with these limitations. They could focus more on functionality than design or find a way to include more features without affecting the size and weight of the bridge.

Whichever way the teams decide to put their problem-solving skills to good use, the bridges that come from this challenge take many forms.

Regardless of whether they look like an architectural model or are as simple as bridges get, what matters is that each team learns to work and collaborate .

The problem-solving techniques required for the Bridge Builders challenge affect each player long after the game.

As everyone works as one to build the best bridge, all players learn how every person tackles the same problem, which is something they can apply to work-related issues.

Key Takeaways on Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Various businesses and employees strive to provide problem-solving strategies for their audience. However, they may sometimes forget that the employees themselves need fun, collaborative, and creative challenges to enhance company culture and productivity .

Problem-solving is extremely important in any office, regardless of rank or niche. Conflicts and challenges appear randomly. As such, it’s important to ensure that everyone knows how to solve these issues accurately and responsibly and keep the company working smoothly.

By holding team-building problem-solving activities once in a while, either physically or virtually, you help foster better collaboration and teamwork skills while increasing friendships and happy memories.

Morale increases as everyone collaborates with fun games, challenges, and prizes.

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45 team building games to improve communication and camaraderie

Team building games bring everyone together without the added pressure of work. Here, we’ve listed 45 of the top team building activities broken down by icebreaker, problem solving, indoor, and outdoor games.

As Ashley Frabasilio, Employee Engagement Manager at Asana puts it, “Creating a shared experience for teams to build relationships is one of the best ways to increase trust and encourage collaboration."

Whether you’re looking for indoor or outdoor activities, quick icebreaker games, or activities to bond with your remote team members, we compiled a list of over 45 team building games that you’ll actually enjoy.

How to make team building inclusive

Teams with an inclusive culture tend to be more transparent, supportive, and happy because everyone feels accepted. It’s essential to make any team activity feel productive and enjoyable for the entire group, regardless of personalities or skill sets. Whether you’re working on building an inclusive remote culture or want in-person teams to feel more comfortable together, consider the following for an inclusive team building experience:

Inclusive team building means including everyone. Depending on the type of team building activity, you may benefit from hiring an outside expert to facilitate a team building event that everyone can participate in. Plus, the activity may feel more authentic because a professional is guiding you.

If you have introverts on the team, they may not be as excited about an exercise that involves lots of social interaction and do better in small groups.

Teammates with speech, sight, or hearing impairments may feel left out during a game that involves blindfolding players and communicating without looking at each other.

Physically active games could exclude physically impaired teammates.

Before choosing one of the team building games from this list, take stock of everyone's abilities. Find an activity that everyone on your team can participate in. Maybe even send out an anonymous poll to see what kinds of activities your team would be willing to partake in. Ultimately, the best team building activity will be the one that everyone can enjoy.

Team icebreaker games

Icebreaker questions and activities are the perfect “getting to know you” games but they’re also fun to play with teammates you’ve known for a long time. You can play them to get everyone up to speed for a meeting (especially on those 8am calls) or use them to introduce new team members.

1. Two truths, one lie

Team size : 3+ people

Time : 2–3 minutes per person

How to play : Ask everyone in the group to come up with two facts about themselves and one lie. The more memorable the facts (e.g., I went skydiving in Costa Rica) and the more believable the lies (e.g., I have two dogs), the more fun the game will be! Then, ask each team member to present their three statements and have the group vote on which one they think is the lie.

Why this exercise is great : This game is perfect for groups who don’t know each other well yet. The details you share can be used as building blocks for late conversations (“What else did you do in Costa Rica?”) to give you a better idea of who you’re working with.

2. Penny for your thoughts

Team size : 5+ people

How to play : You’ll need a box full of pennies (or other coins) with years only as old as your youngest team member (not the time to brag about your 1937 collector’s penny). Ask every team member to draw a coin from the box and share a story, memory, or otherwise significant thing that happened to them that year. This can be anything from learning how to ride a bike to landing your first job.

Why this exercise is great : This is a fun twist on a stress-free and simple icebreaker that gives everyone the chance to share a personal story with their team. You can play multiple rounds if the stories are on the shorter side or let team members elaborate on their stories to gain deeper insight into their lives.

3. Mood pictures

How to play : Prepare a variety of images before you play. You can collect newspaper clippings, magazine cutouts, postcards, and posters or print out different images from the internet (Pinterest is a great spot). The images should show landscapes, cities, people, shapes, or animals in a variety of colors and perspectives.

Lay all the images out and ask team members to each pick one that resonates with their current mood. Once everyone has picked an image, ask them to share what they resonated with, how it makes them feel, and why they picked it.

Why this exercise is great : This exercise is a great way to get a meeting or a workshop started because it allows you to get a feel of the room in a creative and unexpected way. You don’t always have to ask your team to pick an image that reflects their mood—it can also be their expectations for a workshop, their feelings about a current project, or how they hope to feel at the end of the day. As they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words, so this exercise makes talking about feelings easier for a lot of people.

4. One word exercise

Time : 5–10 minutes

How to play : Pick a phrase related to the meeting topic and ask everyone to write down one word that comes to mind on a post-it. Then, gather these words on a whiteboard or put them in a presentation. For example, if you’re hosting a meeting about your annual holiday event. Everyone would take a moment to respond with the first word that comes in their head. If the team is responding with words like stress or exhaustion, you might want to rethink your process.

Why this exercise is great : This is a way to collect opinions, thoughts, or feelings about a meeting that’s well within most people’s comfort zone. You’ll have the chance to read the room before diving into the topic and may uncover some concerns or questions to focus on, which will make the meeting more beneficial to everyone.

5. Back-to-back drawing

Team siz e: 4+ people

Time : 5–10 minutes

How to play : Split your team into groups of two and make them sit back to back. Hand one person a pen and piece of paper and show the other person a picture of something that’s fairly simple to draw (e.g., a car, a flower, a house). This person now has to describe the picture to their teammate without actually saying what the item is so they can draw it. They’re allowed to describe shapes, sizes, and textures but can’t say, “Draw a lily.” Once the blind drawing is finished, compare it with the original to see how well you communicated.

Why this exercise is great : This activity is a fun way to polish your communication skills, especially your listening skills. It also gives your team a chance to get creative and innovative by thinking outside the box to describe the image to their teammate.

6. Birthday line up

Team size : 8+ people

Time : 10–15 minutes

How to play : Ask your entire team to form a line in order of their birthdays without talking to each other. You can encourage other forms of communication like sign language, gestures, or nudges. If you want to add a little bit of pressure and excitement to the exercise, add a time limit!

Why this exercise is great : Besides learning everyone’s birthday (which can always come in handy as a conversation starter later on), this exercise encourages your team to learn to communicate towards a common goal without using words. Although this can be a challenge and get frustrating, this exercise promotes problem framing skills, cooperation, and non-verbal communication skills.

7. Charades

Team size : 8–10 people

Time : 10–25 minutes

How to play : Divide your team into groups of four or five people. The person who goes first is given or shown a random object (e.g., printer, stapler, keyboard) in private. They then have to demonstrate how to use the object without actually showing it in front of their team. Their team gets 30 seconds on the clock to shout out the correct word (you can adjust the time depending on the difficulty of the objects).

Then it’s the other team’s turn. You’ll keep playing until every team member has had the chance to demonstrate an object to their team.

Why this exercise is great : This classic game is a nice way to break up a mentally taxing day and get your team to do a creative exercise that isn’t work-related.

8. Swift swap

Team size : 10–20 people

How to play : Split your team into two groups and line them up facing each other. Team A gets a quick observation period (15–30 seconds) in which group members have to memorize as many things about the people in front of them as possible. Then team A turns around while team B changes as many things about their appearance as possible.

Anything from changing the line up order to swapping shoes with someone or changing your hairdo is fair game. After about 45 seconds, team A turns back around and gets 5–10 minutes to find out what’s changed. You can adjust the time depending on the size of your group.

Why this exercise is great : This game is a great way to break up a long day and take everyone’s minds off work for a little while. Your team also gets to practice time-sensitive non-verbal communication during the swapping phase.

9. Code of conduct

Time : 20–30 minutes

How to play : This game is a great way to tune into a new project or workshop. Write the two categories “meaningful” and “enjoyable” on a whiteboard and ask the group to share what they believe is needed to accomplish these two things for your project or workshop. This can be anything from “regular breaks'' to “transparency and honesty,” which could fall under either category.

Everyone will choose ideas that they agree are both meaningful and enjoyable . Record these values in a shared tool to establish the code of conduct for your upcoming project or workshop. This list will function as a reminder for the team to uphold these values.

Why this exercise is great : Whether it’s the first day of a workshop, the beginning of a new project, or simply a Monday morning, this exercise is great to get everyone on your team on the same page. By establishing group norms and values early on and holding everyone accountable with a written code of conduct, you can create a sense of cohesiveness. If you’d like to do this exercise virtually, use our team brainstorming template to collect everyone’s thoughts.

10. Common thread

Team size : 10+ people

Time : 30 minutes

How to play : Divide your team into groups of three to five people. Then ask your team to find things everyone in their group has in common. This can be a favorite TV show, an ice cream flavor nobody likes, or a common hobby. Encourage your teammates to find common threads that aren’t too superficial or obvious. The more things they can find that everyone in the group has in common, the better! If you have the time, bring everyone together afterward and ask the teams to share their experiences.

Why this exercise is great : This fun game allows your team to find commonalities that they may not get a chance to discover otherwise. It’s also a great way to reunite teams that feel a bit divided. Talking about shared likes and dislikes can be helpful to reconnect you with teammates.

Remote or virtual team building games

Bonding with your teammates can be more difficult when you’re working remotely. Remote or virtual team building games can improve remote collaboration , motivate teams , and create a sense of community even though you’re physically apart. You can use Zoom to connect with your teammates or do quick team building exercises via your remote work software during the day.

If your team is located across multiple time zones, you may have to get creative with scheduling. Ashley Frabasilio, Employee Engagement Manager at Asana encourages leaders to schedule these activities during normal work hours. Ensure that the activity is appropriate for all participants in all time zones so no one feels excluded. Using work hours for these exercises can also increase the participation rate because you’re not interfering with personal time.

11. Show and tell

How to play : Ask everyone in your team to bring something they’re proud of or that brings them joy to your next meeting. This can be anything from a pet to a plant, a painting they did, or a certificate they received. Everyone gets two to three minutes to show off their item and answer questions from the team if they have any.

Why this exercise is great : Show and tell isn’t just fun for kids, it’s also a great way to connect with your team. You’re probably going to learn something new about your teammates and may get a couple of conversation starters for your next meeting from this game.

12. Photo caption contest

How to play : Collect a few funny photos—for example a few memes that have recently been circling the internet. Send these to your team before the meeting and ask everyone to submit their best photo caption for each image. You can put these together in a quick presentation and present them to your team during the call. You can have a good laugh together and even vote for the best captions.

Why this exercise is great : This exercise is a fun way to get creative as a team and have a good laugh together.

13. Morning coffee

Time : 15–30 minutes

How to play : Schedule regular coffee calls for your remote team to give everyone a chance to get to know each other like they would in an office setting. You can schedule team calls with four to five people or randomly assign two people to each other that switch every time. You can offer these casual calls once a week, bi-weekly, or once a month, depending on your team size and the interest in this opportunity.

Why this exercise is great : Remote teams don’t often get a chance to just chit-chat and get to know each other without talking about work or feeling like they’re wasting meeting time. By designating 15–30 minutes on a regular basis to a casual call, your team members will have a chance to bond with people they might not typically interact with.

14. Lunch and learn

How to play : Hold a weekly or monthly “lunch and learn” where one team member presents a topic to the whole team during their lunch break. This presentation can be on a tool everyone uses at work, on a lesson learned from a recent project, or even on a book they read that everyone can learn from.

Why this exercise is great : These events are a great opportunity for your team to connect in a more casual yet educational setting. If your team budget allows, send restaurant gift cards to your team members so they can order lunch for the call.

15. Online group game

Time : 30–60 minutes

How to play : Invite your team to play a game online together. This can be an actual video game if everyone happens to use the same console at home or you can download an interactive game (like Jackbox ) which you can screen share with the rest of the group.

Why this exercise is great : Playing a video game or an interactive game that has nothing to do with work can be a fun way to switch things up, create a more casual work environment, and get to know each other better. It will also give people with great sportsmanship a chance to shine!

16. Trivia games

Team size : 6–20 people

Time : 30–90 minutes

How to play : Start a meeting with a quick game of trivia or host a regular virtual trivia night at the end of the work day. You can play a game of office trivia (e.g., facts about the company) or pick random other themes like TV shows, music, or national parks. To mix things up, ask other team members to host trivia night.

Why this exercise is great : Whether you’re making the trivia game office-themed or creating a regular team activity that takes everyone’s minds off of work, you’ll get to spend time with your team playing a competitive, educational, and entertaining game that gives everyone a chance to bond.

17. Quarterly challenge

Time : One month

How to play : Create an optional challenge for your team to participate in. The challenge can be centered around healthy eating, meditation, journaling, or reading. Create a chat or thread where your teammates can exchange their experiences, wins, and questions to keep each other motivated and accountable throughout the month.

Make sure your team knows that participation is optional. It never hurts to ask for feedback to spark future team challenge ideas.

Why this exercise is great : Creating a challenge like this for your team shows them that you care about their work-life balance. By offering a quarterly challenge, you provide your team with the opportunity to share an experience together. Plus, it’s always easier to complete a challenge when you have a team who supports you and an incentive to work toward.

18. Personality test

How to play : Send a personality test to your team and ask everyone to share their results in a chat or during your next team meeting. This can be a formal test like the Enneagram or StrengthsFinder . For something more lighthearted, you can send a fun quiz like the Sorting Hat to find out which Hogwarts house you belong in or a Buzzfeed quiz (e.g., “ What Kitchen Appliance Are You? ”).

Why this exercise is great : Depending on the type of quiz your team takes, this can become a funny icebreaker before you start a meeting or turn into a discussion on your team’s combined strengths and challenges.

Problem solving games

Playing problem solving games with your team helps them level up their teamwork skills, resolve issues, achieve goals, and excel together. Whether you’re using new brainstorming techniques or going out for a team adventure, these fun team building activities are the perfect way to improve your team's problem solving skills.

19. Your first idea

Team size : 5–12 people

Time : 10–20 minutes

How to play : Ask everyone in your team to write down the first idea that pops into their head when they’re presented with the problem. Compile the list and review it as a team.

A fun twist on this game is to ask everyone to write down their worst idea. After reviewing with the team, you may realize that some ideas aren’t that bad after all. You can play this game with a real-life problem, a fictional one, or when you’re brainstorming new ideas to pitch.

Why this exercise is great : We often get too much into our heads about problems and solutions. By writing down the first solution that comes to mind, we can uncover new perspectives and fixes.

20. Back of the napkin

Team size : 6–24 people

Time : 15–20 minutes

How to play : Divide your team into groups of two to four and present them with a variety of open-ended problems. These can be work-related, imaginary, or even environmental problems. Every team gets a napkin and pen that they have to sketch or write their solution on after they’ve discussed the issue as a group. These will then be presented to the rest of the team.

Why this exercise is great : Some of the best ideas have allegedly been recorded on napkins (hey, when creativity strikes you’ll write on anything). This game imitates this scenario while challenging your team to collaborate on solving a creative problem.

21. Create your own

How to play : Each team member will create an original problem-solving activity on their own and present it to the group. Whether this entails a physical, mental, or creative challenge is up to your team. If you have the time, play some of the games afterward!

Why this exercise is great : Coming up with your own games is fun and a real creative challenge. It also allows your team members to showcase their strengths by creating challenges they’ll be prepared to tackle.

22. Spectrum mapping

Team size : 5–15 people

How to play : Present your team with a few topics that you’d like their opinions and insight on. Write them down on a whiteboard and give everyone sticky notes and pens. Ask them to write down their thoughts and pin them on the whiteboard underneath the respective topic.

Now arrange the sticky notes as a team. Try to group similar ideas together to the left of the topic and post outliers toward the right side. This will create a spectrum of popular thoughts and opinions on the left and more extreme ideas on the right.

Why this exercise is great : This game will help you map out the diversity of perspectives your team has on different topics. Remember that unpopular opinions don’t have to be wrong. Embracing this diversity can help you uncover new perspectives and innovative ideas to solve problems you’re facing as a team.

23. What would “X” do?

Team size : 5–10 people

Time : 45–60 minutes

How to play : Present your team with a problem and ask everyone to come up with a famous person or leader they admire. This can be a celebrity, a business person, or a relative. Challenge your teammates to approach the problem as if they were that person and present their solution (extra points for playing in character).

Why this exercise is great : Getting stuck in your own head can often keep you from solving a problem efficiently and effectively. By stepping into the shoes of someone else, you may uncover new solutions. Plus, it’s fun pretending to be someone else for a little while!

24. Team pursuit

Time : 1–3 hours

How to play : Form groups of two to six people that will compete against one another in a series of challenges. You can buy a team pursuit package online or create your own game, which will take a good amount of prep time.

You’ll want to create a set of challenges for your team: cerebral challenges that test logic and intelligence, skill challenges like aptitude tests, and mystery challenges which usually ask for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking (e.g., come up with a unique handshake, take a fun picture, etc.).

Why this exercise is great : A solid game of team pursuit will create a fun challenge that gives everyone a chance to shine and show off their talents. Whether you’re a good runner, a quick thinker, or a creative mind, everyone will be able to contribute to the success of the team. This game will bring your team closer together and show them new sides of their teammates that they may not have been aware of.

25. Code break

Team size : 8–24 people

How to play : This brain teaser is a fun activity that you can play indoors or outdoors to challenge your team. Outback Team Building offers self-hosted, remote-hosted, and on-site hosted events that include several codes your teammates have to find and break to make it through the course.

Why this exercise is great : This challenge requires creative thinking, creates a competitive environment, and works with large groups because you can break off into smaller groups.

26. Escape room

Time : 2–3 hours

How to play : Visiting an escape room is always a unique experience and a great way to spend an afternoon with your team. If you have multiple escape rooms nearby, ask your team if they have a general idea of what theme they’d like to explore (e.g., history, horror, sci-fi) and try to pick something you’ll think everyone will enjoy.

If you’re super creative and have the time and resources, you can put together an escape room on your own!

Why this exercise is great : Solving the mysteries of an escape room with your team will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your teammates, foster communication and collaboration, build trust, and become a shared memory that connects you together.

Indoor team building games

Most of these indoor games can be played in an office, conference room, or a hallway with a small team, but you may need a bit more space if you’re inviting a larger group to join in.

27. Perfect square

Team size : 4–12 people

How to play : Divide your team into groups of four to six and ask them to stand in a tight circle with their group. Ask everyone to blindfold themselves or close their eyes and give one person a rope. Without looking at what they're doing, the teams now have to pass the rope around so everyone holds a piece of it and then form a perfect square. Once the team is sure their square is perfect, they can lay the rope down on the floor, take off their blindfolds (or open their eyes) and see how well they did.

Why this exercise is great : This game is about more than perfect geometric shapes, it’s an amazing listening and communication exercise. Because no one can see what they're doing, your team members have to communicate clearly while figuring out how to create a square out of a rope. Besides, it’s often really funny to see how imperfect the squares come out.

28. Memory wall

How to play : You’ll need a whiteboard and sticky notes for this game. Write different work-related themes on the whiteboard such as “first day at work,” “team celebration,” and “work travel.” Hand each teammate a few sticky notes and ask them to write down their favorite memories or accomplishments associated with one or more of these themes. Invite everyone to share these with the team to take a walk down memory lane and post the notes on the whiteboard as you go.

Why this exercise is great : This is a nice way to end a week, long day, or workshop because you’ll share positive experiences with one another that will leave your teammates smiling. If you’re finishing up a work trip or multi-day workshop, you can also do a slimmed-down version of this by asking everyone to share their favorite memory or biggest accomplishment of the last few days.

29. Turn back time

How to play : This team building exercise works best in a quiet atmosphere with everyone sitting in a circle. Ask your team to silently think of a unique memory in their lives. You can give them a few minutes to collect their thoughts. Then, ask everyone to share the one memory they’d like to relive if they could turn back time.

Not everyone may be comfortable opening up at first, so be sure to lead with vulnerability and make everyone in the room feel safe about sharing their moment.

Why this exercise is great : This exercise is a great way to help your team members remember their priorities and bond on a deeper level. In a team that’s facing disconnection or stress, sharing personal highlights that aren’t work-related can help create a sense of togetherness. Although the exercise doesn’t take too long, it’s best to do it toward the end of the day so your team has a chance to reflect on what’s been said.

30. Paper plane

Team size : 6–12 people

How to play : Split your team into groups of two to four and hand out card stock. Give each team 10–15 minutes to come up with the best long-distance paper plane design (they’re allowed to do research on their phones or computers) and a name for their airline.

When the paper planes are done, have a competition in a long hallway or outside to see which plane flies the farthest.

Why this exercise is great : This exercise requires team members to collaborate on a project with a tight timeline. It is a great activity to practice communication skills, delegation, and time management.

31. Build a tower

Team size : 8–16 people

How to play : Divide your team into groups of four or five and provide them with 20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. Challenge each team to build the tallest tower possible using only the supplies you gave them. When finished, the tower has to support the marshmallow sitting on top. Set the timer for 20 minutes and ask everyone to step away from their masterpiece when it runs out so you can crown a winner.

Why this exercise is great : This challenge is a great way to improve problem solving skills and communication within your team. Your team members will have to prototype, build, and present the tower in a short amount of time, which can be stressful. The better they work together, the more likely they are to succeed.

32. Flip it over

Team size : 6–8 people

How to play : Lay a towel, blanket, or sheet on the floor and ask your teammates to stand on it. The goal is to flip the piece over without ever stepping off of it or touching the ground outside of the fabric. You can make the challenge more difficult by adding more people to the team or using a smaller sheet.

Why this exercise is great : This exercise requires clear communication, cooperation, and a good sense of humor. It’s a great way to find out how well your teammates cooperate when presented with an oddly difficult task.

33. Sneak a peek

Team size : 4–20 people

How to play : Create a structure out of Lego pieces and hide it in a separate room. Divide your team into groups of two to four people and give them enough Legos to replicate the structure in 30 minutes or less.

One player per team is allowed to sneak a peek at the original structure for 15 seconds, then run back and describe it to their team. The person who gets to sneak a peek rotates so everyone gets to see the original at some point during the game. The team that first completes the structure as close to the original wins!

Why this exercise is great : During this game your team gets to focus on teamwork and communication. Since only one person at a time is allowed to look at the original, team members may see and describe different things. The more complex the structure is, the harder this game will be.

34. Pyramids

How to play : Pick a large open area for this game like a hallway, a meeting room, or the cafeteria. Divide your team into groups of four to six and give each team 10 paper cups. Ask the teams to stand in a line with about 8–10 feet between the team members. Now it’s a race against time!

The first person in each line has to build a pyramid with four cups at the base. Once they’re done, the second player has to help them carry the pyramid to their station (this can be on the floor or at a table). They can slide it on the floor or carry it together but if the pyramid falls apart, the players have to reassemble it on the spot before continuing their journey. At the next station, the second player has to topple the pyramid and rebuild it before the third player gets to help them carry it to the next station. This continues until the pyramid reaches the last station. The team that finishes first wins the game

Why this exercise is great : This game is fun to play during a mid-day break, fosters communication skills, and promotes teamwork.

