17 Great Indoor Team Building Games

There is nothing more important than a group of people having the ability to work together as a team. That’s why every office should have some fun indoor team building games to help everyone work together and build trust. It’s not always easy to get people working in a collaborative company culture (the three C’s).

Furthermore, most offices don’t have a ton of outdoor green space readily available. That’s why indoor team building games are an essential part of your working environment. And it’s not too late to get started!

Outdoor and indoor team building games really help to promote and foster relationships. This is especially crucial where individuals need to trust one another and work together in a positive and productive manner. There are fun team building games for kids and team building games for adults. The common goal of both is to have fun and promote teamwork.

Indoor team building games help ease tension and promote bonds between employees or children. They can also help develop problem-solving skills, foster creative thinking, improve employee engagement, and build better communication between team members. There are many options for fun team building activities and exercises. Below, we have compiled 17 of the best indoor team building games out there.

You can see the step-by-step instructions for these fun games and group activities below. We’re sure you’ll have a good time playing these team building games. Are any great indoor team building games missing from this list? Please add your ideas to the comments at the bottom. You can always adapt games from our ultimate activities list into indoor fun.

 

1.) 3 Truths and a Lie

The best teams take time to get to know each other. In this fun, getting-to-know-you team building activity, each person gets a chance to present themselves to the rest of the group. They will offer four personal statements to everyone, three of which are true and one which is false. The truths may be as fun and creative as you would like, or as simple as you may choose.

The lie must not be so far-fetched that it is completely unbelievable (i.e., “I swam the English Channel with my arms tied behind my back and a shark chasing me.”). Everyone should discuss what they believe are the truths and which is the lie. After they come to a united decision, the speaker will reveal if they are correct or not. 

This is a great team building game to help everyone become acquainted with one another. It also helps the quieter people of the group who may more easily remain silent, if allowed, to break out and get to be known by others. In addition, it allows the participants to learn a bit about themselves as well as others based on the lies they believed to be true.

To make this indoor team building game challenging, 3 truths and a lie is a great opportunity to present one’s most outlandish truths. This will make guessing the lie all that harder. If you’ve ever eaten a bizarre food or traveled to a remote location no one else in the office knows about, now is your time to share!

Just one thing: try to analyze the people you’re playing with. Know what their limits are. Some people might be disgusted with certain activities that you might’ve partaken in in the past, so be careful what you are willing to confess and what you are willing to make up for your story.

2.) Scavenger Hunt

An oldie but a goodie in the world of indoor team building games, scavenger hunts are gold for creativity and fun. You likely remember doing some sort of scavenger hunt game during your childhood. Small groups should be made to create teams that work together with the common goal of finding the objects or answers needed from their scavenger hunt list.

The answers or items being sought out should all be work or event-related, or at least serve to educate in some way. A time limit should be given for the groups to find as many objects and answers as they possibly can. Some will be quite easy, but others will really require them to work together as they will be a bit more difficult.

This indoor team building game promotes united teamwork. When the game is done, everyone will have been reminded of different work/event procedures and policies. Those policies will have been incorporated in their lists for answers or items to find. If it’s a nice day and you have outdoor space, by all means venture outside.

But, a scavenger hunt can also be a great way for new employees to get to know the office that they’ll be working in. To organize a successful scavenger hunt, you needn’t use any space beyond the working environment on hand. Good treats or prizes for the winning team are certainly encouraged. Check out more ideas for how to make the perfect scavenger hunt here.

 

3.) Hello My Name Is

Write adjectives describing someone’s mood or personality (i.e., happy, grouchy, negative, prankster) on name tag stickers. Be sure there are enough so that each person can have one. Then randomly hand them out or let each person draw one from a hat. Each person must then put the sticker with their assigned adjective on to their shirt and wear it. Then they need to behave as their assigned adjective during all interactions for a certain amount of time.

This is a great activity that shows each person that when we define them by a feeling – “Boy, you’re really grumpy today!” – it can actually lead us to take on that persona, whether we were feeling that way or not. This, of course, can be a good thing or a bad thing. Acting happy can, in fact, make you feel happy! This shows how behavior and actions can actually define our feelings, not the other way around. This is also one of those fun indoor team building games that lets employees showcase their acting and improv skills.

It can be really fun especially if you’re in a theater group. Or, if you think about it, it can be fun with just about anyone who’s willing to get creative for a bit. In any case, be nice to your colleagues and try to get them to act as a positive feeling instead of a negative one. That way you’ll all have fun and no one will be left feeling miserable after a few rounds.

 

4.) Big Foot

This is a fun, albeit tricky game in which everyone must stand up in a single file line. All the players are then blindfolded so that they cannot see. They are then instructed to put themselves in line in order of smallest foot to biggest foot. Caveat: they cannot ask or state anyone’s shoe size.

This is a great team building game that demands teamwork and communication skills in order to get into line properly without the use of sight or verbalizing the most basic and obvious of information: shoe size. As far as the danger level of indoor team building games, Big Foot carries some risk of injury. To reduce shin kicks, consider having everyone play in socks.

