# data[].attributes.body
Create opportunities within the school day that allow for team bonding and hands-on experiences (STEAM, crafts, challenges, etc.)

# data[].attributes.headline
School wide field trips OR team (grade) wide field trips

# data[].attributes.subject
School wide field trips OR team (grade) wide field trips

# data[].attributes.headline
designing personalized learning for pd. Teachers choose which pd to attend. 

# data[].attributes.subject
designing personalized learning for pd. Teachers choose which pd to attend. 

# data[].attributes.headline
common language k-12 to create identity 

# data[].attributes.subject
common language k-12 to create identity 

# data[].attributes.headline
Continue to work with outside organizations such as CHANT in order to educate and inform students on important topics

# data[].attributes.subject
Continue to work with outside organizations such as CHANT in order to educate and inform students on important topics

# data[].attributes.headline
team bonding on staff development days, bowling, picnic (outside of building activities)

# data[].attributes.subject
team bonding on staff development days, bowling, picnic (outside of building activities)

# data[].attributes.body
Community and family events

# data[].attributes.headline
Marigold of the Month (when staff members recognize other staff members and their hard work unexpectedly)

# data[].attributes.subject
Marigold of the Month (when staff members recognize other staff members and their hard work unexpectedly)

# data[].attributes.body
Have staff experts offer PD for colleagues to attend

# data[].attributes.body
Building vs. building
Teacher vs. teacher
Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.

Henry Ford

Teamwork is a practice that as leaders, collaborators, and colleagues, we all need to focus our time and energy on. 86 percent of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration as the reason for workplace failures.

"You don't have to be best friends with everyone that you work with, but you do have to contribute to an environment where there's respect, alignment, and an openness to working together as a team," says Vendasta Chief Customer Officer George Leith.

By fostering a positive team environment, likely outcomes include:

Better performance

Higher employee retention rates

Increased profitability

Improved employee morale and mental health

We examine 14 tips you need to achieve a positive culture within teams and across your organization.

1. Build a Culture of Success

Every individual's definition of success is different. It's important to discuss the term "success" and explore what it means to members on your team. Collaboratively define what metrics, outcomes, and actions will signal a win. You should also ask how it might feel to reach this destination of success? Frequently discuss what success will look like, and examine what everyone will gain once goals are reached. Leaders should inspire with a clear, compelling, continuous vision. Define outcomes that resonate emotionally with the team. Everyone should be able to see themselves in the future as better, smarter, stronger, more valued, and more confident. And, most importantly, your belief in your vision must be unwavering. You must believe it's not only possible, but desirable, essential, and inevitable.

2. Set Goals

Amazingly only 7 percent of employees say they fully understand their company's business goals. Try these steps for achieving goal-setting success:

1. Work to identify collective goals that the group wants to achieve

2. Drill down to individual goal setting that contributes to the larger team goals

3. Set deadlines for goals and track progress

4. Each team is different, so try various formats of goal setting until you find one that works for you

3. Identify Values

A value like getting back to people on time is such a small little thing but if your customers believe you are the one that gets back to them it can be a competitive advantage. If you embody those values it becomes a competitive advantage for the entire organization.

George Leith

Find out from your team the values they believe are of the utmost importance and use those insights to draft a values statement. Creating this document in a silo and then mandating the team to follow it is rarely effective.

Ask questions like:

What do you value?

What unspoken values have contributed to our success to date?

What do successful employees share in common?

What values should govern the way we interact with each other and with our customers?

Once you've developed the values statement, posting it in your break room isn't enough. It's critical to identify any changes you'll make or practices you'll adopt to support value integration. Teach out those values again and again to your team. With every action, meeting, campaign and event these values should be the foundation, and reward team members who exemplify these values.

4. Respect

Having a culture of mutual respect has time and again been shown to be a key core value for thriving organizations. Examples of how to show respect at work include:

Treat others with courtesy, politeness, and kindness

Encourage colleagues to express opinions and ideas

Listen to what others have to say before expressing your viewpoint

Never insult or belittle people or their ideas

Do not constantly criticize, judge, demean, or patronize a colleague

Be aware of your body language, tone of voice, and demeanor

5. Responsibility

"As leaders we need to hold ourselves equally as responsible as we hold our teams. We want to make sure we are owning the responsibility that has been given to us," Leith says.

Gone are the days of 'do as I say and not as I do.' Leith recommends practicing the see it, own it, solve it, do it principle. By modeling to your team the fundamentals of responsibility, you have a better chance that others will follow suit.