35. Shipwrecked

Team size : 8–25 people

How to play : The premise of the game is that you’re stranded on a deserted island and only have 25 minutes to secure survival items off the sinking ship. Place items like water bottles, matches, food, etc., in the “shipwreck area.” You can also print pictures on index cards to make things a bit easier. The quantity of each item should be limited, with some items having more than others (e.g., more water than food, fewer tarps than teams, more knives than ropes, etc.).

Divide your team into groups of two (or more if it’s a large team). Once the clock starts, they have to gather as many items as they deem worthy from the shipwreck and rank them in order of importance. Since the items are limited (some more than others), the teams will not only have to prioritize the items within their own group of people but also negotiate, trade, and exchange items with other teams.

Why this exercise is great : This game will challenge problem-solving abilities, encourage collaboration, and enable your team to flex their leadership skills. Typically, teams with strong leadership qualities will have the most success in making these quick decisions.

36. Team flag

Time : 30–45 minutes

How to play : Divide your team into groups of two to four people and provide them with paper and pens. Each group now has to come up with an emblem or flag that represents their team. Once everyone has completed their masterpiece, they have to present it to the rest of the teams, explaining how they came up with the design. This exercise is also a great opportunity to discuss how each group identified their common values and created alignment during the design process.

Why this exercise is great : This is a great way to get the creative juices flowing. Your team will not only have to come up with a unique design that represents their collective identity but they’ll also have to collaborate on putting pen to paper and presenting their flag or emblem at the end of the game.

37. Salt and pepper

How to play : You’ll need a list of things that go well together like salt and pepper, left sock and right sock, day and night, peanut butter and jelly, or yin and yang. Write these words on individual pieces of paper and tape one sheet of paper on every team member's back.

Ask your team to mingle and find out what’s written on their back by asking questions that can only be answered with yes or no (e.g., “Am I sweet? Do you wear me? Am I cold?”). Once the participants find out who they are, they have to find their match!

Why this exercise is great : Your team can use this game to bond with one another and improve their communication skills. If you have a large team, this exercise also gives them a chance to interact with people they may not usually get to talk to.

38. Sell it

Time : 45–90 minutes

How to play : Ask your teammates to each bring a random object to the meeting. Everyone then has to come up with a logo, slogan, and marketing plan to sell this object. After 30 minutes, each team member has to present their new product to the rest of the team. If you have a larger team, divide them into groups of 2–4 people and ask them to collaborate on their product pitch.

Why this exercise is great : This game is great to switch things up if you don’t already work in marketing or sales. It’s also fun to play with others as it allows your team to get creative and have fun with everyday objects.

39. The barter puzzle

Time : 1–2 hours

How to play : Divide your team into groups of three or four people and give each a different jigsaw puzzle of the same difficulty level. Ask them to complete the puzzle as a team. The twist: each puzzle is missing a few pieces that are mixed in with an opposing team’s puzzle. The teams have to figure out ways to get the pieces they need from the other teams by negotiating, trading pieces, or even exchanging teammates. Every decision has to be made as a team. The first team to complete their puzzle wins.

Why this exercise is great : Every decision made will have to be a group decision which challenges your team to improve their problem solving skills.

Outdoor team building exercises

If you want to get a larger group together for a team building exercise, why not take things outside? Outdoor team building is also a great way to get your teammates to interact without the distractions of screens or smartphones. Whether you want to catch a breath of fresh air or get some sunshine together, these exercises will help you bond with your teammates outside of the office.

40. The minefield

Team size : 4–10 people

How to play : Create a minefield in a parking lot or another large, open space by sporadically placing objects like papers, balls, cones, and bottles. Split your team into groups of two and ask one person to put on a blindfold. The other person now has to guide the blindfolded teammate through the minefield only using their words. The blindfolded person is not allowed to talk and will be eliminated if they stop walking or step on anything in the minefield.

The objective of the game is to make it to the other side of the minefield. The teams can then switch so another person will be blindfolded and guided through the field on their way back. You can also distribute pieces the blindfolded person has to pick up on their way through the field to add another difficulty level.

Why this exercise is great : This game is not just a trust exercise for your teammates but also a fun way to practice active listening skills and clear communication.

41. Earth-ball

Team size : 5–20 people

Time : 15–45 minutes

How to play : You’ll need a balloon, beach ball, or volleyball for this activity. Ask your team to stand in a circle and keep the balloon or ball in the air for as long as possible. To make it a real challenge, no one can touch the ball twice in a row. The bigger your team, the more fun this game will be!

Why this exercise is great : This fun challenge is a great way to get your team moving. If you’re struggling to keep the ball up for longer, try to come up with a strategy to improve your time.

42. Scavenger hunt

How to play : Put together a scavenger hunt for your team. This can be in the form of a list of photographs they have to take (e.g., something red, all teammates in front of the company logo, the CEO’s car, etc.), items they have to collect (e.g., company brochure, yellow sticky note with manager’s signature on it, ketchup packet from the cafeteria, etc.), or other activities they have to complete on a designated route.

Why this exercise is great : The more people that tag along, the more fun this game will be. You can group people together who don’t know each other very well to allow them time to bond during this exercise. Try to come up with company-specific quests for your team so they learn a few fun facts along the way. You can offer prizes for the most creative team or the first to finish the challenge to boost motivation.

43. Egg drop

Time : 60–90 minutes

How to play : Divide your team into groups of two or three people and give each team a raw egg (keep some extras in case they break before the grand finale). Then put out supplies like tape, straws, rubber bands, newspapers, and balloons so the teams can build a structure for the raw egg that will protect it from a fall out of a second or third story window.

Each team has 60 minutes to complete their structure. When the time is up, ask your teams to gather their eggs and egg cages to drop them out of the window. This grand finale will reveal which team engineered and built the best cage.

Why this exercise is great : Collaborating on a design and building a cage will challenge your team’s problem solving and collaboration skills.

44. Team outing

Team size : Any

How to play : Plan an outing for your team. You could attend a cooking class or go to a museum together. If you want to have something your teammates can work toward, plan to run a 5K together or host a ping pong tournament. You can also do something more casual like inviting your team to hangout at a bowling alley after work where you can play a few games in a casual and fun setting.

Why this exercise is great : Taking your team somewhere new will help break down some of the walls we often build in a professional setting. While you’re still at a company function, you’re more inclined to connect through casual conversation at a restaurant or park than you would at the office.

45. Volunteer as a team

How to play : Organize a team event during your regularly scheduled workday. This can be a charity event, yard sale, or fundraiser for a cause your team cares about. Even though these are enjoyable, scheduling them during work hours makes this feel like more of a perk than an obligation.

If your team members have a few causes they’re truly passionate about, consider making this a monthly or quarterly event. You can also rotate the charities that you’re helping out to accommodate your team’s different interests.

Why this exercise is great : Experiencing helper’s high can improve your personal health and mental state. Sharing this rush that doing good can give you will help your team bond on a deeper level.

Benefits of team building

Team building is more than a fun break from your everyday routine at work. It also:

Improves communication, trust, and collaboration skills

Promotes a collaborative culture by bringing teammates together

Fosters agile decision making and problem solving skills

Boosts team productivity and morale

Uses creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking

Ashley Frabasilio believes that:

A common goal is to create a memorable and meaningful experience for folks to connect. Some questions to consider when planning an impactful team-building activity include: What do I hope folks walk away with? I.e., a new skill, a deeper connection to one another, personal development, a moment of delight, etc.”

Ask yourself these questions before proposing a team building activity so you can reap the full benefits of the exercise.

Bring your team together, creatively

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to build your team’s confidence, connection, and teamwork skills. While team building is fun, it’s also important to connect with your team on an everyday basis. To build one of those connections in your day-to-day work, the right collaboration software is key.

Looking for the right collaboration tool? See how Asana keeps your team connected, no matter where you’re working.

Related resources

How to give and take constructive criticism

4 ways to establish roles and responsibilities for team success

Listening to understand: How to practice active listening (with examples)

Unmasking impostor syndrome: 15 ways to overcome it at work

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The importance of problem-solving skills in today’s workplace

According to a 2019 report by McKinsey , soft skills are increasingly important in today's world — and problem-solving is the top area in which skills are lacking. A company or team’s success weighs heavily on the willingness of managers to help employees improve their problem-solving abilities. Team building activities targeting focus areas like communication and collaboration, adaptability, or strengthening decision-making techniques help.

All problem-solving processes start with identifying the problem. Next, the team must assess potential courses of action and choose the best way to tackle the problem. This requires a deep understanding of your team and its core strengths. A problem-solving exercise or game helps identify those strengths and builds problem-solving skills and strategies while having fun with your team.

Problem-solving games aren't for just any team. Participants must have an open mind and accept all ideas and solutions . They must also have an Agile mindset and embrace different structures, planning, and processes. Problems usually arise when we least expect them, so there's no better way to prepare than to encourage agility and flexibility.

Another aspect to keep in mind when engaging in problem-solving games and activities: There are no winners or losers. Sure, some games might end with a single winner, but the true goal of these exercises is to learn how to work together as a team to develop an Agile mindset. The winning team of each game should share their strategies and thought processes at the end of the exercise to help everyone learn.

Here’s a list of fun problem-solving activity examples to try with your team. From blindfolds to raw eggs, these problem-solving, team-building activities will have your team solving problems faster than Scooby and the gang.

Classic team-building, problem-solving activities

1. a shrinking vessel.

Helps with: Adaptability

Why adaptability is important for problem-solving: Adaptability is highly associated with cognitive diversity, which helps teams solve problems faster , according to the Harvard Business Review. Innovation and disruption are happening faster than ever before . People, teams, and organizations that can adapt will come out on top.

What you’ll need:

A rope or string

Instructions:

1. Using the rope, make a shape on the floor everyone can fit into.

2. Slowly shrink the space over 10-15 minutes.

3. Work together to figure out how to keep everyone within the shrinking boundaries.

2. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Helps with: Collaboration

Why collaboration is important for problem-solving: “Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individually,” writes Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline . We can solve problems better as a team than we can alone, which means developing your team’s collaboration skills will lead to better problem-solving outcomes.

What you’ll need (per team):

20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti
1 roll of masking tape
1 yard of string
1 marshmallow

1. The goal of this exercise is to see which team can use the materials provided to build the tallest tower within an allotted time period. The tower must be able to stand on its own.

2. To make this exercise more challenging, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower. This team problem-solving exercise helps people think on their toes while building camaraderie and leadership.

3. Egg Drop

Helps with: Collaboration, decision-making

Why decision-making is important for problem-solving: Making decisions isn’t easy , but indecision leads to team paralysis, stagnant thinking, and unsolved problems. Decision-making activities help your team practice making quick, effective choices. Train your team’s decision-making muscles and they will become more adept at problem-solving.

A carton of eggs
Basic construction materials such as newspapers, straws, tape, plastic wrap, balloons, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, etc., tarp, or drop cloth
A parking lot, or some other place you don’t mind getting messy!

1. Each team gets an egg and must select from the construction materials.

2. Give everyone 20-30 minutes to construct a carrier for the egg and protect it from breaking.

3. Drop each egg carrier off a ledge (i.e. over a balcony) and see whose carrier protects the egg from breaking.

4. If multiple eggs survive, keep increasing the height until only one egg is left.

4. Stranded

Helps with: Communication, decision-making

Why communication is important for problem-solving: More employees work remotely than ever before. Good communication skills are vital to solving problems across virtual teams . Working on communication skills while your team is together will help them solve problems more effectively when they’re apart.

Here's the setting: Your team has been stranded in the office. The doors are locked, and knocking down the doors or breaking the windows is not an option. Give your team 30 minutes to decide on ten items in the office they need for survival and rank them in order of importance. The goal of the game is to have everyone agree on the ten items and their rankings in 30 minutes.

Creative problem-solving activities

Helps with: Communication

What you'll need:

1. Divide everyone into small teams of two or more.

2. Select an overseer who isn't on a team to build a random structure using Lego building blocks within ten minutes.

3. The other teams must replicate the structure exactly (including size and color) within 15 minutes. However, only one member from each group may look at the original structure. They must figure out how to communicate the size, color, and shape of the original structure to their team.

4. If this is too easy, add a rule that the member who can see the original structure can't touch the new structure.

A lockable room
5-10 puzzles or clues (depending on how much time you want to spend on the game)

1. The goal of this exercise is to solve the clues, find the key, and escape a locked room within the time allotted.

2. Hide the key and a list of clues around the room.

3. Gather the team into the empty room and "lock" the door.

4. Give them 30 minutes to an hour to find the key using the clues hidden around the room.

7. Frostbite

Helps with: Decision-making, adaptability

A blindfold
1 packet of construction materials (such as card stock, toothpicks, rubber bands, and sticky notes) for each team
An electric fan

Instructions: Your employees are Arctic explorers adventuring across an icy tundra! Separate them into teams of four or five and have them select a leader to guide their exploration. Each team must build a shelter from the materials provided before the storm hits in 30 minutes. However, both the team leader’s hands have frostbite, so they can’t physically help construct the shelter, and the rest of the team has snow blindness and is unable to see. When the 30 minutes is up, turn on the fan and see which shelter can withstand the high winds of the storm.

8. Minefield

An empty room or hallway
A collection of common office items

1. Place the items (boxes, chairs, water bottles, bags, etc.) around the room so there's no clear path from one end of the room to the other.

2. Divide your team into pairs and blindfold one person on the team.

3. The other must verbally guide that person from one end of the room to the other, avoiding the "mines."

4. The partner who is not blindfolded can't touch the other.

5. If you want to make the activity more challenging, have all the pairs go simultaneously so teams must find ways to strategically communicate with each other.

9. Blind Formations

1. Have the group put on blindfolds and form a large circle.

2. Tie two ends of a rope together and lay it in a circle in the middle of the group, close enough so each person can reach down and touch it.

3. Instruct the group to communicate to create a shape with the rope — a square, triangle, rectangle, etc.

4. If you have a very large group, divide them into teams and provide a rope for each team. Let them compete to see who forms a particular shape quickest.

Quick and easy problem-solving activities

10. line up blind.

1. Blindfold everyone and whisper a number to each person, beginning with one.

2. Tell them to line up in numerical order without talking.

3. Instead of giving them a number, you could also have them line up numerically by height, age, birthday, etc.

11. Reverse Pyramid

Helps with: Adaptability, collaboration

1. Have everyone stand in a pyramid shape, horizontally.

2. Ask them to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid moving only three people.

3. This quick exercise works best when smaller groups compete to see who can reverse the pyramid the fastest.

12. Move It!

Chalk, rope, tape, or paper (something to mark a space)

1. Divide your group into two teams and line them up front to back, facing each other.

2. Using the chalk, tape, rope, or paper (depending on the playing surface), mark a square space for each person to stand on. Leave one extra empty space between the two facing rows.

3. The goal is for the two facing lines of players to switch places.

4. Place these restrictions on movement:

Only one person may move at a time.
A person may not move around anyone facing the same direction.
No one may not move backward.
A person may not move around more than one person on the other team at a time.

13. Human Knot

1. Have everyone stand in a circle, and ask each person to hold hands with two people who aren’t directly next to them.

2. When everyone is tangled together, ask them to untangle the knot and form a perfect circle — without letting go of anyone's hand.

Our last two problem-solving activities work best when dealing with an actual problem:

14. Dumbest Idea First

Helps with: Instant problem-solving

1. "Dumb" ideas are sometimes the best ideas. Ask everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solution to the problem at hand.

2. After you have a long list, look through it and see which ones might not be as dumb as you think.

3. Brainstorm your solutions in Wrike. It's free and everyone can start collaborating instantly!

15. What Would X Do

1. Have everyone pretend they're someone famous.

2. Each person must approach the problem as if they were their chosen famous person. What options would they consider? How would they handle it?

3. This allows everyone to consider solutions they might not have thought of originally.

Looking for more team-building and virtual meeting games? Check out these virtual icebreaker games or our Ultimate Guide to Team Building Activities that Don't Suck.

Additional resources on problem-solving activities

Problem-Solving Model : Looking for a model to provide a problem-solving structure? This detailed guide gives you the tools to quickly solve any problem.
The Simplex Process: Popularized by Min Basadur's book, The Power of Innovation , the Simplex Process provides training and techniques for each problem-solving stage. It helps frame problem-solving as a continuous cycle, rather than a “one and done” process.
Fun Problem-Solving Activities and Games : Looking for more ideas? Check out this list of interesting and creative problem-solving activities for adults and kids!
The Secret to Better Problem-Solving: This article provides tips, use cases, and fresh examples to help you become a whiz at solving the toughest problems.

How to organize problem-solving activities with Wrike

If you want to make problem-solving activities more effective, consider using team collaboration software such as Wrike.

Wrike’s pre-built actionable meeting notes template helps you keep track of meeting discussions, assign action items, and keep everyone in the loop. It’s an effective tool to streamline your problem-solving sessions and turn insights into real projects.

Brianna Hansen

Brianna is a former Content Marketing Manager of Wrike. When she’s not writing about collaboration and team building games, you’ll find her in the kitchen testing out the latest recipes, sharing her favorite wine with friends, or playing with her two cats.

7 Teamwork Terrors and How to Conquer Them

Since the dawn of man, teamwork and cooperation has been the preferred method of getting things done. From the pyramids of Giza to the Golden Gate Bridge, we rely heavily on teams of engineers and architects to create such majestic masterpieces. However, where there is teamwork, there is work required to be a team. Too many voices and conflicting opinions can lead to a giant headache and bring productivity to a grinding halt. Throw in egos, politics, and laziness and you've got a recipe for disaster. Here are 7 barriers that harm the harmony of your team: 1. Anchoring Have you ever been part of a group brainstorming session where, once two or three ideas have been shared, new ideas stop flowing and the group sort of shuts down? That’s anchoring. Teams get mentally stuck on the first few ideas and stop thinking of new solutions. Avoid the anchoring trap with these 7 brainstorming tricks, including brain writing. Be sure to keep all types of workers in mind with team building exercises for remote workers, so everyone feels included in the creative conversation. 2. Groupthink This teamwork barrier occurs when a majority of the group conforms to one idea despite their own concerns and insights, perhaps due to laziness, fear of judgement, time limitations, or being subjected to peer pressure from other members of the group. Because this is another common brainstorming risk, techniques like Stepladder and Round Robin brainstorming encourage everyone in the group to share their thoughts before settling on a course of action. 3. Social Loafing "If I don't get around to it, then someone on my team will just do it for me." If you've said this to yourself, then you're guilty of social loafing. Don't pat your lazy self on the back quite yet, you might have just cost your team some valuable productivity! Social loafing is the act of putting in less effort for a team project than you would for a solo task. This forces other team members to pick up the slack and possibility grow to resent you. One way to avoid this is by breaking a project into individual tasks and holding each team member accountable for certain steps. See how Wrike can help you assign tasks and delegate big projects. 4. Unresolvable Conflict Even the most successful teams sometimes experience conflict due to differences in opinion, perspectives, and experiences. However, if there is no way to resolve the conflict, then conflict harms your project's outcome. Unresolvable conflict can be caused by unclear goals and expectations for the project at hand, so avoid it by clearly communicating goals with the team and helping everyone understand their role. 5. Confirmation Bias Confirmation bias is the tendency to only accept information or evidence that confirms your own preconceptions. This bias can quickly become a roadblock when trying to iron out team conflict or justify a decision, and it can potentially lead to the Halo/Horn Effect (see below) and compromise good decision-making. To ward off this bias, challenge your beliefs and play devil's advocate. The Six Thinking Hats technique can also help you see a different perspective on the issue. 6. Halo/Horn Effect The way you perceive an individual strongly affects how you interact with them. If they made a poor first impression, or an offhand comment rubbed you the wrong way, you may have a subconscious bias against them. When that individual voices an opinion, you might automatically be more critical than you normally would. This can work to the opposite effect too. When someone you like shares their opinion, you might have a tendency to agree. When making big team decisions, try to be aware of this bias and focus on the best outcome for the team. 7. Overconfidence Effect Your perceptions and experiences inevitably shape who you are — but they can also lead to subtle mental biases that result in flawed decision making. The Overconfidence Effect happens when you accept or reject an idea based purely off a hunch with no evidence to back you up. (In fact, studies show that entrepreneurs are more likely to fall for this mental fallacy, rejecting others' ideas because of the false belief that they know what's best.) Don't fall for this mental trap! Always research new information and seek objective evidence to combat confirmation bias (and hopefully learn something new as well). What other teamwork barriers have you experienced? We'd love to hear how you resolved your teamwork troubles in the comments!

13 Awesome Team-Building Games (Infographic)

Whether you want to do new hire orientation icebreakers or just bond your team closer together, check out our list of awesome team building games that you and your team will want to play over and over again.

6 Different Team Effectiveness Models to Understand Your Team Better

Understanding these 6 team effectiveness models can help you figure out which model to adopt for your own team. Or it may simply help shed light into what's working in your own group, and how to help improve what's lacking.

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17 Team Building Problem Solving Activities & Exercises

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Whether you work in an office or online, it is important to establish a strong foundation as a team. Good communication and collaboration skills are essential for any successful team, but problem-solving skills are what will help you through the tough times.

Life is unpredictable, which is why problem solving skills are critical to learn , starting at a young age. They help us deal with the curveballs that will inevitably be thrown our way from time to time… without spiraling off course into a panic .

Table of Contents

What Are Problem Solving Skills?

Problem-solving skills are the ability to identify and solve problems creatively and effectively . They involve analyzing a situation, coming up with a plan of action, and then following through with that plan. These types of skills are important in both personal and professional life.

In your personal life, you will no longer have the same constant helping hand or be able to make excuses as you could in childhood . When something happens, you will need to be able to figure out a way to fix it yourself. In your professional life, being able to solve problems quickly and efficiently will make you an invaluable asset to any team.

Why Problem Solving Activities Are Important In the Workplace

There are many benefits to having strong problem solving skills in the workplace. For one, it can help improve morale among team members. When everyone is working together to solve a problem, it can create a sense of camaraderie and teamwork .

It can also help hold team members accountable for their actions. If a problem arises, everyone will need to work together to solve it instead of placing the blame on one person. This will help create a more cohesive team that is better able to handle difficult situations.

Finally, problem solving skills can help improve productivity in the workplace. When problems are solved quickly and efficiently, it allows the team to move on to other tasks more quickly.

17 Problem Solving Activities

Activity #1. brainstorming.

This is a great activity for getting the creative juices flowing. Get your team together and have them come up with as many ideas as possible for solving the problem at hand. The more ideas, the better!

One way to start may be to ask everyone to write down their ideas individually, then have each person share their idea with the group. Once all the ideas are on the table, you can start to narrow down which ones are the most feasible.

Activity #2. Role-Playing

If you are ready to get the team members to think outside the box, have them take on different roles and come up with solutions from those perspectives. The roles can be anything from a customer to a company CEO.

Write down roles on a piece of paper and put them in a hat or bowl. Have each team member draw a role and then have them work on coming up with solutions from that perspective.

Activity #3. Logic Puzzles

These types of puzzles are great for testing your team’s critical thinking skills. There are a variety of different logic puzzles available online or in puzzle books .

problem solving activities for teens | creative problem solving activities for adults | virtual problem solving activities for students

Logic puzzles can be a great team-building activity as they require everyone to work together to find the solution.

Activity #4. Word Association

This is a simple but effective way to get ideas flowing. Write down a list of words or phrases related to the problem and then have your team come up with solutions based on those words.

Let's take the word “online safety” for example. Some potential solutions could be creating strong passwords, using two-factor authentication, or avoiding phishing scams or unnecessary social media use at work .

