13 Unusual Team Building Activities for Work
Companies are having to do more these days to attract and retain top talent, and investing in employee development is critical.
An increasingly popular way to accomplish this is through team building - and there are plenty of great team-building activities out there. The question is how to strike the right balance between cost, time commitment, and employee interest.
What are some unusual team building work activities?
We’ve put together a list of some of the most unusual team building activities out there that will drum up intrigue and excitement. Here’s are our top picks:
Unusual team building activities for hybrid teams
Mastermind group
Blind Drawing
Group Storytelling
‘Name that Tune’ Contest
Coworker Feud
Unusual team building activities for 100% remote teams
Virtual Monday Morning Trivia
Virtual Shark Tank Competition
Live-hosted TV Game Show-down
Virtual Workspace Tour
Two Truths and A Lie
Typing Speed Race
Virtual Murder Mystery
Read on to learn more about what you can do as a virtual or hybrid team to build a productive and happy workforce.
Unique team building activities for hybrid teams
Team building is an important part of any hybrid team. It helps people get to know each other, work better together, and build a cordial working environment.
But, it’s never an easy task trying to build these lasting relationships when some members are spread around the world and others working in the office. Here are unusual team building activities that your hybrid workforce can try for great bonding.
Start a Mastermind group
To really get to know your employees, spend time in mastermind groups. There are several key advantages to these sessions. First, you get to discuss your challenges with peers in an environment that is highly productive and non-judgmental. Second, you get valuable feedback from others. Finally, you get to bounce ideas off each other and come up with creative solutions.
Blind Drawing
In this activity, participants are given a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. They have to draw an object without looking at it. Here, participants must take turns drawing and guessing what they drew based on their teammates' descriptions. This activity helps in understanding different perspectives as a team and might also bring a few laughs.
Group Storytelling
Group storytelling is a hybrid team building activity that combines elements of storytelling and group work to create a fun and interactive process for developing shared understanding. In this activity, participants are divided into small groups of 5-6 people each. Each group is assigned a task and is given a set amount of time to complete it. The task can be anything from telling the story about their best vacation or the most embarrassing moment in their life, to solving a problem in the workplace or coming up with an idea for an innovation project.
“Name that tune” contest
In this game, your team has to listen to a song or read a lyric and correctly guess the name of the song. The team member that guesses the song correctly, wins. This activity can be done during a meeting with your hybrid team or as a standalone event to build rapport. While it’s a generally fun game to play, it also helps to discover the music taste of your team members while giving others suggestions of good music to add to their playlists.
Coworker Feud
“Coworker Feud” is one of the best and unique team building activities for work that can help bond your team. The game's goal is to get rid of all the cards in your hand by answering questions about your teammates. You can do this by either asking them or guessing what they would answer. This game is great for office parties, team building events, and more. It will be an excellent way to have fun while getting to know each other better!
Unusual team building activities for 100% remote teams
Remote working has grown and is being implemented by more organizations today than ever before. However, it is not easy to manage a virtual workforce. An effective virtual team must have a solid foundation - built on trust, solid work habits, and effective communication. These unusual virtual team building activities will help you achieve your goals of having a rockstar remote team.
Virtual Monday morning trivia
Monday Morning Trivia is a great way to start the work week. It gives you something fun to do and gets you excited for the day and the week. It also helps with your memory, as it is said that people who do puzzles have better memory retention. The game usually consists of a series of questions, which your team has to guess the correct answers to. The questions can be about anything from current events to sports to pop culture. The goal is for each team member to answer as many questions as possible before time runs out.
Virtual murder mystery
A virtual murder mystery is a game where you set the scene for your team to solve a crime by interviewing people, examining the crime scene, and analyzing evidence. It’s a game that is not just fun, but also offers your team the chance to stretch their problem-solving capabilities by solving mysterious and fictitious murder cases. As your team gets to play as detectives in this interesting game, they’ll also become better communicators, collaborators, and problem-solvers in the process.
A Shark Tank session
Shark Tank is a reality TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to investors, called “sharks,” to see if they would like to invest.
Recreating your own Shark Tank show is one of the unusual team building activities that you can try with your remote team. Create a team building session where remote employees present their business ideas in front of colleagues. These can be serious ideas, or a challenge to come up with the most ridiculous and silly business. Once a business idea is presented by each person, everyone will get a chance to give feedback about the idea. Organizing a virtual Shark Tank where other employees discuss their colleagues’ business ideas can help encourage creativity and innovation within the company. It also creates an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their ideas.
The most important thing about this event is that it does not have to be a formal event, but rather something that can happen during virtual meetings, lunch breaks, or just a separate Shark Tank session of its own.
Virtual workspace tours: let employees showcase their WFH offices
A virtual tour is a great way to ensure that remote employees feel like they are part of the company culture when they are not physically present in the office. It’s a great chance to let everyone take a deep dive into the working lives of their colleagues while offering inspiration for others in the team. This kind of personal tourwould also help remote teams combat the isolation and loneliness that can come with working from home.
Two truths and a lie
The game is simple: everyone writes two truths about themselves and one lie that they have to try not to get caught on. The group then has to guess which of the three statements is the lie.
The idea is that by playing this game, you can learn more about your remote team members and their personalities, which will help you work together better in the future.
Typing speed race
A typing speed race challenge is a fun way for the team to connect and have some fun. It’s a unique team building activity that can be used as a stand-alone event or as part of a Zoom meeting or annual virtual company retreat.
The goal of the typing speed race is to see which team member can type the most words in a given time. If you’re a huge company, you can divide the team into smaller groups and use break out rooms for them to compete. The fastest typist on each team will compete against one another tournament-style until there is a clear winner.
Virtual TV Game Show-down competition
Here, your team will compete in a series of games that will let you feel like you’re starring in your favorite TV game show! Play your favorites like Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy. Each game is live-hosted by a professional host - just like the real deal.
Game shows like these are already fun, but they can be even more fun when you compete with your coworkers. There are a few ways to make this happen. You could have a contest between departments, or you can divide up your company into random teams.
Bar None Games is a group of game connoisseurs ready to host your live TV Game Show and get the competition rolling. Guaranteed to promote collaboration and team spirit, each game is hosted by a professional entertainer for a high quality, high energy event. We'll make sure that your virtual employees have the opportunity to have fun.