You can also rent Big Foot Racing Feet and other accessories that can make the game even more challenging and enjoyable at the same time. As long as you’re careful, you should have loads of fun with this game.

5.) See What I Mean?

In this challenging indoor team building game, one person draws a picture using only basic shapes. A volunteer then describes the picture drawn to everyone else. Without seeing the picture, each person must try to reproduce the picture based solely on what the volunteer is relaying to them. The ultimate goal is for them to be able to create the same picture.

In this game, it is unlikely that anyone in the group will reproduce a carbon copy. Some pictures will be more similar than others. This activity emphasizes how very important verbal communication is, and also how it can be vastly interpreted by different people. To really drive the point home you could do a few rounds of this game. This would exhibit how some people interpret directions and communication differently from others. It also shows how certain methods are more easily understood than others.

It’s a great game to get to know people and start to understand how they think. Humans are very different and knowing how they make connections between things, how they interpret certain sayings, or even their tone of voice when talking about some subject matters can significantly improve your relationship with them. How so? Because once you start understanding your colleague’s thought pattern, you’ll inevitably be able to better communicate your ideas and thus collaborate more efficiently.

6.) Zombie Escape

In this thrilling indoor team building game, everyone will be “locked” in a room with a “zombie.” One person will be the zombie, complete with outstretched arms and zombie noises, and they will be tied to a rope in the corner. Every five minutes, the zombie will be given an extra foot of leeway on the rope, eventually being close enough to “eat” the other players.

Before the zombie gets that far, however, the group will have a series of puzzles, riddles, or clues they must complete in order to find the key and escape the room intact. This game can be made to be very similar to the “Escape the Room” puzzle houses.

This activity fosters collaborative teamwork and creative problem-solving skills under pressure.  Everyone must work together to figure out the clues in a high-stress situation in order to get out. This also helps to show which individuals have a more difficult time in stressful situations, useful for considering future assignments. By contrast, this game will reveal which people rise to the occasion under pressure and helps to bring out real team leaders.

7.) What’s My Name?

Write the name of a famous present or past figures on a name tag. You could also include types of people or jobs such as a nurse, geek, blind, homeless person, etc. Place the name tags on the backs of each person in the room so that they cannot see the name tag, but everyone else in the room can.

The group then may socialize with one another for a set amount of time. Throughout the game, they should be asking questions in order to try and figure out who they are. Others will treat them in stereotypical ways based on who their label says they are. Each person can use the answers to their questions, as well as their treatment, to ascertain who they are. Once they have correctly identified their label, they may leave the game until everyone has finished.

This is a really great ice-breaker amongst our list of indoor team building games. “What’s My Name” allows each person to confront stereotypes in the questions used and the answers are given. Additionally, it raises awareness as to how they treat others and others treat them based solely on their label. It permits each person to get a better idea of how we erroneously perceive people. The game also gives us insights into how it feels to be so narrowly characterized by a simple label.

8.) Get to Know Me!

In this activity, request everyone to pair off into twos with people they were not sitting near and/or do not know well. The pairs will then ask one another three questions: 1.) Name something that you are very proud of in your work and/or personal life. 2.) Tell something about yourself that very few people know about. 3.) The interviewer’s choice: any question can be asked. You can make this interesting by providing icebreaker questions. Afterward, each person will share with the large group what they learned about their partner.

This is a fun and effective way to get to better know your colleagues, especially those with whom you may not interact often. It’s also a great opportunity for new team members to feel included. For a more active indoor team building game variety, have the pairs throw a basketball back and forth throughout questions. Or even a tennis ball works if your teammates and “rivals” are good at catching smaller objects in the air. Just be careful not to hit stuff, especially if your team building activity takes place inside a hotel room. Those things can get quite expensive and your boss won’t be happy about it.

9.) Kid’s Stuff

For this creative challenge, you will all work together to create a board game based on the work of your business or event conducts. Use basic and limited supplies, such as poster boards and markers. Have everyone work together using their imaginations to create a fun and interactive game.

The game may include questions focused on the business that must be answered at certain game spots. Also, incorporate rules that show the ways to earn/lose points or move forward/ backward. Perhaps a dice will move you forward? The sky’s truly the limit with this indoor team building game.

This exercise will force each person to work collaboratively and give their input in order to create a board game that is fun for everyone. And just like any product testing in the office, be sure to play the board game afterward!

10.) Spider Web

In Spider Web, have the group form a large circle. The group may be standing or sitting, it doesn’t necessarily matter. However, if it is a very large group, you may prefer to sit. One person will hold a large ball of twine and then tell the group an embarrassing story about themselves. Afterward, they will then hold onto the end of the twine and throw it to someone else in the circle, extending the twine from themselves to the next person.

That person will then also tell an embarrassing story about himself or herself and throw the twine onward. All the while, each successive thrower has to keep a hold of it as well. This will continue until the twine has been passed to each person. Throughout the game, every person should have the opportunity to humor the group with an embarrassing personal story. The end result will produce a “spider web” out of the twine, connecting everyone to each other.

This indoor team building game is great for team bonding and shows how each person, no matter how different, is connected to one another. It also allows each person to see how everyone may have vastly different experiences. However, they all experience the same emotions and feelings, particularly embarrassment. Though you may be very different people, you are also more alike and connected than you realize.

