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Research shows that team wellness is highly connected to profitability and engagement, which demonstrates the importance of team bonding with the entire team.
It’s important to integrate team building activities into your company culture if you want your team to be focused while performing demanding tasks.
But time is limited during work hours, so we need to think fast. These 17 fun 5-minute team building activities are exactly what your whole team needs.
3 Tips Before You Choose Team Building Games
It has been demonstrated that team experience and team building activities help your company improve team morale, and productivity and, over time, also help your team feel better.
Nevertheless, it’s possible that, at least at first, not all employers are on board with a team building activity that might seem time-consuming to them.
Besides, since the time during work is often pretty limited, it is imperative to find great yet quick team building activities for both small groups and large groups.
Thus, if you don’t want to end up extending a great team building activity for too long, there are three tips you must follow.
1. Carefully Think About the Goal of the Activity
Not all team building activities have the same goal - it will depend on what you aim to achieve with newer, older, and other team members.
Consequently, before choosing a single team building activity, consider the following 5 goals that you must have in mind.
- Break the ice: if you want to break the ice and boost the team spirit before a big task, then a quick game that also happens to be fun is your way to go. Team Building Icebreakers have proven to be highly efficient in both big and small teams.
- Unleash creativity: a quick yet fun game is a great option to get people’s creative juices flowing right before an important meeting or a task that requires brainstorming.
- Learn more about your team: whether you want to connect more with team members or boost team morale, five-minute games are a fun way to lighten up team meetings.
- Spend time with team members naturally: you don’t always need to have a big goal in mind to engage in a team building activity - perhaps you just want to incentivize team talking, which is valid as well.
- Introduce new team members: if one team member is having a hard time integrating into the group, icebreaker questions and quick games are a great way to boost that employee’s social connections with the entire team.
2. Select the Best Time of the Day for the Activity
We do not advise engaging in a team building activity right before the day ends - instead, you want to choose the perfect time for the game carefully, so it provides others with a positive mindset.
Therefore, there are three ideal times for 5-minute team building activities, which are the following:
- Before a meeting: is there a team meeting about to take place? A few rounds of a fun game right before the meeting can greatly boost the team’s communication skills in a natural way.
- Before the day starts: in some companies, kicking off the day with a great team building activity helps to ease the rest of the day in a fun way.
- During breaks: not all employees want to spend their whole breaks playing a game, but a quick break of just 5 minutes will help them a lot without losing patience over the day.
3. Remote Teams vs. In-Office Teams Activities
Some 5-minute team building activities work better inside the office space, and some others are better suited for a remote team.
Virtual Team Building has become increasingly important these days when many companies have understood the profitability and benefits of remote work.
It has been proven that remote employees might feel isolated after working from home for a while, so implementing virtual team building activities right before virtual meetings can provide them with the mental break they need.
Remote teams will have different needs than office teams, so it is your duty, as a team leader, to understand this and choose a quick team building activity that makes sense in your work environment.
17 Fun 5-Minute Team Building Activities
There are three things that must be taken into account when it comes to choosing a 5-minute team building activity:
- You must be able to briefly explain the game to the team.
- The game or activity must provide clear mental benefits (it should be more than a classic praise time session, for instance).
- It must be a fun and easy game - do not overcomplicate things.
Having this in mind, these are the best 17 fun team-building games and activities that you can try at work.
1. Would You Rather?
If you want to get people talking right before an important task, then there’s nothing better than a classic round of Would You Rather.
The key is to encourage employee engagement by making them think about fictional yet thrilling scenarios and explaining the reasoning behind their choices.
- Best For: small and medium teams (from 5 to 10 people).
- What You Will Need: nothing but imagination! You can get a list of “Would You Rather” questions before starting.
- How to Play: Ask the employees a question with the following format: “Would you rather (A) or would you rather (B)?” Remember that it’s important to explain why they choose one option over the other.
2. Marooned On an Island
Marooned On an Island works greatly for both in-office and remote things. This 5-minute team building game lets others know more about all members of the team, and the best part is that there are no wrong answers!
- Best For: all kinds of groups (small, medium, big).
- What You Will Need: nothing but creativity.
- How to Play: ask each team member an album, movie, book, or video game that they would take with them if they were marooned on a desert island - ask them to elaborate on their answers as well!
3. Draw Your Mood
The benefits of drawing games have been proven by psychology experts for some years now.
If you believe that one member (or more) of the team is having a harsh time, then asking them to draw their moods might help them a lot.
- Best For: small and remote groups.
- What You Will Need: paper, colors, and pencils.
- How to Play: give each team member a piece of paper and ask them to draw something: it can be their ideal vacation, weekend trip, current mood, and more. Then, ask them to elaborate on their drawing.
4. Show and Tell
Show and Tell is a game that preschoolers have been playing for years for one simple reason: it brings amazingly great mental benefits that adults can enjoy too.
This game works perfectly for remote teams, and although it can work for in-office members as well, you will need some time to plan it.
- Best For: remote teams.
- What You Will Need: you need to bring your own item to show to others.
- How to Play: if remote, ask your employees to take a quick break and look for an item that means something cool, unique, or special to them. If in-office, ask the same thing to your employees, but with at least 2 days' notice.
5. Two Truths and A Lie
Two Truths and a Lie is a great option to get to know each other in a natural way. The game works amazingly for team bonding, whether you work in an in-office or remote setting.
- Best For: all kinds of groups.
- What You Will Need: nothing but facts about yourself.
