What Games Can You Use to Liven Up a Team Meeting?

Table of contents:1. Secret Story2. Telephone3. Story in 5 Words4. Question Box5. Creative Desert Island6. Chinese Portrait7. Movie Critic8. Merchant Puzzle9. Business Bingo10. Scattergories11. Find the Liar12. Unlikely Questions13. Who Am I?14. Role Play15. Yarn Ball Game16. Path Game17. Debate Game18. Hero Game19. Exquisite Corpse20. Express Pitch21. The Charades Game22. Key takeaways from games to liven up a team meetingFor a company, setting up games to liven up a team meeting is an excellent way to get employees to actively participate in this moment of exchange. These games are interactive and fun activities that foster communication between different members, stimulate their creativity, and strengthen their bonds. They also help create a friendly environment conducive to collaboration and harmony. However, for these games to bring the dynamism needed for professional meetings to run smoothly, it is important to choose them well. This article presents a selection of the best games to liven up a team meeting.

Secret Story

Among games to liven up a team meeting, Secret Story is considered one of the best. Its principle is quite simple. Just start the meeting by asking the different members to write down an anecdote or a short story that happened to them. The facilitator then collects all the stories, reads the first one, and invites participants to guess its author. Questions follow one after another, facilitating exchanges between those present. Finally, the real author reveals themselves and takes the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves if the other participants didn't know them. Very effective for "breaking the ice" when there are new members, Secret Story can be combined with other team building games.

Telephone

If you're looking for other games to liven up a team meeting, Telephone is an excellent option. To play, meeting participants must form at least two groups. The members of each group then line up to form two rows. A phrase is transmitted to the first member of each line, who passes it to the person behind them, and so on. The last person in each row must be able to repeat the phrase that was transmitted at the beginning as faithfully as possible. To make the challenge interesting, prepare phrases that are difficult to pronounce. Here are some examples:

• She sells seashells by the seashore;

• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;

• How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Story in 5 Words

The Story in 5 Words is an excellent game to develop team spirit among employees and encourage their creativity. The principle of the game is to create collective stories by allowing each participant to use only 5 words. For example, the first participant can start with: "Once upon a time, in...". The next participant can continue with "the small kingdom of elves..." and so on. The story must continue in a logical and fluid manner, despite all the constraints imposed by the words used by previous participants. Once all participants have contributed, the end of the story can be decided collectively, or the game can continue until it reaches a natural conclusion. Including the Story in 5 Words among games to liven up a team meeting can be an enriching experience for employees.

Question Box

Of all the games to liven up a team meeting, the Question Box is one that generates the most reflection and allows the company to better engage its employees. For this game, each participant writes a fun or thought-provoking question on a sheet of paper, related to the topic to be developed during the meeting. These can be open, closed, or hypothetical questions. However, they should provoke thought and invite discussion. Then, all the papers are collected, shuffled, and redistributed to participants so that no one receives their own question. Each person then reads aloud the question on the note they received and answers it. Other participants can also contribute their thoughts on the subject.

Creative Desert Island

Choosing the Creative Desert Island as one of the games to liven up a team meeting is a way for the company to demonstrate that it encourages creative thinking and innovation. For this game, meeting participants must choose three objects they would take to a desert island and explain the reasons for their choices.

Chinese Portrait

In addition to being one of the best games to liven up a team meeting, the Chinese Portrait can be useful for better understanding employees' personalities. To play, the meeting facilitator asks each participant to imagine being transformed into an object, an animal, or a fictional character. A short reflection period is then granted to allow members to think about their answer. They can then each respond as follows: "If I were a book, I would be a storybook, because I love...".

Movie Critic

This is a game that allows meeting participants to express their feelings or states of mind regarding a particular project or the meeting's topic. Like other games to liven up a team meeting, this one is very simple to set up. It involves asking each meeting participant to express their mood through a movie title. The facilitator can let team members' creativity run free or guide their answers by choosing a few cinema classics such as:

• Indiana Jones;
• James Bond;
• Jurassic Park;
• The Wolf of Wall Street, etc.