6. Continuous Development

Building a positive team culture takes time and constant iteration. Stay on top of development opportunities because teams that learn together succeed together. Try these ideas for professional development:

Create an in-house library with materials from past training sessions, industry books, and other literature

Share relevant webinars with colleagues

Contribute ideas for workshops or events that you find interesting and worthwhile

7. Praise and Kudos

Recognition goes a long way to boost morale and keep the positive vibes flowing. Coaches and leaders should appropriately offer praise and kudos when goals and improvements are accomplished. Recognizing quality work and achievements of workgroups increases profits by 29 percent . Leaders should set the best example and dole out praise regularly. Teams will, in turn, have a greater tendency to repeat this behavior, forming a culture of collaboration and acknowledgment.

"For true contributors, if you pile on the praise and miss on opportunities for constructive criticism they may view it as disingenuous. So be sure to balance the scale. There's nothing wrong with recognition, but be sure you're also sharing those hard truths," Leith says.

8. Support

You don't win every second, minute, hour, day, week, month, or year. Eventually, things get hard, or you enter a slump. The tough times are a good test of the strength of your team. As you analyze your team culture, try asking yourself and your leadership this question: Will they come together and conquer the challenge or will they fold?

Everything is easy when you are winning, but what defines a truly positive team culture is how the team copes with inevitable struggles.

9. Working Together

By fostering a positive work environment you enable your team to self-manage, coach, heal, and grow. It is one of the amazing bi-products of building a great culture. Leaders don't need to be in every conversation, the team follows the core values and heals itself, grows itself, and manages itself.

10. More Than Just Work

Embrace team-building workshops, offsites, and group meetings. Colleagues should see, learn and experience the human side of each contributor. Getting to know the person behind the role, will lead to greater collaboration.

At Vendasta we use a communication and messaging platform called, Slack. On Slack we have a channel called '#petdasta' where team members can post pictures and inside tidbits about their pets. It's a small measure, but elements like that are what really give color and humanity to the workplace.

George Leith

11. Lead By Example

"I wouldn't ask someone to do something I wasn't prepared to do myself," Leith says.

Leith says he was taught that lesson in leadership a long time ago and has always embraced this core value. According to Leith, he ensures the first boot on the ground is always his own.

"How do you know how long it takes to do a job if you haven't done it yourself? A team member might say 'that job takes me two hours' and then you do it and it takes eight minutes. There's obviously an efficiency problem. You can also watch the way the job is being performed and figure out a way to do it faster, or do it better" Leith says.

12. Clear Expectations

Establish a scorecard that is reviewed in a regular cadence with every team member and have a weekly one-on-one with each team member you lead, as well as weekly or monthly team meetings.

You should be transparent on the team's performance with key metrics and look to the team for input on how to improve performance.

"Take the big thing, break it down into bite-sized pieces and help the team get there. Support them," Leith says.

13. Over Communicate

Organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5x more likely to retain the best employees.

Always over-communicate your vision and goals. Leith recommends having your leadership group and teams develop mental models and talk tracks, and keep those on repeat until they are so ingrained in your vernacular you can recite them in your sleep.

"You can never over-communicate a key message to the team. The moment you are absolutely sick of mentioning something to the team is the moment they are just starting to understand it, Leith says.

Being repetitive in your communication, leads to clarity for every member of the group.

14. Be Patient

"One day you wake up and there may be 100, 1000, or even 10,000 people that are counting on your concepts or your leaderships and in order to build that positive team culture. We have to realize that it doesn't happen overnight, it doesn't happen in a month, and probably doesn't even happen in a year. So be patient, trust the process, and constantly be evolving," Leith says.

Keeping the focus on the wellbeing of your team, and one day you will look back and see an amazing culture of success.

Conclusion

There's a reason why we always hear the tried and true phrases in business:

Teamwork makes the dreamwork

There's no 'I' in team

Chains are only as strong as their weakest link

They might be corny, but they ring true. Invest time in the relationships, collaboration and shared visions to find success. Not only will you have a high performing team, you'll gain lifelong colleagues and friends.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How To Build A Positive Team Culture: 14 Tips to Bring Your Team Together

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success. Henry Ford Teamwork is a practice that as leaders, collaborators, and colleagues, we all need to focus our time and energy on. 86 percent of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration as the reason for workplace failures.

# data[].attributes.headline
Work on SEL/coping strategies that will allow students to understand their rights, and boost their confidence. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Work on SEL/coping strategies that will allow students to understand their rights, and boost their confidence. 