Activity #5. Debate

This activity will help get the team thinking about the issue from different angles . Have each team member take a side of the debate and then have them argue their points.

After everyone has had a chance to speak, have the team come to a consensus on the best solution.

Activity #6. Process Mapping

This activity is great for visual learners. Get a whiteboard or large piece of paper and map out the steps that need to be taken to solve the problem. This will help the team see the issue as a whole and spot any potential roadblocks.

Activity #7. Mind Mapping

This is similar to process mapping but is more focused on coming up with ideas. Write down the main issue in the center of the paper and then have team members come up with ideas that branch off from that.

Activity #8. Fishbone Diagram

If you are looking for another visual activity that can help a team see the different factors that contribute to a problem, try the fishbone diagram. Draw a large fish skeleton on a whiteboard or piece of paper and then have team members add in the different factors that contribute to the problem.

Activity #9. 5 Whys

Have the team start with the main issue and then each person takes turns asking “why” until you get to the root cause of the problem. Five times is usually sufficient to solve most problems. This is very effective for uncovering hidden problems.

One example may involve sales:

The problem is that our sales are down:

Why? Because we’re not getting enough foot traffic in the store.
Why? We’re not advertising enough.
Why? We don’t have the budget for it.
Why? There is too much inventory loss/theft.
Why? High employee turnover.

Activity #10. Scenario Planning

Think ahead and prepare for potential problems in the future. Have the team come up with different scenarios that could happen and then brainstorm solutions for each one. A perfect example may be different ways to escape the building in the event of an emergency.

One approach can involve escape routes, another can focus on the steps needed to shelter in place, and the last can highlight who is responsible for what during an evacuation.

Activity #11. SWOT Analysis

Before coming up with solutions, it is important to understand the different factors that could impact them.

The SWOT analysis activity will help the team identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats associated with the problem. This will help them come up with more informed solutions and deeper thinking.

Activity #12. Reverse Brainstorming

To prevent boredom, do what you can to get the team to think outside the box. Instead of brainstorming ways to solve the problem, have them come up with ways to make it worse. It may sound counter-productive but it can help the team see the issue from a different perspective and come up with more creative solutions.

problem solving exercises with answers | problem solving activities for students | problem solving team building activities virtual

Reverse brainstorming works by having the team come up with as many bad ideas as possible. Once they have exhausted all the ways to make the problem worse, they can then start thinking of ways to fix it.

Activity #13. Problem Solving Workshop

This is a more structured way of approaching problem solving as a team. It involves breaking the team into small groups and having each group come up with solutions to various specific problems.

Once all the groups have had a chance to share their ideas, the team can then vote on the best solution. You may want to start with a problem not directly related to the job and have the teams solve it. Next, ask them how the same approach can be used at the job. An example of this may include the team solving a Rubik’s Cube and then asking them how they can apply that same level of critical thinking to their work.

Now let's think about how to do team building and problem solving for the increasing number of people working remotely. Team building remotely may have its unique challenges but it is not impossible.

Remote Problem Solving Activities

Activity #14. coffee chat.

This is a great way to get everyone on the team introduced to each other, especially if you have new members coming on board. Set up a time for everyone to jump on a video call and chat over coffee (or tea!). This can be done weekly or monthly, depending on the size of the team. It is a great way to informally chat about issues and concerns and can get the ball rolling on real solutions.

During the early days of the pandemic, my writing group set aside the writing topic for a session and decided to do an online happy hour with great success. We got to chat about other issues not directly related to writing and we all got useful insights.

Activity #15. Show and Tell

Who says team building problem solving activities can't be fun? This is a nice way for everyone to get to know each other on a personal level. Have each team member choose an item from their home that has special meaning to them and do a “show and tell”. Ask if each person can find an object related to helping them do their job or something completely unrelated. This is a great way to build rapport, get to know each other on a personal level, and of course – solve certain problems.

For example, someone may demonstrate hand exercises or stretching techniques to help with issues that stem from sitting at a desk or typing all day.

Maybe people in the group struggle to use a certain design program or add attachments to emails. Someone can use screen share to show an easier way to do something that has stumbled their colleagues.

Activity #16. Virtual Office Tour

Another way to get everyone acquainted with each other and the idea of working from home is to do a virtual office tour. This can be done by having each team member give a quick tour of their home office (or workspace). This is also a great way to get everyone comfortable with using video conferencing if they are not already. The reality is, everyone is not accustomed to working from home yet and a virtual tour from someone more experienced may help ease anxiety and provide peer-to-peer teaching. I

Activity #17. Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt can either be done in person or online. If you are doing it remotely, you can use a program like Zoom to break everyone into small groups. Give each group a list of items they need to find and set a time limit. The first team to find all the items (or the team with the most items) wins.

You can make the scavenger hunt related to work or you can make it more general. If you want to make it work-related, you can have teams find things like “a picture of someone wearing a hard hat” or “an item that starts with the letter E”. If you want to make it more general, you can have teams find items like “a picture of a pet” or “an item that is green”.

Final Thoughts about Problem Solving Activities

There are many benefits in the workplace to executing problem solving activities, whether in person or remotely. You can even conduct team building activities outdoors for a nice change of pace.

Team building exercises like these can help build rapport, provide peer-to-peer teaching opportunities, and help with critical thinking skills .

The most important thing is to find something that works for your team and that everyone is comfortable with. And with a little creativity, you can find ways to build your team no matter where they are located. You don’t need to be in close proximity to grow closer .

If you have children, you may want to check out 11 Fun Problem Solving Activities for Kids and 21 Fun Team Building Activities for Kids , as it’s never too young to teach this valuable skill.

team building problem solving activities | team building problem solving activities pdf | problem solving activities for employees

25 Team Building Problem Solving Activities

In this article you will find:

25 problem-solving activities for your team to master
Frequently asked questions about team building

Here are 25 problem-solving activities for your team to master:

25 Team Building Problem-Solving Activities

1. a shrinking vessel.

"A Shrinking Vessel" is a team building problem solving game that requires participants to work together in a confined space that gradually gets smaller. The objective is to stay within the shrinking boundaries while completing various problem solving tasks. This game is not only a test of physical adaptability but also a powerful exercise in strategic thinking and decision making.

Why adaptability is important for problem-solving:

Adaptability is highly associated with cognitive diversity, which helps teams solve problems faster, according to the Harvard Business Review . Innovation and disruption are happening faster than ever before. People, teams, and organizations that can adapt will come out on top.

What You'll Need:

A rope or string

Instructions:

1. Using the rope, make a shape on the floor everyone can fit into.

2. Slowly shrink the space over a time period of 10-15 minutes.

3. Work together to figure out how to keep everyone within the shrinking boundaries.

Looking for Problem Solving Team Building games that’s fully hosted? See our team building activities on this page.

2. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower is of the most hands-on problem solving group activities where teams are tasked with building the tallest free-standing structure they can using only a limited set of materials: uncooked spaghetti, tape, string, and a single marshmallow. The marshmallow must be placed on top of the tower, which adds an extra layer of difficulty to the challenge.

Helps with: Collaboration

Why collaboration is important for problem-solving: “Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individual,” writes Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline. We can solve problems better as a team than we can alone, which means developing your team's collaboration skills will lead to better problem-solving outcomes.

What You'll Need (per team):

20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti
1 roll of masking tape
1 yard of string
1 marshmallow

1. The goal of this exercise is to see which team can use the materials provided to build the tallest tower within an allotted time period. The tower must be able to stand on its own.

2. To make this exercise more challenging, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower. This team problem-solving exercise helps teams think on their toes while building camaraderie and leadership.

3. Egg Drop

The Egg Drop involves teams designing and building a device to protect a raw egg from breaking when dropped from a considerable height. As a quintessential example of problem solving group activities , the Egg Drop fosters creativity , teamwork, and strategic decision making.

Why decision-making is important for problem-solving:

Making decisions isn't easy, but indecision leads to team paralysis, stagnant thinking, and unsolved problems. Decision-making activities help your team practice making quick, effective choices. Train your team's decision-making muscle and they will become more adept at problem-solving.

A carton of eggs
Basic construction materials such as newspapers, straws, tape, plastic wrap, balloons, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, etc., tarp, or drop cloth
A parking lot, or some other place you don't mind getting messy!

1. Each team gets an egg and must select from the construction materials. ‍ 2. Give everyone 20-30 minutes to construct a carrier for the egg and protect it from breaking. ‍ 3. Drop each egg carrier off a ledge (i.e. over a balcony) and see whose carrier protects the egg from breaking. ‍ 4. If multiple eggs survive, keep increasing the height until only one egg is left.

4. Stranded

Stranded is an immersive decision making group activity designed to enhance teamwork, strategic thinking, and problem solving skills. In this engaging game, teams are presented with a scenario where they are stranded on a deserted island or remote location. Their objective is to work together to prioritize resources, make crucial decisions, and develop a plan for survival and rescue.

Helps with: Communication and Decision-Making

More employees work remotely than ever before. Good communication skills are vital to solving problems across increasingly virtual teams. Working on communication skills while your team is together will help them better solve problems when they're apart.

Your team has been stranded in the office. The doors are locked, and knocking down the doors or breaking the windows is not an option. Give your team 30 minutes to decide on 10 items in the office they need for survival and rank them in order of importance. The goal of the game is to have everyone agree on the 10 items and their ranking in 30 minutes.

In this fun and interactive decision making group activity , teams are tasked with constructing a LEGO structure based on instructions provided by a designated "communicator." The twist is that the communicator cannot physically participate in the building process, relying solely on verbal instructions to guide their team.

1. Divide everyone into small teams of two or more.

2. Select an overseer who isn't on a team to build a random structure using Lego building blocks within 10 minutes.

4. If this is too easy, add a rule that the member who can see the original structure can't touch the new structure.

Escape is a thrilling decision making group activity that challenges teams to solve a series of puzzles and riddles to "escape" from a locked room within a set time limit. This game is designed to foster teamwork, enhance problem solving skills, and improve strategic decision making among participants.

Collaboration

A lockable room
5-10 puzzles or clues (depending on how much time you want to spend on the game)

The goal of this exercise is to solve the clues, find the key, and escape a locked room within the time allotted.

Hide the key and a list of clues around the room.

Gather the team into the empty room and "lock" the door.

Give them either 30 minutes or 1 hour to find the key using the clues hidden around the room.

7. Frostbite

Imagine your team as brave explorers navigating a frozen tundra, working together under tough conditions to build a shelter that can withstand a simulated storm. It’s a fantastic way to boost problem solving skills, improve communication, and sharpen strategic decision making.

Decision Making, Adaptability What You'll Need:

A blindfold
1 packet of construction materials (such as card stock, toothpicks, rubber bands, and sticky notes) for each team
An electric fan

Picture this... Your employees are Arctic explorers adventuring across an icy tundra! Separate them into teams of 4-5 and have them select a leader to guide their exploration. Each team must build a shelter from the materials provided before the storm hits in 30 minutes. However, both the team leader's hands have frostbite, so they can't physically help construct the shelter, and the rest of the team has snow blindness and is unable to see. When the 30 minutes is up, turn on the fan and see which shelter can withstand the high winds of the storm.

8. Minefield

Minefield is an engaging decision making group activity designed to enhance strategic thinking, teamwork and communication . In this challenging game, team members must navigate a "minefield" filled with obstacles while blindfolded, relying on the verbal guidance of their teammates to reach the other side safely. It’s a perfect example of decision making group activities that foster collaboration and problem solving skills.

An empty room or hallway
A collection of common office items

1. Place the items (boxes, chairs, water bottles, bags, etc.) around the room so there's no clear path from one end of the room to the other.

2. Divide your team into pairs and blindfold one person on the team.

3. The other must verbally guide that person from one end of the room to the other, avoiding the "mines." 4. The partner who is not blindfolded can't touch the other.

5. If you want to make the activity more challenging, have all the pairs go simultaneously so teams must find ways to strategically communicate with each other.

9. Blind Formations

In this game, team members are blindfolded and must work together to form specific shapes using a rope, relying solely on verbal instructions. This activity is a prime example of decision making group activities that emphasize the importance of clear communication and strategic thinking.

1. Have the group put on blindfolds and form a large circle.

2. Tie two ends of a rope together and lay it in a circle in the middle of the group, close enough so each person can reach down and touch it.

3. Instruct the group to communicate to create a shape with the rope a square, triangle, rectangle, etc.

4. If you have a very large group, divide them into teams and provide a rope for each team. Let them compete to see who forms a particular shape quickest.

10. Line up Blind

Line Up Blind is a fascinating decision making group activity that challenges participants to work together without the benefit of sight or speech. This engaging exercise requires team members to line up in a specific order while blindfolded, relying solely on non-verbal communication and collaboration. It’s a perfect example of decision making group activities that enhance teamwork, trust building , and strategic thinking.

1. Blindfold everyone and whisper a number to each person, beginning with one.

2. Tell them to line up in numerical order without talking.

3. Instead of giving them a number, you could also have them line up numerically by height, age, birthday, etc.

11. Reverse Pyramid

Reverse Pyramid is a fast-paced decision making group activity that challenges teams to think strategically and work together efficiently. In this exercise, participants must rearrange themselves from a pyramid formation by moving only three people, flipping the base and the apex. It’s a fantastic example of decision making group activities that promote quick thinking, teamwork, and problem solving skills.

1. Have everyone stand in a pyramid shape, horizontally.

2. Ask them to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid moving only three people.

3. This quick exercise works best when smaller groups compete to see who can reverse the pyramid the fastest.

12. Move It!

"Move It!" is an engaging team building activity aimed at developing adaptability and collaboration skills. Teams must work together to strategize and communicate effectively to switch places with the opposing team. This exercise promotes problem solving, quick thinking, and coordination among participants, making it a fun and effective way to strengthen team dynamics.

Chalk, rope, tape, or paper (something to mark a space)

1. Divide your group into two teams and line them up front to back, facing each other.

2. Using chalk, tape, rope, or paper (depending on the playing surface), mark a square space for each person to stand on. Leave one extra empty space between the two facing rows.

3. The goal is for the two-facing lines of players to switch places.

Place these restrictions on movement:

Only one person may move at a time.

A person may not move around anyone facing the same direction.

No one may not move backward.

A person may not move around more than one person on the other team at a time.

13. Human Knot

Participants must communicate effectively, be patient, and work together to solve the physical puzzle of untangling themselves. The activity requires strategic thinking and flexibility, helping participants learn to adjust their approach and support each other. This fun and challenging exercise is ideal for enhancing problem solving skills and fostering a sense of unity within the group.

1. Have everyone stand in a circle, and ask each person to hold hands with two people who aren't directly next to them.

2. When everyone is tangled together, ask them to untangle the knot and form a perfect circle without letting anyone's hand.

Our last two problem-solving activities work best when dealing with an actual problem:

14. Dumbest Idea First

By encouraging participants to come up with the most absurd solutions, it breaks down mental barriers and promotes creative thinking. Often, what initially seems like a "dumb" idea can spark a new perspective or lead to a surprisingly effective solution. This exercise not only boosts creativity but also helps teams develop a more open-minded approach to problem solving and collaboration.

1. "Dumb" ideas are sometimes the best ideas. Ask everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solution to the problem at hand.

2. After you have a long list, look through it and see which ones might not be as dumb as you think.

3. Brainstorm your solutions in Wrike. It's free and everyone can start collaborating instantly!

15. What Would X Do

A creative problem solving activity that encourages participants to step into the shoes of a famous person. By doing so, they can explore new and diverse solutions that they might not have considered otherwise. This exercise promotes empathy, broadens thinking, and fosters innovation by allowing participants to break out of their usual thought patterns.

Instant Problem Solving What You'll Need:

1. Have everyone pretend they're someone famous.

2. Each person must approach the problem as if they were a famous person. What options would they consider? How would they handle it?

3. This allows everyone to consider solutions they might not have thought of originally.

16. Lost at Sea

Lost at Sea is a captivating team building activity designed to enhance problem solving under pressure. Imagine the high-stakes scenario of being stranded in a lifeboat with your colleagues. This exercise not only tests your team's adaptability but also promotes effective communication and decision-making.

A six-column chart for each participant
A pack of matches
A list of survival items
Setup: Provide each participant with a six-column chart. The columns are for:
Listing survival items
Individual ranking of items
Group ranking of items
Correct ranking (revealed later)
Difference between individual and correct rankings
Difference between group and correct rankings
Individual Assessment: Each participant has ten minutes to rank the survival items in order of importance.
Group Discussion: Teams then have ten minutes to discuss and agree on a collective ranking for the items.
Comparison and Analysis: Teams compare their individual rankings with the group rankings.

‍ Reveal and Reflect: Finally, reveal the correct item rankings as determined by the US Coast Guard and discuss the differences.

17. Coworker Feud

"Coworker Feud" is a fun and engaging team building activity that mimics the popular TV game show Family Feud. It challenges teams to guess the most popular answers to various questions, fostering collaboration and friendly competition.

Prepare the Survey: You'll need a set of survey questions to play. While creating your own can be time-consuming, companies like Confetti offer pre-made surveys tailored for team building purposes.
Form Teams: Split the participants into two or more teams.
Gameplay: Teams take turns trying to guess the top answers to the survey questions. Points are awarded for each correct guess.
Collaboration: Success in the game relies on effective teamwork. Participants must pool their knowledge and communicate well to score the highest points.

‍ Competition: This activity ignites a sense of competition, helping to boost morale and increase productivity.

18. Virtual Code Break

Virtual Code Break is an engaging team building activity specifically designed for remote participants. Teams compete in a series of challenges, such as puzzles and trivia, which enhance communication and problem solving skills as they work together to claim victory.

Assess Team Needs: Conduct a brainstorming session to identify the specific needs and preferences of your team.
Event Facilitation: An event facilitator will manage all the setup and logistical details.
Participant Preparation: Provide participants with logins and a detailed guide on how to play.
Join the Game: Sign in to the virtual platform and join your pre-assigned team.

19. Improv Challenge

Improv is an engaging and creative method for enhancing communication skills through story-telling. This activity encourages participants to build on each other's ideas, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment.

Suggest a Topic: Start the process by proposing a topic for the story.
Build the Narrative: The first player begins the story based on the suggested topic and adds to the narrative.
Listen and Contribute: Each subsequent player must carefully listen and contribute to the story, ensuring they have all the information to move the plot forward.
Inventive Plotlines: As the game progresses, participants will need to come up with creative plot twists and storylines, similar to a brainstorming session but without the pressure.

The key to Improv is the "yes, and..." format, which encourages participants to accept and build upon each other's contributions, promoting unconventional thinking and enhancing workflow.

20. Picture Perfect Puzzle

A unique team building activity that blends problem solving with creativity and teamwork. In this game, teams are challenged to complete jigsaw puzzles, but with a twist: each team's puzzle includes pieces from other puzzles, adding an extra layer of complexity.

Prepare the Puzzles: Before starting, mix pieces from several different jigsaw puzzles, ensuring each puzzle has a unique image or pattern.
Form Teams: Divide the participants into small groups.
Distribute Puzzles: Give each team one of the mixed-up puzzles.
Complete the Puzzle: Teams work against the clock to complete their puzzle, requiring effective communication and collaboration to sort and assemble the correct pieces.

‍ Add Creativity: Once the puzzle is completed, each team should name their creation and come up with a short story or description about the images.

21. Reverse Brainstorming

Reverse brainstorming is an unconventional problem solving technique that encourages participants to view problems from a different angle. This activity is particularly valuable for teams aiming to overcome challenges and devise innovative solutions.

Identify the Problem: Begin by clearly defining a specific issue or challenge your team wants to tackle.
Reverse Thinking: Instead of brainstorming solutions, think about what could make the problem worse. Consider potential causes or aggravating factors.
Generate Ideas: Encourage participants to creatively identify and list various factors that contribute to or exacerbate the problem.
Discussion: Review the list of negative factors and discuss each one, exploring how addressing these in reverse could lead to innovative solutions.
Regular Brainstorming: Transition back to conventional brainstorming, using the insights gained from the reverse brainstorming to generate effective solutions.

22. Dog, Rice, and Chicken

Dog, Rice, and Chicken is a light-hearted problem solving game that encourages team members to relax and unwind. The objective is to collaboratively figure out how to transport three items across a river without any mishaps.

Roles: Select one team member to play the role of the farmer. The remaining participants will act as villagers.
Scenario: The farmer has three items—a dog, rice, and a chicken—that need to be taken across a river using a boat. However, the boat can only carry one item at a time.
Challenge: The villagers must work together to advise the farmer on the best way to transport the items without the dog eating the chicken or the chicken eating the rice.
Strategy: The villagers propose various strategies, and the farmer decides which one to follow. They must figure out the correct sequence to ensure all items are safely transported.

23. Web of Wools

Web of Wools is a fun and engaging activity that promotes teamwork and effective communication. Teams work together to create and then solve a tangled web, enhancing their collaboration and problem solving skills.

Yarn or string, blindfolds
Setup: Grab a spool of yarn or string for this activity.
Form Teams: Divide the group into two teams.
Create the Web: Each team entangles themselves in yarn or string, creating a web.
Switch Webs: Once the webs are created, teams switch places and take on the challenge of untangling the other team's web.

‍ Blindfolded Challenge : One member from each team is blindfolded and tasked with untangling the web. The blindfolded participants must rely on instructions from their teammates to solve the puzzle.

24. Jeopardy Social

Virtual Jeopardy Social transforms your team into contestants on a game show, complete with buzzer buttons for answering questions and a professional actor to host the event. This activity combines trivia with social mixer challenges to foster engagement and team bonding.

Setup: Organize a virtual Jeopardy game with a professional actor as the host and provide buzzer buttons for participants.
Game Play: Teams or individuals answer trivia questions to score points, just like on the classic game show.
Social Mixer Challenges: Each round incorporates social mixer challenges, allowing participants to interact, share stories, and get to know each other better.
Scoring: Teams or individuals compete to score the highest number of points by correctly answering questions and completing challenges.

25. What Would X Do

The Great Team Recipe Swap is a delightful and interactive activity that combines culinary creativity with team bonding. Participants share their favorite recipes, cook together , and enjoy a meal, promoting cultural exchange and camaraderie.

You’ll need:

Recipe cards, ingredients, and a kitchen setup (virtual or physical)
Preparation: Ask each participant to submit a favorite recipe ahead of time. Compile these recipes into a shared document or handout.
Assign Recipes: Randomly assign each participant or team a recipe submitted by another team member.
Cooking: Set up a virtual meeting where participants can cook together in real-time, or organize an in-person cooking session. Each participant or team prepares the assigned recipe.
Share and Enjoy: Once the cooking is complete, have everyone present their dish, explaining why the recipe is special to them. If virtual, participants can share photos and descriptions.

‍ Discussion: Encourage a discussion about the different recipes, ingredients, and cultural backgrounds. Participants can share cooking tips and personal stories related to their dishes.

What is team building?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines team building as: “The action or process of causing a group of people to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation.”

How often should you schedule team-building activities?

One of the most important aspects of team building is that it is an ongoing process. One team-building session can be effective, but your team could benefit more from multiple sessions. In fact, it may be beneficial to make it a part of your regular program. For team building to be effective, you should repeat it as often as you feel it is useful. This largely depends on the activity you choose. You can do quick activities on a more regular basis since they don't interfere with the regular work schedule. You will probably conduct longer, more elaborate activities less frequently so the team can get work done.

How can decision making group activities benefit a team?

