Your company is only as strong as your team. Team building creates opportunities for employees to learn how to work successfully as a team. This is most commonly done through team-building activities. According to Forbes, virtual team building, including more structured courses or casual virtual happy hours, can “make a big difference” in remote and hybrid-remote teams' success.
Team building activities are an excellent way to develop a strong office culture because they encourage cooperation and personal connections within your team. They are typically exciting and creative activities, yet structured enough to establish a common goal. For example, your team might play a trivia game, work together to beat the clock in an escape room, or learn how to make empanadas and margaritas.
Since your team will be working on a team-building activity together, it will allow them to build communication skills and bonds outside of the office environment. As more and more teams become partially or fully remote, virtual team-building activities have been gaining popularity. According to Forbes, virtual team building has increased by 2,500% since the COVID-19 pandemic, and companies should “consider the long-term benefits of investing in virtual group activities.”
Virtual team-building activities allow your employees to develop team bonds even if they live in different time zones. They are most commonly held over a teleconferencing platform such as Zoom, so your employees participate in a group activity or game while interacting in real-time. This can alleviate the stress of loneliness for remote workers and increase their emotional investment in your company.
There are many different types of team-building activities, including arts and crafts, cooking and baking, competitive games, trivia, health and wellness, food and drink, and even virtual escape rooms. You can choose a game-like activity to have your team work together on a common goal or a baking workshop to help your team relax and get to know each other in a low-stakes environment.
Benefits of Virtual Team Building Activities
Virtual team-building activities have all of the same benefits as in-person team-building activities. Because it’s happening live, your teams will interact in real-time. They’ll also have fun and relieve stress while getting to know each other better. In many ways, virtual team-building activities can replace the “water cooler chat” of the traditional in-person office that contributes to building company culture. According to Better Up, “employee experience is a cornerstone of performance, ” and virtual team-building activities can be critical for the success of remote and hybrid-remote teams.
Virtual team-building activities can also help your employees develop important soft skills such as leadership, communication, problem-solving, and cooperation. These will help them in their day-to-day tasks once they’re back in the office or at their own computer. Virtual team building can also create cross-cultural bonds within your team, an important part of an effective approach to diversity, equality, and inclusion.
Studies show that team-building activities can improve morale, build trust, increase communication, encourage collaboration between teams or departments, promote health by reducing stress, create a cohesive work environment, and create personal connections among remote teams. According to Atlassian, “mutual respect” and “connection with co-workers” are the most important factors contributing to the well-being of employees. They can also be useful for management to understand their employees' strengths and weaknesses better or identify potential leaders.
CourseHorse is an education- and event-listing website that collaborates with schools to offer many class listings in a single space. CourseHorse makes it easy to find online events and classes by listing many options that could help you train for a new job or enjoy a great date.
CourseHorse offers many team-building activities, including workshops, guided meditation classes, digital skills training, and competitive events. Some topics you can enroll your team in for team-building activities at CourseHorse include arts and crafts, baking, food and wine, health and wellness, icebreakers, diversity and inclusion events, and competitive games such as trivia and virtual escape rooms.
Arts & Crafts Team Building Activities
Art & Crafts team-building activities are good for stressed employees who need to relax and bond in a casual environment. You’ll see your employees building creative skills and getting to know each other better. Some could even be incorporated into meetings such as breathing exercises or creating vision boards to reach goals.
CourseHorse offers a diverse and surprising array of Arts & Crafts team building workshops, as described in more detail below. You can also sign up for Arts & Crafts team building workshops from CourseHorse in terrarium building, acrylic painting, clay hand molding, polymer clay jewelry, wood burning, and soap making.
Cartooning & Doodling (Virtual)
This beginner-friendly Cartooning & Doodling course teaches the basics of cartoon drawing and doodling. Your group will start with stick figures and work their way up to drawing cartoon faces. Each individual will leave the course with their own cartoon character design. Students must provide their own materials, including a pen, pencil, and paper.