Merchant Puzzle

The Merchant Puzzle is another interesting option to consider if you want to organize games to liven up a team meeting. Its goal is to bond teams together and get them to consult with each other. In practice, several teams are formed and given different puzzles with the same level of difficulty. The real principle of this activity lies in the fact that each set of puzzles contains several pieces that have been swapped with those of other teams. Thus, no team can complete their puzzle without turning to the opposing teams. It is an excellent team building game that strengthens dialogue and encourages a system of collaborative and participative management.

Business Bingo

Inspired by traditional bingo, Business Bingo differs in that the numbers typically used in classic bingo are replaced by letters. Among games to liven up a team meeting, this one is particularly good for developing active listening among employees. It involves creating bingo cards with a list of words that will be used during the meeting. Each time one of these words is spoken, the employee crosses it off the card. At the end of the game, the winner is the participant who has crossed off the most words.

Scattergories

Scattergories is a very popular game that can also be ranked among the best games to liven up a team meeting. To play, you first need to designate several categories. Here are some examples:

• First name;
• Profession;
• Fruit, vegetable, or flower;
• Object;
• Country name.

Then, one of the participants is chosen to mentally recite the alphabet and is stopped during the recitation. The participant then indicates the letter they stopped on. All other members must fill in the previously designated categories with a word beginning with the mentioned letter. The first person to fill all categories earns a point. The overall winner can finally be determined based on the scores obtained by participants after a reasonable number of rounds.

Find the Liar

Among games to liven up a team meeting, some can have several versions. "Find the Liar" is one such example. Regardless of the variant chosen, the principle of the game is to detect other participants' lies.

Variant 1: Two Truths and a Lie

For the first variant of this team building game, each participant chooses three short stories, of which only one is a lie. The other members must listen carefully to the stories, ask questions, and find flaws to uncover the made-up story.

Variant 2: Super Detective

With the second variant, the facilitator chooses six participants and gives only five of them a discussion topic. The last person receives no information about the topic. The other participants develop the topic without going into too much detail. The last person must also pretend to know about the subject by mentioning things similar to what their colleagues have said. Once all six participants have spoken, the other members vote and eliminate the one they believe to be the liar.

Unlikely Questions

Unlikely Questions are quite original among game ideas to liven up a team meeting. They involve asking unusual and quirky questions to meeting participants. The answers provided can be quite surprising and interesting. The facilitator can prepare a list of questions or ask each team member to anonymously suggest one or more. These can be light-hearted, general, or serious questions. The goal here is to foster exchanges between team members. Here is a list of some questions to use for the Unlikely Questions game:

• What is your favorite superpower?
• What is the most outrageous thing you would do if you were the boss for a day?
• What is the strangest thing you've learned while working here?
• If our office were a movie set, what genre would the movie be?

Who Am I?

Organizing games to liven up a team meeting not only projects the image of positive leadership, but also encourages mutual discovery and communication between different participants. The "Who Am I?" game in particular helps break the ice and helps employees get to know each other better. In practice, each participant receives a sticky note and a marker. On the paper, they write the name of a famous personality (real or fictional) or a historical figure. Then, each person sticks the note on another participant's forehead without them seeing what is written on it. The participant with the paper on their forehead then asks questions to those around them to guess the name assigned to them. Questions must be phrased so that other participants can only answer "yes" or "no". This team building activity helps improve the work atmosphere and cultivate team spirit among employees.

Role Play

Very popular, it is one of the best games to liven up a team meeting. Its principle is quite unique and involves each participant embodying another person present at the meeting. In other words, participants must put themselves in the shoes of their colleagues or superiors. Each member draws a role at random, then must answer other employees' questions or provide clarifications on situations presented to them, while taking into account the character of the person they are embodying. Among games to liven up a team meeting, this one allows addressing delicate and serious topics from a different angle and with plenty of humor. For example, by seeing a subordinate embody them, a team leader can find out if they have the necessary skills to be a good manager.

Yarn Ball Game

Another interesting option among games to liven up a team meeting is the Yarn Ball Game. To set up this game, you first need to prepare a colored ball of yarn. Then, choose a relevant question or topic related to the meeting's theme, and ask each participant to share an idea or experience related to the chosen topic. The facilitator holds the end of the thread and tosses the ball to the first participant who wishes to share their perspective on the topic. Once their experience is shared, they keep the thread in their hand and toss the ball to another member. Repeat the process until all members have spoken. As the ball passes from one participant to another, it forms a web of thread that illustrates the different connections and ideas shared during the meeting. More concretely, the Yarn Ball Game helps identify employees who have the most connections and who can work in a complementary way. This activity can therefore be truly useful when it comes to analyzing and building a high-performing team.

