Fun teambuilding activities when one doesn't have the budget

You're in charge of the next Teambuilding. Your boss asks you to organize fun activities, so that it sets a contrast with rather boring presentations on the results of the previous year, which are on the agenda… As you know, the Teambuilding activities helps forging better communication in teams, a relationship based on trust, and encourages initiatives. Yes, but here you are running out of ideas, plus when your boss tells you the budget you have at your disposal, you think it’s a joke: there is nothing left, you will have to manage without any budget, whatsoever. We are here for you: here are 6 fun Teambuilding activities, simple to organize, and which require very little or no financial means.

2 truths and 1 lie

Divide your employees into groups of 8-9 people. On a piece of paper, each collaborator writes two true things about him (but things his/her colleagues don’t know), and one lie (but which remains credible). The collaborators take turns and say their “facts” out loud, and the rest of the group has to guess the lie. You might find out some surprising things.

Required time: 5 minutes to prepare, and 20 to play.

Required material: Paper, pens, and the critical sense of your colleagues

The Lego city

To begin, ask your employees to think of a list of around ten key criteria for in order to build a city: need for a train station, a school, a shopping center, etc. Then divide the people in groups of 3 to 4 people. Each group has a proper amount of Lego and must manage to build the coolest city possible while respecting the criteria, which has been decided previously. At the end, each team presents its city to the rest of the collaborators, who vote for the coolest city (without being able to vote for their own, of course).

Required time: 1 to 2 hours

Required material: a loooooot of Lego

The pitch

We all come up with cool business ideas that we haven't had the opportunity to launch, for X reasons. This activity is the perfect opportunity for your teams to show their creativity and their entrepreneurial spirit. Divide your teams in groups of 3 to 4 people, they need to come up a business idea, then present it to the other colleagues, in 3 minutes. The colleagues then vote for the best idea, but you can also give a prize for the craziest, best-selling, most archaic idea, etc. You may even discover new ideas which can be directly implemented within your own company's business.!

Required time: 1 hour to prepare the pitches, then 1 to 2 hours for the presentations, depending on the number of collaborators.

Required material: paper and pens

Who is who?

Each collaborator writes a surprising fact about themselves on a piece of paper, something others do not know about. The pieces of paper are then put together in a salad bowl. A colleague is designated to read these aloud. Now comes the time for guessing, which fact concerns whom! Just like the game "2 truths and a lie", you’re going to find out incredible things! 

Required time: 30 to 60 minutes depending on the number of participants

Required material: paper, pens, and a salad bowl

The journey of trust

Gather your colleagues in the open space, or in any other room with a reasonable size, and put as much mess as possible in the room: overturned chairs, piles of books on the ground, flowerpots. The goal is to make it difficult to get around. Divide your teams into groups of 3. In this group, we blindfold a person, who must cross the room with the help of his colleagues’ voices, who are part of his team. A good activity to work on trust and communication, which could potentially lead to little injuries..

Required time: 15 minutes to mess up your open space, then 2 to 10 minutes per team, depending on the talent of your troops.

Required material: an open space, enough obstacles

The egg drop

A great classic. Divide your troops into groups of 3 to 5 people and give an egg to each group. Each group has cardboard, scotch tape, paper clips, envelopes, sponges at their disposal ... in short, the material that can be found almost any office. The teams must build a protection system for the egg, which shall then be released in the air. When all the groups have built their protection systems, go to the egg release, whose height should be about 4 to 5 meters (more would be complicated ...). Each group begins one after the other, for their egg’s big leap. The winners are those groups for whom, the egg survives the fall. Make yourself a nice omelet with the leftovers, so that there isn’t any wastage

Required time: 30 minutes for the constructions, 20 minutes for the egg release.

Required material: office supplies and eggs.

More informations here 50 unique ways of rewarding your collaborators and making them happy