Whether it’s to kick off a team meeting or to help you get to know your colleagues a little better, great team building activities and icebreakers can help you encourage the team to build connections.
Team building events and icebreaker games are exercises that help to encourage conversations between team members and allow them to get to know each other in a fun and informal setting.
There are many different types of team building activities and ice-breakers that you could use within meetings or as an entirely separate event within itself to make it all the more exciting and immersive. Whatever type of activities work for you we have made a list of icebreakers to help to inspire you and your team’s creativity and skill sets.
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20 Fun Icebreaking Team Building Activities to Energise New Teams
Around The World In 80 Minutes
The perfect team building activity and icebreaker for teams of all sizes and is a great way for new teams to work together and demonstrate their skill sets. Around The World is a treasure hunt activity where teams will complete an interactive map by visiting each country and answering trivia questions or completing country-based tasks.
Bonus tasks are available to complete throughout the activity for teams to earn extra points. An interactive scoreboard brings everything together adding excitement and a competitive element to the task. This team building icebreaker activity is perfect for getting your teams to communicate and work as one unit.
Office Wellbeing Sessions
Our office well-being session is a calm and stress-free team building activity and icebreaker. It allows your team to focus on their mental and physical well-being and encourages team members to support one another. Incorporating activities such as meditation, mindfulness and yoga this is the perfect activity to get your team prepared for handling new challenges within the workplace and for bringing everyone closer together.
An office well-being event can do wonders for your team’s state of mind with simple but highly effective de-stressing techniques that everyone can learn and use themselves. If your staff can individually master their mental health and feel less stressed, it can only be positive for the workplace atmosphere and team communication.
Team Quiz
The best thing about organising a team quiz as a team building activity or icebreaker is that a team quiz takes very little preparation to put together, it is fun and can be completed by team members individually or in smaller teams depending on how you wish the event to run.
A quiz can also be themed for a more seasonal atmosphere making this team building activity and icebreaker completely adaptable so that you can make the most of it and ensure that it will work for your timescale and the needs of your team members. If you want to take the stress out of planning a team quiz, Team Tactics also offers a team quiz event if you want to execute this team building activity on a large scale.
A Charitable Event
If you want to add to your team building efforts then it may be a good idea to incorporate a charitable element into the activity. Your team will enjoy giving back to a good cause and they will spend the time getting to know each other depending on the activity you choose. The team can also demonstrate their skills.
This event could be anything you fancy, from community volunteering to carrying out a specific task for a charity of your choosing. For example, Team Tactics offer a Wheels For Walkies event in which teams help to build wheeled walking frames to aid dogs with mobility issues.
Hometown Maps
Hometown Maps is a great team building activity and icebreaker that can be quite quick or extended depending on the time you have to dedicate to a team building activity or icebreaker and the size of your team. In this activity, large maps of specific towns and cities cover the room. Team members then place a pin or a person’s picture in the place where they guess another team member to be from. Points are offered to the team members who get the closest to the actual location of each team member. Participants can also offer clues before others make their guesses or give additional details upon revealing their hometown location.
This team building activity and icebreaker is the perfect fit for teams of all sizes and for teams who may be new to one another, it can also be adapted to your needs in terms of time the activity takes and how much information is offered within the session to encourage conversations between the participants.
Baby Photos
This team building activity or icebreaker activity does require a bit of preparation. You should send out a request for baby or toddler photos from each team member, the choice is up to them, they can either bring in a physical photo in or simply snap a picture of their baby photo and email it in to you.
Once you’ve compiled the photos you can place them all up on a board or a PowerPoint slide, numbering each one. Team members then must guess which baby or toddler photo belongs to which of their colleagues by writing a name beside the corresponding number, the person who gets the most correct guesses is the winner. This is a great team building activity and icebreaker activity as it is really easy to set up and a lot of fun for your team members to take part in.
Clue Done It?
Our Team Tactics ‘Clue Done It?’ team building activity and icebreaker is your very own Cluedo event. Taking on information from various puzzles, clues, and forensic evidence, your team members will work together to reconstruct the crime scene and ultimately determine the perpetrator of the crime. Our ‘experts in Crime Scene Investigation’ will guide the teams through the skills needed to unravel the mystery, while our trainer will facilitate leadership roles to test the team’s ability to work together successfully.
Balloon Pop
In this team building icebreaker, team members will write questions on pieces of paper that they’d like people in the group to answer. Questions are then put into balloons which are then blown up. Team members should then take turns to pop the various balloons, once popped they can collect and answer the question inside the balloon and share their responses with the group. This activity is quick to prepare for and is great for colleagues who may be meeting for the first time to allow them to get to know each other a little better.