Decision-making group activities are invaluable for developing a team's ability to make informed and collective decisions. Activities like "The Marshmallow Challenge," where teams must build the tallest structure using marshmallows and spaghetti, promote creativity and critical thinking. Similarly, "The Sinking Ship" activity, where teams decide which items to save from a sinking ship, encourages discussion and consensus-building. These decision-making team building activities not only enhance problem solving skills but also foster a sense of unity and cooperation among team members.

What are some effective decision-making group activities for building strong team dynamics and ensuring better decision outcomes?

Decision-making group activities play a crucial role in building strong team dynamics and achieving effective decision outcomes. One such activity is the consensus workshop, where team members discuss various viewpoints and work towards a mutual agreement, ensuring that every voice is heard and valued. Conducting a SWOT analysis allows the team to systematically evaluate options by assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, leading to informed decision-making.

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17 team building problem-solving activities that actually work

Wouldn’t it be great to go to work every day and everything just … works? While that’s a lovely daydream, in reality, we face challenges from time to time.

And when it comes to challenges, one thing remains true: Having a team you can rely on makes whatever it is way easier to deal with.

It’s time to support your team in their personal growth and work on those problem-solving skills. The best way to do that is through some targeted team building activities .

We’ve compiled a list of the best problem-solving activities, sorted by duration and your team’s needs. Bonus point: A lot of them are free !

Effective team building problem-solving activities

One of the most daunting aspects of team building is looking up ideas for things to do, not knowing whether they work. So we did the hard part for you and hand-picked the best team building activities to overcome obstacles.

1. Improve collaboration with Work Buddy

Price: 14-day free trial, afterwards 7€ per user

Time : 15-20 minutes

Best for: Improving collaboration through understanding other team members' work preferences

Work Buddy is an innovative way to get teams on the same page! It's a fun and interactive quiz that helps team members understand each other better, leading towards improved collaboration. Through this session, you'll gain insights into your colleagues' working style - hours they prefer communicating during, their long-term goals, and more - which can help create stronger relationships within the workplace for more effective achievement of shared objectives. Work Buddy is free to try .

Boost team performance with Gomada's activity 'Work Buddy'

2. Practice to become a Communication Master

Best for: Exploring and understanding communication biases in the team

You're not alone if you've noticed misunderstandings or inefficient communication in your team. According to a recent study, 86% of knowledge workers report experiencing communication issues at work . Shortcomings in communication are estimated to lead to losses in profit of more than one trillion $ each year in the US alone.

Communication Master is an activity that helps your team practice explaining ideas in a clear and efficient way. It's challenging and fun, and you can try it for free .

Improve communication within the team with Gomada's Communication Master activity.

3. Follow the GROW process

Price: Free

Time : 2-3 hours

Best for: Taking a tried and tested approach to problem-solving

Arguably the best way to tackle organizational problems is by applying a model already tried and tested in business coaching. The GROW model is precisely that. GROW is an acronym in which each letter represents a step in the problem-solving process.

How it works:

G - Goal: Align on the goal(s) you want to achieve. Be as precise as possible and include numbers, time frames, etc.
R - Reality: Observe where you are on the journey to achieve your goal. What still lies ahead of you?
O - Obstacles & Options: Which obstacles does your team currently face, and which challenges do you anticipate in the future? Consider various approaches to overcoming the (possible) roadblocks.
W - Way forward: Write down concrete action steps that you will take moving forward, including responsibilities and timelines.

Watch this role play video to see how you can put GROW into action.

4. Assess personality types

Price: Free Time: 60-90 minutes

Best for: Increasing empathy and enhancing teamwork

If your teammates constantly clash with each other, chances are they have different personality types. Understanding differences within your team is critical for good collaboration and teamwork, the pillars of successful problem-solving. To get going, take a personality test together and learn about each other's strengths and weaknesses. Have a follow-up discussion to talk about how you can collaborate better in the future.

Question starters for your discussion:

Were you surprised by your results?
Where does your personality benefit your work?
How can you balance out each other's weaknesses?
How can you build on each other's strengths?
Have you found a new appreciation for your teammates?

5. Have a well-being talk

Price: Free Time: 60 minutes ‍

Best for: Making sure your team is mentally prepared to tackle problems

If you feel like your team is lacking motivation and not on the top of their game, it may be time for a well-being check-in. Have an open conversation about mental health and your employees' feelings. Identify triggers for stress in the workplace; these typically include:

Content of the job
Role within the organization
Professional development
Work relationships
Company culture
Working conditions
Personal reasons

Once you have identified the most prominent issues, create an action plan to improve your team’s mental well-being. If you need help facilitating this, Confetti offers a Mental Health Workshop led by a professional expert.

6. Online hackathon

Price: Free

Time: 24-48 hours

Best for: Boosting teamwork and innovation; Solving a specific problem in your organization

A hackathon is an event in which people of different disciplines come together to solve a common, real-world problem. It is the perfect activity for quickly innovating processes within your organization. Hosting a hackathon online allows you to invite team members from all around the world.

There are already great resources about organizing virtual hackathons available. To get you going, here’s a quick rundown on the most important steps:

Settle on the problem that your team should tackle, develop the deliverables, and invite industry experts to serve as a jury
Choose a video conferencing platform so the participants can stay in touch throughout the hackathon
Divide your team into smaller action teams. This works best if you involve different departments to mix and match different strengths and skillsets
When the day of the hackathon arrives, hold a kick-off meeting to explain the process of the event
Have fun and get excited about great results

Leah Buchholz

Remote Expert & Jr. Content Marketer

Large groups

Prep required

Share fun facts and bond with a team quiz

Have your participants choose from a list of questions they’d like their coworkers to answer about them, before watching as they guess the right answer.

share-fun-facts-and-bond-with-a-team-quiz

Run a guided recognition activity

run-a-guided-recognition-activity

Organize a virtual cooking class

Hire a professional chef to help your team cook a delicious lunch or dinner. May be difficult for co-workers with families. To find providers and get tips, read our blog about virtual cooking classes.

organize-a-virtual-cooking-class

Hire a stand-up comedian

hire-a-stand-up-comedian

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Table of contents

Discover virtual team building with Gomada

Gomada auto-generates the optimal activity sequence for your team. All you need to do is schedule the activity.

Virtual team building problem-solving activities

If your team is working in a remote or hybrid setting and you’re looking for some fun games that strengthen problem-solving skills, the following activities are a match.

Related : The best team building software tools & apps.

7. Yes, and …

Time: 5-15 minutes

Best for: A quick game to foster creativity and flexibility

One of the best ways to strengthen your team’s ability to think quickly and adapt to unknown scenarios is through improv games. This one is perfect for beginners as it doesn’t require any acting, and your team can participate from the comfort of their home office chairs.

To play the game, one person begins to tell a story, and the rest of the team has to build on it by replying with "yes, and". One after the other, everyone contributes one or two sentences, but people have to react quickly to keep the flow of the story going.

You can determine the order in advance, for example, by first name or age, or keep it open to increase the difficulty level.

8. Flash of genius

Time: 15- 20 minutes

Best for: Quick thinking, boosting creativity, healthy competition

Have you ever had a flash of inspiration at a random moment? The one that prompts you to jot down your brilliant idea on a piece of paper or a napkin? That’s what this game is all about.

Before the game starts, you have to prepare several problem statements. These can be real, like ‘A team from another department constantly messes up your work. What do you do?’ or imaginative, such as ‘Aliens have landed on planet earth and kidnapped humans. What do you do?’. During the session, the participants then need to develop solutions to these problems.

Split the team into small groups and ask everyone to write down their approaches on a digital collaboration board
After two minutes of brainstorming, every team gets one more minute to decide on their number one solution
For the finale, everyone presents their approach to the rest of the group

9. Codenames

Time: 15-30 minutes

Best for: Thinking outside the box, risk evaluation, communication

Codenames was initially released as a card game but is now also available as an online version. In this game, two teams must try to identify agents hiding behind codenames.

The playing field consists of 25 cards labeled with codenames (random words)
Both teams assign one spymaster who gets to see under which cards the agents for their team are hiding. The spymasters take turns giving their team members clues to find the right cards, but with one big restriction – they can only say one word.
The goal is to find all the right words before the other team finishes.

To be the fastest team, it is useful to give clues that connect different terms, but players have to be careful not to guess the cards that belong to the other group. Thus, the participants must find the right balance between risk-taking and passing on an opportunity to score.

10. Domino effect

Price: 0- 29€/person

Best for: Collaborating asynchronously and working together on one goal

The idea behind this activity is simple; you knock over one object that sets a second in motion, which is followed by a whole chain of reactions. What makes it difficult is that the team has to create this domino effect without being in the same place. Therefore, each team member has to create one part of the process and film it.

This is what it looks like:

Person 1 begins the series by knocking over a random object and making a video of it; let’s say they choose a ball that knocks down a book
They inform person 2, who creates a video of a book falling onto a bottle.
Then, person 3 has to start their video with a bottle falling on the object of their choice and so on.
In the end, all videos are cut together.

The activity requires strategic thinking and good communication to have a consistent string of domino effects and is perfect for teams who work across different time zones. You can either set it up yourself or get a professional agency to support you.

11. Escape room

Price: 0-30€/person

Time: 15-90 min.

Best for: Refining attention to detail and logical thinking with a gamified experience

If you’re not already familiar with the concept of escape rooms, you’re missing out! In short, your team has to solve various puzzles and riddles while following a mystery tale. Only if they find the hidden clues will they reach the solution and escape the room.

This makes escape rooms an excellent problem-solving team building activity for adults. Participants have to practice their patience and logical thinking. Virtual escape games usually take place over a video conferencing tool so participants can discuss their ideas as the game proceeds. One of our favorite escape room experiences is this Sherlock-inspired detective story.

12. Panel of Experts

Time: 15-30 min.

Best for: Helping team members to step out of their comfort zone through improvisation

Panel of Experts is another improv game that is great for fostering creativity and spontaneity as your team will have to create dialogues without any prior preparation and script.

How it works:

You determine one show host and two to four ‘experts’; the rest of the team will act as an audience.
Everybody in the audience can call in a topic they would like the group to discuss for two minutes. Collect all ideas and agree on a topic to start with.
The actors now have to engage in a conversation in their respective roles.
After each round, assign the roles to new team members.

Your team will have collaboratively put up some entertaining scenes, and who knows, maybe you will discover some actual special-interest knowledge.

13. Sort the group

Time: 10-15 minutes

Best for: Improving communication; Getting to know your team

Sort the group exercises are exactly what they sound to be: As a team, you have to get in order following different attributes like height, age, duration at the company; you name it. The difficulty lies within the fact that you aren’t allowed to talk or write. Team members have to develop other ways to communicate and get in order.

Pro tip: You can open a shared document, write down the names of the participants and rearrange them until everyone agrees on the final result.

Trust Activity

Ups & Downs

Core dimension

What cheers us up and tears us down can be very different. Get to know your team’s motivators and demotivators.

Offline problem-solving activities for team building

If you’re pumped to do some team building in person , we’ve picked the right activities for you.

14. The minefield

Price: 0-10€

Best for: Practicing communication and listening skills and advancing trust between team members

This classic team building activity works very well to build trust in your team without the awkwardness of trust falls or entangling human knots. You’ll have to prepare a playing field beforehand, consisting of a starting and finishing line, and put some obstacles (e.g., bottles) in between.

Divide the team into several small groups. Each team lines up at the edge of the playing field.
Each participant is given a blindfold to put on when it is their turn. You can use face masks or anything else to cover the eyes.
After giving the go, the groups must try to guide their 'blind' teammates through the minefield using verbal instructions alone. If a person touches an object, they have to start over. If they make it through the minefield, the next person can start.
The fastest team wins.

Pro tip: To make the game more difficult, you can rule that players cannot give directions (front, side, back) but must think of a code to guide their teammates.

15. Picking up trash

Time: 30 minutes - 3 hours

Best for: Teams looking to make a real impact beyond simple games

What better way to connect with your team than simultaneously doing something great for the environment? Have your team walk around the area around your office and pick up trash together. Afterward, you come together and brainstorm ideas on how to tackle the garbage problem. Maybe your neighborhood could profit from some more trash cans? Higher fines for littering? A better deposit system? Get creative!

You can also turn it into a challenge. To do so, divide your crew into smaller groups and assign each one the task of collecting as much rubbish as they can. After some time, you evaluate who had the most original approaches and picked up the most trash.

Either way, you train your problem-solving skills on a real-world issue and do some good for nature.

16. Speed-dating

Time: 10-20 minutes

Best for: Fostering 1:1 conversations around work issues

While speed dating is best known for finding new romantic partners, it can also be applied to the working environment.

Here is how it works:

Divide the team into two groups, one of which positions itself in an inner and the other in an outer circle. There should always be two people facing each other. If you’re an uneven number, create one pair that always moves together.
A game leader asks a question for which both partners have one minute to answer.
Then the inner circle moves so that two new team members are facing each other.
The game ends when everyone has returned to their original partner.

Some questions to inspire your own:

If you could change one thing in your workday, what would it be?
Would you rather have more time or more money? Why?
What would you do if your laptop suddenly just stopped working?

17. Scavenger hunt

Price: Varies

Time: 2-3 hours

Best for: Fostering cross-team collaboration and boosting team morale

Another classic team-building activity that is great for promoting problem-solving. You have to work together as a team to find clues that will ultimately lead you to a goal.

As far as preparation goes, you will have to decide between setting up the activity yourself or a professional provider. Depending on which option you choose, you will have to invest more money or time (yes, we are referring to the last game here). Either way, your joint search will have your team think outside the box and socialize with others.

What are the benefits of problem-solving team building activities for businesses?

Problem-solving is an essential skill for every team. In particular, strengthening your team member’s decision-making and adaptability skills will ensure that your daily operations run a bit smoother; say a new process isn’t going as planned, or an essential co-worker falls sick, your team will be able to handle it. You also set out your organization for success when facing more drastic challenges, such as, uh, a global pandemic or changes in the company’s strategy.

Some of the skills your team will improve on when regularly engaging in problem-solving team building activities are:

Out-of-the-box thinking
Communication
Creativity
Flexibility
Collaboration

Using team building problem-solving games

Investing time into team building activities that support problem-solving is the best way to empower your team in their abilities to overcome work challenges. Whether you’re an experienced leadership team looking to boost your decision-making and critical thinking skills or a young team working on collaboration and communication , these activities set you up for success.

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38 Team Building Problem-Solving Activities

Looking for some inspiration on team-building activities that also double as problem-solving exercises? Then look no further!

In our Management Training we often stress that a strong team is essential for achieving organisational goals, improving productivity and creating a positive work environment, and team building activities are one of the essential tools that really can make this a reality!

Designed to be interactive and fun, they encourage employees to work together and solve problems – increasing creativity and collaboration across your workplace.

So, whether you are looking to improve communication, or are just looking to build stronger teams within your organisation, these 38 engaging problem-solving activities are a sure-fire way to help you achieve your goals.

32 In-Person Team Building Problem-Solving Activities

If you want to implement more team-building activities, problem-solving activities, and other communication exercises into your team strategy, these 32 in-person options are all great ones to start with:

1. A Shrinking Vessel

The shrinking vessel helps you and your employees work on adaptability and learn to solve problems faster, especially in high-pressure situations.

This game involves using a rope or string to create a circle on the floor. Everyone stands inside the circle. Then, you will gradually shrink it, and everyone must work together to stay inside.

2. Blind Formations

Blind formations is another group activity that involves a rope. Instead of focusing on adaptability, though, this game helps you and your employees develop better communication skills.

For this activity, you’ll just need a rope and a blindfold for each team member.

The group will don their blindfolds and stand in a circle. Then, you’ll tie the ends of the rope together to form a circle that everyone reaches down and touches.

Once everyone has their hands on the rope, you will call out shapes (square, triangle, etc.), and the group must work together to form that shape.

3. Bonding Belt

The bonding belt activity allows your employees to work on communication and problem-solving.

For this activity, divide the team into groups of five. Then, bind each group with rope or tape.

Once everyone has been bound together, each group must move from one point to another as quickly as possible. Use a stopwatch to track each group’s time as accurately as possible.

4. Cardboard Boat Building Challenge

The cardboard boat-building challenge gives team members a chance to get creative and think outside the box (or boat).

The goal is simple: Use cardboard and tape to create a boat that floats across a body of water without sinking.

In addition to building such a boat, each team must also deliver a presentation explaining their reasoning for creating the boat the way they did. Then, they’ll put it in the water and test its functionality.

5. Clue Murder Mystery

Everyone loves a good murder mystery, and Clue is the ultimate murder mystery game!

When playing Clue, you and your team members will collaborate and analyse a collection of clues to determine which character committed a murder.

It sounds simple at first. However, this game requires critical thinking, effective communication, and problem-solving to discover the correct answer.

6. Corporate Escape Room

Depending on where your business is located, you might have easy access to a corporate escape room.

Corporate escape rooms are businesses that allow customers to work together — while locked in a specially decorated room — to solve clues and figure out how to get out of the room as quickly as possible.

Many escape rooms have fun themes, from Sherlock Holmes-style murder mysteries to fantasy. Regardless of the theme, though, this activity allows everyone to work on collaboration, communication, and problem-solving.

7. Crack The Case

Crack the case is another version of a murder mystery game.

This activity is similar to Clue, but it allows in-person and remote employees to work together with the help of video conferencing platforms. Your team members can collaborate to review case files, discuss clues, and solve the mystery.

8. Create Your Own

If you really want to challenge your employees’ creativity, task them with creating their own team-building activity.

Divide your team into smaller groups. Then, assign each group to develop an activity that is unique to the business and aligns with its mission and values.

Not only does this challenge encourage team members to think outside the box and communicate effectively, but it also provides an opportunity for them to reflect on the company values and what they mean to them.

9. Dog, Rice, And Chicken

Dog, rice, and chicken is a silly problem-solving game that encourages your team members to let loose and blow off some steam.

One team member plays the role of the farmer, and the other team members are villagers. The farmer has three items: a dog, rice, and a chicken, which they must take across the river on a boat one at a time.

The villagers must work together to advise the farmer and propose the best way for them to transport the items without the dog eating the chicken or the chicken eating the rice.

10. Domino Effect Challenge

The domino effect challenge requires team members to create a fully functioning chain reaction machine. Divide the team into groups, then ask each group to design and build one part of the machine.

This game puts employees’ communication and collaboration skills to the test, as well as their ability to adapt and solve problems quickly.

11. Dumbest Idea First

This is another fun game for employees who need to stop taking themselves so seriously. It doesn’t require any equipment and encourages employees to think quickly on their feet.

The instructions for this game are simple. Ask everyone to think of the dumbest solution to a problem you’re trying to solve at the office.

After each person shares their ideas, you might find that there are actually some good ones that you and your employees can implement.

12. Egg Drop

The egg drop activity is useful in various situations, not just in science class. The egg drop activity challenges employees to work together to create a vessel that will support an egg and prevent it from breaking when it’s dropped from a great height.

This activity encourages problem-solving, communication, creativity, and collaboration. It also gives employees a chance to break out of their daily routine and do something with their hands.

13. End In Mind

Sometimes, you and your employees have to work backwards to find a solution. End in mind challenges team members to do precisely this.

For this activity, you’ll need to write down the steps, dates, and milestones involved in completing a specific project. Write each one down on a separate piece of paper.

Tell employees what the end result is. Then, encourage them to rearrange the pieces of paper in order, working backwards to figure out how the project was completed.

Can’t make it to a corporate escape room? No problem!

You can play Escape at your office easily. All you need is a room that locks, the key, a rope, and a series of puzzles or clues.

Use the rope to “lock” employees in the room after hiding the key. Then, challenge them to complete the puzzles or solve the clues to find the key and “escape.”

15. Frostbite

Frostbite helps your employees develop their problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Crank up an electric fan to mimic an icy tundra. Then, tell your employees that they are Arctic explorers.

Divide them into groups of four or five, then ask each group to appoint a leader. The goal is for each team to build a shelter out of construction materials (paper, cardboard, toothpicks, rubber bands, etc.) with a 30-minute time limit.

There’s a catch, though. The leader has frostbite on their hands and can’t help, and the rest of the team members have snow blindness and can’t see.

While wearing blindfolds, the team members will have to listen to the leader’s instructions to build a reliable shelter.

16. Human Knot

Human knot encourages employees to communicate, collaborate, and solve problems creatively.

Stand in a circle, then ask each employee to grab the hands of two people not directly next to them. After everyone has found two hands to hold, the goal is to untangle the human knot (without letting go of any hands) and stand in a circle once more.

17. Legoman

This is another activity that allows your team members to be creative, think outside the box, and have some fun.

Divide the group into small teams of at least two people. Then, select one person to create a random structure out of Lego bricks in a 10-minute period.

When this person is finished, the other teams must replicate the structure in just 15 minutes. However, only one person gets to look at the structure. They must then relay information to their team members(s) and help them replicate it perfectly.

18. Line Up Blind

Here’s another activity that involves a blindfold!

For this activity, everyone is blindfolded. You’ll go around the room and assign each person a number.

When you’re finished, instruct the group to line up in numerical order without talking. You can also ask them to line up based on other factors, like height, age, etc.

19. Lost At Sea

Lost at sea challenges your employees’ problem-solving abilities in stressful situations. Each person receives a six-column chart that includes the following:

Column 1 features a list of survival items
Column 2 is empty; each team member will rank the survival items in order of importance
Column 3 is reserved for group rankings
Column 4 is dedicated to the “correct” rankings (revealed at the end of the activity)
Columns 5 and 6 allow team members to enter the difference between individual and correct scores, as well as the team and correct rankings.

Form groups of five. Then, ask each team member to rank items in order of importance individually.

Give the team 10 minutes to discuss their individual rankings and create a group ranking. When the 10 minutes are up, you’ll read out the official correct order, which goes as follows:

Shaving mirror (to signal passing ships using the sun)
Can of gas (for signalling if it’s poured in the water and lit with matches)
Water container (for collection and re-hydration)
Emergency food rations (essential for survival)
One plastic sheet (for shelter or rainwater collection)
Chocolate bars (additional food)
Fishing rods (helpful for catching food)
Rope (helpful but not essential for survival)
Floating seat cushion (potential life preserver)
Shark repellent (for safety)
Bottle of rum (for cleaning wounds)
Radio (helpful if you’re within range)
Sea chart (worthless without navigation equipment)
Mosquito net (not very useful unless you’re shipwrecked)

20. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

The marshmallow spaghetti tower activity encourages team members to work together, be creative, and communicate effectively. Each team will need the following:

20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti
1 roll of masking tape
1 metre of string
1 marshmallow

Give each team a specific amount of time to build the tallest tower using the materials provided. It must be able to stand without help.

21. Minefield

Grab the blindfolds and challenge employees’ communication with the minefield game.

Lead everyone into an empty room or hallway. Place everyday office items throughout the room or hallway. Divide the group into pairs and blindfold one member.

The non-blindfolded member must verbally guide their partner from one end of the room to the other without hitting any “mines.”

22. Move It!

This activity gets your employees away from the desk and working together to solve problems.

Divide the group into two teams. Line them up front to back, so they’re facing each other.

Use chalk, tape, or rope to mark a square for each person to stand on. Leave an empty space between the facing rows.

The facing players must switch places. However, there are rules:

Only one person can move at a time
A player cannot move around anyone facing the same direction
No one can move backwards
A player cannot move around more than one person on the other team at a time.

23. Organisational Jenga

If you have access to a Jenga game, grab it and use it to develop communication and collaboration skills.

Label each block in a hierarchical order that aligns with your company’s hierarchy. Then, challenge team members to play the game as they normally would.

