Team building board games are games that focus on improving group dynamics. The purpose of these games is to develop teamwork competencies like delegation, interpretation, and compromise. While other team-building games and activities may feel unnatural to employees, board games are a common pastime. Chances are your teammates play or have played these games in the past and will feel comfortable embracing the game’s objectives. The team-building board games on this list are suitable for large groups and utilize the required skills such as problem-solving and communication. This list specifically includes board games that help with team building, board games for office game nights, and fun card games to play with coworkers.
Twister
Twister is a game that challenges participants to position certain body parts on colored dots on a mat, for example, left hand green, right leg red. Anyone who has ever stepped onto the Twister mat knows that players turn into human pretzels fast. The game demands conversation, especially if you want to maintain any semblance of personal space. Twister teaches skills like communication and collaboration. The game breaks down barriers quickly, and you and your team will bond by bending.
Apples to Apples
Apples to Apples is a great game to play in a big group because the card game accommodates many players. The rules of the game are simple: The turn taker picks a green apple card from the top of the pile and places it face up in the middle of the circle. The green apple card contains an adjective such as sweet, wicked, or trustworthy. Each player holds a handful of red apple noun cards like people with no rhythm, misspelled tattoos, or funnel cakes. Every player picks a card that corresponds to the selected green apple card and places the red card face down in the circle center. The turn taker shuffles the red cards before flipping and reading each red card aloud. Once the turn taker reads all red cards, the judge picks the red card that most closely matches the green card. The player who selected the winning red card gets to keep the green card. The player with the most green cards at the end of the game wins. This game is one of the most fun card games to play with coworkers. Apples to Apples is a great game for team building because the game challenges players to discern teammates' thought processes and senses of humor. A skilled player selects a red card not on first instinct, but rather based on what word the judge will most likely pick.
Scattergories
Scattergories is a word-based board game that challenges players to generate answers which all start with a single letter. Players work off lists of categories that include topics like a girl’s name, foreign cities, and things found in a park. How to play: All players turn to the same list. One player rolls a letter die to select an alphabet letter. A team member starts the three-minute timer. Players produce as many answers as possible within the allotted time. For instance, if the letter is B, then a girl’s name could be Betty, a foreign city could be Baghdad, and things found in the park could be bicycles. Once time is up, all players read the answers. Every answer is worth one point unless it uses alliteration, in which case it is worth two points. Betty Boop, for example, would be a double-point answer. If two players write down the same answer, then neither of them receives a point. At the end of each round, tally up points. The player with the most points wins. The more teammates who join a game of Scattergories, the more likely players will duplicate answers. To avoid repeating an answer and losing a point, players will have to predict teammates’ guesses and summon alternate answers. Scattergories teach teammates to anticipate team members’ responses to prevent double work.