Inexpensive Team Building Activities

Team building activities are used for bringing a group of people closer together. The group can be co-workers at a business, wait staff at a restaurant, a softball team, a cheerleading squad or a family at a family reunion. The aim is for the group to gain closeness regardless of what kind of relation the people in the group have to each other. There are inexpensive team building activities that need little more than the people involved.

  1. Mine Field

    • This exercise can be played indoors or outdoors. Grab whatever is around the group; cell phone, shoe, laptop case, shopping bag or belt. Randomly put people into groups of two (preferably people who either don’t know each other very well or maybe don’t see eye-to-eye). One person is blindfolded while the other person talks. The “talker” has to direct the blindfolded person to the items. Once the blindfolded person reaches the items, he picks them up. Though this is team building and there really are no winners, if the group decides to have a winner for inspiration, they can award the team with the most items at the end.

    Tug of War

    • Taking a rope, bungee cord or anything that is durable, play the classic tug of war. This team building exercise will encourage each team to work together while promoting a competitive spirit. Divide the group into two groups. Men vs. women, over 40 vs. under 40, people wearing jeans vs. people wearing slacks are some ideas to break the group up. If playing with families, the groups could be broken up into generations as well. Lay the rope or bungee flat on the ground and mark the space directly in the middle. Someone will need to call out “go” or count down to the start. By playing a few rounds of tug of war, the teams will learn to strategize and talk to each other about who should be where in the lineup.

    Survival Scenarios

    • This exercise can be played in groups of two or two large teams. A scenario should be introduced. Some examples: “You all live together. There is a fire. You can only grab two items from the house; what will you take?” or “Your plane has crashed on a deserted island. What 10 items must you have for survival?” This game will result in many heavy conversations, therefore the people on the teams will learn a lot about each other.