Virtual Watercolor Workshop (Materials Included)
Students create a basic abstract painting using watercolors in this creative and relaxing Virtual Watercolor Workshop. This course focuses on the “wet on wet” technique, giving students a technical foundation for further water-coloring and other kinds of painting. All required materials, including watercolor paint, brushes, and paper, will be shipped to participants directly.
Virtual Candle Making (Materials Included)
Students are guided through making an environmentally-friendly soy candle in this relaxing, low-pressure Virtual Candle Making course. Students are encouraged to grab a drink and a snack and enjoy making a candle to be used in their home or gifted to someone they care about. Before the class session, materials, including a melting pitcher, wax, wicks, and fragrance oil, are shipped to students.
Art & Meditation (Materials Included)
This course, Art & Meditation, combines a simple guided breathing session followed by a therapeutic coloring workshop. Students will enjoy a relaxing meditation and express their creativity through coloring. Materials are provided for students, including a coloring book and a set of gel pens.
Activity Virtual Calligraphy Workshop
In this Virtual Calligraphy Workshop, students will learn basic calligraphy techniques, including lettering tools, brush lettering, connecting letters, and an introduction to bouncing and flourishes. This course is focused on modern calligraphy, which combines the traditional techniques of calligraphy with more freedom of expression. Materials are included in the price of the workshop: calligraphy pens & markers,
Cooking & Baking Team Building Activities
Cooking and baking team activities combine creativity, relaxation, and bonding time. Your employees will learn a new skill that they can use outside the office. And tasting what they make gives everyone a shared experience to talk about, even if they’re not in the same room.
CourseHorse offers fun and bonding cooking and baking team-building classes. In addition to the classes described in more detail below, they also offer Virtual Pizza Making, Virtual Pasta Making, Virtual Ice Cream Making, and a Virtual Bubble Tea Workshop.
Virtual Charcuterie Board Party
Your team will have fun and get to know each other better when they enroll in the Virtual Charcuterie Board Party from CourseHorse. Your group is taken on a tour of the ingredients that make up an excellent charcuterie board while learning how to make staples such as mostradas and salami roses. Participants are provided with a shopping list of materials for creating their board.
Virtual Guacamole and Margaritas Party
Take your team to Taco Tuesday with a virtual Guacamole and Margaritas Party. Your group will be guided by a professional chef in creating a delicious, fresh bowl of guacamole and the perfect margarita. This party makes a great icebreaker or social event for team bonding as participants make a toast. You can also choose an all-inclusive version of this event to have ingredients shipped to participants.
Virtual Sushi Making Workshop
Participants learn to make sushi at home in this virtual Sushi Making Workshop. A professional chef guides students through the fundamentals of making their own sushi, including hand rolls, crunch rolls, nigiri, basic sushi knife techniques, and understanding fish. All materials are shipped directly to participants: the sushi kit includes a bamboo rolling mat and reusable chopsticks so you can continue making sushi at home after the class is over.
Virtual Cookie Workshop
Indulge your team’s sweet tooth when they bake two different types of cookies in this Virtual Cookie Workshop. A chef will guide students to learn how to bake two types of cookies using the creaming method: chocolate chip and lemon crinkles. Participants will socialize while sharing their cookies at the end of class. All ingredients will be shipped to participants, including a gift card for eggs, butter, and lemons.
Virtual Knife Skills Workshop
Participants learn how to use a knife like a professional chef in this Virtual Knife Skills Workshop. After learning how to dice and julienne, preparing your daily food will never be the same. Students must provide their own knife, cutting board, and vegetable peeler. Students receive a list of preferred chopping vegetables before the class.
Competitive & Games Team Building Activities
Competitive team-building activities are useful for increasing bonds and communication and helping employees develop leadership skills, especially if those in charge take a backseat. They’ll also have a lot of fun interacting with each other in a game-like environment.
CourseHorse offers all of the competitive team-building activities described below. Some other competitive team-building classes you can take from CourseHorse include Bingo, murder mysteries, trivia nights, and more virtual escape room options.
