What are the best team building ideas?

Indoor team building ideas (self-guided)

Here you will find some indoor formats that are very easy to implement without external service providers:

• Video clips with AI – Have an AI write a script on a topic you specify and give your team the task of creatively implementing this script. You can record and edit the whole thing with a cell phone. At the end there will be a big movie show.
• Visit an escape room – If you have not yet done this as a team, it is definitely recommended. However, the escape rooms are usually only suitable for small groups.
• Build a bee hotel – get ready-made kits for an insect hotel. Ask all team members to bring the appropriate tools and you’re ready to go. Don’t forget to individualize the “hotels” and decide together where they will be placed.

When sustainability is the focus of the team event (self-guided)

• Collect garbage – equip your team with garbage bags, gloves and garbage grabbers and start a joint garbage collection campaign in the countryside. Perhaps you can arrange with the town or local council to drop off the bin bags there. And don’t forget a small reward for the team. We think it’s one of the simplest and most useful team-building ideas ever.
• Repair Cafe – get everyone together, preferably in a workshop or other suitable location. Everyone brings things from home that need to be repaired. It’s about using the different talents in the team. One person can perhaps darn holes in clothes, the next can get a cell phone working again, repair the toaster or simply ensure the team’s well-being with a cake.
• Planting trees – This team event idea does require some preparation to find a suitable plot of land and some budget for plants, but here you are creating something very long-lasting and sustainable. An idea that will inspire your colleagues.

Team building ideas for the Christmas party (self-guided)

• Build a gingerbread house – have the baker bake large slabs of gingerbread, make sticky egg whites with a food processor and get ingredients to decorate the houses. Now your team can easily build their own houses, landscapes etc. It’s great fun and all the other colleagues will also be happy when the gingerbread can be eaten.
• Cutting a Christmas tree – get in touch with the forester or a forest farmer and you’re ready to go. Ideally, you should go on a short hike through the forest and cut down trees that have been marked in advance.
• Theme evening – add a theme (e.g. 70s, 80s, Grand Prix, future…) to the visit to the restaurant for a cozy Christmas dinner. The evening will be more colorful and there will be plenty to talk about.

Team development ideas and team learning ideas (self-guided)

• Flash idea on a napkin – Divide the team into groups of two to four people and present them with a selection of problems that have not yet been solved. These problems can be of a professional nature or freely invented (no political or religious problems). Each group is given a pen and a paper napkin on which they should sketch or write down their solutions after discussing them together. Each group then presents its solution to the other teams.
• The Meiers – Create name cards with one family member on each card, such as Papa Meier, Grandma Meier or Daughter Meier. There are name cards for different Meier, Mayr, Maier and Meyer families. The aim of the game is to find the other “family members” and complete the families.
• Stick game – get one or more long sticks (min. 1 m long) and divide the group into teams of 8-12 people (depending on the length of the stick and the total number of people). All participants stretch out their arms and both index fingers. Now place the stick on the fingers so that all team members are carrying the stick with both index fingers. The teams’ task is to place the stick on the floor together. All index fingers must be in contact with the stick at all times. However, the other fingers must not press on the stick from above. Talking to each other is allowed. Let’s go!

Ideas for international team building (selfguided)

• Virtual speed dating – prepare exciting questions and moderate the speed dating so that you always send 4 participants into a virtual room where they can discuss a question for 3 minutes. For the next question, the rooms are randomly reshuffled. Questions could be: What was your highlight last week? What was the most exciting task in my professional life so far? What challenge do I really want to tackle in the next 12 months?
• Culinary world tour – if people of different origins are on site in a team, invite everyone to cook or bring along various specialties from their home country. They can then eat and snack together and, above all, talk about where the specialties come from. If everyone is scattered around the world and only connected virtually, you can organize several cooking days on which one team member instructs the others to prepare a speciality from their home country. Don’t forget to send the shopping list to everyone beforehand.
• Cultures in the team – ask all team members to give a short Pecha Kucha presentation about their home country. This works both in person and online. And here in particular, brevity is the spice of life.

Regional team events (self-guided)

Of course, we can’t list all the team building ideas in your region here. But here are 3 ideas that are sure to be available in your area.

• Climbing garden – here it is particularly important to ensure that no one in the team is excluded, e.g. due to a fear of heights. In this respect, it is essential to obtain information about all participants beforehand. Use the Gudie climbing park, for example, to find a suitable climbing garden
• City tour – a city tour can also be a very useful team-building activity if there is enough room for communication between the participants. When choosing a tour, make sure that there are always longer breaks to talk. You can find a large selection of cities on the city tours page.
• Event cooking – A regional team building activity that takes a little more time and is usually tied to local venues, but is almost always well received. We have a link to a list of the best cooking schools here.

Summer & winter ideas (self-guided)

• Summer party – organize a summer party with various market stalls on the company premises. Invite food trucks and a few showmen. This concept is only suitable for large groups. For smaller groups, each department could also set up a small market stall and the participants put the cans back together themselves, for example, when throwing cans.
• Snowshoe hike – hire snowshoes and choose a nice route. In the winter sports areas, there are usually special maps on which snowshoe tours are marked, e.g. in the Black Forest.
• Barbecue evening with campfire – reserve a barbecue site (often a few weeks in advance) and get a barbecue buffet from the local caterer (please remember vegans and vegetarians – there are now very tasty barbecue products without an animal base)

Online teambuilding ideas (self-guided)

• Virtual scavenger hunt – Similar to an offline scavenger hunt, the team that successfully completes all the tasks first wins. For example, you can have your employees research certain information on the Internet in small groups, search for specific elements on certain websites or solve tricky puzzles. Creativity is required here!
• guess the desk – all meeting participants take a picture of their desk or from the position of the desk (e.g. from the window) at which they are currently sitting. Now have all the pictures sent to you and show them individually on the split screen. The team has to guess who took the picture.
• Letter hunt – you or another team member give out 3 randomly selected letters. Now all participants have to hold 3 objects in front of the camera that begin with the letters as quickly as possible. The first person to do this wins and is awarded points. And it starts all over again.