12 Team-Building Activities to Boost Morale
Team-building activities create collaboration and enhance communication. Most importantly, team building can be fun! Cooperative tasks help you get to know those in your team, relieve stress and learn to work together in creative ways.
Whether it’s building towers of LEGO® bricks or playing word games, there’s so many ways to connect with your peers. So, we’ve pulled together some of the most effective (and fun) team-building activities to try out!
What’s in this blog?
- The Benefits of Team-Building Activities
- Team-Building FAQs
- Icebreaker Game Ideas
- Quick Team-Building Activities
- Indoor Team-Building Games
- Remote Team-Building Games
The Benefits of Team-Building Activities
- Improves communication: Team building enhances your ability to share ideas and feedback.
- Builds trust: Working together with a common goal helps you rely on teammates and build stronger relationships.
- Conflict resolution: Team-building activities allow participants to problem solve in a relaxed setting, making it easier to work through conflict when real challenges come up.
- Skill development: From leadership to resilience, team-building exercises help you learn useful skills that carry over into everyday life.
- Encourages creativity: By stepping out of the usual routine, you’ll feel more comfortable thinking outside the box and experimenting with new ideas.
- It’s fun: Beyond the benefits, it’s simply fun to team-build!
Team-Building FAQs
Icebreaker Game Ideas
Team building is a great way to get strangers talking, laughing, and working together from the start. These activities are perfect for breaking the ice and helping team members get to know each other!
1. Creative LEGO Brick Build Contest
Team size: 4-10
Time to play: 30 minutes
How to play: Teams build a structure using LEGO® bricks within a time limit with the goal of being as creative as possible. This can be an animal, vehicle, sculpture, or even a ‘made-up’ product. When time is up, each team has a few minutes to present their creation to the rest of the group. Winners are chosen based on creativity, originality and teamwork.
Why this activity is great: Combines hands-on creativity with collaborative problem-solving, allowing participants to tap into their imagination while working toward a shared goal.
2. Portraits Team-Building Activity
Team size: Any size (works well with small groups of 5–10 for sharing)
Time to play: 15–20 minutes
How to play: Using LEGO® bricks, build a portrait of yourself. Once everyone is finished, take turns sharing your model with others and explaining why the portrait represents you. For larger groups, divide into smaller groups to share.
Why this activity is great: A great icebreaker for those who don’t know each other well. This activity encourages creativity, self-expression, and personal connection with members of the group!
3. Two Truths and a Lie
Team size: Any size!
Time to play: 10-20 minutes
How to play: Each player thinks of three statements about themselves, two that are true and one that is false. Going around the group, each person shares their three statements in any order, and the rest of the group tries to guess which statement is the lie.
Why this activity is great: A fun and engaging way to get to know each other. It provides an opportunity to practice active listening and often leads to surprising or hilarious discoveries about teammates! Because it requires no props and can be played anywhere, it’s a flexible activity for building rapport.
Quick Team-Building Activities
Quick team-building activities that can be carried out in ten minutes or less are great for teams who have a busy schedule, whether that’s work colleagues, classmates or sports teammates!
1. LEGO Tower Speed Build
Team size: 4-7
Time to play: 10 minutes
How to play: Divide players into teams and give each group an identical pile of LEGO® bricks. Then, build the tallest free-standing tower possible within the 10-minute time limit.
Why this activity is great: A combo of quick thinking, teamwork, and creativity under time pressure. This task pushes teams to communicate clearly and solve problems on the fly.
2. Story Building
Team size: Any size (works well in small teams of 3–5)
Time to play: 5–10 minutes
How to play: Teams have a few minutes to build a quick LEGO® model. Once the build is complete, they have one minute to create and share a story about their model with the group. Stories can be serious, silly, or completely imaginary!
Why this activity is great: It offers creativity, storytelling, and presentation skills while encouraging teams to think on their feet and work together.
3. Quick Charades Relay
Team size: 4–8 per team
Time to play: 3–5 minutes
How to play: One person acts out a word from a list for the next teammate to guess, then that teammate acts out the next word, and so on until the list is complete or time runs out.
Why this activity is great: Boosts energy, communication, and quick problem-solving as a group.
Indoor Team-Building Games
Indoor team-building games keep the fun going no matter the weather. These activities are easy to set up, work in any indoor space, and keep teams connected and energized without needing to step outside!
1. Say it, Build It
Team size: 3-4
Time to play: 30 minutes
How to play: One team member is the “instructor” who has seen a diagram of a LEGO® structure. The rest of the team are the “builders” and must recreate the structure based only on the instructor’s verbal directions. To make it even tougher, blindfold the builders! This means every piece and placement must be described clearly, with no pointing or gestures allowed.
Why this activity is great: This game is a great way to practice communication and active listening. The instructor must give clear, step-by-step instructions, while builders must follow them exactly!
2. LEGO® Building Relay
Team size: 6-12
Time to play: 30 minutes
How to play: Split players into teams with identical LEGO® sets and a picture or instructions for the same structure. In relay style, one person builds for 30–60 seconds before passing it to the next teammate. The first team to finish correctly, or the most complete build when time runs out, wins.
Why this activity is great: A mash-up of speed, strategy, and collaboration, with every teammate playing a key role.
3. Word at a Time Story
Team size: Small groups of 4–8
Time to play: 5–10 minutes
How to play: Teams create a story by speaking only one word at a time, going around in a circle. Keep going until the story ends.
Why this activity is great: Promotes quick thinking, creativity, and listening skills.
Remote Team-Building Games
Remote team-building brings energy, creativity, and connection to virtual teams without long time commitments. These quick, interactive challenges keep remote colleagues engaged, encourage collaboration, and make distance feel a little smaller.
1. Online “Guess the Sketch”
Team size: Any size (split into small virtual groups if needed)
Time to play: 10–15 minutes
How to play: Use a shared online whiteboard tool to draw clues while teammates guess. No letters, numbers, or verbal hints are allowed — only drawing! Rotate drawers each round.
Why this activity is great: Gives teammates the opportunity to be creative, think quickly, and have fun at the same time. The simple format works for all skill levels and keeps everyone actively participating from start to finish.
2. Remote Instruction Chain Challenge
Team size: 3–6 per team
Time to play: 10–15 minutes
How to play: One person has a set of LEGO® bricks and acts as the “builder”. The rest of the team have the model image or instructions (hidden from the builder) and take turns giving step-by-step directions.
Every few minutes, the “instructor” role switches to another teammate, but the bricks stay with the original person, who follows their directions exactly. The goal is for the builder to create the final set without looking at the instructions!
Why this activity is great: Helps practice giving clear instructions and active listening, even in a virtual environment!
3. Virtual “Minute to Win It” Team Relay
Team size: Any size (teams of 3–5)
Time to play: 10–15 minutes
How to play: Assign fun, fast challenges (e.g., stack cups, toss paper balls into a bowl, balance an object). Each team member completes one challenge, then passes to the next person. Track total time to finish.
Why this activity is great: A high-energy way to get remote teams moving, laughing, and cheering each other on.
The Importance of Team Building
Ultimately, team building is extremely important, whether it’s done at work, school, or in any other community where you collaborate with others.
Doing activities like these helps boost morale, encourage better problem solving, lead to better productivity, and allows for engagement among participants. By improving communication and cooperation, team building increases both productivity and overall enjoyment when you work alongside other people.