Virtual Brick Building Team Challenge
You’re never too old for Legos. In this Virtual Brick Building Team Challenge, your group will compete as both teams and individuals in a series of lego building challenges. Sample challenges include Build a Zoo Scene, Build the Largest Tower, Lego Self-Portraits, and Clones. Participants are judged on creativity and accuracy. Participants of this hands-on team-building event will receive a Lego kit before the event.
Virtual Scavenger Hunt
In this Virtual Scavenger Hunt, groups break out to tackle challenges together and then share what they learned as a large group. Participants develop collaboration and communication skills as they work together to solve a series of scavenger-hunt-style challenges: scavenging items from around their house, image identification, and a riddle race. For example, in the scavenging game, participants might be asked to find an item from the 1990s in their house and show it to the group. This can lead to surprising bonding moments and getting to know each other.
Virtual Murder Mystery: Team Escape
Escape rooms have been a popular team-building activity for years. The Virtual Murder Mystery Team Escape takes the escape room virtual as mini-groups work together to solve a crime. Participants will work against a timer to solve puzzles using character descriptions, audio and video clips, virtual maps, and mini-games.
CourseHorse offers a variety of virtual escape room games with different themes, including Time Travel: the 90s, Escape the Final Frontier, Time Travel: the 2000s, Pirate Treasure Hunt, and Jumanji. They also offer seasonal escape room events such as Monsters & Ghouls for Halloween and Escape the North Pole for the Winter holidays.
Virtual Team Olympics
The group will compete as smaller teams in this fun, hands-on Virtual Team Olympics. Some of the challenges include Family Feud-style games, creating balloon animals, racing to build marshmallow towers, typing competitions, and playing harmonicas. This event is great for building team connections and facilitating cooperation. All materials needed will be shipped to participants, including marshmallows, harmonicas, and medals: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Depending on your team's needs, it is available as fully virtual or hybrid virtual/in-person.
Virtual Team-Building Improv Workshop
The Virtual Team-Building Improv Workshop walks your team through basic improv games. Improv is not about being funny but being a good listener and going with the flow. Some of the soft skills learned through improv include collaboration, problem-solving, communication, making quick designs, listening skills, and having fun while working. There are no materials required to take this workshop.
Food & Drink Tasting Team Building Activities
Nothing brings people together more than food. Food and drink tasting can be great for team building because it provides a shared experience for all of the participants. This can be especially useful for remote or hybrid-remote teams since they won’t be in the same room.
In addition to the courses described below, CourseHorse also offers food and drink tastings on tequila, bourbon, American whiskey, pizza making, pretzel-making, and seasonal workshops such as a Pride Mixology course during Pride month.
Virtual Wine & Cheese Workshop
In this Virtual Wine & Cheese Workshop, participants taste and compare two wines and two cheeses. These will be shipped to participants, including French Sauvignon Blanc (bottle of white), ArBefore the event, Argentinian Malbec (bottle of red), French Goat Cheese, and Sharp Cheddar. In addition to sharing their opinions and asking questions about the wine and cheese, participants will enjoy a relaxing mixer with the rest of the group.
Virtual Private Mixology Workshop (Materials Included)
Participants learn how to mix three different cocktails in this Virtual Private Mixology Workshop: a mint julep, a ginger lime margarita, and an old-fashioned. The instructor will also teach the basics of mixology, the history of mixology, working with bar tools, and key substitutions. All ingredients are shipped to the participant, including a Hawthorne strainer, cocktail pick, jigger, artisanal, simple syrups and bitters, garnishes, and a gift card for spirits and fruit.
Virtual Belgian Beer Tasting (Materials Included)
Participants learn about the history and ingredients that make Belgian beer special in this Virtual Belgian Beer Tasting. Your team will come away with a better understanding of the brewing process and identify types of beer by taste. All participants will be shipped a beer-tasting kit, which includes six bottles of Belgian beer.