# data[].attributes.body
Staff tournament/competitions for fundraising that community and students can attend and cheer on

# data[].attributes.headline
teach all students to set some achievable self learning goals 

# data[].attributes.subject
teach all students to set some achievable self learning goals 

# data[].attributes.headline
allow students to attend committee meetings and have a say 

# data[].attributes.subject
allow students to attend committee meetings and have a say 

# data[].attributes.headline
Going on a retreat in the summer or doing something with different buildings/teams over the summer to build relationships amongst staff

# data[].attributes.subject
Going on a retreat in the summer or doing something with different buildings/teams over the summer to build relationships amongst staff

# data[].attributes.headline
Create invitations for community organizations and businesses to support/attend/link with disctrict events.

# data[].attributes.subject
Create invitations for community organizations and businesses to support/attend/link with disctrict events.

# data[].attributes.body
Build a student committee that attends specific meetings/PD involving staff/faculty

# data[].attributes.headline
Team-building across the grade level to increase relationships with peers

# data[].attributes.subject
Team-building across the grade level to increase relationships with peers

# data[].attributes.body
Breakfast Club/"Soup"er Bowl vote on a favorite award with golden ladle/Snack Sleigh take a snack and drink from class to class/etc.

# data[].attributes.body
Encourage positive peer correspondence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What's the best job for you?

Use The Muse to find a job at a company with a culture you love. Select the career path that aligns with you:

How many years of experience do you have?

What company benefits are most important to you?

Calculating your job matches...

And yes, you've probably done team-building activities (and maybe played some icebreaker games) in the workplace, too. While they tend to get a bad rap-picture some mandatory HR event where everyone looks miserable and no one wants to go along for the ride-the right kinds of team-building exercises can bring people closer together, help teams work more effectively, and identify gaps and strengths in individual members.
SEARCH OPEN JOBS ON THE MUSE! See who's hiring here, and you can even filter your search by benefits, company size, remote opportunities, and more. Then, sign up for our newsletter and we'll deliver advice on landing the job right to you.
Want to skip right to the good stuff? Here are our suggestions for:

Read More: 100+ Icebreaker Questions-So You'll Never Have to Think of a "Fun" Fact Again

Why Team-Building Activities Are Important

Besides offering up a fun and creative alternative to bonding over happy hour (which can make people who don't drink feel left out), team-building activities provide companies and employees with plenty of added benefits.

At the base level, team building allows people to get to know each other-their interests, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they communicate, among other things. "Just like any professional sports team works and practices with one another to be at their best, teams at work can and should do the same thing," says Muse career coach Al Dea. And just like you can't jump onto the field with a team that has zero clue who's playing what position, who's passing the ball to whom, and who's the best at handling XYZ situation, you can't achieve anything if your team members don't understand one another.

Team-building activities also build camaraderie and trust-one of the most important aspects of a successful team. "Building a sense of trust amongst teammates [allows] people [to] bring the full power of their skills, personalities, and who they are to work," says Dea. "When people don't have trust to do that, they hold back, thus sometimes limiting their abilities to be at their best."

Finally, team-building activities can help remind people that work is never just about them-it's about the entire group. When you're encouraged to do something together, rather than solo, it brings to life the idea that the group's success (and ultimately the company's) should be a priority. This can be a particularly useful learning experience for teams that struggle with teamwork, are overly competitive, or lack unity and confidence as a result of a bad manager or hard times.

So what do these exercises look like? Check out some of our favorites.

Team-Building Activities to Do During a Meeting

Team building doesn't have to be an all-day affair. In fact, taking 20 minutes out of the first half of your next group meeting can be enough to spark innovation and teamwork.

1. Solve a Puzzle

This can be a literal puzzle, like a 500 piece set (if you're down to spend a few dollars on Amazon), or a brain teaser that requires thinking and brainstorming out loud. Toss one out to your team and, if you're feeling overly ambitious, give them a time limit to complete the task. The key is that everyone has to contribute to the success of the project.

Once they're done or time runs out, take a moment to reflect on the experience. Ask your team: What was your strategy to solve it? Who did what? Why did you make the decisions you did? Allowing everyone to think through their process might highlight unique perspectives or strengths in each individual-or at least lead to an eye-opening conversation.

2. Count to 20

This one's super simple and great if you want to take a couple of minutes to bond.