This activity emphasises the importance of the entire organisation working together to survive and thrive.

24. Reverse Pyramid

This activity doesn’t require any equipment. You just need your employees, who will stand in a pyramid shape.

Challenge them to flip the base and point of the pyramid by moving just three people.

25. Scavenger Hunt

There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned scavenger hunt to build a team. Divide your team into groups, then give each group a list of items to find and bring back within a set time period.

Whether you limit them to the office or set them loose in the neighbourhood, this activity is sure to get people talking and laughing.

26. Stranded

Instead of being locked in a room, your team is now locked in the office and unable to escape. Give them 30 minutes to decide which 10 items they need to survive and rank those items in order of importance.

27. Team Pursuit

Team Pursuit is an app-powered game that allows team members to learn more about each other and their unique talents. They’ll complete challenges by taking photos or videos or typing messages into the app.

Whichever team completes the most challenges before the timer goes off is the winner.

28. The Barter Puzzle

For this activity, you’ll need a collection of jigsaw puzzles with the pieces mixed up.

Divide the group into teams of five, and challenge them to compete to finish a puzzle first. They’ll need to negotiate, barter, and assign tasks to find all the pieces for their puzzle.

29. The Crime Investigators

This game is another murder mystery-style activity. Tell your team about a crime that has occurred. Then, challenge them to review evidence, decipher clues, and figure out who’s guilty.

30. Web Of Wools

Grab a spool of yarn or string for this fun and engaging activity.

Divide the group into two teams. Then, assign each team to entangle themselves using yarn or string. Then, tell the teams to switch webs.

One team member on each team will be blindfolded and tasked with untangling the web. They must take instructions from their other team members to solve the puzzle.

31. What Would X Do

This activity gives employees a chance to think creatively and have fun at the same time. Assign everyone to pretend they’re a famous person. Then, ask them how they would solve a particular problem if they were that person.

32. Wild Goose Chase

Wild Goose Chase is a smartphone-based scavenger hunt. Split the group into teams. Then, send them out into the city to take fun photos and videos suggested by the app.

6 Virtual Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Even if you manage a remote team, you can still use virtual team-building and problem-solving activities to bring team members closer together. Here are 6 suggestions that you can try during your next virtual group gathering:

1. Clue Murder Mystery

For many of us, Clue was our first introduction to the world of murder mysteries. You don’t have to gather around a board to play it anymore, either.

Virtual Clue brings your employees together to solve a murder mystery, analysing clues to identify the person with the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime. This game is a fun way for employees to work on their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

2. Code Break

Virtual Code Break gives your employees a chance to overcome interesting challenges and strengthen their problem-solving skills.

You can use video conferencing tools to work with team members and complete all kinds of puzzles and games, from Sudoku to Cranium. You can even work together to solve virtual jigsaw puzzles!

3. Escape Room: Jewel Heist

Escape rooms are all the rage these days for team-building activities. You don’t have to all be trapped in the same room together to enjoy them though.

Many virtual escape rooms exist for remote teams, including Escape Room: Jewel Heist.

When playing this game, you and your team will work together to recover stolen jewels before time runs out. You’ll have to use your problem-solving skills and creative thinking to solve the puzzle and escape.

4. Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse

Mummy’s Curse is a virtual escape room that traps your team in a pyramid with an awakened and agitated mummy. You’ll have to collaborate to solve clues, complete challenges, and lift the curse to escape the pyramid.

5. Jeopardy Social

Virtual Jeopardy Social puts you and your employees into your own game show. You even get a buzzer button to answer questions and a professional actor to host the vent.

In addition to answering questions and trying to score the greatest number of points, Virtual Jeopardy Social also incorporates social mixer challenges into each round. These challenges allow you and your employees to get to know each other better and develop stronger relationships.

6. Trivia Time Machine

Trivia games are popular team-building activities, and you and your employees can participate even if you can’t gather at a local pub together.

For example, Outback Time Machine takes participants back to the 1960s and features a series of fun, nostalgic questions that will get everyone talking and laughing. The virtual game show host also splits the group into teams and warms guests up with mixers to get everyone more comfortable.

Why Are Team Building Problem-Solving Activities Necessary?

Team-building activities, problem-solving exercises, and other group activities offer numerous benefits, regardless of the type of business you run. The following are some of the greatest advantages you and your employees can enjoy:

Get To Know Each Other Better

It’s remarkable that you can work next to someone everyday for years and still know next to nothing about them.

When you create opportunities for your employees to participate in team-building activities, you make it easier for them to get to know each other in a low-stress environment.

Playing games and solving puzzles together allows employees to learn more about each other’s personalities, their approach to difficult situations, and how they communicate.

Improve Communication

Speaking of communication, team-building activities also gives all employees a chance to work on their communication skills.

When team members collaborate to solve problems or complete a task, they get better at presenting issues, asking questions, and developing solutions. All of these insights help employees better understand each other when dealing with work-related tasks.

Improve Teamwork And Team Performance

Better communication leads to improved collaboration and teamwork.

If your employees know how to communicate with one another, it’s easier for them to come together and get things done. They’ll likely face fewer roadblocks along the way to completing projects and will have better attitudes throughout the process, too.

Foster Friendly Competition

Problem-solving and team-building activities might seem frivolous at first. However, they actually create friendly competition, which can help to motivate employees and push them to challenge themselves.

Contests and challenges can also help employees to feel more confident in themselves and their skills. If they’ve doubted their abilities, taking a break and engaging in a fun, competitive activity can motivate them and encourage them to trust themselves in the future.

Increase Innovation And Creativity

Many managers and team members notice that team-building activities and problem-solving challenges help them to be more innovative and creative. These activities allow them to practice thinking outside the box and looking at situations in a new way.

Create Better Company Culture

According to 57 per cent of UK adults, workplace culture matters more than salary when it comes to job satisfaction. Your company culture will suffer if your workplace is focused on productivity and task completion 24/7 and you never make room for fun.

Company culture doesn’t just make your existing employees happier, either. When you strive to improve company culture, you can also enhance your business’s reputation and attract talented job seekers in the future.

Increase Engagement And Improved Morale

When you enhance communication, strengthen relationships between employees, and improve the company culture, you’ll notice that employee engagement increases and morale improves.

Happy employees are productive employees who want to put their best foot forward each day.

If you invest in your employees’ well-being and provide opportunities for them to work together, solve problems, and have fun, they’ll thank you by being more invested in their responsibilities and producing better results.

Show Appreciation

Nearly 75 per cent of UK employees say they deserve more recognition for their work.

Regular team-building and problem-solving activities give you a chance to show appreciation to your employees. For example, you can use these events as a way to celebrate team members who have just met a milestone or accomplished a major goal.

Identify Leadership Potential

When you host team-building activities for adults, problem-solving challenges, and other events, you have opportunities to evaluate employees in different settings and assess their leadership potential.

It’s not always easy to tell who might make a good leader when your employees are going about their everyday tasks. When you put them in a new environment, though, and challenge them to solve a unique problem, you might be amazed at who stands out.

Whether your team gathers in a traditional office or is spread out across the globe, you can use team-building and problem-solving activities to bring them closer together, create a better company culture, and improve productivity and engagement.

So why not use the 38 activities discussed above as inspiration for your next group gathering? Or get in touch to find out about our Team Building Training where we can cover the techniques required to achieve a great team spirit – whilst delivering the fun!

Alternatively, check out our MBTI Training or DISC Assessments – both great for team building, whilst also giving you the essential tools to understand and work with your team better.

Thanks again

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Training

Team Building

Updated on: 29 June, 2023

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How do problem-solving games work?

Problem solving games help teams break a problem down into five5 distinct stages:

Going through this problem solving process helps a team learn basic strategies they can then apply to real-world problems.

By gamifying the process , you’re allowing teams to work out the concepts and apply appropriate strategies in a controlled environment.

The benefits of problem-solving icebreakers for adults

Firstly, problem-solving icebreakers serve as effective introductions.

They’re much more engaging than simply listening to everyone in the group stating their names, and help avoid the awkward “think of an interesting fact about yourself”, too.

When done well, icebreakers are a fun start to any group session, and get everyone ready to start collaborating and networking.

As a non-threatening environment, icebreaker sessions promote lighthearted conversations and laughter—helping alleviate any tensions within the group.

This casual start to problem-solving group activities is a great way to introduce any formal learning sessions and puts everyone in a positive frame of mind.

Other benefits of problem-solving group activities are that they enable participants to share their own thoughts and expectations for sessions.

Implementing a well thought out icebreaker will garner more engagement from participants, as they feel like active players—rather than just listening in.

You’ll often find that icebreakers, like team building exercises, can help break up any existing cliques within groups and encourage participants to engage with people they might otherwise not interact with.

This is a good way to help build effective work relationships for the future.

10 problem-solving activities for employees

With these benefits in mind, let’s take a look at 10 team building activities to try with your employees.

All of these activities promote quick problem solving, critical thinking, trust, and a positive culture within groups.

Plus, as they’re quite simple activities, you can try them anywhere with minimal equipment.

1. Human knots

Human knots; one of the simplest problem-solving group activities around

This is a simple activity you can do with any team.

It teaches communication and clear thinking in the face of a complex, frustrating problem.

There will likely be a number of solutions proposed by different members of the team, and each will need to be evaluated and implemented by the whole group.

Helps with: Communication skills, collaboration.

Time: 10 – 15 minutes.

What you need: Nothing (other than a small team of people).

Instructions:

Have your team stand in a small circle (form multiple circles if you’re a larger group). Each person should hold the hands of two2 other people in the circle that are not standing directly beside them. This should create a messy knot of cross-crossed arms.
Instruct your team to untangle themselves without releasing hands at any point. They may not be able to fully disentangle to form a circle again, but by the end of the activity time, they should have started working together to solve the problem.

2. Frostbite

Oh no! Your team is stranded in the barren Siberian wastelands and a sudden winter storm is approaching.

Using only the materials on hand, you need to build a structure that will withstand the harsh winds of the storm.

Unfortunately, the leader of your expedition has been struck with frostbite in both hands, and all the others are suffering from severe snow blindness.

Helps with: Leadership, trust, decision-making, adaptability.

Time: 30 minutes.

What you need: Blindfolds, an electric fan, and simple building materials such as card stock or cardboard paper, toothpicks, rubber bands, straws, masking tape, sticky notes, etc.

Split into small groups of 4 – 5 people. Each group should elect a leader.
Team leaders are not allowed to use their hands in any way to help the group, and group members must be blindfolded during the exercise.
Teams have 30 minutes to construct a small tent structure that can withstand the wind from the highest setting on the fan.

3. Dumbest idea first

Dumbest idea first; a particularly creative problem-solving activity

Thinking outside the box can stimulate your creativity and lead you to solutions that would normally sound too crazy to work.

By looking at these crazy solutions first, you can expand your options and discover the possible solutions that might not be as obvious.

Helps with: Creative problem solving, critical thinking, quick problem solving.

Time: 15 – 20 minutes.

What you need: Piece of paper, pen or pencil.

Present a problem to your team. This could be a real-world problem that project management is actually facing, or it could be a made-up scenario. Example: Your company is trying to beat a competitor to secure a contract renewal with a high-paying client, but the client is leaning towards your competitors. You have a short time to change their minds before they make the official decision.
With the problem presented, instruct your team to come up with the dumbest ideas they can think of to address the problem. Write them all down.
Once each person has presented a few ideas, go through the list and evaluate each idea to see which ones are the most viable. List them down from the most likely to work to the least likely.

This is a particularly great problem-solving exercise for remote teams, as you can easily organize it via video conferencing with a whiteboard app for brainstorming.

4. Wool web

Wool web; an activity to help equip teams for those “impossible” problems

As difficult as it is to replicate the complexity of real-world problems, that’s no reason not to try!

Wool web creates a problem that seems impossible in the beginning, but with the right direction and working together, teams can learn to break down impossible situations into solvable problems one step at a time.

Helps with: Communication, leadership.

What you need: A few small balls of yarn.

Divide the group into teams of equal size. Each team gets a ball of yarn.
Instruct each team to make a large web from the yarn ball. Give them 5 – 10 minutes to do so. Once they’re done, rotate all the teams so that each team is at a yarn web they did not build.
Each team should select one person to unwind the web. This person will be blindfolded, and the rest of the team should direct them on how to unwind the web through verbal instructions only. The first team to do it wins the game.

5. Tallest tower

Tallest tower; a problem-solving activity to help you build toward success

One the classic group problem-solving activities, simple construction projects can help teams develop strategies to overcome out of the box problems.

Using only two materials, teams will compete to make the tallest marshmallow spaghetti tower in a set amount of time.

Helps with: Collaboration, creative thinking.

What you need: One pack uncooked spaghetti noodles, one bag of marshmallows.

Divide your group into two equal teams. Give each team 20 – 30 uncooked spaghetti noodles and 3 – 4 marshmallows.
In the given time, teams will compete to create the tallest tower using only the materials provided. A marshmallow must be placed at the top of the tower.

6. Spider web

A crafty spider has trapped your group in its lair.

To escape, you must pass through its web to get to the other side safely.

Each member of the team must pass through the web without touching it, but each hole in the web is only accessible once.

Helps with: Resource management, critical thinking, collaboration .

Time: 30 – 40 minutes.

What you need: One long ball of yarn, strong tape, scissors.

Create a large web between two stationary objects (walls, trees, desks, etc.). The web should have 2 – 3 more holes than the number of people in the group, and holes should be of varying sizes with some being simple to pass through and others more difficult. Position your team on one1 side of the web.
The goal is for them to go through the holes in the web without touching it. Each team member can only get to the other side through the web, not by going around the web.
Instruct your team to pass through the web one at a time, with each hole being closed as it’s used. The activity is over once the entire team is through to the other side.

7. Shrinking vessel

Your whole team is stuck within a slowly shrinking vessel.

It’s up to them to figure out how to stay inside the given space as it gradually closes in.

Helps with: Adaptability, quick thinking, collaboration.

Time: 10 minutes.

What you need: A rope, ball of yarn, or similarly thick string.

Put a large circle of rope on the floor. Position your entire team within the circle.
Slowly reduce the size of the circle. Instruct your team to work together to keep the whole team within the circle as it gets smaller. No one should step outside the circle. See how small you can make the space before they’re unable to stay inside.

8. Minefield

The concept of this one is simple: The team has arrived on a battlefield laid with mines.

One person at a time must attempt to cross the battlefield without stepping on one.

Once a team member steps on a mine, they must return back to the start.

Helps with: Communication.

Time: 60 minutes.

What you need: An empty room or hallway, blindfolds, and a collection of common office items.

Place the items (chairs, boxes, water bottles, bags, etc.) around the room so there’s no obvious path from one end of the room to the other.
Split your team into pairs and blindfold one person on the team.
The other must verbally guide that person from one end of the room to the other, avoiding the “mines” (The partner who is not blindfolded can’t touch the other).

To make Minefield more challenging, set it up so that all the pairs go simultaneously—teams must find ways to strategically communicate with each other.

9. Egg drop

While this one does involve a little bit of equipment (and potential mess), it’s great for helping your team practice making choices quickly.

Train your team’s decision-making muscles to help them become more adept at problem solving.

Helps with: Collaboration, decision-making.

Time: 20-30 minutes.

What you need: A carton of eggs, basic construction materials such as newspapers, straws, tape, plastic wrap, balloons, rubber bands, etc. You’ll also need an outside space where it doesn’t matter if you get messy!

Give each team an egg and ask them to select from the construction materials.
Allow 20-30 minutes to construct a carrier for the egg and protect it from breaking.
Drop each egg carrier off a ledge to see whose carrier protects the egg from breaking.
If multiple eggs make it, keep increasing the height until only one egg is left.

10. Stranded

If you think your team might have communication problems, Stranded can be a great way to spot them.

It’s easy to see who’s a strong leader, who’s happy to just go along with things, and who’s most likely to butt heads.

You can even intervene during the icebreaker to smooth out these problems, hopefully laying the groundwork for better communication in the future.

Helps with: Communication, decision-making.

What you need: An office and your team.

Your team is stranded in the office. The doors are locked, and knocking down the doors or breaking the windows is not a possibility.

Set the timer and give your team 30 minutes to decide on the ten items that they need for survival in the office, and rank them in order of importance.

The goal of the game is to have everyone agree on the ten items and their rankings within 30 minutes.

After the activities

If you choose to do team building problem-solving activities, take the time after you finishto dissect the game and understand what happened, why it matters, and how to apply those skills in a real-world scenario.

It’s not about frustrating people or just playing a fun game together. These exercises can have a real impact on the way your team works, and are the building blocks of a better future.

Take the time to sit down and talk over the lessons of the games, including what could have been done better in terms of team collaboration. The end result should be a team that understands itself a little more and is better equipped to solve problems that come up in the workplace.

Improve collaboration with problem-solving group activities

Problem-solving group activities are a great tool to foster efficient inter-departmental collaboration .

The key to any group activity is communication .

When everyone is communicating effectively, problems get solved faster, and groups learn to work together efficiently.

As professionals, problem solving is a crucial skill, and one which needs to be practiced on an ongoing basis to be applied effectively.

By using fun problem-solving activities, you can help improve your teams’ problem solving abilities and foster a positive culture of collaboration and honest feedback.

The ideas for problem-solving group activities we’ve covered are just the start, you could expand into things like scavenger hunts or even escape rooms.

Why not give them a try?

Originally published November 10, 2020, updated February 23, 2023

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Fun Team-Building Problem-Solving Activities

Teamwork is what allows organizations to overcome their biggest obstacles and thrive in a crowded global marketplace. As Andrew Carnegie said generations ago, teamwork is what enables “people to attain uncommon results.” When teams work together effectively, they can give their employers a competitive edge and increase their individual and collective levels of success. Even teams that sometimes seem like they’ll work seamlessly on paper fail to meet, let alone exceed, the mark, whatever that goal might be. As a manager, it’s your job to help the team you oversee succeed. One way you can do that is by engaging your team in some fun team-building problem-solving activities.

It’s important to note that the point of those activities isn’t to ensure everyone likes one another. While it would be great if your entire team consisted of friends, the odds are better than not that some team members may simply not like others—and that’s okay! A team doesn’t have to consist of BFFs to be effective and goal-oriented. In fact, the differences that exist between the members of your team will give everyone a chance to learn, gain alternative points of view, and achieve greater effectiveness.

Creative Problem-Solving Activities from Let’s Roam

The experts at Let’s Roam have carefully constructed a series of team-building activities that will help you to build stronger connections, increase productivity, and improve morale. These exercises can be used in the office, or virtually for remote teams, and focus on problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and more. Our planners will work with you to ensure that your next event is a worthwhile endeavor for your staff, so don’t hesitate. Get started today!

The Two Cs: Communication and Collaboration

For the members of a team to work well together, they must know how to communicate and collaborate. Those two critical skills will be the basis for your team’s ultimate success. Luckily, some team-building activities are designed to enhance employee communication and collaboration abilities.

The Best Team-Building Problem-Solving Activities

Can you tell what i changed.

“Can You Tell What I Changed?” is a communication activity that doesn’t take too long. To get started, divide your team into two groups and have each one form a line that faces the other. Give the members in each line the opportunity to observe the individual standing across from them for a minute or two.

Instruct one line to turn around and have the members of the other make five changes to their appearance. Those changes can be as simple as letting their hair out of a ponytail, removing a pair of glasses, and/or taking off a tie. After the members of the second line are done making changes, have the people in the first line turn back around. Ask the members of the first line to identify the changes they recognize.

This activity is a great icebreaker for teams that were only recently put together. It’s also an innovative way to enhance people’s observation skills and to get them to pay attention to things they may overlook otherwise.

Let’s Create a Story for the Ages

Creativity is an important skill that’s often necessary for problem-solving. “Let’s Create a Story for the Ages” is an effective team-building exercise that will enhance your team’s ability to communicate and think creatively.

To prepare for this activity, gather a series of sequential pictures that are big enough for everyone to see. Hang those pictures in the front of the room and have your team sit down where they can see them.

Ask one team member to start a story by coming up with one line about the first picture. Once that person shares the story’s opening line, have another person repeat what was just said and come up with the next sentence. Continue in this manner until your team has told a complete tale that covers all the pictures on display.

A variant of the activity just described is to divide your group into small teams, each consisting of four or five people. Give each of the new teams a piece of paper, pen, and 15–20 minutes to write its own story about the pictures. When the time limit expires, have each team present its story to the rest of the group. After each team has read its tale, allow your whole team to discuss the different interpretations of the pictures.

We Stand Together

“We Stand Together” is a fun, at times guffaw-inducing activity that requires employees to communicate and collaborate to succeed. Divide your team into pairs and have each pair sit back-to-back with their arms linked. The goal of each pair is to then stand up as one without unlinking their arms. Once a duo accomplishes this task, you can assign another pair to the first so that all four can attempt to achieve the same goal together.

Whether they’re working in a pair or foursome, participants will have to communicate and collaborate to stand as one. If anyone is ticklish, be prepared for your whole team to enjoy a few moments of shared laughter, which can truly go a long way in uniting your team.

Activities to Improve Team-Building and Problem-Solving Skills

When you’re confident your team has developed the collaboration and communication skills to succeed as one, it’s time to move on to activities that will help them develop the team-building and problem-solving abilities they’ll need to succeed as a unit. Be sure to pick activities that will help everyone develop the critical talents they’ll need to succeed.

For example, problem-solving requires team members to brainstorm, flex their logical and lateral thinking muscles, actively listen, engage their creativity, and adopt a “what if” mentality. Whereas communication and collaboration are the basis for successful team-building and problem-solving, these other abilities are what your team needs to build on top of that foundation, so to speak.

Build a Campsite

While taking your team on an outdoor retreat may help members develop some team-building and problem-solving skills, that’s not what’s being suggested here. Instead, you can move the furniture in a conference to the side and gather the following items: a small tent, some tennis balls or softballs, and enough chairs and blindfolds for every member of your team.

Divide your team into groups of five or six. Pick one group to kick things off, instructing them to bring their chairs closer to the tent and balls while having the others move their chairs back. The chosen group members should then put on their blindfolds and attempt to make a campsite.

The goal is for them to put up the tent, construct a ring for a campfire using the balls, and position their chairs around the fire ring all while blindfolded. To accomplish this feat, the group will have to work together and solve problems along the way. This activity is fantastic for developing adaptability to challenging conditions.

The Lego Challenge

If you have young kids, then you know that stepping on a Lego without a shoe on isn’t a fun experience. Now, you have reason to go around, collect all those pain-inducing building blocks, and put them to use without feeling guilty. Just be sure you collect enough Legos!

Divide your team into groups under ten. Give each group a set of Lego blocks. Instruct each group to build a structure using their playthings, but only share scant details about what the final structures should look like or what their purpose should be. Give the groups an hour or more to finish their projects depending on how many Legos they have to work with. When the designated amount of time expires, let each group show off its creation and explain what it is. Then, allow your whole team to discuss the various structures, the motivations behind each one, and how improvements might be made.

The goals of this team-building activity are to refine problem-solving techniques improve communication between team members.

Untying the Knot

“Untying the Knot” is a really fun activity to engage your team with. Depending on the size of your team, the whole team can do this as one, or you may have to parcel out members into several groups of ten or less. Assuming your team is small enough to do this together, have everyone stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a circle facing each other. Each person should extend their right hand and take ahold of someone else’s.

Everyone should then do the same with their left hands, making sure they don’t grab the two hands of the same individual who’s across from them. The result will be a hand-holding human knot, which your team members must work together to untangle without letting go of anyone’s hands.