Virtual Afternoon Tea Party
If you’d like to have a late afternoon snack party for your teams, you can schedule a Virtual Afternoon Tea Party. This English afternoon tea party is a great way for your team to relax and enjoy each other’s company while enjoying blueberry scones and cucumber dill finger sandwiches. Participants learn how to make tea, scones, and finger sandwiches. All materials, including English Breakfast or Earl Gray Tea, baking ingredients, and a gift card for purchasing perishables such as cucumbers, are shipped to participants.
Virtual Chocolate Tasting (Materials Included)
In this Virtual Chocolate Tasting, participants learn about the history of chocolate while doing a tasting. A chocolate expert guides everyone through tasting three different chocolates from around the world while teaching the class about how chocolate has shaped history. Materials needed will be shipped to participants, including three chocolate bars and palate cleansing crackers.
Wellness & Fitness Team Building Activities
Health is an important part of any employee’s success. Incorporating wellness, health, and stress reduction could improve your teams’ lives and your profits since CDC research shows that employees in good health are most likely to perform at their highest.
Choosing a wellness & fitness team-building activity could lead to healthier employees with stronger bonds and higher engagement with their tasks. This could be a group exercise activity or something more relaxing such as stretching and meditation. The New York Times reports that meditation and other wellness practices have been successfully incorporated into the corporate culture since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virtual Guided Group Meditation
In this Virtual Guided Group Meditation, participants are introduced to the principles of yoga and meditation practice. Some of the takeaways from this team-building activity include individual empowerment, practicing collaboration, increased awareness of social causes, and building compassion based on yogic philosophies. This workshop could be an excellent diversity, equality, and inclusion event.
Virtual Weekly Decompression for High Stress Teams
If your team is under a lot of pressure, you might consider signing them up for the Virtual Weekly Decompression for High Stress Teams. Participants will be walked through meditation practices to help them decompress and recalibrate. This 30-minute program starts with connecting to your body, followed by a guided visualization and meditation exercise, followed by a relaxing closing meant to help participants approach their day with intentionality. No extra materials are required to participate.
Virtual Vision Board Workshop (Materials Included)
This Virtual Vision Board Workshop is designed to help participants dream big, set goals, and take action. Creating a vision board is an excellent way to make dreams and goals seem more attainable. A professional artist will guide students through reflection prompts while encouraging interaction among classmates. All materials will be shipped to participants, including a corkboard, push pins, and a picture book for inspiration.
Virtual Chair Stretching
This Virtual Chair Stretching course incorporates elements of gyrotonics, yoga, and dance to help participants overcome the fatigue of sitting at their desks. This 30-minute class is specially designed to target “tech neck” or “office slump” by encouraging participants to mobilize their spine, improve their posture, engage their core, and relieve tension in the body. No additional materials are required to attend.
Virtual Mindful Meditation for the (Home) Office
This Virtual Mindful Meditation for the (Home) Office teaches formal and informal mindfulness meditation designed for office groups. Through a combination of breathwork and light stretching, participants will learn how to apply mindfulness while working to reduce stress and increase intentionality. At the end of the course, there will be a group discussion about how the techniques they learned can be used to decrease stress and increase productivity at work. This can be scheduled as a 30-minute or a 60-minute session.
Professional Team Building Activities
Noble Desktop is a top NYC coding, business, and design school with over three decades of experience training people for new careers. All of their courses are taught by expert instructors using a time-tested, project-based approach: the instructor teaches a short “micro-lecture” and then immediately guides students through applying the material using hands-on, real-world projects.
All of their courses can be taken live online or at their state-of-the-art campus in Midtown Manhattan. This includes group classes in digital skills training for your employees. You can bring your team to their cutting-edge facility on Manhattan’s iconic 34th Street, or they will conduct the training over a teleconferencing platform such as Zoom.