- How to Play: ask employees to say three things about themselves: two truths, and there’s one lie hidden there. Others must guess the truth and lie by reasoning.
6. Team Stretching
Team Stretching is not a mental or a talking game - instead, you will literally ask your team members to stretch together.
Having a little stretching session before the day starts helps a lot, so stretching at work should not be ignored.
- Best For: all kinds of groups.
- What You Will Need: basic yoga or stretching knowledge.
- How to Play: simply gather your team the first time in the morning and perform a quick 5-minute stretching session.
7. Listen Up
Listen Up is a game that not only powers employees’ listening skills, but also helps them get to know each other more than they currently do.
- Best For: small and medium groups.
- What You Will Need: 10 random controversial or interesting topics written on small pieces of paper.
- How to Play: write 10 topics on individual pieces of paper, pair up employees, and make them pick one paper. They must talk for a few minutes about their opinion on the topic, and after the first person is done, the other must recap the information told by their team member as detailed as they can.
8. Word Association
Word games have amazing brain-boosting benefits for people of all age groups, including your employees.
Thus, the Word Association game is a great activity to kick off the day or before a meeting.
- Best For: all kinds of groups.
- What You Will Need: nothing.
- How to Play: provide your team with a prompt and tell them to say just one word that they associate with that prompt and why.
9. What’s My Name?
What’s My Name is a game that people often play at parties because it’s really fun, but you can play it at the office as well.
It doesn’t work well in remote teams, but you can still give it a try.
- Best For: small and medium groups.
- What You Will Need: little pieces of paper when you write a name on them, preferably sticky notes.
- How to Play: pair team members up, write a name on sticky notes, paste it to their foreheads, and make them guess the name assigned to them based on clues and conversation.
10. Never Have I Ever
Never Have I Ever is widely known as a drinking game, but, to be fair, it works in professional environments as well.
You can learn more about other people, as long as you don’t cross boundaries with your coworkers.
- Best For: all kinds of groups.
- What You Will Need: nothing.
- How to Play: ask team members to raise 5 fingers up. Then, make a sentence using the “Never Have I Ever (A)” format, and if they have done so, then they must put one finger down. The last one with more fingers up wins!
11. Secret Office Friend Game
The Secret Office Friend game is one of the best activities that you can play to get your team members to know each other, mostly if they hardly interact with them.
It is a great team building activity that can be quickly set up and lasts for more than a single day.
- Best For: in-office groups of all sizes.
- What You Will Need: small pieces of paper to write the name of the workers.
- How to Play: write the name of all participants on small papers, and make them randomly pick one. They will be assigned a random person, and over the course of a week, they must leave secret notes or even small gifts (such as sweets) to the person in an anonymous way. After a week passes, they must try to guess who their secret friend is.
12. Dance Session at the Office
Getting your workers to dance might not be easy, but it is clear that dance benefits can greatly improve an employee’s mood and physical condition.
The key here is not to push anyone - if they don’t want to dance, they are in their right to do so.
- Best For: small and medium in-office groups.
- What You Will Need: basic dancing knowledge.
- How to Play: gather your team before the day starts, and ask them to dance by following a pre-set choreography. Try to choose easy-level choreographies to start with.
13. Tallest Paper Tower
The Tallest Paper Tower is a classic competitive game where your workers must assemble a paper tower using nothing but recycled pieces of paper available at the office.
- Best For: in-office small and medium-sized teams.
- What You Will Need: recycled sheets and pieces of paper that have no use inside the office.
- How to Play: group the works in pairs or trios, and give them papers. The first team who manages to build the tallest paper tower within the span of 4 minutes wins!
14. The Worst Job
Do you think that you have the worst job in the world? Think twice! The Worst Job is a great game to get your team to talk right before an important meeting. It might even get them to appreciate their jobs even more!
- Best For: remote and in-office groups.
- What You Will Need: nothing.
- How to Play: ask workers to explain one by one what’s the worst job according to them and why. The answers might be amusing!
15. Trivia Slack Mini Game
If you have a remote team, then you probably use Slack for daily communication activities.
There’s a Trivia for Slack mini-game where you and your remote team can demonstrate your knowledge and problem-solving skills in just a few minutes.
- Best For: remote teams.
- What You Will Need: Slack platform.
- How to Play: install the Trivia Mini Game for Slack, and set it up. There are different topics, time limits, and a number of questions to choose from. Gather your virtual team and start playing!
16. Bucket List Game
The Bucket List is an ancient game that helps teams to create a bond with each other by understanding their life goals and dreams.
- Best For: all kinds of groups.
- What You Will Need: nothing.
- How to Play: gather your team and ask them to say three things that are on their Bucket List of things to do before they die. Let them elaborate and speak for as long as they want.
17. The Birth Map
Learning about the origins of your team helps to promote diversity inside the office and better work culture for everyone, and you can do it with the Birth Map game.
- Best For: remote and in-office teams.
- What You Will Need: a physical world map or Google Maps for remote teams.
- How to Play: ask each team member to mark up their place of birth on a map, either physically or digitally, through Google Maps. Then, make them tell you more about the place where they were born.
People Also Ask Team Building Activities Questions
Is Virtual Team Building Effective?
Yes, team building is and will continue to be an effective way to improve work environments in all kinds of companies. According to recent statistics, 2500% more companies are investing in virtual team building in 2022 and the years to come.
Does Teamwork Boost Workers' Morale?
It does - a recent study by NDMU shows that teamwork enhances the morale of workers, making them feel more engaged and appreciated within their workplace, whether we talk about in-office or remote jobs.
