18 Fun Indoor Team Building Activities

One secret to growing a cohesive, healthy, and productive team is to unite everyone with indoor team building activities. Team building is any protocol, strategy, action, or initiative designed to unite individuals together so they can collaborate toward a common goal. It is a significant tool in the business world that aligns the interests of people with different personalities and work styles. These events lead to effective teamwork, communication, and productivity, and by hosting regular activities, you’ll be able to strengthen relationships and get to know team members better.

Although there are many exciting outdoor team building activities, weather, cost, or space often require these activities to take place indoors. Staying indoors doesn’t have to cramp your style. Below are some great indoor team-building activities to encourage creativity and boost morale.

1. Trivia

Trivia games are excellent for informal and formal settings. Split your team into two or more groups and ask them general knowledge questions based on different topics like music, TV, or company history. The options are endless. Trivia is a low-effort game that gives employees a chance to flex their esoteric knowledge with fellow workmates while sparking a little friendly competition.

2. Board or Video Game Tournament

Stock the company closet with a few classic board games, or invite team members to bring their favorites — whether it’s Charades, Monopoly or Jenga, everyone should have options to choose from. 

Similarly, bring your favorite gaming consoles to the office and invite team members to bring their favorite games for some fast-paced digital fun. With board games and video games,  players have the opportunity to focus on something lighthearted without stressing over work.

3. Never Have I Ever

This fun, conversation-based game can last as little as 5 minutes or as long as you want! Traditional rules have all players start by holding up ten fingers as someone states something they have never done before. Players who have done that thing at some point in their life put down one finger. Each person continues to state something they have never done before until there’s only one person remaining with at least one finger still up! Consider passing around a list of common Never Have I Ever questions beforehand to help generate ideas.

4. Two Truths and a Lie

Two Truths and a Lie is another conversation-based game that helps team members get to know each other better. Take turns going around the room and have each person say three statements about themselves–the kicker is that only two of them are true! The statements could be something you have or haven’t done in the past, an interesting fact, or perhaps a famous person you had the opportunity to meet. The rest of the room tries to guess which one is the lie! This is also a popular virtual team building activity.

5. Beach Ball Toss

Pick up a beach ball and a marker at your local dollar store and write fun team building questions or prompts on it. Toss the ball around the room. Whoever catches it has to pick a question to answer. A common twist on this game is to have the catcher answer the question located in the spot on the ball near where one of their thumbs lands. Make it even more fun by adding music! Have your team keep the beach ball in the air until the music stops. Whoever catches the ball when the music stops must answer a question!

6. Escape Room

Also referred to as a puzzle room, an escape room is a real-life, 60-minute, immersive adventure game where players solve puzzles, discover clues and accomplish tasks. Your team will need to work together to crack the codes and escape in under one hour. Escape rooms are a great way to strengthen cooperation skills and solve challenging problems together. Find a local escape room to visit, purchase a board game version, or set up your own.

7. One Line at a Time

Spark a little creativity among your team with this writing game where the goal is to write a short story together. Have each person write one or two sentences to form the next part of the story, and then pass the paper along to the next person! The last person gets to finish the story and read it out loud to the group!

8. Happy Hour

Bring your team together for a little after-work socialization. Send around an invite for your team to meet at a local bar or restaurant after work. You can plan ice-breaker activities or play other games, but often employees prefer the opportunity to socialize outside of the office.

9. Team Lunch

As simple as it sounds, gathering the team to have lunch together is one of the most effective ways to build social bonds and go beyond talking shop. Everyone has to eat, so you might as well make it an event and go somewhere together.

With 78% of workers saying that taking a lunch break increases their job performance, team lunch is an opportunity you should take advantage of. The chance to unwind and get outside the usual work environment helps employees connect and come back to work refreshed.

10. Guided Meditation

Meditation has been around since the beginning of time, but has recently become more commonplace in offices. Take a breather as a team with guided meditations and discover new ways of relieving stress and finding work-life wellness. Does your company offer mental health resources or mediation apps as part of its benefits package? Leverage these tools with your team.

11. Cooking or Baking Challenge

Have your employees bring their favorite dishes or treats to share with the team! Consider staying within a theme, such as a chili cook-off, or perhaps host a healthy food challenge. Beyond the team building benefits, cooking challenges also provide an opportunity to promote healthy nutritional habits in the workplace.