Although this activity may seem simple enough, it will challenge your employees to engage in teamwork before they’re “free.” It will also require some creative thinking and innovative problem solving for the activity to come to an end.

Red Rover Variant

You might remember dashing across the street while trying to avoid being tagged as a kid when you played “Red Rover,” but this variant of the childhood game is comparatively tame and less physically tiring. At least, it’s meant to be tamer and less physically taxing.

Your entire team can do this activity together, or you can break the large group into smaller teams. If you’re dividing your staff into groups, have each one pick a person who’ll act as the “farmer.” The remaining members of each group will assume the role of villagers.

The farmer in each group is responsible for transporting three things to the other side of a figurative river using a boat. A dog, some rice, and a chicken are the things the farmer must get to the other bank. The farmer’s dilemma is as follows:

The farmer can only transport one thing on the boat
Leaving the chicken and the dog on the same shore without supervision isn’t feasible because the dog might eat the chicken
Similarly, the chicken can’t be left unsupervised with the rice because the animal may consume the grain

How will the farmers and their respective villagers complete the task of getting all three items to the other shore with those constraints? After the game, allow some time to come together to assess their approaches and discuss the different outcomes.

If you want to enhance your team’s problem-solving skills with “Egg Drop,” it’s best to warn your employees to dress down a few days in advance of this team-building activity, as things have the potential to get messy. As you may have inferred from the name of this game, you’ll also need to get some eggs to play, as well as a few other supplies.

You’ll divide your team into two or more groups. Each group will be charged with creating some sort of protective packaging for its eggs. The goal is for each group to fashion packaging that will protect the eggs from breaking when they’re dropped from a pre-determined height.

To incentivize your team, designate a reward that the winning group will get to enjoy and tell everyone what the prize is before the competition begins. The team that designs the packaging that keeps the most eggs wins.

If you’re on a tight budget, don’t worry! You can still come up with a prize that won’t cost much, or perhaps won’t cost anything at all. For example, you can let each member of the winning team park in your parking spot for a day. Alternatively, you can let the winning group enjoy an extra day of causal dress the following week.

What Would You Do

While there will be some instances when your team will have a lot of time to solve a problem, it’s likely your employees will have to make decisions fast at other times. To give your team members the chance to practice their quick decision-making abilities, you may want to set aside time for them to engage in an activity called “What Would You Do.”

In this activity, each team member will be given the opportunity to pretend to be the famous person of their choice. Once in that role, the famous individual will be presented with a problem. First, the person must decide if the problem is even worth solving. If it is, the individual must come up with potential solutions in a set period of time. After those solutions are divulged, the team can discuss them and look for possible improvements to each suggested resolution.

Puzzling (AKA “The Barter Puzzle”)

Your employees might find themselves puzzled when they play “Puzzling.” For this activity, you will need to divide your team into smaller groups and come prepared with a different jigsaw puzzle for each group. Before giving each its puzzle, mix a few pieces into the boxes that will be given to other groups.

As each group labors to be the first team to finish its puzzle, its members will eventually realize some key pieces are missing. When the other groups come to the same realization, they’ll need to identify which group or groups have the pieces they need and figure out a way to get them.

The ensuing inter-group bartering may include things like loaning a member to another group. It may also include bribes like buying lunch. Whatever tactics are used, your employees are sure to have a good, collective laugh as they engage their powers of persuasion, teamwork, and problem solving—and there’s nothing puzzling about that, is there?

Escape Room

In recent years, escape rooms have become pretty common and readily accessible in many locations. Even if one isn’t located close to your business, you can create one in your building with just a bit of effort.

The point of an escape room is to challenge the people in the room to work together to find the key and get out of the locked space. Themed escape rooms give you the chance to challenge your team in different ways that are in keeping with various subjects.

For your team to get out of the room, your employees will have to uncover and decipher a series of clues. Every clue will point them in the direction of another hint they’ll need to act upon until they find the final clue that will identify the key’s hiding spot.

Scavenger Hunt

You can involve your team in an indoor or outdoor company scavenger hunt , but this type of activity is even more engaging when you plan it across multiple locations. The goal of a scavenger hunt is for your employees to find sundry items that are either widely accessible or hidden in different places. With each successive discovery, your employees will find a clue that indicates where the next item on their list of things to recover is located.

You can add an element of competition to a scavenger hunt by dividing your team into small groups that will compete to see which group will find all the things on their list first. Heightening that spirit of competition is easy. All you have to do is announce an enticing prize that will be given to the winning group before the hunt begins.

Can You Build It

“Can You Build It” is a game that requires participants to make careful observations, communicate clearly, solve problems, and work as a team. For this game, you’ll need to break out the Legos once again or pick up different materials that can be used to create a structure that you’ll build in advance of your employees engaging in this activity.

To start, hide the structure you built so that no one can see it. Give your team the materials they’ll need to recreate what you made. Allow one person to see your structure. That individual will then describe the structure to the rest of the team and the team will work together to try to recreate it.

If your team fails to make a facsimile of your structure, let someone else take a peek at your creation. Your team will then try to recreate the structure again. The activity will continue in a similar manner until your team successfully and accurately replicates your structure.

This activity engages many of the talents that are necessary for effective team building and problem solving. It requires teammates to trust each other and brainstorm, for example. Communication, observing, and coming up with clever solutions are also required in “Can You Build It.”

That’s One Way to Hula

All you need for “That’s One Way to Hula” is a hula-hoop and some good-spirited employees. For this activity, have your team stand in a circle holding hands. Break the circle by separating two of those joined hands and slip a hula-hoop onto the arm of one of the participants before rejoining their hands. The challenge then becomes for each participant to pass the hula-hoop to a coworker without letting go of the hands the person is holding.

If your team is large, consider separating it into groups. By doing this, you can create a competition to see which group can get the hula-hoop around the entire ring of participants the fastest.

Plan a Fundraiser

While encouraging your team to volunteer is certainly laudable, the problem with doing so is that your team’s success isn’t in the capable hands of its members. If, for example, your team volunteers at an animal rescue, your employees will be told what to do and how and when to do their assigned tasks.

Although volunteering is undeniably worthwhile, rewarding, and necessary for many non-profits, having your team plan a fundraiser may be a better way to give back to others. By planning a fundraiser, your team will have to work together to choose the type of event you’ll host. Your employees will then need to develop a plan to achieve their common objective.

From picking a venue to choosing how to market the fundraiser, deciding who’ll be invited to the event, identifying a realistic fundraising goal, and much more—your team will have plenty to decide and a lot of tasks to execute to pull off a successful event. As is the case with a lot of functions, even ones for great causes, obstacles will probably arise, which your employees will need to come together to overcome.

Social responsibility is one of the key drivers behind employee engagement across industries. Engaging your team with a fundraiser is a great way to improve their team-working and problem-solving abilities while helping them feel more satisfied with their jobs.

As a bonus, putting together a fundraiser can help your business generate some goodwill and increase customer loyalty. Increasingly, consumers are seeking out businesses that share their values. By having your team plan a fundraiser, you can demonstrate that your organization cares about the same things that your ideal customers do.

Team-building and problem-solving activities are a win-win for your team, your business, and your target audience. In addition to facilitating the development of professional skills, these exercises can help you to come away with a clear indication of which team members have the greatest potential to evolve into future team leaders.

Have you utilized team bonding activities? Use the comment section below to let us know which problem-solving activities you have tried and whether or not you experienced positive results.

If you want to start team-building with your employees, don’t hesitate to contact Let’s Roam to help you to plan and customize company events . Whether your group is in an office, remote, or a combination of stationary and virtual teams , our professional guides will help you every step of the way!

Frequently Asked Questions

The expert event guides at Let’s Roam have documented several effective problem-solving exercises . They also offer team-building activities including scavenger hunts , custom trivia , and more.

In addition to facilitating the development of skills such as communication, collaboration, and adaptability, problem-solving exercises can help business managers to identify future team leaders.

You can help your team with a series of problem-solving activities . Plan team-building events that will challenge employees’ collaborative skills, problem-solving techniques, and leadership abilities.

Need help planning a team-building event?

Schedule a quick, complimentary 15 minute chat with an event planner to book your next team building event with breeze., featured products & activities.

15 Team Building Problem Solving Activities to Unleash Your Crew’s Inner MacGyver

jerome Bilaos
March 14, 2024

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Building a strong team isn’t just about casual Fridays and shared snacks. It’s about fostering collaboration, communication, and the ability to tackle challenges together.

Enter the world of team building problem solving activities, where fun and games become the ultimate training ground for a cohesive and resourceful crew.

In this blog, we’ll explore the significance of team building problem-solving activities and provide a comprehensive guide to some impactful exercises.

Why Problem Solving Team Building Activities Rock

Team building problem solving activities have numerous benefits. Here are few reasons why they rock and why they should be a part of every work culture:

1. Enhancing Communication Skills

Effective communication is the cornerstone of successful teamwork. Problem-solving activities require team members to communicate clearly, share ideas, and actively listen to one another.

These activities provide a platform for improving both verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

2. Building Trust and Collaboration

Trust is the foundation of any strong team. Problem-solving activities create opportunities for team members to collaborate in solving challenges.

As each of the team members contributes their unique skills and perspectives, it builds trust through shared accomplishments.

3. Boosting Creativity and Innovation

Problem-solving activities often involve thinking outside the box and buzzing your team’s brains.

These exercises encourage creative thinking, helping teams explore innovative solutions to complex issues.

This fosters a culture of continuous improvement, resilience, and adaptability to changing circumstances.

4. Strengthening Team Dynamics

Understanding each team member’s strengths and weaknesses is crucial for effective collaboration.

Team building problem solving activities allow individuals to showcase their skills, and teams can identify and leverage the diverse talents within the group.

This understanding strengthens team dynamics and cohesion. Individuals can show better outcomes at workplaces knowing the forte of other colleagues.

5. Improving Decision-Making Skills

Teams often face decisions that require quick thinking and consensus. Problem solving exercises simulate real-world scenarios, providing a safe environment for teams to practice decision-making under pressure.

It’s all about dealing with the unexpected. This experience can translate into improved decision-making skills in the workplace, and bounce back setbacks.

Effective Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Ready to unleash the problem-solvers within? Here are some activity ideas to get you started:

1. The Classic Egg Drop

This timeless challenge is a test of ingenuity and resourcefulness. Teams are asked to build contraptions to protect a raw egg from a dramatic fall from a height using limited materials (such as straws, tape, and paper).

This exercise encourages problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration as teams work together to engineer a successful solution.

Don’t forget to have fun! The wackier the design, the more laughter (and learning) ensues.

2. Marshmallow Tower Mayhem

Provide each team with spaghetti, tape, string, and a marshmallow. The challenge is to build the tallest freestanding structure that can support the marshmallow on top.

This team building problem solving activity promotes creativity, collaboration, and strategic thinking as teams must balance the structure’s height and stability.

3. Blindfolded Drawing or Maze

Pair team members, and have one wear a blindfold while the other describes an object without explicitly naming it. The blindfolded person then attempts to draw the object based on the description.

You can take the blindfolded activity up a notch, guide a blindfolded teammate through a maze by verbal instructions.

Both the activities enhance communication, active listening, clear direction-giving, and emphasize trust within pairs.

4. Human Knot

Looking for a team building activity with no setup, equipment, or costs? Try the human knot!

In a circle, each team member grabs hold of someone else’s hand, creating a “human knot.” The challenge is to untangle the knot without letting go of each other’s hands.

This activity requires problem-solving, communication, strategic thinking, as well as movement coordination to unravel the knot effectively.

It can be a great ice breaker especially if you have new colleagues joining your team.

5. Build-A-Bridge

How strong can your team get with limited resources? To challenge, provide teams with limited materials (such as newspaper, tape, and popsicle sticks) to construct a bridge that can support the weight of an object (e.g., a book or a small toy).

This engineering challenge promotes creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving as teams design and build a functional bridge.

6. Team Olympics

Organize a series of mini-games or challenges that require teamwork and problem-solving skills.

Examples include relay races, puzzle-solving competitions, and memory challenges. With these team building problem solving activities for adults, teams earn points for successful completion, fostering healthy competition and team spirit.

7. Problem-Solving Scavenger Hunt

The good old scavenger hunt can make your team think on their feet while having fun!

Design a scavenger hunt with clues that lead to various problem-solving challenges. Teams must decipher the clues, navigate through different locations, and solve the presented problems to advance.

This activity combines problem-solving with teamwork and adaptability fostering camaraderie.

8. Memory Wall

This activity is much more team building – it creates a sense of fraternity. Create a “memory wall” with images or quotes related to the team’s achievements, milestones, and shared experiences.

As a team-building activity, members collaboratively add to the wall, reflecting on their collective journey and reinforcing a sense of identity and unity.

9. Collaborative Storytelling

Have each team member contribute a sentence or paragraph to create a collaborative story. The challenge is to maintain coherence and creativity as the story unfolds.

This activity promotes communication, creativity, and adaptability as team members build on each other’s ideas.

10. Escape Room Extravaganza

This is my personal favorite group problem solving activity that unravels the inner Sherlock, keeps participants walking on a tightrope, and promotes creative thinking, all while fostering a sense of camaraderie and shared accomplishment.

Escape rooms require teams to solve puzzles and riddles within a set timeframe to “escape” a locked room.

You can either transform your office into a thrilling escape room with puzzles, riddles, and hidden clues or visit one for an immersive experience.

Virtual Problem Solving Activities for Groups

Are you managing a virtual team? The geographical distances cannot exclude your team from bridging the gap and building the same level of connection and resilience.

The power of virtual tools and platforms opens up a whole new world of team building puzzles designed to connect and challenge your distributed crew.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

11. The Digital Escape Room

There are platforms online that offer escape rooms with immersive storylines, challenging puzzles, and collaborative gameplay.

Teams must work together, communicate effectively, and think outside the box to solve the mysteries and “escape” within the time limit.

12. The Global Scavenger Hunt

Embrace the online landscape! Create a list of challenges that involve searching for specific information, images, or videos on global websites.

Teams can compete or collaborate to be the first to complete the tasks, adding a layer of virtual exploration and cultural awareness.

13. The Collaborative Canvas

Platforms like Miro or Mural offer virtual whiteboards where your team can brainstorm, create mind maps, and build ideas together in real-time.

Whether it’s crafting a new marketing campaign or designing a team mascot, this visual space fosters collective thinking and creative expression.

14. The Online Game Show Challenge

Inject some lighthearted competition with trivia quizzes, virtual charades, or collaborative problem-solving games like Kahoot!

These team building problem solving activities encourage quick thinking, communication, and a little friendly rivalry, breaking the ice and building camaraderie.

15. Virtual Coffee Breaks

Schedule informal virtual coffee breaks or “happy hours” where team members can connect casually.

Encourage discussions about non-work-related topics to strengthen interpersonal relationships and foster a positive team culture.

Beyond the Activity

Remember, successful team building extends beyond the initial activity. Here are some tips to maximize the impact:

Debrief and reflect: Don’t just jump back into everyday routines. Take time to discuss the lessons learned, challenges faced, and how the activity applies to real-world work.
Rotate roles and teams: For ongoing engagement, switch up activity formats and encourage different team members to take on leadership roles.
Celebrate successes: Recognizing achievements, big or small, reinforces positive behavior and keeps the team motivated.
Connect to real work: Tailor activities to address actual challenges or projects your team is facing. This fosters a sense of purpose and immediate application of skills.
Accessibility is key: For virtual events, choose platforms and activities that everyone can access and use comfortably.

Final Words

Whether your team thrives in the physical realm or across digital landscapes, remember, the greatest challenges are overcome not alone, but together.

Engaging team-solving problems foster creative thinking, open communication, and a spirit of collaboration. You can empower your crew to reach new heights and achieve the seemingly impossible.

And speaking of the impossible, have you ever dreamed of cracking codes, deciphering cryptic clues, and escaping before the clock runs out?

At Paranoia Quest , our escape rooms, Atlanta , you can turn that dream into a reality!

Our immersive escape rooms offer heart-pounding challenges, mind-bending puzzles, and an unforgettable team-building experience.

So, if you’re looking to unleash your inner MacGyver and forge closer bonds with your colleagues, gather your crew and book your escape with us. The ultimate adventure awaits!

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23 Problem-solving games for busy work teams

Problem solving is a skill that can serve almost anyone, in any role, in any industry. The ability to think critically, and resolve issues is a welcome talent that is helpful for every organization. How can you encourage such thinking in your team? In this article, we are talking about our favorite problem-solving games, activities, and exercises for work. Use these activities to sharpen the reasoning and decision-making skills of your department or your entire company. Without further ado, let’s dive into the best problem solving games for getting the most of your next work event.

In-person problem solving games

If you have the opportunity to get your team together in person, that’s a gift! Perhaps you are planning a company retreat or a department-wide in-person meeting. Whatever the circumstances, in today’s more digital workspace, it’s not always easy to have everyone in the same room. When you actually do, make the most of it! These activities are set up for in-person groups. They are part team-building activity, part icebreaker, and all fun! All of these activities are guaranteed to get people thinking, communicating, and having fun. If you have a particularly big group, you may want to browse our article on large group games too.

1. Treasure hunt

Similar to a scavenger hunt, a treasure hunt is a lot of fun but with a bit more intention. Rather than collecting a random list of items, participants use clues to find more prompts and hints, until the group solves a mystery (or finds a treasure). You can also create a treasure map if you want to play into the “pirate” fantasy a little more. The important thing is that only clues point toward the next stop - areas of the map should not be spelled out, but involve some problem solving and critical thinking to figure out what the clue means.

2. Story challenge

For the language lovers on your team, try this version of an ongoing story icebreaker. To play, each person receives a number of words (a word bank) that they can use to create a story. Then, everyone reads their piece out loud or presents it to the group. To come up with the words available for each person, you can use a random word generator online, or get creative. For example, consider instructing participants that they can only use words from the company website, or from the emails they received in their inbox yesterday.

3. Moral dilemma

Similar to a “ would you rather ” game, this activity centers on ethical dilemmas. Players should try to flex their moral problem-solving muscles by tackling a social issue. For example, Scruples is a popular board game that can be played. Or, you can look online for versions of games like Dilemma or Quandary. This is a great way to learn more about your colleagues while getting a peek at the way they think.

4. Build a shelter

How would you survive if you were stranded in an isolated place with a blizzard coming? Use this activity to find out! As an added complication, you can pretend that everyone is blinded by frostbite (by using blindfolds). The team leader must give the group instructions for building a shelter that can withstand the arctic winds. To play, you need a large space and some supplies. Then, select a leader (who can see) and blindfold everyone else. You’ll also need a large fan. The leader guides everyone in putting together their shelter (remember, while blindfolded). When everyone feels confident that their shelter is up to the test, turn on the fan and see if the structure can withstand the wind! This game is sure to lead to a lot of laughs and you’ll be surprised at some of the clever ideas that people come up with. This is also a powerful exercise for effective leadership - it’s not easy to reach a goal with a group that is blindfolded! Check out our article on team activities especially for leadership as well.

5. Improv games

You may think of improv games as more of an icebreaker activity, but the truth is there is a lot of brain power that goes into well-done improv. Look for ways to add both logic and entertainment to your next improv effort. Consider scenarios like banned words, where people cannot use a certain list of words, or “miracle cure”, where one person shares a problem they’re having and the other person must come up with the solution on the spot. Both are fun and easy ideas that don’t require anything but willing participants! If you need some other quick and easy team building activities , make sure to follow our blog.

6. Spaghetti tower

In this classic team building game, users try to build a tower using uncooked pasta noodles and marshmallows. The instructions are simple: use the tools at your disposal to design and build the tallest tower in order to win the challenge. You can judge on height alone, or weigh other factors like innovation, number of towers, or stability. For more simple team building activities , make sure to follow our blog.

7. What would you do?

Another classic icebreaker, this game involves coming up with some scenarios that require brain power to address. Here are some prompts you can use with your group:

What would you do if you were at the zoo and all the animals escaped?
What would you do if you were the first person to find out about an upcoming zombie apocalypse?
What would you do if you were in line for a really important item, and a person cut in front of you, getting the last item?
What would you do if you were invited for dinner at the home of someone you really needed to impress, and the food was terrible?
What would you do if an imposter that looks and acts just like you infiltrated your organization? How can you convince everyone that you’re the “real” you?

8. “MacGyver” challenge

MacGyver is an older television program where the hero escaped sticky situations by improvising tools made of unlikely materials. You can recreate this set-up in your event space or office. To play, challenge participants to use 3-5 items to reach a desired end result. For example, something like “a way to pick the door lock” or “escape vehicle” are fun options. You can either set out some various equipment, or have people collect their own based on what they can find around the office. Note: if you are doing this in a conference room or other rented space, it makes sense to have a table set up with random odds and ends for people to pick from.

9. Egg drop challenge

This one will take you back to high school physics class! Break a larger group into smaller teams and challenge them to come up with a container that will protect an egg even when it’s dropped from up high. You can either let people know far enough in advance that they can discuss, design, and collect materials; or you can have supplies ready and have everyone build their creation on the spot. If you go that route, you’ll want to provide a variety of boxes, packing supplies, rubber bands, fabric, etc. Then set up a ladder and have each team drop their container and see if their egg remained intact.

10. Shrinking circle

Adaptability and flexibility are huge in the business world. One way to focus on both of those items is by playing this simple and silly game. Start out by using a rope to create a large circle that everyone can fit in. Then, every few minutes, make the circle a bit smaller. Depending on how large the circle is in the first place, you can take away an inch or a foot each round. The challenge is for everyone present to stay inside the circle. This will require some serious innovation once the circle gets small, and lots of laughs almost always ensue. Note: People are likely to end up touching each other in this exercise. It’s difficult not to once the space gets small, like a game of Twister. You know your colleagues best - if that level of closeness would make anyone uncomfortable, it’s probably best to try a different exercise.

Out-of-the-office problem-solving activities

Everyone once in a while, it can be really valuable to get out of your usual work environment and into a new mental space. If your team is planning a multi-day retreat, don’t be afraid to include an organized activity that will help everyone to think more critically. Most towns have at least one option for getting your group together and learning some new ways to problem solve. Do some research on what you have available locally, or work with an organization like Surf Office who can plan your next retreat - including the fun elements that your employees will be talking about for months to come! If you know that you can’t get out of the office right now, stick to this list of indoor team building activities .

11. Escape room

The goal of an escape room is to follow a series of clues and take on some challenges in order to unlock the space that everyone is locked in. There are usually 5 - 10 puzzles that teams will work together to figure out. Typically finishing one leads to another clue, so that participants can move onto the next phase. Only when they’ve successfully completed all of the tasks can they find the key and escape. While you can definitely set up an escape room on your own, we think it’s worth finding a local version in your town (or wherever your retreat is taking place). These are professionally set up and usually in really cool spaces like an underground bunker or a historic building. An escape room is a good excuse to get out of the office and spend time with coworkers in a new environment.

12. Murder mystery

These story-based games have people take on a role in a pretend scenario. They may take on a role like detective, dinner guest, or even killer in their dinner. Most of the time the games involve reading lines from a script, searching for clues, or even solving some simple challenges to move onto the next phase. Participants have to pay attention to conversations and context clues in order to get an understanding of who the killer might be. Observation and logic are key to catching the killer. Some murder mysteries involve getting dressed up and having a nice dinner, so if you’re looking for an idea for a big night out capping off your next retreat, this is perfect.

