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 (21–30)
Fun for communication! Pokan Game
Words that seem obvious to you can be completely unclear to everyone else—what do they even refer to? In the “Pokan Game,” you guess the true topic hidden behind such words through conversation.
First, the person who’s “it” gives a single-sentence line or phrase as the prompt.
The others then figure out what it refers to by asking the leader questions and proposing guesses.
It’s best to choose prompts that aren’t easily solved, ones that require some real thought.
Talk a lot and deepen your bonds as you play!
Let’s become friends through a communication game!
To get to know others, communication is essential! In this game, you talk a lot while discovering unexpected sides of each other—welcome to the “Unexpected Me! Game.” Find people who match the surprising prompts written on paper, and whoever finds the most wins.
Prompts like “Surprisingly, I like ___” or “Surprisingly, I can ___” are all fair game.
You won’t rack up points unless you talk to many people, so keep the conversations going and learn more about those around you!
Training by blocks
A no-right-answers game using blocks that’s great for icebreakers.
Participants intuitively choose one piece from a set of block parts and then assign their own meaning—thoughts or feelings—to that piece in a dialogue-based game.
The act of “choosing” a block reflects the subconscious, bringing out genuine opinions and values we don’t usually notice.
The rules are: “no correct answers,” “no negativity,” and “everyone speaks,” with a facilitator guiding the process.
In a short time, diverse viewpoints are made visible, making it effective for building team understanding and trust, and improving workplace relationships.
It enables easy yet deep conversations and is also well-suited for sharing visions.
Let’s try a management game!
The “Management Game” is a game in which each player becomes a company president and runs a business.
It’s known as a training game that Sony created for in-house use in 1976.
One round of the game represents one fiscal year, and at the end of each period you prepare a P&L and a balance sheet.
After five periods, the player with the highest equity wins.
Despite being a game, it offers the chance to learn practical know-how such as procurement, manufacturing, and bidding.
By experiencing the role of a president who must oversee everything, participants can expect to improve their proactiveness, sense of purpose, and team capabilities.
Communication Training Learned Through the Werewolf Game
The party game “Werewolf” is perfect for deepening communication with friends.
The rules are simple: find the werewolves hiding among the humans.
First, a moderator assigns roles to each player.
The werewolves know who their teammates are, but everyone else doesn’t know who the werewolves are or what roles others have.
Players then talk things through, and each turn they eliminate one person by “executing” whoever they suspect is a werewolf.
The werewolf team also chooses one human to eliminate each turn.
If all werewolves are eliminated, the human team wins; if the number of humans and werewolves becomes equal, the werewolf team wins.
Minority wins! The Minority Game
This is a game where the people who choose the minority—the less popular answer—win.
First, split into groups and set a prompt and two choices.
Since there are only two options, pick one based on your own thinking.
After choosing, hold a debate—i.e., a discussion—within your group about the prompt.
After the discussion, think again about which option to choose as your answer, then everyone reveals their choice at the same time.
If you picked the minority answer at that moment, you win; if you picked the majority answer, you lose.
Know-it-all Game
When you hear “pretending to know,” it sounds a bit negative, but it can actually be used as a fun communication game! In this game, everyone pretends to know about a prompt that doesn’t exist and talks about it.
For example: titles of dramas or movies that aren’t real, foods, creatures, and so on.
The person who comes up with the prompt needs to put a little thought into it.
As everyone keeps the conversation going—saying things like “That one was like this” or “This one went like that”—if you end up laughing, you’re out.
Having a rich vocabulary is key, so give it a try when you want to expand your word bank!