Returning to the Office: 7 Team Building Exercises

The pandemic was hard in all kinds of ways. For teams that were previously used to working in person, the quick snap to remote work was challenging to say the least. Now that businesses across the country are beginning to return to working in the office, it’s a great time to focus on all the team building initiatives that were either reduced or stalled out completely during the pandemic.

Because everything feels so new and fresh in a lot of ways, it’s also a great time to rethink and refresh your team building exercises repertoire. This is especially true if you have new people who have joined since the pandemic and are beginning to work with their new colleagues in person for the first time. Here are a few team building exercises that avoid cringey moments and maximize the enjoyment that fosters team building.

It’s a great time to focus on all the team building initiatives that were either reduced or stalled out completely during the pandemic.

DIY Cards Against Humanity

Whether you do it completely “do it yourself” and make all of your own cards, or you buy a blank set of 40 white and 10 black cards from Cards Against Humanity itself, you can customize them to be workplace or team related (and all office appropriate!). The result is a game that’s fun, familiar to many, and unique to your company that allows people to get to know each other and the office better than ever before.

Company trivia

What better way to get new team members familiarized with your small business and the teams and people who compose it than company trivia? Everything from interesting facts about employees to company history and mission, milestone moments, and more can be included in a team building game that’s fun and educational at the same time.

Scavenger hunt

Setting up a scavenger hunt for groups of employees to complete is a great way to help them bond while also exploring their new office park and its surrounding area.

Have you relocated, expanded, or downsized into a new space as a result of the pandemic? Even if you haven’t, a lot has changed. Setting up a scavenger hunt for groups of employees to complete is a great way to help them bond while also exploring their new office park and its surrounding area. Consider having a task on the hunt be identifying a new, amazing lunch or coffee spot and the like.

An escape room

It’s everything that team building anchors (problem solving together!) all in one. Plus, escape rooms are an increasingly popular option in cities and towns across the country these days, so chances are there’s one near your business that you can visit.

After the company is divided into teams who all work to solve the escape room as quickly as possible, consider having a happy hour, dinner, or other collective activity afterwards to talk about how it went for everyone. You can discuss the solutions that were surprising, the challenging ones, and what your staff learned about themselves or each other along the way.

The Office reenactment

Any Office fans out there? If so, you’ll likely remember the episode where Michael Scott, boss and leader of the office, takes everyone (except Toby) to the beach for a day to sleuth out who will be his replacement thanks to his misguided assumption that he’s going to be promoted to corporate.

In classic Michael Scott style, he does so through a series of inane competitions that include an egg race, a hot dog eating contest, and walking over hot coals. Naturally walking over hot coals is only something that should be attempted on TV; more mild-mannered adaptations of the other competitions can make for a great lighthearted way to do some team building activities with a side of humor.

Two truths and a lie

It’s fun and easy to transition this classic dinner party game into an office-appropriate team bonding activity. It’s simple — everyone takes turns telling either their group or all fellow colleagues 3 things about themselves. Two of the statements have to be true and one has to be a lie. Then, people take turns trying to guess or determine which one is a lie.

To make it more of a game or a competition, you can divide employees into teams who do the guessing together. Every time a group gets it right, they get a point and — you guessed it — the team who gets the most points gets some kind of prize. Here is where you can really get creative! Maybe it’s a special team lunch or a bonus Summer Friday.

Work Jeopardy!

This works exactly like you think it would. Come up with 5 questions that fall into 6 categories, with each question getting progressively harder and worth more points. You can break the company up into teams to compete against other teams in work Jeopardy! and just like above, you can come up with a creative and enticing prize for the winning team.