Path Game

Often designated as one of the most unique games to liven up a team meeting, the Path Game promotes harmony and team cohesion. To set up this game, before the meeting begins, draw a large path on a big sheet of paper leading to an important company goal (partnership, contract signing, project execution, etc.). Then, during the meeting, each participant must draw something on the path. It can be an obstacle to overcome or a person who could potentially provide a solution to the problem posed.

Debate Game

The choice of games to liven up a team meeting should generally be based on the impact these activities can have on harmony between members and their ability to collaborate. The Debate Game helps develop empathy, communication, and the ability to question oneself among participants. The idea of this game is to divide the members present into two groups, who are asked to each defend a position contrary to the one they would normally defend on a specific topic. This leads them to express and firmly defend their point of view while taking into account the opposing side's arguments.

Hero Game

If you want to use games to liven up a team meeting, the Hero Game can help you identify the potential and talents of your employees. It reveals how tenacious they can be and how they can demonstrate creativity to solve complex situations. To play this game, each participant must tell a professional or personal experience during which they distinguished themselves through a heroic act. In other words, they must share an anecdote in which their courage, perseverance, and ingenuity were decisive in solving a problem.

Exquisite Corpse

Originally very popular among artists and children, the Exquisite Corpse has been adapted to become one of the games to liven up a team meeting. Traditionally, it is a drawing exercise in which each participant draws a part of a character or scene without seeing the contributions of the members who preceded them. Used as a team building activity in business, this game can encourage employees to show more motivation at work. It involves each participant writing a sentence on a piece of paper and then passing it to their colleague, who must in turn add a coherent continuation before folding the paper so that only their own contribution is visible. The process continues until the paper has passed through the hands of all participants before returning to the employee who started the story. The latter must then read the final result aloud. As you can see, in addition to being one of the best games to liven up a team meeting, the Exquisite Corpse stimulates imagination and highlights the importance of collaborating to achieve harmonious and satisfying results.

Express Pitch

If you're looking for games to liven up a team meeting in business and to develop your employees' public speaking and creativity, the Express Pitch game is the one you need. To run the Express Pitch during your meetings, ask participants to prepare a persuasive pitch in just a few minutes to present a (fictional) professional project of their choice. To make the game more interesting, the topics to develop in the pitches can be prepared and then assigned to each participant by drawing lots. Then, each person must present their idea to the other members, who are free to ask questions and provide constructive feedback to improve the project. It should also be noted that Express Pitch doesn't belong solely to the category of games to liven up a team meeting. It is also an exercise that can improve employees' general skills.

The Charades Game

The last item in this selection of games to liven up a team meeting, the Charades Game encourages non-verbal communication and observation. To play, participants must form pairs. For each pair, one person acts out and the other guesses. The first person chooses an emotion, an action, a situation, or a scene that they must present to their partner without using words. They must use exaggerated facial expressions, gestures, and movements to help their partner guess the situation they are representing. Once the second person has given their answer or the allotted time has elapsed, the two partners can switch roles. Continuing the game with different pairs creates a dynamic and relaxed atmosphere. Some participants can show imagination by including specific objects or scenarios in their representations that can increase the game's difficulty level. Thus, among games to liven up a team meeting, the Charades Game is one that most promotes creative expression.

Key takeaways from games to liven up a team meeting

There are several types of games to liven up a team meeting. These interactive activities help forge close bonds between colleagues, promote harmony and team cohesion, and encourage creativity in the workplace. Beyond their fun nature, they represent real levers that can significantly improve human resources management within organizations. Whether it's the Telephone game, the Exquisite Corpse, the Chinese Portrait, or the Merchant Puzzle, these team building activities can help achieve specific goals. For a company, organizing games to liven up a team meeting is a gesture that will facilitate exchanges and positively transform employees' perception of these professional gatherings.Get a demoTry free for 14 days.