Have everyone sit in a circle. Anyone can start the count off or say a number at any time, the goal being to count from one to 20. However, if two people jump in at the same time to say a number, the count starts over. This game requires team members not only to be cognizant of the group dynamic, but to work together-with limited communication-to get to the end.

3. Try a Compliment Circle

There are different variations you can take on this to encourage your team to express appreciation for one another. One option is you can simply spend five minutes having individuals compliment one another, whatever pops into their mind (if you're the manager, you should start to get the ball rolling!). This can be as easy as saying, "I wanted to tell Gina I loved her proposal this week" or "Big shoutout to Danny for bringing in donuts last week when we were all heads-down to meet a big deadline." Or you can go around and have each person address the coworker to their right, so that everyone gets a chance to shine.

4. Host a Brainstorming Session

Team building can absolutely be work focused, and oftentimes that's the best kind. The key is to make these brainstorming sessions less about day-to-day accomplishments and more about bigger team goals. Maybe you want to outline your KPIs for the rest of the quarter. Maybe you want to hash out some new ideas for an upcoming campaign. Maybe your team's strategy feels stale and you're looking for ways to refresh it.

Whatever your goal, try organizing your conversation using one of these suggestions:

An idea board: The simplest form of brainstorming. Give everyone an agenda ahead of time, and have them come to the meeting with three to five ideas. Talk through them, and have people contribute additional thoughts, questions, or concerns.

Fist to five: Have everyone brainstorm solutions to a problem, then go through them one by one by holding up a fist or a number of fingers up to five. A fist means you're not on board and five fingers up means you think it's a great idea. Then, have everyone state their case as to why they chose the fingers they did.

Went well, went OK, could have done better: At The Muse, we use this process for quarterly retrospectives and project post-mortems. Have everyone jot down on Post-it notes things they thought went well, things they thought went OK, and things that didn't go well or could have been done better, and sort the Post-its into their respective categories. Once all the ideas are on the table talk through them and come up with potential solutions to the problem areas.

5. Have a "Show and Tell"

This can be a great way to get your team to brag a bit about their accomplishments, and to encourage them to stay updated on what everyone else is working on.

One great example of this at The Muse is something we call "Sip it and Ship it." One Friday of the month, our engineering team hosts an open meeting where anyone at the company has the option to take a look at and test out our latest "shipped" or completed products-while "sipping" on alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages.

You can do this on a small scale, too. If you're a team of two or three, spend a few minutes a week or once a month getting together and highlighting something each member is working on, and allow people to ask questions, give suggestions, and offer up positive feedback.

Team-Building Activities to Do During the Workday

These activities are great for longer meetings, or if you want to spend an afternoon or a few hours away from your desk.

6. Share Your Personality

Have everyone on your team fill out a personality test (here are some of our favorites), then get together and discuss. What you decide to do with this is really up to you-the key is to have each employee understand their colleagues' strengths, weaknesses, and ticks. Maybe you group similar personalities together and have them chat about how their traits come out in the workplace, or have them complete an assignment like designing their "ideal" office based on their personality type and sharing it with the group.

Another option? Have everyone fill out this "user manual" and share their findings with the team.

7. Play Team or Board Games

You don't need me to tell you that board games bring people together (just read this article on the benefits of networking over games). And there are some many great, office-friendly options out there!

There's Apples to Apples (a SFW version of Cards Against Humanity), Code Names, Pandemic, and Jenga-all games that require teamwork. There are also non-tabletop games like Celebrity or Heads Up (available on iOS and Android) that require nothing but a phone or a pen and paper.

It may feel silly to pull out some games in the middle of the office, but you may be surprised to find that doing so loosens your team up and forces them to work together in different and creative ways.

8. Create a Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts can be great for new hires to get to know the landscape and their team-requiring them to identify things around the office and ask seasoned employees questions during their first week such as "When was [Company] started?" or "Who was our first client?" or "How many people work on the marketing team?"

But they're just as effective with veteran teams. Maybe you set one up for employees to uncover X number of facts or artifacts by the end of the day together. Or divide the group into multiple teams and see who finishes first. However you choose to do it and whatever you choose for them to find, this will definitely encourage team members to work together on something far removed from their usual work and team of people.

9. Untangle a "Human Knot"

This is a camp favorite, but also a fun way to have team members come together to solve a problem. Have everyone squish together in a circle and grab hands with people not directly next to them. The goal, once everyone's hands are interlocked, is to untangle yourselves without breaking the chain. You can make it even more challenging by not allowing people to talk or putting a time limit on it. It requires a bit of leg room to crawl over each other (not to mention an office culture where people feel comfortable holding hands-tread carefully with this one), but if you feel up to it it can make for a fun puzzle.

