Recommended games for team building: How to create a team that can perform at its best
Even though each employee is talented, things just don’t go well as a team…
Many of you may share this concern.
In this article, we introduce “team building” as an initiative to solve that problem.
Team building is the practice of creating the best team—one that can achieve its goals—by leveraging each individual’s strengths.
Through games and activities, you can learn how to understand and appreciate your teammates, collaborate, and accomplish objectives together.
- A simple and fun co-op game that enhances teamwork
- Team-based recreational activities for adults that are fun even with large groups
- [In a Short Time] Icebreakers and Fun Games That Shine at Morning Meetings
- Fun games recommended for making friends with people you’ve just met
- Brain-teasing game roundup
- Company recreation ideas everyone can enjoy!
- Icebreakers that get people moving (for both small and large groups)
- Party and drinking games to liven up a company welcome party
- Break the ice with intros and team battles! Party games to spice up your welcome event
- Ideas for team-based games to enliven a party
- Fun activities that liven up the office: recreation games
- Games that liven up social and networking gatherings
- A fun, everyone-joins-in game that gets everyone excited!
Recommended team-building games: How to build a team that can perform at its best (11–20)
Straw Tower
It goes by various names, but when it comes to training, it’s as famous as the straw tower or the egg drop.
The “straw tower” is an activity where teams compete to build the tallest tower using straws, scissors, and tape.
Small teams split up, devise strategies, create prototypes, exchange feedback, and then take on the real challenge.
You can shorten or extend the time limit depending on the number of straws used.
It incorporates many essential elements for building organizations—observation, decision-making, and action.
It’s especially recommended for companies with large groups of freshmen!
Trump Negotiation Game
This is a game where you complete a deck of playing cards through conversations, negotiations, and trades.
It’s played in groups of four.
First, take one playing card and cut it into four pieces.
The shape can be rectangular, triangular—anything is fine.
Do this for all 52 cards, cutting each one into the same shape.
Then divide all the pieces into four equal sets and hand them out to the four players.
Lay your pieces face up and work to reconstruct the original cards.
If you’re missing pieces, you gather them by negotiating, trading, or receiving them for free from others.
As you watch what others have and complete your own deck, it becomes a perfect activity for fostering casual conversation.
Pair Matching Game
Just before building an organization, how can you remember people’s names and faces? Using business cards with photos is one option, but if you’re thinking, “If only there were a quicker way to build rapport…,” this game is for you! It’s a game where, in a group of about 20 to 30 people, you find someone who shares your birth month.
You can approach anyone—start by shaking hands.
Then, without speaking, use only your hands to communicate your birth month to the other person.
If your birth months match, you form a pair and are out as winners.
If not, you move on and shake hands with someone else, continuing the game.
The handshake brings people closer, and sharing the same birth month brings you even closer at heart—perfect for building camaraderie!
human disentanglement puzzle
More and more companies are holding sports days.
The idea is to leave the usual desks behind, temporarily forget the boss–subordinate relationship, move our bodies together while sharing the highs and lows, and strengthen teamwork through that experience.
Exercising together also seems to bring people closer at heart.
The human “tangle” game is one such activity.
First, five or six people face each other to form a small circle and hold hands at random with people who are not next to them.
Then, while gradually spreading out and without letting go of hands, they work to untangle the human knot like a puzzle.
I’m sure it’s an activity that will help everyone get along better!
Balloon shotgun
How about using a game that’s enjoyed in elementary schools and nursing homes as a team-building activity? The game is very simple.
All you need are a long table, balloons, and paper cups—though you can substitute something else for the cups.
Split into two sides across the long table.
Line up many paper cups on the tabletop.
Using only the air from inflated balloons, knock over the paper cups and blow them into the opponent’s side.
The team that gets more cups to fall into the opponent’s area wins.
It seems like a natural sense of camaraderie would develop through this recreation.
Domino
The origins of dominoes don’t seem to be clear; it’s said they have connections to Chinese mahjong and Western playing cards.
In fact, dominoes are like playing cards in that you can use domino tiles for various games.
These days, though, dominoes are more famous for “domino toppling” than for their original games.
Domino toppling, a symbol of perseverance and concentration, is perfect for team building: you can split into teams, plan colors and patterns, and create surprising mechanisms.
Here’s hoping everyone gets to know each other better as they topple—and get toppled by—dominoes!
Recommended team-building games: How to build a team that can perform (21–30)
Easy! Tim Tam Game
This is a simple word game invented by Yamana from the comedy duo Akina.
First, one person says “Tim” and “Tam” in a random order 14 times.
The other person predicts whether the 14th will be “Tim” or “Tam,” and at the moment the 14th comes, say the one you think it is together.
If you’re right, the predictor wins.
You can also do it so that after 13 times, the predictor answers the 14th alone like a quiz and then you check if it’s correct.
Feel free to change how many times you say “Tim” and “Tam,” or adjust how you answer—make your own rules through communication and enjoy!
