Unique Team Building Activities Your Team Has Not Done Yet

Every team has done two truths and a lie and the scavenger hunt, the two staples of every team building games for work list. The case for unique team building activities is not novelty for its own sake. A format nobody has seen before resets the social hierarchy for an hour, because the VP and the intern are equally bad at it.

That reset is exactly what improv uses. When nobody knows the “right” way to play, people stop performing and start listening, reacting, and building on each other, which are the same skills that make a meeting work. Most of the 15 activities below come from improv, and each one has time, headcount, the skill it trains, and a note on running it remotely.

Unique Team Building Activities Built on Sound and Movement

1. Sound Machine (5 minutes, 6 to 30 people) Host names a place: airport, rainforest, office kitchen at 9am. On go, everyone unmutes and makes one sound from that place, and holds it. Ten seconds of glorious noise, then mute. Do three places. Trains: committing without overthinking. Remote note: everyone needs to be unmuted at once, so warn people about headphones.

2. Slow Motion Sports (4 minutes, 4 to 50) Host calls a sport. Everyone performs one move from it in extreme slow motion, on camera, for 15 seconds. Tennis serve, free throw, goal celebration. Trains: focus, and losing the self-consciousness. Remote note: gallery view, and ask people to stand if they can.

3. Conducted Applause (3 minutes, 10 to 50) The host is the conductor. Hands up means louder, hands down means softer, fist means stop. Everyone claps and follows. Then hand the conductor role to three volunteers in turn. Trains: following a lead and then taking one. Remote note: cameras on, mics on, and it is the fastest energy reset I know.

4. Mirror Pairs (4 minutes, 6 to 20) Breakout rooms of two. One person moves slowly, the other mirrors as exactly as possible. Swap after 60 seconds. Trains: full attention on another person. Remote note: pin the partner’s video so it fills the screen.

Activities Built on Storytelling

5. One Word Story (5 minutes, 5 to 15) The group tells a story one word at a time, in a fixed order. No planning, no skipping. It falls apart around word 30, which is the funny part. Trains: listening, because you can’t plan your word in advance. Remote note: post the speaking order in chat so nobody has to guess who is next.

6. Expert Interview (6 minutes, 6 to 30) Host names a made-up field of expertise: professional cloud naming, competitive napping. One volunteer is the world’s leading expert and takes three questions from the group, answered with total confidence. Trains: speaking up with confidence when you don’t have a prepared answer. Remote note: use the raise hand feature to queue the questions.

7. The Alibi (8 minutes, 8 to 40) Breakout rooms of two get 90 seconds to agree on a detailed alibi for last night. Back in the main room, the host questions each partner separately while the other is muted with camera off. Inconsistencies are the whole game. Trains: getting on the same page fast, and finding out how often you aren’t. Remote note: the host needs five questions ready in advance.

8. Reverse Charades (5 minutes, 8 to 50) One person guesses. Everyone else acts out the same word at once, on camera, silently. Trains: nonverbal communication. Remote note: send the word by private chat to everyone except the guesser.

Activities Built on Objects Around You

9. Object Pitch (5 minutes, 5 to 30) Everyone grabs one boring object from their desk. Each person gets 20 seconds to pitch it as a revolutionary product. A stapler, but for feelings. Trains: thinking on your feet in front of a group. Remote note: hold the object close to the camera before starting.

10. Rainbow Sprint (3 minutes, any size) Host names a color. Everyone has 30 seconds to leave the frame and return with something that color. Do four colors. Remote note: the best game for people who have been sitting too long.

11. Build the Tallest (6 minutes, 4 to 20) Three minutes, using only items within reach, build the tallest freestanding thing you can. Cameras on, no leaving the desk. Judged by the group in chat. Trains: adapting when the first idea falls over. Remote note: ask people to tilt the camera down at the end so the base is visible.

12. Show and Guess (5 minutes, 6 to 25) Each person holds up an object that has a story, but says nothing. The group guesses the story in chat for 30 seconds, then the owner gives the real one in 20 seconds. Trains: reading people. Remote note: cap it at eight objects per round.

Activities That Run Themselves in Chat

13. The Ranking (3 minutes, any size) Host posts five items in chat: five pizza toppings, five office noises, five apps. Everyone types their ranking from best to worst. Host reads out the most controversial one. Remote note: a good opener for large groups because nobody has to unmute.

14. Question Chain (4 minutes, 6 to 50) The first person types a question in chat. The next person answers it and asks a new one. Nobody can answer a question addressed to someone else. Trains: “yes, and.” You accept the question you’re handed, answer it, and pass something new along. Remote note: the host posts the order at the start and nudges anyone who stalls.

15. Unpopular Opinions, Anonymous (5 minutes, 10 to 50) Before the call, collect one mild unpopular opinion from each person through a form. Host pastes them into chat one at a time and the group votes agree or disagree with reactions. Trains: reading the room. Remote note: keep it to food, movies, and office habits, never politics.

How to Test a New Activity Safely

Every one of these can fall flat if it is introduced to 40 people cold. The fix is simple: try it with five people first. Run it at the end of a small team meeting, see where the instructions confuse people, and notice which step needs a demo. Then run it with the full group, and demo it yourself for five seconds before asking anyone else to go.

Also keep a ratio. In any hour, mix one movement game, one storytelling game, and one chat game, so the people who hate being on camera get a turn in text and the people who hate typing get to stand up and wave. That mix is what makes these work as team bonding games rather than a talent show for the extroverts. It also covers the full set of improv skills: movement games train focus and commitment, storytelling games train listening and “yes, and,” and chat games give the quiet people a way to speak up.

Live Virtual Team Building on Zoom

If you would rather have someone else run the room, the Virtual Office Shenanigans Game is a 60-minute live-hosted team building session on Zoom for up to 50 people, built on exactly this kind of reaction-based play. Scott Topper, who trained at The Groundlings, handles the demo, the pacing, and the person who unmutes at the wrong time, which is most of the work. Games include Slow Motion Fast Ball, Whoosh Bang Pow, and Theme Song Silent Disco. As Brent from a tech company put it, “these improvisational exercises allowed us to utilize our right brain and be creative while listening and reacting to situations on the fly.”

Either way, the rule stands. Five people first, then fifty. The activity that survives the small test is the one your team will still be talking about at the next meeting.