Two Truths One Lie
Two Truths and a Lie is a classic team building activity and a common icebreaker for new teams. It requires almost no preparation as you begin the activity by simply asking team members to share two true facts about themselves and one lie about themselves to the group. Other participants must then ask questions about each of the ‘facts’ and deduce which of the three ‘facts’ is the lie.
This is a brilliant activity to get your team members communicating effectively, working together and finding out new things about each other. It also allows participants to share as much or as little as they like, giving them the power to control the overall tone of the team building activity.
Name That Tune
Another very simple and easy-to-prepare team building activity and icebreaker for your team is Name That Tune. All this activity requires is for you to prepare a playlist of clips of a variety of songs for you to play to your team, the team members must then guess the name of the song.
This is a very adaptable icebreaking activity as you can make it as easy or as difficult as you wish by shortening or lengthening the sound clips of the songs or you can pick lesser-known songs if you really want to provide a challenge. Offering clues such as pictures or facts about the song can also add to the overall fun of this activity.
One-Word Story
This is a very quick and easy activity for you to do with your new team members that is great fun and easy to adapt depending on the time you have to spend on the activity. Team members take turns to add just one word at a time to a narrative to create a collective story. The team can decide on a theme for the story if they like or they can just improvise – the results can often be quite unpredictable and hilarious.
This team building activity and icebreaker game can be a brilliant way to encourage teamwork and communication within the group. Having a laugh together will help the team to bond with one another and form relationships.
Desert Island
This team building icebreaker is very simple. Your team members must imagine that they have been trapped on a desert island and only have one item that they can bring with them. They must share with their fellow team members what that one item would be and their reasons for bringing this item with them to the island.
This game is the perfect way for your team members to get to know each other and you can reuse this game again and again simply by changing the theme to be something more specific. This can include something like ‘desert island discs’, where team members choose one piece of music to take with them to the island, or ‘desert island sandwiches’ where team members must choose one sandwich filling to eat for the duration of their time on the island. There are lots of ways you can change this game to encourage team members to share information about themselves in order for the team to bond and get to know each other well.
Picture This
This team building activity sees team members drawing a picture that represents them as a person. Other members of the team must then guess which picture aligns with each team member. This is the ultimate guessing game and not only allows the team to get to know each other but also allows them to be introspective and learn more about themselves too.
The Dragon’s Apprentice
Another of our own team building icebreakers is ‘The Dragon’s Apprentice’, which has been inspired by the two reality TV shows ‘Dragon’s Den’ and ‘The Apprentice.’ This activity is ideal for creative groups or sales teams, great for those keen on improving their communication, presentation, and problem-solving skills.
Working together in groups, team members will have to come up with an alternative use of weird household objects. Each team will then have 30 minutes to work on their presentation to try and sell their item with a new use to the judges. This is the ultimate team building activity to encourage communication, teamwork and innovation skills, all of which are important skills to have in a workplace environment.
The Marshmallow Tower
The Marshmallow Tower is one of the most fun team building activities and icebreaker games for work. To start the exercise, split your team into small groups (even pairs will work) and give each group 20 sticks of dry spaghetti, three feet of tape, three feet of string, and one marshmallow. Each group will then have 20 minutes to build the tallest structure they can with the marshmallow on top. Once the challenge is complete, have the group discuss what part of the exercise was the most difficult, who failed at first, how they recovered, and what they thought of the other designs.
This is a great way for teams to work together and assess their skill sets, and what areas they could improve on. It is a good way to encourage teams to give and receive feedback which in turn will help them to work together as an honest and collective unit.
Myers-Briggs Session
One of the more popular personality tests is the Myers-Briggs Test, which matches people with a personality type that is denoted by four letters. Each personality type reveals what you are like in relationships, in the workplace, and even as a parent. A Myers-Briggs Session utilises this test to prompt a discussion that reveals more about your team members’ characters. The only preparation needed is to send the Myers-Briggs test to your team members to complete. Then, during a set time, everyone can get together to discuss their results and their personalities.
A Myers-Briggs Session is a fun team building activity and acts as an icebreaker to get people talking about themselves and how they work best with others this will help the team to think introspectively and learn more about themselves and others.
Jenga Questions
This team building activity is an icebreaker game that is ideal for new teams. In this activity, your team will play Jenga while also answering questions. Depending on whether you have a standard or giant Jenga set, either write numbers that correspond with questions or the actual questions on each brick. As each team member withdraws a brick, they answer the question that is associated with it. Jenga Questions bring a sense of unpredictability which helps to create a spontaneous, easygoing environment for each of the team members to share information about themselves.
Show & Tell
This team building activity is a brilliant way to help new teams become more familiar with one another. The idea is very simple and requires very little preparation, each team member gets the chance to showcase something that they are passionate about that can either be an object or a topic that they are interested in. They then have a set amount of time to discuss this with the rest of the team and tell them about their passions.
