Not only does getting your team together to talk feel good, it’s also good for business.
5-SECOND SUMMARY
- There are a lot of busy plans, and online and mixed work will not go away. Today more than ever, it’s important to make time and work to connect, get to know, and trust each other on the team. It makes people feel good and has been shown to boost productivity and gain money.
- The best teams share a number of traits, and many of these traits can be improved through team building.
- Check out these 20 five-minute team-building tasks that you can do in real life or online with little time to prepare.
Some people view team building as a critical component of successful collaboration. Others see it as cringe-worthy—likely because they haven’t experienced it effectively. Team building can be powerful on multiple levels, from the front lines to the bottom line. Gallup research shows that team building can improve performance, lower absenteeism, and increase profitability.
Team building can be a challenge, especially when your group is short on time, distributed, or unfamiliar with each other. But with these simple exercises and activities, you can bring people together to help everyone work better as a team, achieve better results, and enjoy the journey along the way.
The 10 Cs of Effective Teams
Research and thought leadership around group dynamics have surfaced a handful of common traits of the most effective teams. When planning group exercises—whether an icebreaker or a staff retreat—keep these characteristics in mind as the North Stars of team-building strategy.
- Clear expectations: The team fully understands their mission, goals, roles, and responsibilities.
- Commitment: Team members are committed to contributing what it takes to accomplish their mission and goals.
- Competence: The team has the knowledge, skills, and capabilities to fulfil their responsibilities and accomplish their mission and goals.
- Collaboration: The whole team is bought into the processes and group norms needed to work well together.
- Communication: Team members have all the information needed to complete their tasks effectively, and they provide honest, timely feedback to each other in a respectful, empathetic way.
- Creativity: The team values, encourages, and rewards innovative thinking, unique solutions, and new ideas.
- Conflict: Team members feel safe to express their true feelings and work together to resolve conflict.
- Conditions: The team has access to the necessary processes, policies, incentives, environment, and resources to be successful.
- Cohesion: Team members like being on the team, trusting each other, and willingly working as a unit.
- Continuous improvement: Each team member consistently takes steps to become more capable and efficient at their job
Before you finish your cup of coffee, try one of the five-minute team-building exercises below to set your team on the right path.
20 virtual-friendly team-building activities you can do in 5 minutes or less
01. Blow your trumpet
It can feel awkward – sometimes downright painful – to brag about ourselves. Hence, this activity is a great opportunity to venture outside that comfort zone in a safe space, learn more about our teammates, and celebrate each other’s accomplishments. To play, ask each person to share one of their proudest achievements and why it’s meaningful to them.
02.Birth map
Knowing where someone comes from can help others understand them and their journey to where they are today. For this activity, have the meeting host or facilitator show a world map on their screen or in the conference room and add pins to the map as each team member shares where they were born.
At the end, zoom out to see all the pins at once. You could also ask follow-up questions that get the group talking, such as, “What do you notice about the pins?” and “Did anyone’s birthplace surprise you?”
If you have a small team or want a variation on this activity, everyone can share the cities where they’ve lived. Larger teams can populate the map before the meeting and dive into discussion mode when the exercise commences.
03.Baby pictures
Whether cute or embarrassing (probably both), sharing childhood pictures is a lighthearted way to learn more about your team’s upbringing.
Before the meeting, ask everyone to send a photo of themselves as a baby. (The sillier, the better!) Then, show each picture to the group during the activity to see if they can guess who it is.
04.Messy desk photo share
This one is perfect for virtual teams. In an office, people keep their desks reasonably organized. But when you work remotely, all bets are off. Are your co-workers clean freaks? Cup collectors? Peppered with Post-it Notes? Surrounded by trinkets?
Let the team know the activity beforehand if they want to do some proactive tidying or remove anything super personal. Then, have each person send a picture of their workstation. Colleagues can comment with emojis, ask questions, and let the hilarity ensue.
For variations of this activity, the team could also gather pictures of other (suitable-for-work) areas of their house that offer a glimpse into their personality and encourage conversation – think junk drawer, closet, or bookshelf.
05.Virtual office tour
We’re familiar with our colleagues’ Zoom backgrounds, but what else is in their home office? Another variation of the messy desk photo contest helps you get the full picture: the virtual office tour. Give each person 30 seconds to turn their laptop or camera around and give the group a tour of their home office, pointing out interesting or special items along the way and talking through the process of decorating (or lack thereof).
06.Pantry pop quiz
Piggybacking off the messy desk/office tour exercises, it’s also fun and enlightening to see co-workers’ favourite foods. Remote and in-person team members can peek at each other’s kitchens rather than peering over the cubicle or table to see what they packed for lunch. Who’s got the best snack game? Whose fridge houses a bottle of ketchup…and not much else? Whose pantry organization skills would make Marie Kondo proud? Feast your eyes and find out.
Have each person send a photo of their fridge or pantry to the activity facilitator beforehand. Then, the group can guess who each picture belongs to. Bonus points if you bond over shared favourites or discover new food ideas.
07.Collaborative karaoke
Music brings people together. Ask each person to name their go-to karaoke pick (and maybe sing a bar of it if they’re feeling brave!) and why they chose it.
Make a Spotify playlist of the group’s karaoke picks as a follow-up and share it with the team.
08. Emoji mood board
Whenever we ask each other, “How are you?” the default answer is probably a nonchalant “Good!” or “Fine.” But how are your co-workers feeling? What can the group do to celebrate their happy moments and support them through struggles?