10. Give Out Blind Directions

Pair team members up and have one put on a blindfold-it's then the other person's job to direct them in making moves as best they can, whether that's getting them to the other side of the office or having them complete a task like moving an object or drawing a picture. Have individuals who normally don't work as closely together do this exercise, and it'll help them practice communication and build trust.

11. Do a Silent Line-Up

Set a timer, and have people line up in various orders say, by height, birthday, or company tenure-without saying a word. Your team will learn a bit about each other while overcoming an unusual challenge.

12. Host a Lunch and Learn

Your team is probably full of unspoken talent-use those strengths as a way to bring everyone together. Maybe someone's a great knitter, or speaks another language, or is a pro at using Excel. Have them host a "lunch and learn" where they teach the rest of the crew a new skill over your midday break. Your employee will practice mentoring and giving presentations, and your team will learn something new and exciting about their peers.

13. Have a Hack Day

Hack days are big in the tech and engineering sphere, but they can be beneficial for just about any team.

The idea is simple: Have everyone drop what they're working on and spend the day completing a special project that benefits the team or company. If you can, have multiple departments (if not the whole company) participate and require employees to work with people on different teams. The point is to have people think outside the box by creating something that requires a new set of skills or way of thinking.

Maybe you spend the day rethinking your onboarding document for new hires, or brainstorming a new sales pitch, or building a new feature into a product-whatever it is, it should cost $0 to create and be something you can make (or conceptualize) in a workday.

14. Put on a Contest

For example, you could host a department desk decorating face-off (this is a big hit in The Muse office on Halloween), or plan a cookie or guacamole-making contest, where employees bring in their best recipes and the team judges their favorites (plus, who doesn't like food during the workday?). It creates a bit of healthy competition, while encouraging employees to spend time together and bond over a common hobby.

Team-Building Activities to Do Outside the Office

It's certainly trickier to have people hang out outside of work, but if you can get everyone together (or can take the afternoon to go on an adventure), these can be great activities for team building.

15. Complete an Escape-the-Room Challenge

Everyone's doing them these days, and it's no wonder why: Trying to escape when you're "trapped" in a room with people (in a set time period) is a team effort. If you live in a city that offers them (some options here and here), you can find an assortment of escape-the-room challenges, including a submarine, jail cell, or even an office (how ironic!). Per person it may cost you around $30, the same price of say, taking your team bowling or paying for a few drinks at happy hour.

16. Take a Cooking Class

Cooking classes are a great way to help teams bond because they're not just an individual activity-often what you're making requires multiple sets of hands. CourseHorse and Groupon are great places to find these kinds of opportunities, for cheap.

17. Take an Improv Class

A lot more interactive than cooking classes, improv classes can teach you a lot of valuable skills for the workplace-including how to communicate with others and overcome various challenges as a team. Plus, they force you to get out of your comfort zone and have a laugh with your colleagues. You can check out sites like CourseHorse for options, or do a quick Google search to find the best comedy cellars near your office.

18. Sign Up for Trivia

Who doesn't love trivia? Besides the fact that it allows employees to flex their history and pop culture muscles, it's also incredibly team-oriented. Go together to a local spot's trivia night, or bring in a host to your office and split the department into teams to battle for the winning title.

19. Volunteer

If your team is passionate about a certain cause or initiative, consider taking the day to do some community service. Not only will you bond, but you'll come out feeling great and making a positive impact on your community. Here's how to bring volunteer opportunities to your office, and some tips on various volunteering activities you can do, depending on your level of commitment.

20. Start a Book Club

Grab a book related to your field and have everyone read it over a few weeks. Then, set aside some time to sit and chat about it (over snacks!). You'll spark interesting conversation, encourage colleagues to share ideas, stories, and input, and help everyone learn a bit more about their role within the team.

Check out our best reads if you need inspiration.

21. Tackle a Ropes Course

This is a bit more ambitious, but it's a great day trip or retreat activity to get your team outdoors and still working together. Ropes courses require teamwork in so many ways, whether you're encouraging a teammate to overcome an especially challenging part or trying to get through a maze as a group. Just make sure everyone on your team is on board with this before moving forward (for example, ensuring no one's afraid of heights or has mobility issues)-if they're hesitant you may have more success trying something else out.

