Team building exercises to inspire your project teams

Team building exercises offer teams fun and camaraderie, creating a chance to form new bonds and friendships. However, team building is also an essential component of developing professional skills. Events, team days and group exercises can be effective in enhancing communication, fostering trust, improving collaboration within project teams, and empowering your leadership.

If you’re looking to buoy your project team and inject energy, these exercises can add some fun to the team dynamic, making it easier for team members to deal with the stresses of project deadlines and deliverables.

Example team building activities

Escape room challenges

Activity: Team members work together in a physical or virtual escape room where they must solve puzzles and find clues to "escape" within a set time limit.

How it boosts project teams: These challenges encourage problem-solving under pressure, promote effective communication, and require collaborative effort. They often require delegation and sub-teams for successful outcomes, all skills that are directly transferable to project management.

Team cooking competitions

Activity: Teams compete to create the best dish within a limited time and with specific ingredients.

How it boosts project teams: Fosters teamwork, creativity, and time management. It also shows the importance of resource allocation and improvisation when faced with project constraints.

Role reversal exercises

Activity: Members of the team temporarily take on different roles, allowing them to experience the responsibilities of their colleagues.

How it boosts project teams: This exercise promotes understanding and appreciation of different roles within the team, improving empathy and communication. It can help mitigate conflicts and improve role-based decision-making in projects.

Scavenger hunts

Activity: Create a scavenger hunt requiring teams to find items or complete tasks hidden throughout the office or a designated area outside.

How it boosts project teams: A scavenger hunt promotes team coordination, strategic planning, and time management. It also encourages teams to delegate tasks effectively, a key component in managing projects.

DIY workshops

Activity: Organise a workshop where teams can build something tangible, such as furniture or a simple gadget.

How it boosts project teams: A practical activity like this encourages hands-on collaboration, project planning, and execution skills. It's also an excellent way for teams to see the results of their collaboration.

Team sports days

Activity: Plan a day of various team sports like relay races, tug of war, or football.

How it boosts project teams: It builds team spirit, encourages healthy competition, and teaches teams how to set collective goals and know where to focus energy—similar to setting project milestones.

Charity projects

Activity: Teams work together on a community service project or organise a charity fundraiser.

How it boosts project teams: This emphasises the importance of social responsibility and ethical project management. It also enhances team cohesion and gives team members a sense of achievement and purpose beyond their usual work tasks.

Innovation hackathons

Activity: Teams spend a day or half a day developing solutions to a given problem, which could be related to their work or purely creative.

How it boosts project teams: This stimulates creativity, rapid problem-solving, and innovation under time constraints. This is crucial for project teams that need to think quickly and creatively to resolve unexpected issues during projects.

Professional development workshops

Activity: Teams attend a workshop together to learn a new skill relevant to their work, such as a new project management tool or software.

How it boosts project teams: This enhances team capabilities and ensures all members are updated with the latest project management techniques and tools. Another way to run this is for each participant to run their own mini workshop to share their knowledge with the rest of the team.

Planning your next team building event

These activities not only help build a more cohesive team but also mirror the skills needed in project management, such as communication, planning, conflict resolution, and strategic thinking. Integrating such fun exercises into the regular routine can keep a team motivated and improve their project performance.