13. Ax throwing

What do axes have to do with problem solving? You might be surprised. This is definitely an activity you’ll want to go to a professional venue for. Ax throwing outfits have everything you need, plus the right safety precautions. They have everything set up with the proper distances, buffers between throwing stations, safe ax materials, etc. Plus, many of them offer food and drinks! Ax throwing can help with problem solving because most people don’t excel at it their first time. It takes some practice and careful consideration to figure out where to stand, the best stance, the force of the throw, etc. As you take turns, you’ll make adjustments and also consider new methods based on observing your teammates. The more you watch and the more you try, the better you’ll get. In fact, instead of having people compete against each other, we suggest having the team compete against themselves, aiming for a higher total score in their second or third consecutive game. This activity allows you to observe others and then optimize - essentially learning from each other.

14. Paper boat race

If you are able to visit a location by water, you can try this really fun activity. In this fun and creative exercise, participants build a small boat with paper (and other supplies) and then race them in a small body of water like a pond or stream. The boats are usually made by folding paper into a boat shape, but you can also try offering cardboard, balloons, popsicle sticks, or other crafty materials. You’ll also want to supply materials for decorating so that everyone can really have their creation stand out. Obviously the person who reaches the finish line first is the winner, but you can offer a few other prizes just for fun, like most beautiful boat or best effort. Make sure to check out our article on other creativity and innovation games , too.

Problem-solving puzzles

When it’s just not possible to get everyone together, you can still encourage your team to put on their thinking caps and hone their skills. There are tons of critical thinking games, puzzles , and even apps that people can use to practice problem solving. You can encourage your team members to play these games in their spare time, or even set up a competition where people log minutes playing such games or using the apps. If you’re feeling really generous, give everyone a small stiped to be used on a problem solving app of their choice. This special touch makes a nice addition to a holiday gift, too!

Sudoku has become one of the most popular problem solving games for adults. There are dozens of free app options, as well as paperback books that you can pick up. The goal of this game is to fill each box on a 9×9 grid so that every row, column, and letter contains each number from one to nine. It sounds tricky - and it is - but players tend to find it addicting and the game has grown a huge following in recent years. Encourage people to play on their own by downloading an app or purchasing a puzzle book, or as a team by having the puzzles available in your office or at your next event.

16. Crossword puzzles

These classic word games have players fill out words based on clues. Words interconnect, and people must think critically about the context clues of what they’ve filled out so far. These puzzles are super versatile and one of the best things about them is that you can make them yourself so they are themed. You can use an online crossword puzzle maker to create a custom puzzle with clues about your business or other relevant subjects. For your next event, it might be fun to have a custom crossword puzzle about your company history or trivia!

17. Tic-tac-toe tournament

It sounds a little silly, but tic-tac-toe requires more brain power than one might think. Set up an ongoing tic-tac-toe board in your office and encourage people to use it on their breaks or when they have a few minutes to kill. You can set up a scoreboard and keep track of the leader; it’s a lot of fun to see the rankings change and to challenge the top performers. If you need an even simpler version of the same concept, simply set up the Connect Four game board in your break room and let people have at it!

Problem-solving for virtual teams

If your team is a bit scattered, it doesn’t mean that you can’t practice solving challenges together. In our digital world, there are plenty of options for online activities that teams can work on either independently or as a group. In the section above, we shared some ideas for independent work. These ideas are designed to bring your team together, no matter where they are. Set a time and have everyone hop onto your preferred communication tool, and then work together tackling these challenges.

18. Virtual hackathon

A hackathon normally refers to an event where participants have a set amount of time to design and pitch a new product or solution. It’s normally used in the tech space for pitching things like new apps, but you can apply the concept in lots of other ways too. In this online version, teams work with each other using virtual meeting software and pitch ideas to a panel of judges. This type of event requires some advance notice for the participants, as they’ll want to collect a team and come up with some designs. If you want to raise the stakes, offer a prize for first place.

19. Online escape room

Just like an in-person escape room, in an online version people must solve a variety of puzzles in order to make it “out”. Digital escape rooms normally come in one of two ways: in a Zoom “room” led by a host, or in a choose-your-own-adventure style via Google Forms or other websites. To play virtually, staff will enter the meeting and follow the prompts they get, and it might involve screen sharing some Google tools to work on puzzles together. Because of the platforms and tools that may be involved, this activity is better for teams who are a bit more tech-savvy and comfortable with online meetings, apps, etc.

20. Survival plans

Prioritizing is an important mental exercise. You can work on this with a game about survival. Have everyone imagine they are stranded on a desert island, and they must decide the correct order to perform life-saving steps in. Have this list handy, and ask everyone to pair off or get in small groups and number the list according to the best likelihood of survival:

Set up shelter
Look around the island
Signal for help
Create weapons for self-defense
Build a raft for water
Start a fire
Select a group leader
Find other survivors
Anything else you think of!

The catch is that everyone must agree on the order of events! That will typically involve discussion and coming to some sort of consensus. Once everyone is done with the exercise, have them present to the larger group and explain their reasoning. This exercise is good for team-building, communication, and problem resolution. Plus, you will be better prepared if you ever get stuck on a deserted island!

21. Online role-playing games (like Dungeons and Dragons)

Seeing how people react in real-world situations is a really interesting way to get to know them better. Find an online game that has real-world actions and consequences, like Dungeons and Dragons. Or, you can make things even simpler by hopping on a Zoom together and reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book aloud, with the reader getting group consensus before making a decision. The important part is the discussion that will occur before choosing the next action. This is helpful for bonding and also helps you to see how your colleagues tick. These activities can be difficult to organize for big groups, so if you have a substantial team, try some of these team building activities for large groups instead.

22. Google Docs story

Similar to an ongoing story icebreaker, this game is easy to do online as people have time. You start by creating a Google Doc that everyone on the team has access to. Then, have people go into the Doc and add to the story that’s developing. If you want, you can pick a prompt to kick things off - or you can just let the first person get creative and go for it! The more specific or bizarre the scenario, the more creative and clever people will have to get to add their portion.

23. Model UN

Chances are you might be familiar with this concept from high school. Fortunately, adults can have a lot of fun with it too. You can play this virtually as long as everyone is a strong communicator. Each participant should take on the role of an international diplomat, and work together to form alliances and solve crises. Come up with a potential scenario that the UN must work through. Consider things like a global food shortage, natural disaster, or cyber-security threats. If your group is particularly large, you can have multiple people assigned to a country and they will have separate roles. If politics is a sensitive topic on your team, you might want to tweak this exercise to be focused on a business and treat participants like board members - or even a musical group!

Set the tone of your next company retreat

These problem solving games and activities are great virtually any time - there is something for everyone, whether you’re remote or in person, on a large team or a small one. One of the best ways to implement a problem solving exercise is at the beginning of a team retreat. If you have organized a large meeting or team building event, consider getting things started with such an activity. Many of these problem solving games will get everyone thinking and make people more comfortable, plus a lot of them also serve as a form of icebreaker.

The next time you plan a work retreat , consider including a few of these on the agenda to set the tone for a fun, energizing event. Need help ensuring that your retreat is, in fact, fun and energizing?

Let Surf Office help ! We can help with organizing your next team retreat or all-company meeting so that you can focus on the fun.

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#1. Brainstorming Session

The goal of this activity is to brainstorm ideas based on a topic through collaboration.

Time: 10-20 minutes

Materials: Paper and pen

Participants: Any number of members per group

Instructions

Start by giving a topic to each group and instruct them to brainstorm ideas based on that topic.
Appoint an individual to write down the ideas of each group member.
Once this is done, check the ideas and share them with everyone.

Identify how each group member felt during the activity and how it can help them with problem solving in their day-to-day life. Also, discuss the importance of finding solutions together.

#2. Code Breaking

The goal of this game is to break the secret code as quickly as possible.

Time: You decide

Provide a secret code to each team. This secret code can be anything like picture puzzles, logic problems, riddles, etc.

For example,

“Find the two-digit secret number using the following clues:

The secret number is divisible by 4.

The sum of the digits in the secret number is 12.

The tens digit of the secret number is greater than the ones digit.”

The goal is to break the code fast. Set a time limit to complete the task if required.
The first team that breaks the code will win the game.

( Note: By the way, the secret number in the above example is 84. Feel free to come up with similar puzzles and challenge your teams to solve them in a very short time. Enjoy!)

Discuss how the employees worked together to solve the challenge. Encourage them to share their ideas and strategies.

#3. Create an Ad

The goal of this game is to create an advertisement for the suggested product. This is one of the problem solving activities to improve the creativity among team members.

Time: 15-30 minutes

Materials: Poster papers and Markers

Participants: 3-8 people in a group

Divide the participants into small teams.
Introduce a new product to each team and explain its features as well as benefits.
Now, instruct them to create an advertisement for this product.
Then, each team should create an ad script through discussion.

Discuss the strategies and ideas used in creating the ad. How did the employees come up with creative solutions? Encourage them to share their learning points from this game.

#4. Human Knot

The goal of this activity is to create a knot by holding the hands of others and untangling everyone without letting go of their hands.

Time: 10-15 minutes

Materials: None

Participants: 6-12 individuals per group

Instruct the team members to form a circle by standing shoulder to shoulder.
Then, each person should lift their right hand and try to catch the hand of another person who is standing across the circle.
After that, each person should lift their left hand in the air and catch the hand of a different person.
Make sure that no member is holding the hand of someone who is standing directly next to them.
Ask the team members to untangle everyone without letting go of their hands.

Discuss how the employees worked together as a team to achieve this goal. What strategies did they use? How did their communication style help them in solving this problem? Encourage the employees to reflect on the importance of teamwork and collaboration.

#5. Inter-Group Problem Solving Challenge

This is one of the interesting problem solving games you can try with your employees. Here each group should create a unique problem and challenge the other groups to solve it.

Materials: None (But can use paper and pen if needed)

Participants: At least 2 people per group

Divide the participants into small groups.
Instruct each group to come up with a self-created, unique problem and write it on paper.
Now, ask each group to share their problems with the other groups and let them find the solution in a given time.
Finally, find out the best-performing group by evaluating which group created the most complicated problems and which group solved more problems.

Discuss how the groups came up with unique problems and solved the problems created by others. Encourage the group members to appreciate the efforts of each other and think about ways to improve their problem-solving skills in the future.

#6. Jigsaw Puzzle

This activity is to improve the problem solving skills of employees through discussion, negotiation, and collaboration. In this activity, participants are required to complete a puzzle with the help of others.

Materials: Jigsaw puzzle pieces and small bags

Participants: 4 or more people per team

Have a jigsaw puzzle for each team.
Split each team into 2 small sub-teams.
Divide the jigsaw puzzle and put an equal number of pieces into two different small bags.
Ask each sub-team to choose one bag.
Instruct each sub-team to assemble the puzzle within a certain time limit.

(Note: Each sub-team may think they are competing against each other, but they can’t complete the puzzle unless they discuss and collaborate with the other sub-team.)

Allow extra time for each sub-team to discuss, negotiate, and collaborate with the other sub-team and complete the puzzle.

Discuss how the teams communicated and collaborated while working on this activity. Ask them to reflect on their decision-making processes and team dynamics.

#7. Scavenger Hunt

The scavenger hunt is one of the popular problem solving exercises. The goal of this exercise is to find a list of items based on the clues given.

Materials: Clues and a list of items to find

Split the participants into several groups.
Give each group a list of items they need to find out along with certain clues.
Set a time limit for the activity.
Now, the group members should search for the items based on the clues given and get back within the allowed time limit.

Discuss the decision-making strategies used by the groups during the activity. Also, ask each group to share their experience and what they learned from the activity.

#8. Spider’s Web

The goal of this activity is to move through the spider web from one side to the other without touching it.

Materials: String, rope, or yarn to form the spider web

Participants: Any number of individuals in a group

Create a spider’s web between two trees using duct tape or Nylon cord.
Instruct the group members to stand on one side of the spider’s web.
Now, group members must travel to the other side of the web without touching it. They are not allowed to travel over, under, or around it.
If somebody touches the web, ask him to go back and restart again.

Figure out the strategies used by each group to solve this problem. Ask them how they came up with the solution and what other solutions could have been used.

#9. The Great Egg Drop

The goal of this game is to build a structure that protects the eggs while dropping from a certain height.

Materials: Cardboard, paper, tape, scissors, and eggs

Participants: Any number of members in a group

Instruct each group to find several materials to build a structure.
Give some time for each group to plan their strategy and build the structure by putting the egg inside.
Once this is done, tell them to drop the structure from at least 10 feet in height.
Check how many groups have survived their eggs successfully? If there is more than one group, then the one that utilizes fewer materials for building the structure can be declared the winner.

Compare each group’s outcomes and discuss different methods of problem solving. Also, discuss the importance of planning and being mindful of how resources are used.

#10. Toxic Waste

The goal of this activity is to neutralize toxic waste and save the world. Here each team should transfer the toxic waste from the radiation zone to the safe zone without causing any harm to its members.

Materials: Balls, Buckets, and Ropes

Participants: 3-8 members in each team

Form a circle of 8 feet in diameter with a rope and place a small bucket with balls (toxic waste) in the middle to represent the radiation zone.
Create a safe zone by placing a large bucket (neutralization bucket) around 30 feet away from the radiation zone.
Instruct the teams to neutralize the toxic waste by transferring it from the radiation zone to the safe zone within a certain time. They must maintain a safe distance from the radiation zone during this time.
Now, give the teams two ropes to transfer the toxic waste, and also allow them 5 minutes for planning. Then, they can execute their plans.
Finally, see the results.

Discuss how each team approached the task and how teamwork played a crucial role in completing it. Also, emphasize the importance of planning before executing any task.

Want Some Unique Team Building Activities?

If you want some unique activities (both in person and virtual) for your employees, you can get my new e-book:

The Busy Leader’s Guide of Unique Team Building Activities: 30 Fully Customizable Exercises That You Can Conduct with Any Group of Employees, Anywhere

Or Want Some Unique Leadership Development Activities?

If you want some unique activities to equip your employees with leadership skills, qualities, and mindset, you can get my new e-book:

The Empowering Guide of Unique Leadership Development Activities: 100 Fully Customizable Exercises That You Can Conduct with Any Group of Employees, Anywhere

Final Words

By engaging in the above activities, employees can develop their problem solving and decision making skills. Thus, it is important to include them in any team building sessions. This will not only help build trust among your employees but will also help them become better problem solvers and more effective communicators. Ultimately, this will lead to stronger teamwork and overall success for the organization.

Like this article on “Top 10 Team Building Problem Solving Activities”? Feel free to share your thoughts.

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66 team building activities to bring your team together (and have fun!)

Team building activities can make all the difference when it comes to job satisfaction , employee engagement and organizational success . But even with the best intentions, it’s not sufficient to simply bring a group of people together. Effective team building activities can help your group feel more connected and able to collaborate more effectively .

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

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What are team building activities?

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

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

What is the main purpose of a team building activity?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are the main types of team building activities?

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

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

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

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

Team building activities for work

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

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

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


30 – 60	2 – 40	Low
20 – 60	3 +	Low
10 – 30	5 +	Low
30 – 120	3 +	Low
15 – 30	5 – 20	Low
30 – 60	3 +	Low
60 – 240	2 -40	Medium
15 – 30	10 +	Low

3 Question Mingle

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

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

3 Question Mingle #hyperisland #team #get-to-know An activity to support a group to get to know each other through a set of questions that they create themselves. The activity gets participants moving around and meeting each other one-on-one. It’s useful in the early stages of team development and/or for groups to reconnect with each other after a period of time apart.

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity

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

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

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity #icebreaker #teambuilding #team #remote-friendly 9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members. There are 2 variations of this icebreaker. The first version is for teams who want to get to know each other better. The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team.

Awareness Circle

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

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

Awareness Circle #teampedia #team #icebreaker #opening This activity helps participants to get-to-know each other without saying a word.

Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity

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

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

Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity #team #icebreaker #get-to-know #teambuilding The Four Quadrants is a tried and true team building activity to break the ice with a group or team. It is EASY to prep for and set up. It can be MODIFIED to work with any group and/or topic (just change the questions). It is FUN, COLORFUL and works every time!

Just One Lie

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

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

Just One Lie #icebreaker #energiser #team #get-to-know This method is adapted from the well-known icebreaker ‘Two Truths And A Lie’ to create an activity that you could return to throughout a meeting.

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

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

Life map #team #teampedia #icebreaker #get-to-know With this activity the participants get to know each other on a deeper level.

Personal Presentation

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

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

Personal Presentations #hyperisland #team A simple exercise in which each participant prepares a personal presentation of him/herself sharing several important experiences, events, people or stories that contributed to shaping him or her as an individual. The purpose of personal presentations is to support each participant in getting to know each other as individuals and to build trust and openness in a group by enlarging the social arena.

Passions Tic Tac Toe

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

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

Passions Tic Tac Toe #get-to-know #values #icebreaker #thiagi This simple game that explores the concepts from these two quotations: “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you”. —Oprah Winfrey. “Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are.” —Penelope Lively, novelist

Quick team building activities

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

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


10 – 15	5 – 10	Low
5 – 10	5 +	Low
10 – 20	4 – 30	Low
1 – 15	5 +	Low
5 – 10	3 +	Low
5 – 10	10 – 25	Low
5 – 10	10 – 40	Medium

Best and Worst

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

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

Best and Worst #teampedia #get-to-know #opening #icebreaker #team This activity could easily break the ice at the beginning of a workshop, enabling participants to get to know each other in a fast process.

Group Order

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

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

Group Order #get-to-know #energiser #icebreaker #thiagi #team This is an energizing activity that helps members of a group get to know each other, network, and recognize what they have in common.

Happiness Exercise

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

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

Happiness exercise #teambuilding #icebreaker #warm up #remote-friendly This exercise is a simple application of the principles of Appreciative Inquiry.

Name Juggling

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

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

Name Juggling #teampedia #icebreaker #energiser #get-to-know #team Name Juggling is another variation of a try-to-learn-everyone’s-name but the game guarantees high energy level as well as some strategic thinking.

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

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

Open Fist #get-to-know #icebreaker #thiagi #team Teams work better when they find things in common. Stronger teams reduce turnover, increase pleasant interactions, and improve productivity.

Cross the Circle

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

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

Cross the Circle #teambuilding #get-to-know #energiser #team #thiagi This activity provides a playful way for participants to find commonalities among themselves.

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

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

Sync Claps #hyperisland #energiser This circle exercise is simple, but challenging and very effective for generating focus and alignment in a group. Participants stand in a circle and send a clap around the circle. Each clap involves two members of the group clapping their hands at the same time. The group tries to move the clap around the circle faster and faster with as much synchronization as possible. The exercise gets even more challenging when the “double clap” is introduced and the clap can change direction.

Fun team building activities

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

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

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

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

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


5 – 30	10 – 40	Low
5 – 10	4 +	Low
5 – 30	10 – 40	Low
5 – 20	2 +	Low
30 – 60	2 – 40	Low
20 – 40	8 – 50	Low
30 – 60	5 – 20	Low
10 – 20	5+	Low
5 – 10	4+	Low
5 – 30	10 – 40	Low
5 – 15	6 +	Low

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

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

Bang #hyperisland #energiser Bang is a group game, played in a circle, where participants must react quickly or face elimination. One person stands in the middle of the circle as “the sheriff”, pointing at other players who must quickly crouch while those on either side of them quickly “draw”. A good activity to generate laughter in a group. It can also help with name-learning for groups getting to know each other.

Build-a-Shake

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

Build-a-Shake #teampedia #energiser #get-to-know #opening #team How to introduce yourself in a fun, creative way? Build a handshake!

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

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

Count Up #hyperisland #team #energiser #remote-friendly In this short exercise, a group must count up to a certain number, taking turns in a random order, with no two people speaking at the same time. The task is simple, however, it takes focus, calm and awareness to succeed. The exercise is effective to generate calm and focused collective energy in a group.

Follow the Leader

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

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

Follow the Follower #zoom #virtual #physical #teambuilding #connection #energiser #opening #remote-friendly #ericamarxcoaching One person is designated as the leader. Others copy exactly how the leader moves. The leader calls on a new person to be the leader, and so on. Follow the follower variation is when the leading gets passed to the entire group and no single person is leading.

Portrait Gallery

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

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

Portrait Gallery #hyperisland #team #icebreaker The Portrait Gallery is an energetic and fun icebreaker game that gets participants interacting by having the group collaboratively draw portraits of each member. The activity builds a sense of group because it results with each participant having a portrait drawn of him/herself by the other members of the group together. It also has a very colourful visual outcome: the set of portraits which can be posted in the space.

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

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

Snowball #get-to-know #opening #energiser #teambuilding #team This is a great activity to get people up and moving around in a playful way while still learning about each other. It can be related to any topic and be played at any time during the group’s life.

Celebrity Party

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

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

Celebrity Party #teampedia #icebreaker #communication #diversity #team #action Great activity to help people warm up in a new environment.

Non-verbal improv

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

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

Non-verbal improv #improv game #energiser #fun #remote-friendly An improv game where participants must use non-verbal communication and actions to communicate a phrase or an idea to other players. A fun game that’s a great way to open a discussion on better communication!

Rock, Paper, Scissors (Tournament)

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

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

Rock, Paper, Scissors (Tournament) #energiser #warm up #remote-friendly This is a fun and loud energiser based on the well-known “Rock, Paper, Scissor” game – with a twist: the losing players become the fan of the winners as the winner advances to the next round. This goes on until a final showdown with two large cheering crowds! It can be played with adults of all levels as well as kids and it always works!

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

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

The Viking #hyperisland #energiser In this group game, players stand in a circle and perform a series of loud physical moves, passing from one person to the next. When a player hesitates or makes a mistake, he or she is eliminated and the game continues. The game generates laughter and playfulness in the group.

Wink Murder

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

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

Wink Murder #icebreaker #energizer #group game #team #teambuilding A fun energizer where one player must try and eliminate the rest of the team by winking – all without being caught.

Corporate team building activities

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

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

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


10 – 20	6 – 12	Low
30 – 90	2 – 40	Medium
40 – 60	6 – 12	Low
20 – 45	6 – 50	Medium
10 +	2 +	Low
60 – 120	2 – 40	Low
10 – 15	15 – 50	Low
15 – 30	7+	Low

Appreciations Exercise

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

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

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

Appreciations Exercise #team #appreciation #self esteem #remote-friendly When you hear about your strengths from others and acknowledge them to yourself, this builds your motivation and self-confidence. If you do this at the end of a workshop, you go away feeling good about yourself and your colleagues too.

Cover Story

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

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

Cover Story #gamestorming #idea generation #organizational development #vision #strategy Cover Story is a game about pure imagination. The purpose is to think expansively around an ideal future state for the organization; it’s an exercise in visioning. The object of the game is to suspend all disbelief and envision a future state that is so stellar that it landed your organization on the cover of a well-known magazine

Coat of Arms

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

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

Coat of Arms #teambuilding #opening #icebreaker #team #get-to-know #thiagi Coat of Arms exercise provides a way for participants to introduce themselves and their colleagues, particularly for groups who think they already know each other very well. Almost invariably participants discover something about their colleagues of which they previously had no idea. Occasionally this revelation has an immediate and direct application to another participant’s current project or challenge.Because this activity forces people to use drawings rather than words, it is particularly useful as a dual-purpose introductory exercise in training sessions that deal with such topics as innovation, creativity, and problem-solving.

My Favourite Manager

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

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

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

Who are you? The Pirate Ship exercise

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

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

Who are you? The pirate ship exercise (dinámica del barco pirata) #team alignment #team #remote-friendly #teamwork #warm up #icebreaker This an easy but powerful exercise to open a meeting or session and get participants to reflect on their attitudes or feelings about a topic, in the organization, team, or in the project.

