If your team is just starting out or even if your group at work needs a little practice with TEAMING, look no further! We have 3 unique and exciting activities that will help you break the ice and develop your team’s communication, collaboration, and creativity:
1. ICE BREAKER BINGO
Duration: 10-20 minutes
Group Size: 10-30 players
Benefits: Promotes team communication and helps you get to know your team.
Tools: Printable Bingo Card (with Categories) or Printable Bingo Card (Blank)
- Hand out a printed bingo card and a pen to each player OR project the bingo card on a large screen.
- Give players at least 5 minutes to mingle and find teammates who fit the categories on their card. You must talk with the person if you’re writing their name down!
- The first player(s) to have 5 in a row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) shouts BINGO! If you’re playing with a large group, it’s fun to allow multiple winners so you can hear about more people.
- Have winners verify their filled spaces by calling out the names they’ve written down and allowing either the winner or the person named to give details. (For example: If the winner says that Nicole can play an instrument, find out which instrument she plays! This is an opportunity for everyone to learn something new about people on their team.)
2. D-ICE BREAKERS
Duration: Varies depending on group size
Group Size: 4-12 players
Benefits: Promotes team communication and helps you get to know your team.
Tools: 1-2 dice
- Create a numbered list of fun questions for your team to answer. (For example: “What’s your favorite TV show?” “If you won the lottery, what would you spend your money on first?”)
- Each player takes a turn rolling the dice.
- The number rolled indicates the question they must answer. If you want more than six questions, use two dice.
- Continue going around the circle until everyone has answered a question!
3. 60 SECOND INVENTIONS
Group Size: Multiple teams of 3-5 people
Duration: 1 minute for building; presentation time will vary depending on group size
Benefits: Encourages team collaboration and creativity.
Tools: Per team: 5 water balloons (unfilled), 2 foam bowls, 2 small paper cups, 6 bendable straws, and 8 toothpicks.
- Split your group into even teams.
- Set a timer for 1 minute and allow each team to create and build whatever they can with only the tools listed above. Team members should be working together to decide on what they’ll invent and how they’ll invent it!
- After time is up, allow each team to present and describe their invention!
- Appoint a small group of judges or let the teams vote on which invention they like the best or which invention is the most creative!
After you’ve had some fun, if these ice breakers don’t cut it for you, check our other posts for more activities that build camaraderie and emphasize teamwork: Teaming Games: 3 Team Building Activities, Teaming Games II: 3 Team Building Activities, Four Inexpensive In-Office Team Building Exercises.
Top it off by reinforcing the positivity of TEAMING and offer an awesome reward to the winners. While sweets are the usual go-to prize, winning a Red Door escape room experience could be the perfect exclamation point at the end of your team building statement activity! But the best prize will surely be how much closer and stronger your team will be afterwards. Work hard, play hard!
[Purchase a Gift or book an episode for your team at any one of Red Door’s locations below!]
Southlake, Plano, Fort Worth, El Paso, Sacramento, Chisholm Creek, Penn Square, Concord!