Corporate Digital Skills Training: Excel
Microsoft Excel has been the world’s most popular spreadsheet program since its release in the 1980s. It is a part of the Microsoft Office suite of productivity programs, which also includes Word, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook. Proficiency in Microsoft Office is the most requested job skill in the world.
Help your team harness the nearly unlimited uses for Microsoft Excel in Noble Desktop’s Microsoft Excel corporate training. Increasing their familiarity with Microsoft Excel will increase their overall productivity and get everyone on the same skill level. Noble Desktop offers several levels of corporate training in Excel, including Excel Level 1: Fundamentals, Excel Level 2: Intermediate, Excel Level 3: Advanced, and Excel Programming with VBA. Some of the skills taught in the Fundamentals course include understanding the Excel interface, using essential formulas and functions, workbook management, and creating different types of charts, including line, column, and pie charts.
Corporate Digital Skills Training: Python
Since 2016, Python has been the world’s most popular programming language. It’s powerful, versatile, object-oriented, and relatively easy to learn. Because it is an open-source programming language, it has a vibrant online community of coders, resources, and libraries.
Python is the language used in data-focused careers. Noble Desktop’s Python corporate training prepares your team for our increasingly data-driven economy by training them in the essential language of “data wrangling”: the process of transforming raw data into usable information. Training your team in Python will increase your employees' data-driven decision-making. Some of the corporate Python training options from Noble Desktop include Intro to Python Programming, Python for Automation, Python for Data Science, Python for Finance, and Algorithmic Trading with Python.
Corporate Digital Skills Training: Adobe
The Adobe Creative Cloud is a suite of powerful programs that are foundational to design, media, and other creative careers. Some of the most popular Creative Cloud programs are Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and After Effects.
For your creative, design, and marketing teams, Noble Desktop’s Adobe corporate training will increase their skill level with these industry-standard software programs. Getting your employees trained in Adobe will lead to a more creative office with a better understanding of what’s possible in design, image manipulation, and video editing.
Corporate Digital Skills Training: Social Media Marketing
Marketing has gone digital with content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), video marketing, and social media marketing. Understanding social media marketing is virtual to the success of any marketing, design, or customer success team.
Bring your team’s skills into the digital age with Noble Desktop’s Social Media Marketing corporate training. Some of the social media marketing skills training offered by Noble Desktop include Facebook Marketing, Instagram Marketing, LinkedIn Marketing, YouTube Marketing, TikTok Marketing, Streaming for Social Media, Social Media Content Marketing: Blogs & X (formerly known as Twitter), and Google Analytics. This means you can get your team expertly trained in whichever platforms your business plans to use.
Corporate Digital Skills Training: Project Management
A company’s success depends on its ability to complete projects successfully. Project management is the art of managing projects successfully: most importantly, that they are completed on time and on budget. Some of the skills developed when training in project management include communication, leadership, resource management, risk management, budgeting, task delegation, and time management.
You can train your management and other employees in project management skills through Noble Desktop’s Project Management corporate training. Noble Desktop offers two levels of project management training. Project Management Level 1 is an introductory course designed to give your team an understanding of project management's fundamentals, including its strategies, methods, and terminology. In Project Management Level 2, your team will learn about budget management, risk management, resource management, and an overview of Agile.
Lecture & Presentation Team Building Activities
Virtual Public Speaking Through Stand-up!
In this Virtual Public Speaking through Stand-up!, your team will increase their public speaking skills in this team-building comedy class. The course features three rounds in which teams work together to write jokes for a stand-up routine. This course is taught by a professional stand-up comedian and is designed to keep everyone in your office laughing.
PowerPoint Corporate Training
Make your meetings more exciting and take your team’s presentation skills to the next level with PowerPoint Corporate Training. Participants learn how to design visually-stunning presentations that grab attention. You’ll learn design principles for conveying a message using PowerPoint, including layout, spacing, consistency, typography, color, and animation. You’ll also receive hands-on instruction in using presenter notes, outline mode, managing content, and working with master slides.
