team building activities for staff meetings

Team building activities are a great way to improve employee engagement, foster collaboration, and enhance communication within a team. Here are five activities for staff meetings that require minimal setup and can be easily integrated into your monthly or weekly staff meetings. These activities are designed to be quick, engaging, and adaptable to both in-person and online settings.


1. Two Truths and a Lie

Time Required: 10-15 minutes

Objective: To help team members get to know each other better and build trust.

Preparation: No preparation is needed.

Instructions:

  1. Each participant writes down two truths and one lie about themselves
  2. One by one, each person reads their statements aloud.
  3. The rest of the team guesses which statement is the lie.
  4. After everyone has guessed, the participant reveals the lie.
  5. Optional: This can be followed by a short discussion where participants share more details about their truths if they wish.

Virtual Delivery: This activity can be conducted both in person and online. For online meetings, participants can use the chat feature or speak their statements aloud.


2. Icebreaker Questions

Time Required: 10-15 minutes

Objective: Icebreaker questions help colleagues learn new things about each other and build connections. 

Instructions:

  1. Pose an interesting icebreaker question to the group, such as:
  • If you could switch jobs with anyone on the team for a week, who would it be and why?
  • What’s your New Year’s resolution?
  • If you met a genie, what would your three wishes be?
  1. Have staff discuss the question in pairs or small groups for 5 minutes.
  2. Bring the group back together and ask volunteers to share something interesting they learned about their partner.

Virtual delivery: For remote teams, use breakout rooms for small group discussions.


3. Office Trivia

Time Required: 10-15 minutes

Objective: To increase knowledge about the company and foster a sense of belonging.

Instructions:

  1. Preparation: Create a list of trivia questions related to the company, its history, and its employees.
  2. Execution:
    • Read each trivia question aloud.
    • Allow team members to write down their answers or answer verbally.
    • Reveal the correct answers and keep track of scores.
    • The person or team with the most correct answers wins a small prize.
  3. Discussion: Encourage participants to share any interesting facts or stories related to the trivia questions.

Virtual Delivery: This activity can be easily conducted both in person and online. For online meetings, use the chat feature or polling tools for answers.


4. Team Storytelling

Time Required: 15-20 minutes

Objective: To promote creativity and teamwork.

Instructions:

  1. Preparation: No preparation is needed.
  2. Execution:
    • Start with a random sentence to begin the story.
    • Each team member adds one sentence to the story, building on what the previous person said.
    • Continue until everyone has contributed at least once, or set a time limit.
  3. Discussion: Reflect on the story and discuss the creativity involved.

Virtual Delivery: This activity can be done in person or online. In an online setting, use a shared document or the chat feature to build the story.


5. Happiness Exercise

Time required: 10-15 minutes

Objective: This exercise helps colleagues connect on a personal level and appreciate what matters most to each other. Seeing the collective happiness notes can boost morale.

Instructions:

  1. Have staff get into pairs or triads.
  2. Give each group a stack of sticky notes.
  3. Ask them to write down things that make them happy, one per note.
  4. Have groups share their happiness notes with each other and discuss.
  5. Collect all the notes and post them on a wall or online board.

Conclusion:

Team building doesn’t have to be complicated. With a few simple activities like these, you can strengthen relationships and collaboration among your staff right in your regular meetings. The key is choosing activities for staff meetings that are engaging, inclusive and relevant to your team. Have fun with it!

Incorporating these team-building activities into your regular meetings can significantly enhance team dynamics and foster a more collaborative and engaging work environment. That way, when larger team-building interventions are planned by the company such as family days, Christmas parties and retreats, they will be more effective.

If you are not certain how to get your managers to become comfortable using these types of activities, click here and let us help you.

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