Making sure that your team has as much fun as possible and making interactions between employees natural will help to bring the team as a whole to the next level. However, this is easier said than done. Employees are usually focused on their work and are not too enthusiastic about engaging in team building activities (unless they get time off of work for it!).
As it is hard to come up with team building activities that will work, we have put together some of our favorite 5 minute team building activities to help you and your co-workers bond. We love these because they are energetic, fun, and help to break the ice and connect everyone. We hope you love them too!
Blind Drawing
What it is: This game challenges the team’s creativity and encourages them to bond one-on-one with each other.
How to play: As previously stated, this is a creative activity that requires a pen and paper (or markers and whiteboards if you have them), and pictures. Form teams of two and have each team sit back to back. One team member is given the picture, and the other the drawing materials.
Each round will last one minute. The team member with the drawing cannot directly describe what they are seeing, and can only use adjectives like “scary, big teeth, wild, etc.” When the round is over all of the teams must compare their results. The drawings are mostly hilarious and definitely help the team to focus on how important communication is.
Paper Tower
What it is: An activity for developing a growth mindset through an engineering challenge.
How to play: This is an extremely simple game that just needs a few sheets of paper to play. Each team (of how many members you deem appropriate) have exactly five minutes to try and build the highest paper tower that they possibly can. No outside or adhesive materials can be used, strength of the structure must be obtained by folding and tearing the paper.
Ninja
What it is: A fast activity to give the team energy and cohesiveness.
How to play: The principle of this game is to become the ultimate ninja, i.e. the member of the team with quickest reflexes. This activity should be carried out in a large space, and form a big circle. Once in the circle, they shall space themselves out by one “large step” away from one another. When everyone is ready, the team leader will shout out “Ultimate Ninja!”, and all team members must get into a ninja pose as fast as they can.
From here, starting in a clockwise direction, the first player must decide to either try to strike the player’s hand next to them, or move their body positioning. After this the next player will make the same decision, and the opposing player is allowed to move to dodge their strike. Bear in mind that your “movement” can be a step away from the circle, so strategy can come into play here! Go around the circle until one player is left, the Ultimate Ninja!
Frustration
What it is: A funny, challenging challenge to promote team bonding.
How to play: This 5 minute team building activity needs a healthy amount of chopsticks, and candy! Sweets that are small and round are best for this game, think M&Ms, Skittles, Smarties etc.
Split the ground into teams, and give each team two bowls. Put the sweets into one bowl, and leave the other empty. The premise is simple: move as many sweets from one bowl to the other using the chopsticks. The active player must also keep one hand behind their back and cannot touch the bowl. The rest of the team will watch while one player attempts to move one piece, and everyone will get a try.
The team that manages to move the most candy wins!
Will you be implementing some of these quick 5 minute team building activities into your training program? Clinked would love to hear your thoughts and input, and also if you have any activities that you think belong on this list!
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