DEI Team Building Activities
Diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) are vital for every office. According to Deloitte, using a varied approach to increasing DEI is the most effective. You can use DEI team-building activities to build cross-cultural connections within your team. This can lead to making every member of your team feel welcomed enough to perform to their fullest abilities.
Because team building activities are typically fun, this leads to more personal and real bonds developing. It’s also a welcome change from more traditional forms of DEI education. It also lets your team get to know each other in a more casual and laid-back environment. This could lead to the unraveling of some unconscious biases.
Virtual Pride Mixology (Materials Included)
Celebrate pride and practice allyship with this Virtual Pride Mixology class from CourseHorse. A professional mixologist will teach your team how to make LGBTQ-inspired cocktails with materials from LGBTQ businesses such as Stonewall Kitchen. Everyone will learn the history of mixology and key skills while making delicious cocktails. All ingredients are shipped to participants, including a Hawthorne strainer, jigger, cocktail pick, a gift card for spirit purchases, and artisanal syrups and jams sourced from LGBTQ businesses.
Virtual Women’s History Month Trivia
Did you know that all women weren’t legally allowed to vote in the United States until 1965? Celebrate the women in your life and office through CourseHorse’s Virtua Women’s History Month Trivia. The trivia game has three rounds: traditional trivia round, music round, and picture round. Your team will have fun and make connections while learning about women’s movies, music, history, sports, achievements, and current events.
Virtual Black History Month Trivia
Did you know that Vermont was the first state to abolish slavery in 1777? Celebrate diversity in your workplace while increasing your knowledge of black history in this Virtual Black History Month Trivia. Your team will be asked questions about black movies, music, pop culture, sports, history, and current events. The trivia game has three rounds: classic trivia, music trivia, and a picture round.
Virtual Mindful Movement: Celebrating Women’s History Month
In Virtual Mindful Movement: Celebrating Women’s History Month, participants expand their hearts while opening their minds and stretching their bodies. In honor of Women’s History Month, the class begins with a discussion about the ongoing evolution of femininity. This theme structures the class as participants move in feminine ways to relaxing music by female artists. This class is open to teams of all genders, sizes, ages, and shapes.
Virtual Pride Rainbow Bagel (Materials Included)
Your team can learn how to make bagels from scratch while celebrating Pride in this Virtual Pride Rainbow Bagel making class. Participants are walked through the steps of bagel making, from making the dough, to setting up a boiling station and using gel-based food coloring to make a vibrant rainbow flag-colored bagel. Your team will bond while making and breaking their bagels together. All ingredients will be mailed to participants, including flour, honey, kosher salt, gel coloring, and a gift card to purchase cream cheese and rainbow sprinkles.
Holiday Team Building Activities
Every office needs to celebrate the holidays. Celebrating together can be an important way of building the kind of personal connections that are the foundation of a vibrant office culture. CourseHorse can help with its holiday team-building activities. You’ll find activities, workshops, and competitive games centered on the seasons, holidays, and other noteworthy times of the year such as Pride or Black History Month.
Virtual Gingerbread House Holiday Party (Materials Included)
Your team will feel like a kid on Christmas again with this Virtual Gingerbread House Holiday Party. A lively host will play classic holiday songs while your team each builds their own gingerbread house during this creative and relazing, but fun-filled event. There will also be holiday-themed games for collaboration and a show-and-tell portion. All materials will be shipped to pariticpants, including gingerbread cookies, candy canes, icing, sprinkes, and assorted candies for decorating your gingerbread house.
Virtual Springtime Mixology (Materials Included)
Celebrate the return of the Sun and the arrival of Spring in this Virtual Springtime Mixology course. A professional Mixologist will guide participants through making three refreshing springtime cocktails: Daisy Buchanan Sour, Briar Patch Cooler, and a Springtime Old Fashioned. You will learn the principles of flavor balance that make springtime cocktails such a treat and toast to the arrival of Spring together as a group. All required materials are shipped to participants, including a Hawthorne strainer, jigger, cocktail pick, a gift card for spirits, artisanal syrups and bitters, and garnishes such as lavender bulbs, dehydrated lemon wheel, freeze-dried blackberries, and cinnamon sticks.
