"If everyone moves forward together, then success takes care of itself." Of course, Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, discussed the importance of teamwork in business. Talented individuals have enormous potential, but bring them together as part of a team, and your company could achieve amazing results.

Team building activities cement your employees' bond and teach communication and collaboration skills through practical exercises. This guide explores 40 team building examples, including activities for office-based, hybrid, and remote teams. Best of all? They're all super fun, so let's dig in!

What Is Team Building?

Team building is an activity or series of exercises encouraging employees to develop better working relationships. These can be anything from casual icebreaker games to more structured problem-solving activities designed to develop specific workplace skills.

Whether virtual or in-person, team building games should promote collaboration and help each person understand their individual and collective contribution to the company. It's an ongoing process enabling individuals to trust and appreciate each other over time.

Why Is Team Building Important?

The idea of a team is synonymous with sports, so let's take a second to appreciate how it works on the field. You'd never start a soccer game without knowing what position you were playing, what position everyone else was in, and your line-up's individual strengths and weaknesses. And the same goes for business.

Here are some specific examples of why team building is so effective in the working world:

• Establishes trust: When team members feel comfortable with each other, they push outside their comfort zones to achieve fantastic results. The makeup of a team can impact even the most highly skilled individuals. This Harvard study reveals that cardiac surgeons work better as part of a team in a familiar environment.
• Improves confidence: When team members feel secure and supported by their colleagues, this boosts their confidence, motivation, and creativity—all invaluable ingredients in any working environment. This athletic study demonstrates how confidence can fluctuate depending on the partner pairing, highlighting the importance of continuously working on team building.
• Enhances alignment: 97% of employees and executives believe lack of alignment within a team impacts the outcome of a task or project. Team building ensures employees all work together toward a common goal.
• Creates unity: Connectedness is under closer scrutiny now that many companies have switched to a remote or hybrid working model. This explains the 2500% investment increase in virtual team building activities since the beginning of the pandemic.
• Improves employee engagement: Gallup research reveals that employee isolation can reduce productivity by up to 21%, but effective team building fosters critical working relationships. Specifically, female employees with a work bestie are 63% more likely to be engaged than those without one.
• Boosts retention: This MIT Sloan Management study finds a toxic workplace filled with team conflict is ten times more responsible for resignations than compensation issues are. Team building is the initiative you need to iron out disagreements and increase employee loyalty.

What makes a great team building activity?

Here’s the elephant in the room: team building gets a bad rap. If the mere mention of team bonding has your employees rolling their eyes and running for the exit, you’ll know you need to take action to have everyone onboard and enthusiastic.

Perhaps previous team outings haven't been positive, if the activities haven't been the right fit, or if leaders didn't join in. Maybe some employees felt embarrassed or humiliated by the activity or found the entire event cliched and cringeworthy.

So, how do you choose the best team building exercises? Make sure they’re:

• Enjoyable: Employees should look forward to the activity, not dread it.
• Engaging: Fun games for teams should create a sense of unity, have everyone laughing, and encourage full participation.