Games For Management Students
1. Game of Possibilities
Time: 5-6 minutes
Number of Participants: One or multiple small
groups
Tools Needed: Any random objects
Rules: This is a great 5-minute team building game.
Give an object to one person in each group. One at a time, someone has to go up
in front of the group and demonstrate a use for that object. The rest of the
team must guess what the player is demonstrating. The demonstrator cannot
speak, and demonstrations must be original, possibly wacky, ideas.
Objective: This team building exercise inspires
creativity and individual innovation.
2. Winner/Loser
Time: 5-6 minutes
Number of Participants: Two or more people
Tools Needed: None
Rules: Partner A shares something negative that happened in
their life with Partner B. It can be a personal or work-related memory, but it
has to be true. Then Partner A discusses the same experience again, but focuses
only on the positive aspects. Partner B helps explore the silver lining of the
bad experience. Afterward, they switch roles.
Objective: Participants discover how to reframe negative
situations into learning experiences together.
3. Purpose Mingle
Time: 1 - 2 minutes
Number of Participants: Any
Tools Needed: None
Rules: This one is for those of you looking for a
great indoor team building game that won't take up much time. Before a meeting,
have each individual walk around and share what they hope to contribute to the
meeting with as many people as possible. If you want, offer a prize for the
person who shares with the most people, and another for the person who
successfully contributes what they shared.
Objective: Improves meeting productivity and makes
attendees think about how they're going to contribute, rather than just what
they hope to get out of the meeting.
Outdoor Team Building Games
4. Scavenger Hunt
Time: > 1 hour
Number of Participants: Two or more small groups
Tools Needed: Pen and Paper
Rules: Break the group into teams of two or more. Make a list
of goofy tasks for each team to do as a group. Tasks can include taking a
selfie with a stranger, taking a picture of a building or object around the
office, etc. Give the list to each team, along with a deadline by which they
must complete all tasks. Whoever completes the most tasks the quickest, wins!
(You can even create your own point system according to task difficulty if you
want!)
Objective: Great team bonding exercise that helps break up
office cliques by encouraging people to work with colleagues from other teams,
departments, or just social circles.
*Fun Fact: At Wrike, we hosted our own scavenger hunt using
our tool to track the tasks. Check out how we used Wrike for fun!
5. Human Knot
Time: 15 - 30 minutes
Number of Participants: 8 - 20 people
Tools Needed: None
Rules: Have everyone stand in a circle facing each
other, shoulder to shoulder. Instruct everyone to put their right hand out and
grab a random hand of someone across from them. Then, tell them to put their
left hand out and grab another random hand from a different person across the
circle. Within a set time limit, the group needs to untangle the knot of arms
without releasing their hands. If the group is too large, make multiple smaller
circles and have the separate groups compete.
Objective: This game for team building relies
heavily on good communication and teamwork. It also results in a lot of great
stories for the water cooler chat in the workplace.
6. The Perfect Square
Time: 15 - 30 minutes
Number of Participants: 5 - 20 people
Tools Needed: Long piece of rope tied together and a
blindfold for each person
Rules: Have your coworkers stand in a circle holding a piece
of the rope. Then instruct everyone to put on their blindfold and set the rope
on the floor. Have everyone take walk a short distance away from the circle.
Next, ask everyone to come back and try to form a square with the rope without
removing their blindfolds. Set a time limit to make it more competitive. To
make it even more difficult, instruct some team members to stay silent.
Objective: Focuses on strong communication and leadership
skills. By instructing some team members to be silent, this game also requires
an element of trust across the team, allowing team members to guide each other
in the right direction.
7. The Mine Field
Time: 15 - 30 minutes
Number of Participants: 4 - 10 people (even
numbers)
Tools Needed: Various handheld objects, several
blindfolds
Rules: Find an open space such as an empty parking
lot or a park. Place the objects (cones, balls, bottles, etc.) sporadically
across the open space. Have everyone pair up, and make one person on from each
pair put on the blindfold. The other person must lead their teammate from one
side of the open space to the other without stepping on the objects — using
only the verbal instructions. The blindfolded person cannot speak at all. To
make it more difficult, create specific routes the blindfolded team members
must walk.
Objective: This game focuses on trust,
communication, and effective listening. This activity makes a great team
building beach game as well.
8. The Egg Drop
Time: 1 - 2 hours
Number of Participants: Two or more small groups
Tools Needed: Assorted office supplies
Rules: Split everyone off into groups of three to five people
and give each group an uncooked egg. Put all the office supplies in a pile.
They have 15 to 30 minutes to use the supplies to build a contraption around
the egg that will keep the egg from breaking when dropped. Some suggestions for
supplies are: tape, pencils, straws, plastic utensils, packing material,
newspapers, rubber bands. Once time is up, drop each egg contraption from the
second or third floor of your building and see which eggs survive the Eggpocalypse.
Objective: This classic team building game is an engaging
(and messy) exercise. It uses teamwork and problem solving to bond team
members. The more people the better, so this makes for an
"eggcellent" corporate team building game! Make sure you have an
extra supply of eggs in case some break (ew!) during the construction process.
Ice Breaker Games
9. The Barter Puzzle
Time: 1 - 2 hours
Number of Participants: Four or more small groups
Tools Needed: Different jigsaw puzzles for each
group
Rules: Have everyone break off into small,
equal-sized groups. Give each group a different jigsaw puzzle with the same
difficulty level. The goal is to see which group can complete their jigsaw
puzzle the fastest. However! Some pieces will be mixed around in other group's
jigsaw puzzles. It's up to the team to come up with a way to get those pieces
back — either through negotiating, trading, exchanging team members, etc.
Whatever they decide to do, they must decide as a group.
Objective: This activity will rely heavily on
problem solving and leadership skills. Some team members might stand out and
some might stand back, but it's important to remember that the entire team must
come to a consensus before a decision is made.
10. Truth and Lies
Time: 10 - 15 minutes
Number of Participants: Five or more people
Tools Needed: None
Rules: Sit everyone in a circle facing each other. Have each
person come up with three facts about themselves and one lie. The lie should be
realistic instead of extravagant. Go around the circle and have each person
state the three facts and a lie in a random order, without revealing which is
the lie. After someone shares, the others must guess which is the lie.
Objective: This is a great ice breaker game, especially for
new teams. Helps eliminate snap judgements of colleagues, and gives introverts
an equal chance to share some facts about themselves.
11. Blind Drawing
Time: 10 - 15 minutes
Number of Participants: Two or more people
Tools Needed: A picture, pen, and paper
Rules: Divide everyone into groups of two. Have the
two individuals sitting back-to-back. Give one person the pen and paper and the
other person the picture. The person with the picture describes the picture to
their teammate without actually saying what it is. For example, if the image is
a worm in an apple, do not say, "Draw an apple with a worm in it."
The person with the pen and paper draws what they think the picture depicts,
based on the verbal description. Set a time limit for 10 - 15 minutes.
Objective: This is an activity that focuses on
interpretation and communication. Once the drawing is finished, it's always
interesting to see how the drawer interprets their partner's description.
12. This is Better Than That
Time: 15 - 20 minutes
Number of Participants: Any
Tools Needed: Four or more objects
Rules: Pick four or more objects that are
different (or the same objects that look different). Split all your
participants into even teams. Describe a scenario where each team has to solve
a problem using only those objects. This can be anything from "You're
stranded on a desert island" to "You're saving the world from
Godzilla!" Have each team rank the objects based on their usefulness in
that specific scenario, along with their reasoning.
Objective: This exercise inspires team
creativity in problem solving. The idea is to not make the scenarios too easy
so it becomes obvious which objects are most useful.