Virtual White Elephant Team Gift Experience
Everyone plays a fun game and receives a gift in this custom-designed Virtual White Elephant Team Gift Experience. At the event, participants play a fast-paced trivia game to determine the unwrapping order. Then, everyone takes turns unwrapping and keeping or stealing quirky, wonderful virtual gifts. At the end of the party, everyone will receive their gift in the mail.
Virtual Winter Team Escape: the Arctic Circle
CourseHorse’s Virtual Winter Team Escape: The Arctic Circle is a winter holiday-themed virtual escape room game. Your group will build collaboration skills and personal bonds when they are on teams competing to solve a series of puzzles to escape the room. In this winter-themed game, participants are “stranded at the North Pole” after a plane crash with polar bears and blizzards nipping at them while they search for clues on how to get home.
Virtual Tarot Cards 101 (Materials Included)
Host a Halloween party and have your team learn to communicate with their inner selves in this relaxing, fun Virtual Tarot Cards 101. This course is led by a professional tarot-card reader and is designed to teach the basics of receiving guidance from the cards for meditation, personal growth, and inspiration. All materials will be shipped to participants, including their own deck of tarot cards.
Virtual Escape the Office Holiday Party
The Virtual Escape the Office Holiday Party combines a virtual office holiday party with an escape room game. Your group will be divided into mini-teams that compete to escape the office holiday party or miss the holiday break. The game consists of clues, puzzles, and activities in the form of virtual maps, video and audio clips, and character descriptions. Your team will learn collaboration and communication skills while bonding over a shared goal.
Escape Room Team Building Activities
Escape rooms have been a popular team-building activity since their introduction because they require people to work together. Teams work together on a common goal through a series of fun, challenging puzzles. Escape rooms can be physical locations or a live online game such as the virtual escape rooms offered by CourseHorse.
Some of the benefits of escape rooms as team building are that members set a common goal, get people on the same page, and it keeps your team engaged. One benefit for management is that it gives them the opportunity to assess their team’s strengths and weaknesses and any potential leaders.
Escape the Upside Down
Escape the Upside Down is a Stranger Things-inspired escape game. The game is set in 1983 when your team will find themselves sucked into The Upside Down after a strange game of Dungeons and Dragons. Your group will be split into mini-teams that have 1.15 hours to solve a series of puzzles to escape the Upside Down. The teams will be presented with character descriptions, virtual maps, and audio and video clips as clues.
Virtual Escape Inflation
Virtual Escape Inflation is set in 2022 when debt is rising and the economy is sinking. Participants have 1.15 hours to solve a series of puzzles to escape a crashing economy. This game can be particularly fun for teams that work in finance or accounting. Your group is broken into mini-teams that compete to solve a series of puzzles based on virtual maps, audio and video clips, and character descriptions.
Virtual Escape the Final Frontier
In Virtual Escape the Final Frontier, participants are launched into space to find Pluto, which has been missing for ten years. Your group is broken into mini-teams that will solve a series of puzzles to find the lost planet. Clues will include images, virtual maps, character descriptions, and video and audio clips.
Virtual Jumanji Escape
Participants must escape from the Jumanji board game in Virtual Jumanji Escape. After finding a dusty old Jumanji board game at a zoo souvenir shop, participants are sucked in and must work together to solve a series of puzzles to escape. Participants use a combination of virtual maps, video and audio clips, images and character descriptions to beat the clock and escape Jumanji.
Virtual Pirate Treasure Hunt: Escape Room
Virtual Pirate Treasure Hunt: Escape Room is a fun, pirate-themed escape room game. In this game, participants are a ship crew who find a treasure map at a small island tavern. Your group will be broken into mini-teams that race against the clock to solve the puzzles on the treasure map. Even though your group will be in mini-teams, they will be interacting with the whole group the entire time.