12. Casino Night

Shake up the normal routine with a casino night. Have your team invite a plus one and hand out some fake money to play with. Even if the money is fake, the prizes better be real! Get to know the important people in your team’s life and see who has the best poker face.

13. Murder Mystery

As Michael Scott puts it, there’s been a murder in Savannah! Gather your team to try to solve a mystery together. Hide clues and puzzles throughout the office and invite team members to participate by reading a script or playing a specific character in the game. You can design your own murder mystery, or use a pre-made kit.

14. Show and Tell

Ask your team to bring in a special item and explain why it’s special to them. If team members don’t feel comfortable bringing in an item to show, you can change it up by having your team share a story about a special person in their life or a special memory from their past.

15. Scavenger Hunt

Hide objects or clues around the office and have your team members go find them! You can hide common office objects like staplers, calculators, or items from team members’ desks (with their permission, of course!) Split your team into smaller groups and award points for each item they find! This is also a great way to introduce a little exercise into your team meeting to support a healthy workplace.

16. Telephone

Telephone  is a fun memory game that puts your teams’ listening skills up to the challenge. Have your team members stand in a line. The first person whispers a message to the next person in line, and then they pass the message onto the next person. Eventually, the message makes it down to the last person who says the message out loud. You’ll have fun seeing how the message changed as it traveled down the line. 

To change it up, you can also play this game by drawing pictures! Give each person a marker and a piece of paper. The first person draws a simple picture on the paper, using the back of the person in front of them as support. The next person tries to draw the same picture just by feeling it! When you get to the end of the line you will have fun seeing how the picture changed!

17. Office Step Challenge

Organize a step challenge at work for a fun, long-lasting team building event. Employees can compete individually or as teams by tracking and reporting their steps over a certain period of time to earn prizes or other wellness incentives. Step challenges encourage physical activity and building healthy habits. 

18. Office Weight Loss Challenge

Similar to a step challenge, an office weight loss challenge provides incentives for employees to lose weight. A winner or group of winners is usually determined by the highest percentage of overall weight loss. Weight loss challenges generate excitement while encouraging teamwork and building healthy habits.

19. Fitness Class

You know what they say: the team that sweats together, stays together. Get some blood pumping at a team fitness class. Hire a local yoga practice to teach a lesson in your office or see if your self proclaimed “team yogi” is interested in leading a session. Get out any stress from the week at a boxing gym or zumba class. See what activities your team is interested in and plan accordingly.

The Importance of Team Building

Team building boils down to trust and whether you can count on your fellow workmates to execute duties without difficulty. To be trusted and to trust those you work with, you have to be willing to get out of your comfort zone and interact with people. It takes understanding, networking, and communication.

A huge value of social team relationships is that they help to combat stress that leads to burnout. Moreover, team building indoors helps demonstrate to employees that they are valued and appreciated by setting aside some time for reconnecting with each other.  Team building helps strengthen communication, build connections, and improve employee relations.

When your team is connected, company culture prospers. Coworkers enjoy coming to work each day, ideas are more easily shared between team members, and top-tier talent gravitates towards a fun and engaging work environment.

Team-building activities are only the beginning. Are you ready to take your company culture further? Talk to a Gympass wellbeing specialist today and give your most valuable assets the support they need to remain healthy, happy and engaged in improving themselves as they improve your business.

References

• 17 of the Best Indoor Team Building Activities. (July 18, 2022). Team Building Hub. Retrieved October 21, 2022 from https://teambuildinghub.com/team-building/activities-games/indoor/.
• The Power of Lunch: How Food Boosts Productivity and Happiness at Work. (July 2022). ezCater. Retrieved November 2, 2022 from https://www.ezcater.com/company/power-of-lunch/.
• The Top 58 Indoor Team Building Activities. (October 4, 2021). Outback Team Building. Retrieved October 21, 2022 from  https://www.outbackteambuilding.com/blog/indoor-team-building-activities/.
• Robinson, Angela. (September 21, 2022). teambuilding.com. Retrieved October 21, 2022 from https://teambuilding.com/blog/indoor-team-building.