22. Form an Intramural League

If your team is full of athletes, this could be the perfect option for bonding outside the office.

It doesn't have to be a tiring sport, either! Plenty of cities offer opportunities to play things like skeeball, bocce, or cornhole. If you want your efforts to go toward a cause, consider signing up to run (or walk) a 5K for charity together.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
22 Team-Building Activities for Any Kind of Workplace

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Team-building activities offer plenty of benefits beyond an escape from work. Here are some great ideas for team bonding, whether you want to be inside or outside the office.

# data[].attributes.body
Student mentor groups

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What's the best job for you?

Use The Muse to find a job at a company with a culture you love. Select the career path that aligns with you:

How many years of experience do you have?

What company benefits are most important to you?

Calculating your job matches...

And yes, you've probably done team-building activities (and maybe played some icebreaker games) in the workplace, too. While they tend to get a bad rap-picture some mandatory HR event where everyone looks miserable and no one wants to go along for the ride-the right kinds of team-building exercises can bring people closer together, help teams work more effectively, and identify gaps and strengths in individual members.
SEARCH OPEN JOBS ON THE MUSE! See who's hiring here, and you can even filter your search by benefits, company size, remote opportunities, and more. Then, sign up for our newsletter and we'll deliver advice on landing the job right to you.
Want to skip right to the good stuff? Here are our suggestions for:

Read More: 100+ Icebreaker Questions-So You'll Never Have to Think of a "Fun" Fact Again

Why Team-Building Activities Are Important

Besides offering up a fun and creative alternative to bonding over happy hour (which can make people who don't drink feel left out), team-building activities provide companies and employees with plenty of added benefits.

At the base level, team building allows people to get to know each other-their interests, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they communicate, among other things. "Just like any professional sports team works and practices with one another to be at their best, teams at work can and should do the same thing," says Muse career coach Al Dea. And just like you can't jump onto the field with a team that has zero clue who's playing what position, who's passing the ball to whom, and who's the best at handling XYZ situation, you can't achieve anything if your team members don't understand one another.

Team-building activities also build camaraderie and trust-one of the most important aspects of a successful team. "Building a sense of trust amongst teammates [allows] people [to] bring the full power of their skills, personalities, and who they are to work," says Dea. "When people don't have trust to do that, they hold back, thus sometimes limiting their abilities to be at their best."

Finally, team-building activities can help remind people that work is never just about them-it's about the entire group. When you're encouraged to do something together, rather than solo, it brings to life the idea that the group's success (and ultimately the company's) should be a priority. This can be a particularly useful learning experience for teams that struggle with teamwork, are overly competitive, or lack unity and confidence as a result of a bad manager or hard times.

So what do these exercises look like? Check out some of our favorites.

Team-Building Activities to Do During a Meeting

Team building doesn't have to be an all-day affair. In fact, taking 20 minutes out of the first half of your next group meeting can be enough to spark innovation and teamwork.

1. Solve a Puzzle

This can be a literal puzzle, like a 500 piece set (if you're down to spend a few dollars on Amazon), or a brain teaser that requires thinking and brainstorming out loud. Toss one out to your team and, if you're feeling overly ambitious, give them a time limit to complete the task. The key is that everyone has to contribute to the success of the project.

Once they're done or time runs out, take a moment to reflect on the experience. Ask your team: What was your strategy to solve it? Who did what? Why did you make the decisions you did? Allowing everyone to think through their process might highlight unique perspectives or strengths in each individual-or at least lead to an eye-opening conversation.

2. Count to 20

This one's super simple and great if you want to take a couple of minutes to bond.

Have everyone sit in a circle. Anyone can start the count off or say a number at any time, the goal being to count from one to 20. However, if two people jump in at the same time to say a number, the count starts over. This game requires team members not only to be cognizant of the group dynamic, but to work together-with limited communication-to get to the end.

3. Try a Compliment Circle

There are different variations you can take on this to encourage your team to express appreciation for one another. One option is you can simply spend five minutes having individuals compliment one another, whatever pops into their mind (if you're the manager, you should start to get the ball rolling!). This can be as easy as saying, "I wanted to tell Gina I loved her proposal this week" or "Big shoutout to Danny for bringing in donuts last week when we were all heads-down to meet a big deadline." Or you can go around and have each person address the coworker to their right, so that everyone gets a chance to shine.