History Map

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

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

History Map #hyperisland #team #review #remote-friendly The main purpose of this activity is to remind and reflect on what group members or participants have been through and to create a collective experience and shared story. Every individual will gain a shared idea of what the group has been through together. Use this exercise at the end of a project or program as a way to reinforce learnings, celebrate highlights and create closure.

Birds of a Feather

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

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

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

Birds of a Feather #teamwork #diversity #team #creativity #thiagi Participants naturally want to form groups with common characteristics. This exercise illustrates how diverse groups have access to more resources and provide a greater variety of solutions. Each person is given an index card with a letter on it, and then asked to form a group of five people. Participants assume that they should get into groups with others who have the same letter. However, when the facilitator asks them to form the longest word possible with the letter cards, they realize that it would have been more beneficial to have created a diverse group.

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

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

Human Knot A physical-participation disentanglement puzzle that helps a group learn how to work together (self-organize) and can be used to illustrate the difference between self-organization and command-control management or simply as a get-to-know-you icebreaker. Standing in a circle, group members reach across to connect hands with different people. The group then tries to unravel the “human knot” by unthreading their bodies without letting go of each other people’s hands. As a management-awareness game to illustrate required change in behavior and leadership on a management level (e.g., illustrate the change from ‘task-oriented’ management towards ‘goal/value-oriented’ management).

Team building activities for small groups

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

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

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


60 – 120	2 – 40	Medium
35 – 45	4 +	Low
60 – 120	2 – 40	Medium
15 +	4 +	Low
40 – 60	5 – 40	Low
20 +	2 +	Medium
55 – 70	10 +	Low

Conflict Responses

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

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

Conflict Responses #hyperisland #team #issue resolution A workshop for a team to reflect on past conflicts, and use them to generate guidelines for effective conflict handling. The workshop uses the Thomas-Killman model of conflict responses to frame a reflective discussion. Use it to open up a discussion around conflict with a team.

Heard, Seen, Respected

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

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

Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR) #issue analysis #empathy #communication #liberating structures #remote-friendly You can foster the empathetic capacity of participants to “walk in the shoes” of others. Many situations do not have immediate answers or clear resolutions. Recognizing these situations and responding with empathy can improve the “cultural climate” and build trust among group members. HSR helps individuals learn to respond in ways that do not overpromise or overcontrol. It helps members of a group notice unwanted patterns and work together on shifting to more productive interactions. Participants experience the practice of more compassion and the benefits it engenders.

Myers-Briggs Team Reflection

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

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

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

Myers-Briggs Team Reflection #team #hyperisland A workshop to explore personal traits and interpersonal relations using the Myers-Briggs personalities model. Use this tool to go deeper with your team to understand more about yourselves and each other on personal and professional levels.

Strength Building exercise

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

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

Strength Building exercise #team #appreciation #self esteem #remote-friendly People develop confidence and self esteem as they discover that their achievements and skills are valuable. This is an exercise for team building and for increasing self esteem and mutual trust.

Strength Envelopes

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

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

Strength Envelopes #appreciation #self-awareness #feedback #team #thiagi #teambuilding #action This activity helps working teams to discover and share individual strengths and to increase their engagement by structuring their jobs around these strengths. Suitable for people who work together (for example, members of an intact work team) organized into playgroups of 5 to 9 members.

Team of Two

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

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

Team of Two #communication #active listening #issue analysis #conflict resolution #issue resolution #remote-friendly #team Much of the business of an organisation takes place between pairs of people. These interactions can be positive and developing or frustrating and destructive. You can improve them using simple methods, providing people are willing to listen to each other. “Team of two” will work between secretaries and managers, managers and directors, consultants and clients or engineers working on a job together. It will even work between life partners.

What I Need From You (WINFY)

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

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

What I Need From You (WINFY) #issue analysis #liberating structures #team #communication #remote-friendly People working in different functions and disciplines can quickly improve how they ask each other for what they need to be successful. You can mend misunderstandings or dissolve prejudices developed over time by demystifying what group members need in order to achieve common goals. Since participants articulate core needs to others and each person involved in the exchange is given the chance to respond, you boost clarity, integrity, and transparency while promoting cohesion and coordination across silos: you can put Humpty Dumpty back together again!

Team building games for problem solving

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

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

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

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


40 – 45	4 – 20	Low
60 – 120	10 – 40	Medium
10 – 20	5 +	Low
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60 – 120	10 – 40	Medium
45 – 60	6 – 100	Medium
15 – 30	6 – 20	Low
10 – 15	5 +	Low
30 – 45	5 – 50	Medium

Blind Square – Rope Game

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

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

Blind Square – Rope game #teamwork #communication #teambuilding #team #energiser #thiagi #outdoor This is an activity that I use in almost every teambuilding session I run–because it delivers results every time. I can take no credit for its invention since it has existed from long before my time, in various forms and with a variety of names (such as Blind Polygon). The activity can be frontloaded to focus on particular issues by changing a few parameters or altering the instructions.

Crocodile River

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

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

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

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

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

Egg drop #teampedia #collaboration #teamwork #icebreaker #team This fun activity could be used as an icebreaker for people who have just met but it can be framed as a method that shows and fosters team communication, collaboration and strategic thinking as well.

Helium Stick

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

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

Helium Stick #teampedia #team #teamwork #icebreaker #energiser A great and simple activity for fostering teamwork and problem solving with no setup beforehand.

Lego Challenge

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

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

LEGO Challenge #hyperisland #team A team-building activity in which groups must work together to build a structure out of LEGO, but each individual has a secret “assignment” which makes the collaborative process more challenging. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy.

Marshmallow Challenge with Debriefing

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

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

Marshmallow challenge with debriefing #teamwork #team #leadership #collaboration In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top. The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world. Visit the Marshmallow Challenge website for more information. This version has an extra debriefing question added with sample questions focusing on roles within the team.

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

Spider web #team #teampedia #warm up #outdoor #physical This is an active team building game and requires participants to move about a lot and so can be also used as an energiser.

Stress Balls

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

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

Stress Balls #energiser #communication #teamwork #team #thiagi #action #icebreaker Understanding the importance of communication and teamwork is an important requirement for high performance teams of knowledge workers. This exercise is an effective energizer that requires communication and teamwork. Ask participants to form a circle and throw a ball around to simulate the movement of a message. Change different variables such as speed, quantity, and complexity to create a mess.

Scavenger Hunt

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

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

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

Virtual scavenger hunt #energiser #teambuilding #remote-friendly A fun team-building energiser that encourages groups to recreate the scavenger hunt experience in a fully remote environment!

Team bonding activities

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

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

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


20 – 40	4+	Low
60 – 120	2 – 40	Medium
20 – 30	2 – 100	Medium
60 – 120	2 – 40	High
40+	2 – 40	High
10 – 30	4+	Low

Trust Battery

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

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

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

Telling Our Stories

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

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

Telling Our Stories #hyperisland #team #teambuilding To work effectively together team members need to build relations, show trust, and be open with each other. This method supports those things through a process of structured storytelling. Team members answer questions related to their childhood, young adulthood, and now; then weave them into a story to share with the rest of their team.

Better Connections

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

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

Better Connections #interpersonal relationships #teambuilding #team #connection #thiagi #get-to-know We build a stronger relationship with people when we see them as human beings with whom we share similarities in terms of family and life situations. It is very difficult to form strong relationships with people about whom we know very little.We feel more connected to “full” people. For example, take John, the accountant. If I think of John as an accountant, I might put him into a box of what I think I know about accountants. I might not feel connected to accountants and will treat him accordingly. But when I think of John as a keen mountain climber and outdoor adventurer with two children, one of whom is graduating from university next month, then John becomes human to me, and I can feel connected to him.

Feedback: Current Strongest Impression

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

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

Feedback: Current Strongest Impression #hyperisland #skills #feedback Regular, effective feedback is one of the most important ingredients in building constructive relationships and thriving teams. Openness creates trust and trust creates more openness. Feedback exercises aim to support groups to build trust and openness and for individuals to gain self-awareness and insight. Feedback exercises should always be conducted with thoughtfulness and high awareness of group dynamics. This is a good first feedback exercise. It supports individuals to try out giving and receiving a very basic form of feedback in a safe way.

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

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

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

Trust #thiagi #issue analysis #trust One of the most important concepts in the workplace is trust. It affects performance, informal and formal relations, atmosphere of the workplace etc. With this activitiy you cn discover what one thinks about trust.

Translated Rant

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

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

Translated Rant #active listening #emotions #values #trust #conflict #introductions #opening #connection One person rants for 60 seconds. The second person translates their rant into what they care about and value.

Team building exercises for purpose and alignment

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

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

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


60 – 120	2 – 40	High
60 – 120	2 – 40	Medium
20 – 25	5 +	Medium
90 – 150	2 – 8	Medium
60 – 120	2 – 10	Medium
60 – 120	6 – 30	Low
60 – 240	2 – 10	Medium

Alignment & Autonomy

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

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

Alignment & Autonomy #team #team alignment #team effectiveness #hyperisland A workshop to support teams to reflect on and ultimately increase their alignment with purpose/goals and team member autonomy. Inspired by Peter Smith’s model of personal responsibility. Use this workshop to strengthen a culture of personal responsibility and build your team’s ability to adapt quickly and navigate change.

Engineering Your Team OS

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

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

Engineering Your Team OS #team #hyperisland This is designed to work as a standalone workshop or as a companion to the Team Self-Assessment tool . Using reflections and insights on your working process, your team will ‘update’ its operating system by making deliberate choices about how to work together. The goal is gradual development, not a radical shift. You will design an ideal-state for your team and slowly work towards that.

Generative Relationships STAR

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

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

Generative Relationships STAR #team #liberating structures #teamwork You can help a group of people understand how they work together and identify changes that they can make to improve group performance. All members of the group diagnose current relationship patterns and decide how to follow up with action steps together, without intermediaries. The STAR compass tool helps group members understand what makes their relationships more or less generative. The compass used in the initial diagnosis can also be used later to evaluate progress in developing relationships that are more generative.

Team Canvas Session

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

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

Team Canvas Session #team alignment #teamwork #conflict resolution #feedback #teambuilding #team #issue resolution #remote-friendly The Team Canvas is Business Model Canvas for teamwork. It is an effective technique to facilitate getting teams aligned about their goals, values and purposes, and help team members find their role on the team.

Team Self Assessment

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

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

Team Self-Assessment #team #hyperisland #remote-friendly This is a structured process designed for teams to explore the way they work together. The tight structure supports team members to be open and honest in their assessment. After reflecting as individuals, the team builds a collective map which can serve as the basis for further discussions and actions. The assessment is based around 6 dimensions. Each one encouraging the team to reflect and analyse a different and crucial element of their behaviour.

Letter from the Future

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

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

Letter from the Future #strategy #vision #thiagi #team #teamwork Teams that fail to develop a shared vision of what they are all about and what they need to do suffer later on when team members start implementing the common mandate based on individual assumptions. To help teams get started on the right foot, here is a process for creating a shared vision.

Team Purpose & Culture

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

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

Team Purpose & Culture #team #hyperisland #culture #remote-friendly This is an essential process designed to help teams define their purpose (why they exist) and their culture (how they work together to achieve that purpose). Defining these two things will help any team to be more focused and aligned. With support of tangible examples from other companies, the team members work as individuals and a group to codify the way they work together. The goal is a visual manifestation of both the purpose and culture that can be put up in the team’s work space.

Checkout and recap activities for your team building workshop

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

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

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

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



5 – 30	2 – 40	Low
20 – 45	10 – 30	Low
5 – 15	2 – 20	Low

Check-in / Check-out

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

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

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

Check-in / Check-out #team #opening #closing #hyperisland #remote-friendly Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure.

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

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

Bus Trip #feedback #communication #appreciation #closing #thiagi #team This is one of my favourite feedback games. I use Bus Trip at the end of a training session or a meeting, and I use it all the time. The game creates a massive amount of energy with lots of smiles, laughs, and sometimes even a teardrop or two.

One Breath Feedback

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

One breath feedback #closing #feedback #action This is a feedback round in just one breath that excels in maintaining attention: each participants is able to speak during just one breath … for most people that’s around 20 to 25 seconds … unless of course you’ve been a deep sea diver in which case you’ll be able to do it for longer.

Team building workshop templates

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

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

Team development day for a new team

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

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

Team Development Day for a New Team

Emotional Culture Workshop

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

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

Team Dynamics Workshop

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

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

Team Dynamics Workshop Template

Team building sessions made easy

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

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

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

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

Over to you

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

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

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

James Smart is Head of Content at SessionLab. He’s also a creative facilitator who has run workshops and designed courses for establishments like the National Centre for Writing, UK. He especially enjoys working with young people and empowering others in their creative practice.

Hey there, Thank you so much for sharing this interesting stuff ! I will share these ideas with my HR Departments. And I am sure this blog will be very interesting for me. Keep posting your ideas!

All the training techniques have been well thought pit, planned and illustrated with tangible objectives which in itself is incredible to say the least. Have learnt so much which O shall incorporate and refine in my Workshops…Than you Team Session Lab

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7 Strategies to Build a More Resilient Team

Keith Ferrazzi,
Mary-Clare Race,
Alex Vincent

You need a foundation of trust, transparency, and self-awareness.

The coronavirus pandemic revealed the necessity of resilient teams — as well as which teams didn’t have the necessary skills. Resilience requires a level of self-awareness and empathy that may not come naturally to all team members. Leaders must assess the state of their teams, identify weak spots and then deliver strategies that will help team members break down barriers and build foundations of trust, transparency and self-awareness. The article offers seven practices to help foster team resiliency.

Announcing Q4 results that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, Apple CEO Tim Cook identified resilient, high-functioning teams as a key element that fortified the company in the midst of the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges.

“Even though we’re apart, it’s been obvious this year that around the company, teams and colleagues have been leaning on and counting on each other more than in normal times,” Cook said. “I think that instinct, that resilience has been an essential part of how we have navigated this year.”

The pressure for teams to be resilient is more urgent than ever as we’re entering a new year with new quarterly targets and milestones. Unfortunately, for every Apple there are just as many — if not more — examples of organizations that discovered, after the pandemic struck, that their teams did not have the necessary skills. That has left many business leaders wondering what they can do now to build resilience.

To start, leaders need to ask some tough questions to determine whether their teams have what it takes to qualify as truly resilient.

Through our research and experience coaching leading executive teams, LHH and Ferrazzi Greenlight have identified four critical characteristics of resilient teams: candor, resourcefulness, compassion, and humility.

Candor: Is your team able to have open, honest dialogue and feedback with each other? Resilient teams are able to speak truth to each other in order to collectively identify and solve for the challenges they face.
Resourcefulness: When faced with challenges or problems, can your team pull together to build creative and effective solutions? Resilient teams rebound from setbacks and welcome new challenges. They devote their energy to solutions and remain focused on outcomes regardless of external conditions.
Compassion and Empathy: Do your team members truly care for each other and share both success and failure? Resilient teams consist of individuals who deeply and genuinely care about each other. Resilience is often expressed in deep commitment to “co-elevating” the team rather than seeking individual recognition or success.
Humility: Can your team ask for and accept help from other team members? Resilient teams are willing to admit when a problem has become intractable and ask for help, either from someone else on the team or someone else in the organization. They do not hide their struggles but lean into the group responsibility for facing challenges and finding solutions.

If these are some of the core qualities and values of a resilient team, that still leaves open the question about what to do if your team is suffering from a resilience deficit.

Resilience requires a level of self-awareness and empathy that may not come naturally to all team members. Leaders must assess the state of their teams, identify weak spots and then deliver strategies that will help team members break down barriers and build foundations of trust, transparency and self-awareness.

Our GoForwardToWork.com initiative, for which we spoke to hundreds of executives, identified a set of interventions leaders can use to build resilient teams that we call High-Return Practices™.

While there are many practices that may foster your team’s resilience, here are some that we recommend:

Candor Breaks : Psychological safety — the belief that any team member can speak out without consequences — is crucial to creating resilient teams. When it feels like there’s an elephant in the room, leaders of high-performing teams create what we call “candor breaks” to encourage team members to share their thoughts and feelings.

At Ferrazzi Greenlight, we also refer to these as “Yoda in the room” moments. Any team member can call one and if necessary, we break into smaller groups (using breakout rooms if the meeting is virtual) to further encourage frank and honest discussion.

Independent Observers : To help team members embrace frank assessments of their work, resilient leaders invite outside experts to offer an objective perspective on issues/team dynamics.

Story Sharing : To foster participation, trust, and engagement, leaders of resilient teams often encourage team members to map out their life’s journey, including highs and lows, and share highlights with the rest of the team. In being vulnerable, the team creates an environment where compassion and humility are welcomed.

Owning Challenges : Resilient teams express their fears and concerns with each other. To build trust and honesty, leaders must facilitate this process and encourage people to admit fears or relationship challenges and canvass the team for solutions.

For example, a facilitator can ask each team member to express their feelings about the state of the team, and what problems exist. The facilitator should encourage team members to “own” their part in any existing problems and not resort to blaming other teammates.

Show That You Care : Leaders have to regularly demonstrate that they are genuinely interested in the progress the team is making, asking probing questions to understand underlying issues.

But asking is only half the equation: Resilient leaders must also listen carefully to the answers they get from team members. This is where a resilience deficit will be revealed.

Temperature Checks : At the beginning of every meeting, ask everyone to state their energy levels on a scale of one (low) to five (high). This simple and fast exercise that will quickly determine whether there is someone who needs attention or is outside their normal range of fatigue and frustration.

Commit to Building Each Other’s Resilience : We call this “co-elevation.” It’s essential to establish clear and unambiguous expectations around team unity and peer-to-peer support. Any hesitation or reluctance to help a struggling colleague is a sign that deeper interventions may be needed.

Ultimately, team resilience is similar to a battery. It needs to be restored and recharged regularly. Teams that put in place measures to do that will find that they are better equipped and – more importantly – willing to undertake any challenge throughout the pandemic and beyond.

KF Keith Ferrazzi is the chair and founder of Ferrazzi Greenlight, a Los Angeles–based global teams consulting and coaching firm, and a coauthor of Competing in the New World of Work: How Radical Adaptability Separates the Best from the Rest (Harvard Business Review Press, 2022).
MR Mary-Clare Race is chief innovation and product officer at LHH, a global leadership training firm.
AV Alex Vincent is senior vice president for global leadership solutions at LHH, a global leadership training firm.

Partner Center

STEM Index Card Tower Challenge Easy Prep Project & Elementary Team Building

What educators are saying

Also included in.

Description

This easy prep STEM Activity is surprisingly challenging! Students will have a fantastic engineering opportunity through problem-solving . Index Card Towers show your students how to persevere and redesign based on their initial thinking and planning (plus the towers are fun to build!) The best part is that your prep includes one basic material and the students take over from there.

Just stand back and watch them brainstorm and build incredibly tall towers. They will groan when the tower falls, dive right back in, and build it again. Be ready for the cheering when it works!

What is the challenge?

This STEM activity will have your students designing and constructing a tower with one or two supplies.
They must work together and revise constantly.
Their initial thinking will be challenged as they see their efforts collapse (literally) and then they will go back to the drawing board.

The Teacher's Guide

The lesson guide provides a materials list and step-by-step procedures to make this a great experience.
Helpful hints are embedded throughout the teacher's guide to help you plan.
Two versions of lab sheets are provided (with sample student answers).
Two pages of photos will guide the use of the package.
An Extensions page gives ideas for continuing the activity as a whole class or in your science/math centers.
A BONUS version of this challenge is included. (And it's in 2 formats!)

What is your prep?

Materials needed in addition to this package include index cards, masking tape, and scissors. The tape is optional . This challenge has the easiest setup! Copy the lab sheet of your choice, give each team a set of lab sheets, and a stack of cards.

The package specifically contains:

Teacher Background page
Materials and Preparation page
4 pages of Step-by-Step Procedures
Extensions page
2 versions of Lab sheets with sample student answers
2 pages of Photos
Bonus challenge to try at Christmas Time with a Santa Tower!
Terms of Use

PLEASE NOTE: This challenge pack contains a bonus lesson ! Check the preview to see the Santa Tower Challenge. It is an index card tower challenge with something added to the top. This is perfect for use at Christmas time! Directions, helpful hints, constraints, a lab sheet, and photos of the Santa Tower are all included in this package. If you want to try holding aloft a different object I included a set of generic forms for you!

What are teachers saying?

" This activity was so much fun! The student groups had a lot of fun and they learned to problem-solve, listen to each other and work together. Our tallest structure was almost 4 feet tall and did not use tape! It was fascinating to watch them construct it. Thank you for this activity."
"Thank you for all the detail included with this activity. Easy and fun to use!"
"What a great STEM challenge! My students loved this activity and worked well in groups too! I love how everything is provided for you and laid out clearly. Great work!"

➡️ Click here to save 20% on this STEM Challenge and 2 additional tower-building activities!

➡️ The Index Card Tower Challenge is also included in these bundles:

STEM Challenges Best Seller Bundle #1
STEM Challenges 6-Pack Bundle featuring Towers

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IMAGES

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Humility: Can your team ask for and accept help from other team members? Resilient teams are willing to admit when a problem has become intractable and ask for help, either from someone else on ...
STEM Index Card Tower Challenge Easy Prep Project & Elementary Team
This easy prep STEM Activity is surprisingly challenging! Students will have a fantastic engineering opportunity through problem-solving.Index Card Towers show your students how to persevere and redesign based on their initial thinking and planning (plus the towers are fun to build!) The best part is that your prep includes one basic material and the students take over from there.

	🙋🏻‍♀️ Survey says, your team will love this
	🔐 A virtual escape room experience
	🔪 Can you solve the crime before it’s too late
	🕹 The ultimate team challenge
	❓ Time to wager your trivia knowledge

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Popular Problem Solving Activities

2. Problem-Solving Templates

Problem Solving Group Activities & Games For Team Building

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5. Catch Meme If You Can

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8. Stranded

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10. Wild Goose Chase

11. Human Knot

12. What Would You Do?

13. Crossing The River

14. End-Hunger Games

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What Are Problem Solving Activities?

13 Easy Activities For Problem-Solving Ideas to Enhance Team Collaboration

#1. Crossword Puzzles

#2. A Shrinking Vessel

#3. Human Knots

#4. Egg Drop

#5. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

#8. Frostbite for Group Problem Solving Activities

#9. Dumbest Idea First

#10: Legoman

#11: Minefield

#12: Reverse Pyramid

#13: Stranded

Types of Problem-Solving Activities

Creative Problem-Solving Activities

Group Problem-Solving Activities

Individual Problem-Solving Activities

Fun Problem-Solving Activities

Team Problems You Can Address Through Problem Solving Activities

The Benefits of Problem Solving Activities for Your Team

#1 Better Thinking

#2 Better Risk Handling

#3 Better Communication

#4 Improved Productivity Output

How Onethread Enhances the Effect of Problem Solving Activities

What are the 5 problem-solving skills?

What are the steps of problem-solving?

How do you teach problem-solving skills?

Let's Get Started with Onethread

15 Team Building Problem Solving Activities for Work

1. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

2. Egg Drop

3. Minefield

4. Reverse Pyramid

5. Cardboard Boat Building Challenge

6. Lost at Sea

7. Escape Room

8. Code Break

9. Murder Mystery

10. Wild Goose Chase

11. Shrinking Vessel

12. Dumbest Idea First

13. What Would X Do

14. Domino Effect Challenge