The List: Warm Up and Team Build

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Team-building exercises for when it’s chilly outside

Team-building activities have a lot of power to help groups feel more comfortable and connected. Whether you’re on a tight schedule and don’t have much time, you don’t have access to materials, you can’t coordinate an offsite or even if you’re looking at doing some team-building exercises with your in-office staff, there are plenty of activities that are easy to do and have powerful effects. Think outside the box, and don’t forget to have fun! Use the ideas below to kick-start your brainstorming.

Strengths Assessment

If you have a team that works closely together day in and day out, it’s both fun and worthwhile to assess each individual’s strengths and how they can optimize their collective work. The Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment can do just that.

Each individual takes a survey, which only takes about 30 minutes, and comes out with a comprehensive report at the end. Sit down together afterwards, discuss and see how each individual’s strengths line up.

Read More: Togetherness Through Team Building

Go Old School

Remember the days of the name game? Have everyone go around in a circle and introduce themselves with an adjective that starts with the same letter of their first name, such as, “Hi, I’m Smart Sally!” Then, as you go along, each person says the adjective and name of the people who have gone before them. This is especially helpful if the people in the room haven’t met before—plus, it’s just plain fun!

Actually Warm Up

Little helps to get your group’s brains thinking like getting the heart pumping. Start a session by leading everyone through a few quick stretches. Inspire both confidence and some joyful laughs by having everyone end with their superhero pose.

Silent Line-Up

Have team members arrange themselves in a line in a specific order in response to prompts such as height, length of time with the company, alphabetically by middle name, birthday or something else—get creative with your prompt ideas!

The silent aspect encourages participants to get creative and practice their communication skills. Consider setting goals, like shortening the time it takes to line up, to give the team something to work towards and celebrate once they achieve it.

Read More: Work Smart: The Art of Communication

Game Show

Who doesn’t love a good game of Jeopardy? It’s easy to make your own Jeopardy board online. You can theme it around your company, a particular discussion topic or even the people participating, to help everyone get to know each other a bit better. If you have a larger group, split people up into teams. A healthy spirit of competition can inspire connection and get everyone having fun.