Team Building
What is this?
Over time there have been a hand full of fun games I have put together for meetings with the intent to develop some fun opportunities to learn something and bring people closer as a team in a fun way. Few things are as satisfying as seeing a work unit truly enjoying being part of the team.
I didn’t invent this idea of creating tighter work units with team building, but I do enjoy it. Frankly I don’t think there are enough resources available for leaders to host a game that has both fun and a tie to working together. Or maybe I’m just over complicating it.
When I had an idea for an engaging team building event, I would sometimes put way too much time and effort into it. When you have a small group (say less than 25) you can make things like building block projects, or escape rooms work. Those are fun and can be engaging and there are a lot of other ideas out there. My problem was when the groups were much larger than that.
Over the years there have been a few team building events that were fun, but the ones that I wanted to repeat and were popular with the groups I built documentation that would make it easy to reproduce and be scalable for anyone.
For two of them I liked them enough I’ve since created boxed versions that are far more professional looking and take even less effort for the host (you) to set up. On this page I’ve made the PDF formats available for you to print out at no cost, and I’ve provided links to the “print on demand service” where you can purchase a premade version of the games.
100+ Reviews
The Coffee Game
Based on the popular business school primer called the Beer Game. This version takes teams on a more complex tour of the logistics of getting a cup of coffee from a popular chain coffee shop.
Learn more about how analytics are created and used without over complicating it, but in the end its interesting to learn how those systems are working behind the spreadsheet.
The Game Known as F.R.E.D.
“The Overly Complex Conference Center Scavenger Hunt and Tasks Game” was just too long for a name, so we just called it F.R.E.D.
Your team will break up into groups and learn to communicate through proper channels, complete tasks that are fun and result in all of the teams collecting in the end and building something as one group. It builds on cross-functional teamwork and communications.
The Greatest Teams Race
If you’ve seen the CBS’s Amazing Race you get the idea, except this game is a race around St Paul. However, you can change it to be whatever you want the tasks to be. All inside a third-party application.
You can customize this as much as you want. It requires each team to have a smart phone with an app downloaded and depending on the size of your group and how complex you make it, the game could be free or could require a subscription.