11.) Group Timeline

Create a large timeline on a whiteboard, bulletin board, or whatever other means you may prefer. Mark the very beginning of the timeline back to when the oldest participant in the group was born. Alternatively, you could start with when the business or event was first founded, whichever occurred first. Then mark off any major milestones for the business or event. For example, you could include “Name Changed”, “Merged”, “Celebrated 50 years,” etc.

Next, allow each person in the group to mark four important moments for them on the timeline. It may be personal, business/event-related, or both. It is completely up to them how much or how little they share. As the team manager or CEO, it is largely up to you or the activity leader to set the standard.

When the timeline is completed, it will show a visual representation of your whole team and their generational experiences. This allows for dialogue on generational and cultural differences and how they affect work and communication. This indoor team building game provides an opportunity for discussion about general differences and similarities. Ideally, this activity will build empathy in your team and make everyone see each other without judgment.

12.) Plane Crash

In this team building activity, you will imagine that your group was in a plane crash and are now stranded on a deserted island. This can be done as one large group or you can break off into smaller groups. The group must then choose 12 items that can be found in the building that they believe to be the most useful for their survival on their deserted island, and rank them in order of most importance to least.

This focuses on team collaboration, as well as creative problem solving and thinking outside of the box. They may very likely have to make do with items they would not pick if not so limited, so creativity is rewarded.

13.) Watch Where You Step

Make a polygonal shape on the floor using masking tape that is at least 12 feet by 6 feet. Make the outline of the shape a tad complicated. For example, select a shape that is stretched out as people will be making their way from one end to the other. Be sure there are starting and stopping points marked. Put a handful of squeaky dog toys inside of the taped shape, and at least double the number of sheets of paper, each with a huge X on them, inside of the shape. The papers are mines.

In groups of two, each person will be blindfolded and must make it from start to finish through the minefield. The only direction is from the verbal instructions coming from those who are outside of the shape and not blindfolded.

The blindfolded participants may not step outside of the shape enclosure, nor may they step on a mine. If they do, they are frozen until someone else steps on a squeaky toy in order to unfreeze them. This occurs until the entire group has had a turn to make it successfully through the minefield.

This team building exercise works on communication and teamwork. It also builds up clear diction and the ability to be vigilant with numerous actions at once.

14.) Use What You Have

In this fun game, split your group into two equal groups. Or if needed, several equal groups. Give them clear instructions for a goal in which they must create something. As to what that something is, that’s completely up to you. It may be that they must create a way to move a marble from point A to point B using only pens. It can really be anything. Each group has the same goal and the same restrictions.

The teams are then given a specific amount of time to work and complete the mission with a particular set of supplies. They are not allowed to use any other materials, but how they use the supplies available is entirely up to them. The big reveal at the end is an exciting event and allows for friendly competition.

This activity requires teamwork in creative problem solving with limited options. It allows for the groups to see how each person thinks and works abstractly and in a time-crunch.

 

15.) Find the Common Thread

Divide everyone into groups of three or more. They will talk and get to know one another long enough to find a common thread amongst them. For example, they might all love zombie movies or they’re huge football fans. They will then write a list of common stereotypes attributed to people who tend to enjoy those sorts of things.

The groups will then come together and proclaim who they are as a group. For the rest of the day, each group will behave as their stereotype. Perhaps the zombie lovers will be overheard making zombie apocalyptic plans or acting like zombies. Football aficionados may randomly cheer for their team. At the end of the day, discuss stereotypes and how they often limit how we view people and their abilities. Also, discuss how each group came about discovering their common thread.

The purpose of this indoor team building game is to help everyone see how silly and limiting stereotypes are. It also shows how if people truly behaved the way we often write them off to act, things would be vastly different. It also shows how a group of seemingly very different people can have great commonalities that bring them together.

16.) Someone You Admire

This indoor team building game is as straightforward as the name. Each person will take a turn stating someone whom they admire. It may be a current person or someone from history. You could also spice it up a bit and make it someone within the group. Each person must also talk about why they admire that person. Specifically, what traits, attributes, and/or accomplishments make that person worthy of admiration should be discussed. 

This exercise really helps everyone get to know one another better in the workplace and have a stronger sense of each other’s values and what attributes they find to be important. It also can help bring people closer together as they realize they respect and admire the same people.

17.) Classify This

Collect at least 20 different items and set them on a table. The broader the category, the better (i.e., jewelry, office supplies, etc.). You want for these items, at first glimpse, to have no obvious connection to each other.

Then break everyone into equal teams, armed with a pen and paper. They must then classify the objects into four groups. They may do this, however, they choose, working together, not allowing other groups to hear. Once all the groups are finished they will each get a turn explaining how they opted to group the items.

Each group may have vastly different conclusions, grouping by size, material, color, etc. This activity encourages teamwork and creative thinking. It forces them to think outside the box and rethink everyday objects and problems and find connections to things that they would typically view as entirely unrelated.

And there you have it, 17 indoor team building games! Make sure you check out our other icebreaker games as well.