4. Host a Brainstorming Session

Team building can absolutely be work focused, and oftentimes that's the best kind. The key is to make these brainstorming sessions less about day-to-day accomplishments and more about bigger team goals. Maybe you want to outline your KPIs for the rest of the quarter. Maybe you want to hash out some new ideas for an upcoming campaign. Maybe your team's strategy feels stale and you're looking for ways to refresh it.

Whatever your goal, try organizing your conversation using one of these suggestions:

An idea board: The simplest form of brainstorming. Give everyone an agenda ahead of time, and have them come to the meeting with three to five ideas. Talk through them, and have people contribute additional thoughts, questions, or concerns.

Fist to five: Have everyone brainstorm solutions to a problem, then go through them one by one by holding up a fist or a number of fingers up to five. A fist means you're not on board and five fingers up means you think it's a great idea. Then, have everyone state their case as to why they chose the fingers they did.

Went well, went OK, could have done better: At The Muse, we use this process for quarterly retrospectives and project post-mortems. Have everyone jot down on Post-it notes things they thought went well, things they thought went OK, and things that didn't go well or could have been done better, and sort the Post-its into their respective categories. Once all the ideas are on the table talk through them and come up with potential solutions to the problem areas.

5. Have a "Show and Tell"

This can be a great way to get your team to brag a bit about their accomplishments, and to encourage them to stay updated on what everyone else is working on.

One great example of this at The Muse is something we call "Sip it and Ship it." One Friday of the month, our engineering team hosts an open meeting where anyone at the company has the option to take a look at and test out our latest "shipped" or completed products-while "sipping" on alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages.

You can do this on a small scale, too. If you're a team of two or three, spend a few minutes a week or once a month getting together and highlighting something each member is working on, and allow people to ask questions, give suggestions, and offer up positive feedback.

Team-Building Activities to Do During the Workday

These activities are great for longer meetings, or if you want to spend an afternoon or a few hours away from your desk.

6. Share Your Personality

Have everyone on your team fill out a personality test (here are some of our favorites), then get together and discuss. What you decide to do with this is really up to you-the key is to have each employee understand their colleagues' strengths, weaknesses, and ticks. Maybe you group similar personalities together and have them chat about how their traits come out in the workplace, or have them complete an assignment like designing their "ideal" office based on their personality type and sharing it with the group.

Another option? Have everyone fill out this "user manual" and share their findings with the team.

7. Play Team or Board Games

You don't need me to tell you that board games bring people together (just read this article on the benefits of networking over games). And there are some many great, office-friendly options out there!

There's Apples to Apples (a SFW version of Cards Against Humanity), Code Names, Pandemic, and Jenga-all games that require teamwork. There are also non-tabletop games like Celebrity or Heads Up (available on iOS and Android) that require nothing but a phone or a pen and paper.

It may feel silly to pull out some games in the middle of the office, but you may be surprised to find that doing so loosens your team up and forces them to work together in different and creative ways.

8. Create a Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts can be great for new hires to get to know the landscape and their team-requiring them to identify things around the office and ask seasoned employees questions during their first week such as "When was [Company] started?" or "Who was our first client?" or "How many people work on the marketing team?"

But they're just as effective with veteran teams. Maybe you set one up for employees to uncover X number of facts or artifacts by the end of the day together. Or divide the group into multiple teams and see who finishes first. However you choose to do it and whatever you choose for them to find, this will definitely encourage team members to work together on something far removed from their usual work and team of people.

9. Untangle a "Human Knot"

This is a camp favorite, but also a fun way to have team members come together to solve a problem. Have everyone squish together in a circle and grab hands with people not directly next to them. The goal, once everyone's hands are interlocked, is to untangle yourselves without breaking the chain. You can make it even more challenging by not allowing people to talk or putting a time limit on it. It requires a bit of leg room to crawl over each other (not to mention an office culture where people feel comfortable holding hands-tread carefully with this one), but if you feel up to it it can make for a fun puzzle.

10. Give Out Blind Directions

Pair team members up and have one put on a blindfold-it's then the other person's job to direct them in making moves as best they can, whether that's getting them to the other side of the office or having them complete a task like moving an object or drawing a picture. Have individuals who normally don't work as closely together do this exercise, and it'll help them practice communication and build trust.

11. Do a Silent Line-Up

Set a timer, and have people line up in various orders say, by height, birthday, or company tenure-without saying a word. Your team will learn a bit about each other while overcoming an unusual challenge.