Murder Mystery Team Building Activities
Virtual Murder Mystery: Team Escape
This Virtual Murder Mystery: Team Escape blends murder mystery and escape room as mini-teams race against the clock to solve a murder. In this game, participants are attending their high school reunion when the doors are locked, and a classmate is murdered. Your group has one hour to use virtual maps, character descriptions, images, and video and audio clips to figure out who the murderer is.
Please note: CourseHorse also offers a 45-minute version of this murder mystery game for companies that want a shorter activity.
Trivia Team Building Activities
Trivia is a highly-rated team-building activity because it’s fun, challenging, and competitive. Your team will get a chance to show off their knowledge on various topics while building bonds and getting to know each other better.
CourseHorse offers trivia team-building activities on a lot of different topics, including current events, true crime, movies, music, sports, cryptocurrency, wine and spirits, history, and popular TV shows such as The Office, Friends, Arrested Development, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, 90s cartoons, and Westworld.
Virtual Timewarp Trivia
Take a journey through four decades with Virtual Timewarp Trivia. Participants will play both as individuals and cooperatively to answer four rounds of questions about four decades: 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. Some topics might include disco music, low-rise jeans, the Atkins diet, leg warmers, Gossip Girl, and the ‘Rachel’ haircut.
Virtual Covid Trivia: Real Vs. Fake News
COVID probably pulled your team apart, but you can pull them back together with Virtual Covid Trivia: Real vs. Fake News. Your team will be quizzed on the news surrounding the pandemic, including mask mandates, CDC guidelines, stay-at-home orders, and the vaccine. This trivia game is played in three parts: a traditional trivia round, an image round, and a music round.
Virtual Googling History
Virtual Googling History is a unique version of trivia in which participants work against the clock to find obscure information online using Google. Unlike most trivia, looking up answers is encouraged. The game has three rounds: an image search round, a scavenger hunt round, and a debate round in which your group will debate a hot topic. There will be sharing sessions at the end to further cement bonding.
Virtual Myth Busters: a True or False Game
Virtual Mth Busters: a True or False Game is based on the beloved TV show. Participants compete in four rounds of true and false questions about popular myths and folklore. Some of the topics covered might include the Mandela Effect, ancient technology, firearms and weapons, hand sanitizer, and prison breaks. Most of the time will be spent in breakout groups with some whole-group interaction.
Virtual Trivia 2019: Life Without Covid
Time travel back to the old normal in this Virtual Trivia 2019: Life Without COVID. Your group will compete and cooperate in this virtual trivia game about 2019. Some of the events they might be quizzed on include Baby Yoda, The Masked Singer, the Squad, Marie Kondo, Old Town Road, White Claw, Bad Bunny, US Women’s Soccer Team, Greta Thunberg, TikTok, Billie Eilish, Avengers: Endgame, Prince Archie, Hot Girl Summer, and the Joker.
Icebreaker Team Building Activities
Virtual “Get to Know Your Teammates” Icebreaker Game
Did you know the Head of Development is a huge fan of Taylor Swift? The fast-paced Virtual “Get to Know Your Teammates” Icebreaker Game is like trivia but about your teammates. Everyone receives a prompt list to gather fun and interesting facts about each participant. At the event, students will interview each other speed-dating style to try and answer as many questions about their colleagues as possible. This game is great for integrating new employees, a newly-developing team, or building bonds with a team, no matter how long they’ve worked together.
Virtual Get to Know Your Teammates 4-Part Series
Virtual Get to Know Your Teammates is a series of four 1-hour events where your team will get to know each other better through a fast-paced interview game. Each participant will receive a questionnaire beforehand for them to provide interesting and unexpected facts about themselves. The group will then be split into breakout rooms where they will interview each other in a speed-dating style to see who can answer the most right questions about their teammates.
If your team is shorter on time, this Virtual Get to Know Your Teammates 4-part event series is also available in four 30-minute sessions.