5 team building ice breakers for your company retreat

Activities

5 team building ice breakers for your company retreat

BoomPop Team · 10/17/2022

Company retreats and team offsites are the perfect time to engage with teammates and get to know coworkers better. These fun, easy ice breaker activities can help your team feel more comfortable and start your meeting off on the right foot.

These icebreakers are sure to encourage team building and facilitate connections among team members. Best of all, they require no preparation or materials. Use them to kickoff the offsite or have them ready in your back pocket to pull out whenever there’s a lull between meetings.

Let’s dive in to the these team building ice breakers…

This or That - Ice Breaker

Attributes: Energy Boost ⚡, Team Connecting 👥

Rules/Description:

• Have everyone stand in the middle of a room.

• Participants must choose between two related options and stand on the appropriate side of the room.

  • For example, choose one side of the room to represent dog people and the other side to represent cat people and participants move to the side of the room they prefer.

• Some possible topics include:

  • Dogs or cats?

  • Coffee or tea?

  • Beach or mountain?

  • Cooking or takeout?

  • Text/chat or phone call?

  • Sweet or savory?

  • Pancakes or waffles?

  • Night in or night out?

  • Introvert or extrovert?

  • Pineapple or no pineapple on pizza?

• You can allow a minute or so for teams to talk amongst their groups before the next round.

• Continue until you run out of questions or time.

  The Connection Chain - Ice Breaker

Attributes: Team Connecting 👥

Rules/Description:

• The game starts with one person stating a fact about themselves. 

• Another player who relates to that statement will become the next link in the chain by linking arms and state a new fact about themselves. 

  • For example, if the first person stated, “I have 2 cats”, then the next person in the chain should also have 2 cats.

• If multiple people relate to the statement, only the first person to link arms will be added to the chain. 

• If no one relates, the person must state another fact about themselves until someone has that in common.

• The game continues until all players are part of the chain.

  Silent Line Up - Ice Breaker

Attributes: Team Building 💪, Team Connecting 👥

Rules/Description: 

• Ask your team to line up in a certain order. The catch? No one is allowed to talk.

• Start with a simple task and have teams stand in order of height. 

• Kick it up a notch by having teams line up according to date of birth or when they started working at the company. 

  Clump Networking - Ice breaker

Attributes: Team Connecting 👥, Competitive 🏆

Rules/Description:

• Begin by having everyone walk around and mingle amongst themselves in an open space.

• The leader will then shout out a random number between 2-10.

• Everyone must form in groups of that size. Once all possible groups have been formed, the remaining people sits out for the rest of the game.

• In each round, ask a conversation starter and allow groups to talk about their answers amongst one another. Some topics include:

  • What would you do with $100,000?

  • What made you choose this career?

  • What is a common misconception people have about you?

  • What’s one unpopular opinion you have?

  • What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

  • What are your career goals?

  • What’s one fashion trend that you wish would come back?

  • What are you most looking forward to?

• Give groups 1-2 minutes to discuss their answers, then shout out another number to reshuffle groups.

• The game continues until you run out of questions or when groups are too small to form.

  Rose, Thorn & Bud - Ice Breaker

Attributes: Team Connecting 👥

Rules/Description:

• Define the terms for the activity:

  • Rose: Highlight, success, something positive that happened from the day or week

  • Thorn: A challenge faced during the day or week

  • Bud: Something you are looking forward to 

• Give everyone a few minutes to silently reflect on their answers and write them down. 

• Go around the room asking everyone to share their rose, thorn & bud from the day or week.

Discover the best company retreat ideas and activities

Looking for more team building ideas and inspiration for your next company retreat? Explore 5 of the best team games or get in touch with our offsite experts today to get your planning journey started.

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