12. Host a Lunch and Learn

Your team is probably full of unspoken talent-use those strengths as a way to bring everyone together. Maybe someone's a great knitter, or speaks another language, or is a pro at using Excel. Have them host a "lunch and learn" where they teach the rest of the crew a new skill over your midday break. Your employee will practice mentoring and giving presentations, and your team will learn something new and exciting about their peers.

13. Have a Hack Day

Hack days are big in the tech and engineering sphere, but they can be beneficial for just about any team.

The idea is simple: Have everyone drop what they're working on and spend the day completing a special project that benefits the team or company. If you can, have multiple departments (if not the whole company) participate and require employees to work with people on different teams. The point is to have people think outside the box by creating something that requires a new set of skills or way of thinking.

Maybe you spend the day rethinking your onboarding document for new hires, or brainstorming a new sales pitch, or building a new feature into a product-whatever it is, it should cost $0 to create and be something you can make (or conceptualize) in a workday.

14. Put on a Contest

For example, you could host a department desk decorating face-off (this is a big hit in The Muse office on Halloween), or plan a cookie or guacamole-making contest, where employees bring in their best recipes and the team judges their favorites (plus, who doesn't like food during the workday?). It creates a bit of healthy competition, while encouraging employees to spend time together and bond over a common hobby.

Team-Building Activities to Do Outside the Office

It's certainly trickier to have people hang out outside of work, but if you can get everyone together (or can take the afternoon to go on an adventure), these can be great activities for team building.

15. Complete an Escape-the-Room Challenge

Everyone's doing them these days, and it's no wonder why: Trying to escape when you're "trapped" in a room with people (in a set time period) is a team effort. If you live in a city that offers them (some options here and here), you can find an assortment of escape-the-room challenges, including a submarine, jail cell, or even an office (how ironic!). Per person it may cost you around $30, the same price of say, taking your team bowling or paying for a few drinks at happy hour.

16. Take a Cooking Class

Cooking classes are a great way to help teams bond because they're not just an individual activity-often what you're making requires multiple sets of hands. CourseHorse and Groupon are great places to find these kinds of opportunities, for cheap.

17. Take an Improv Class

A lot more interactive than cooking classes, improv classes can teach you a lot of valuable skills for the workplace-including how to communicate with others and overcome various challenges as a team. Plus, they force you to get out of your comfort zone and have a laugh with your colleagues. You can check out sites like CourseHorse for options, or do a quick Google search to find the best comedy cellars near your office.

18. Sign Up for Trivia

Who doesn't love trivia? Besides the fact that it allows employees to flex their history and pop culture muscles, it's also incredibly team-oriented. Go together to a local spot's trivia night, or bring in a host to your office and split the department into teams to battle for the winning title.

19. Volunteer

If your team is passionate about a certain cause or initiative, consider taking the day to do some community service. Not only will you bond, but you'll come out feeling great and making a positive impact on your community. Here's how to bring volunteer opportunities to your office, and some tips on various volunteering activities you can do, depending on your level of commitment.

20. Start a Book Club

Grab a book related to your field and have everyone read it over a few weeks. Then, set aside some time to sit and chat about it (over snacks!). You'll spark interesting conversation, encourage colleagues to share ideas, stories, and input, and help everyone learn a bit more about their role within the team.

Check out our best reads if you need inspiration.

21. Tackle a Ropes Course

This is a bit more ambitious, but it's a great day trip or retreat activity to get your team outdoors and still working together. Ropes courses require teamwork in so many ways, whether you're encouraging a teammate to overcome an especially challenging part or trying to get through a maze as a group. Just make sure everyone on your team is on board with this before moving forward (for example, ensuring no one's afraid of heights or has mobility issues)-if they're hesitant you may have more success trying something else out.

22. Form an Intramural League

If your team is full of athletes, this could be the perfect option for bonding outside the office.

It doesn't have to be a tiring sport, either! Plenty of cities offer opportunities to play things like skeeball, bocce, or cornhole. If you want your efforts to go toward a cause, consider signing up to run (or walk) a 5K for charity together.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
22 Team-Building Activities for Any Kind of Workplace

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Team-building activities offer plenty of benefits beyond an escape from work. Here are some great ideas for team bonding, whether you want to be inside or outside the office.

# data[].attributes.body
Classes design catapults and have a pumpkin chucking contest

# data[].attributes.headline
Christmas Party (after school) ugly sweater contest

# data[].attributes.subject
Christmas Party (after school) ugly sweater contest

# data[].attributes.body
Teachers giving other teachers workshop ideas
(I.e. a tech teacher assisting teachers who are not tech savvy)