You could try to make this activity a part of a group routine at the start of every team meeting for bonus points. Creating this habit gives less confident team members the chance to share their stories and it is also a great way to improve the team’s presentation skills and learn how to handle prolonged attention and answer tricky questions.
Have You Ever
Have You Ever is an exciting and fun, fast-paced team building icebreaker activity. With little preparation, this can be reused again and again in many other team building sessions or meetings and as it is wrapped up quickly could be a nice way to begin or wind down a meeting. All you need to do is to prepare a list of questions which can only be answered with yes or no, they can be along the lines of experiences, for example, ‘Have you ever been a team leader?’ or can be a little more fun depending on the tone of the session you wish to run. All team members have to do is to stand up if their answer to your questions is yes. If you like, team members who are left standing can then share their experiences with the rest of the team.
Line Up
This team building activity helps to promote non-verbal communication skills within the team. For this activity players must organise themselves into a line based on specific criteria such as height or age etc but they must organise themselves without speaking to one another. This is a fun, fast and easy icebreaker activity for new teams to help them to get to know one another and improve their communication skills.
What Is The Purpose Of Icebreaker Games?
When done correctly, icebreaker activities can help to quickly build a sense of community and team spirit and help to set the tone for upcoming work giving participants ownership over their learning. Icebreakers are also a great way for people to share their expectations and for facilitators to introduce the topic of the day through the game. It also helps team members to loosen up, gain an understanding of one another and enable team collaboration. An icebreaker event is a great way to energise a team and keep everyone focused and ready to go.
What Are The Benefits Of Playing Icebreaker Games?
There are many benefits to playing icebreaker games such as letting employees get to know each other and discover unknown skill sets, icebreakers are also good for providing low-pressure environments for colleagues to practise communication skills. By participating in icebreaker games, your team experiences a variety of benefits that create stronger bonds and allow teams to work better together.
What Is The Purpose Of Icebreaker Games?
When done correctly, icebreaker activities can help to quickly build a sense of community and team spirit and help to set the tone for upcoming work giving participants ownership over their learning. Icebreakers are also a great way for people to share their expectations and for facilitators to introduce the topic of the day through the game. It also helps team members to loosen up, gain an understanding of one another and enable team collaboration. An icebreaker event is a great way to energise a team and keep everyone focused and ready to go.
How Can Icebreakers Boost Work Productivity?
Team building activities and icebreaker activities make meetings better by relaxing team members and preparing them for a productive session. With a quick activity, employees will be energised to tackle the meeting ahead with enthusiasm. When a team of individuals get to know each other really well their communication becomes much more effective and they gain the ability to work much more efficiently with one another when issues arise. Having a team building icebreaker exercise prepared frequently for your teams to participate in will help them to adopt the skills they require to work towards their shared goals and encourage one another to achieve more in a short amount of time.
When Should I Use Team Building Activities & Icebreakers In A Meeting?
A team building activity or icebreaker helps to bring a team together who will be working with each other for an extended period and currently no team members know each other or they are very new to one another. Having an icebreaker prepared to kick off the first few meetings will help the new team to bond and build trust in each other.
You could also use a team building icebreaker when you’re bringing a team together that needs to work well with one another very quickly. This team might not be working together for a long time but they could have a project that needs to be done in a short time frame. In this case, an icebreaker can help the team to get to know each other better so that they can function more effectively and achieve their common goal.
What Makes Icebreakers For New Teams Successful?
Icebreakers for new teams only work if you set aside an appropriate amount of time for everyone to participate in the chosen activity and if you prepare the appropriate materials before the activity begins, running more that one round of the activity with the group may also be a good idea to ensure success as it allows the team to learn the rules of the game and to understand what is being asked of them, this in turn will encourage less confident members of the team to come forwards and participate more as they have had more time to become comfortable with the activity.
What Should You Do Before You Begin An Icebreaker Activity?
Whilst there are a lot of benefits to icebreaker activities there are many things to avoid to ensure that a team building icebreaker goes as smoothly as possible. It is always a good idea to start with a more simple icebreaker in a new group and work your way up. You might also want to avoid any activities that encourage the sharing of personal information if your team is new and to save those types of activities until the team is well established and comfortable with each other. You should always ensure that you are stating the objective of the exercise each time you begin an icebreaker so that the participants understand what they’re doing and why.
Book Your Next Team Building Activities Or Icebreaker Event With Team Tactics
Our team building activities and icebreaker games aren’t just about fun and adventure – they’re about strengthening your team and having a more engaged workplace. Bring thrill and excitement to your team and explore our Top Team Building Activities and Events.
At Team Tactics, we have nearly 30 years of experience in bringing the best corporate events in London and the UK. Get in touch with our expert team and dive in and plan your next outdoor team adventure today.