A picture’s worth a thousand “Fines,” so ask your team to choose 3-5 emojis that summarize their feelings. Then, everyone can share their picks and whatever explanation they feel comfortable with. It’s a lighthearted way to encourage vulnerability between teammates.
09.Time capsule
Remember how much fun it was to make a time capsule as a kid? Let’s bring it back and learn more about our teammates’ journeys to where they are now!
Ask each person to gather up items – between one and five, depending on the size of your team – from around their home that represent important memories of milestones in their lives: a cherished stuffed animal or blanket from childhood, pictures of loved ones or big occasions, souvenirs from special trips, artefacts from their favourite hobbies, or something random yet meaningful. As they share items in their time capsules, ask each one to say a few words about what it is and why it’s special to them.
10.Show and tell
For an even easier, more remote-friendly alternative to the time capsule, ask each person to grab something within arm’s reach that is meaningful to them (or just has a funny story behind it) and then go around the “room” for a quick game of show-and-tell.
11.Annual highlights
Try revisiting each person’s most significant memories from the past year for a more recent variation of the time capsule that could work for virtual or in-person teams.
This activity is easily scalable depending on the number of participants and the amount of time you have. For big teams and short periods, have each person’s name just a highlight or two from the past year. For small groups or meetings where you have more time, team members can share more highlights (or lowlights, if they feel comfortable and open) with more detailed descriptions.
Start the exercise by letting the group know that each memory doesn’t have to be overwhelmingly positive. We’re all human, and sharing the tough times can be just as powerful, if not more so, as sharing the good ones.
11. 6-word memoir
In this game, each team member takes a minute or two to develop six words summarising their life and then shares their “memoir” with the group. Their choices could be six random words or a six-word title – whatever feels right.
12. Bucket list
It’s easy to get run down by our daily routines and lose sight of big dreams. With this future-looking exercise, take a step back and refocus on the bigger picture.
Team members can share three or four items on their personal “bucket list” that they want to do or achieve in life. The items could be silly, serious, or anywhere in between, realistic or pie-in-the-sky.
13.Purse or wallet tour
Here’s another one offering a peek into your teammates’ personalities and interests: the purse or wallet tour. Do your colleagues have oodles of cards or only a select few? Punch cards, family photos, receipts, gum wrappers? A Mary Poppins-esque tote with everything they could need, or a slim, sleek, all-in-one wallet? Get a snapshot of the items they use, the places they frequent, and a few fun facts or quirks you didn’t know before.
14.Would you rather?
For a quick and easy team-building exercise that helps people get to know each other, try “Would you rather?” In this game, the facilitator picks several (safe-for-work!) scenarios, situations, or preferences that each person has to choose between.
Start simple, and get sillier for a good laugh. Would you rather adopt a cat or dog? On Thanksgiving morning, would you rather relax or run a 5k? Would you rather go into an executive meeting with spinach in your teeth or toilet paper stuck to your shoe? Each person can either hold up a piece of paper with their answer or type it into the virtual meeting chat to spark emoji reactions and a healthy debate.
15.The GIF that keeps on giving
This activity is particularly fun for remote teams that use a group messaging tool like Slack. Provide the group with prompts, and ask them to find a GIF summarising their reaction. For example:
- When someone books a meeting with you at 4 p.m. on a Friday
- When you finally launch a big project you’ve been working on
- When you realise your fly was down during your in-person presentation
- When you stayed up too late watching Netflix on a work night
For those who aren’t as GIF-savvy, give them some tips on how to find, copy, and paste GIFs (such as Googling “[emotion] gif” or searching on a site like giphy.com or tenor.com).
16.Craft challenge
Which teammates tend towards the creative, and which are more left-brained? How resourceful are they when facing constraints? This activity challenges everyone to think outside the box. Give the group five minutes to build a specific object using a handful of items you supply or random supplies of their choice from around the house.
For example, can they build a rocket ship using marshmallows, spaghetti, and Cheerios? Or an office building using only items from their desk or pantry? The options are endless, and the results are hilarious, if not always impressive.
17.E-mov-ji
Another fun exercise using emojis is to describe or spell out each person’s favourite movie.
Remote teams can share their emojis in a group chat, and in-person teams could draw them on paper (another fun test of their creativity).
Alternatively, you could nominate a team member to create a list of pre-populated emoji movie titles ahead of time, and the group can guess each one, pop quiz-style.
18. Lightening scavenger hunt
This game requires quick thinking (and movement) but can have funny and enlightening results. Before the meeting, create a list of prompts with items to find around their house in a minute or less. Ideas include:
- An ingredient from your favourite breakfast
- The last book you read
- A pet or a picture of your favourite animal
- An item you can’t live without
- The oldest piece of clothing you own
If you have time, each person can say a few words about their items to gain more insight into their lives.
19.Name things
A popular improve game, Name Ten Things, is a fast way to get to know each other and get the creativity flowing.
First, let the group know that there are no wrong answers, and this game is all about speed and saying whatever comes to mind first (while keeping it work-appropriate, of course). Start with one person and give them a prompt to name ten answers about a topic. It could be anything: a straightforward topic like their top ten vacation destinations, a creative prompt like coming up with ten names for a new dog, or a silly question like brainstorming ten of the worst first date locations.
Once that person finishes, they nominate the next person and prompt them. The process repeats until everyone has taken a turn.
Working together while you’re apart
With hectic schedules and remote/hybrid work here to stay, it’s vital to connect with our co-workers just like we would if we sat next to each other daily. By making time and putting in a bit of effort to plan these simple, 5-minute team-building exercises, you can help your group build meaningful relationships with each other that contribute to happier employees and healthier teams.
Also, Check out corporate team-building activities in Dubai
