If you Google team-building activities for corporate events, you’ll find plenty of ideas like bowling nights or happy hours. But you’ve landed on the right page, where I’m going to share four impactful exercises that can truly help your team build lasting connections. These activities go beyond the typical corporate fun and focus on creating meaningful experiences.
1. Rock, Paper, Scissors Olympics
This one is a super simple but fun exercise that brings joy and leaves a lasting memory. At first, I wasn’t sure it would work in a corporate setting, but after leading it for thousands of people, I can tell you—it does.
Here’s how it works: everyone pairs up and plays Rock, Paper, Scissors. The loser joins the winner’s team as a cheerleader, and they move on to face the next winner. As the game progresses, teams grow, and the excitement builds. You’ll end up with two large teams cheering on the final players in a best-of-three matchup. It’s quick (takes about seven minutes) and a surefire way to energize a group.
The great thing about this activity is that even if someone doesn’t love participating, it’s over quickly. Unlike a three-hour bowling event, this doesn’t trap anyone in an activity they might dislike. It’s a fast-paced way to connect and have fun, making it ideal for all types of corporate teams.
2. Collaborative Book Writing with AI
The second activity is a Collaborative Book Writing Project that I recently led with 400 top leaders at Carnegie Mellon University. The idea is to harness collective intelligence and creativity in a short amount of time. During this event, I asked the participants to help write a book about the culture at Carnegie Mellon in just 30 minutes.
Here’s how we did it: I provided prompts, such as:
- What do you appreciate about the culture here?
- What’s one genius piece of advice you’ve received about building culture?
- What culture-related issue keeps you up at night?
We gathered responses, and I used AI (ChatGPT) to turn their insights into a collaborative book. During lunch, I compiled everything, and when we came back, the vice president read a portion of the book aloud. The results were powerful—people were moved, and the exercise created a real sense of unity and accomplishment.
If you want a truly innovative and engaging team-building exercise, this one is perfect. It not only brings people together but also creates a tangible outcome that can be shared and reflected on later.
3. Appreciation vs. Affirmation
This is one of my favorite exercises because it dives deep and leaves a lasting impact. It’s called Appreciation vs. Affirmation, and it’s an ideal way to wrap up a multi-day event or strategy meeting.
Here’s the distinction: Appreciation is acknowledging someone for what they do (e.g., “Thanks for sweeping the floors”). Affirmation, on the other hand, acknowledges someone for who they are (e.g., “Thank you for your attention to detail”). Affirmations go much deeper and stay with people for years.
To do this exercise, pair participants up with three people they’ve connected with during the event. Each person gives an affirmation to the others, focusing on who they are rather than what they’ve done. The catch? The receiver can only respond in three ways:
- “Thank you.”
- “Thank you, I really liked hearing that. Can you tell me more?”
- “Thank you, can you write that down and send it to my boss?”
This exercise creates an environment of genuine recognition and ends the event on a high, meaningful note. Affirmations reinforce the best qualities in people and encourage them to bring their whole selves to work.
4. Connection Experiment with 3,000 Executives
For the final activity, I’ll let you see it in action. This one is a Connection Experiment that I facilitated live with 3,000 senior executives from credit union and banks across the country. It’s a fantastic way to get people excited, engaged, and connected.
In this exercise, I guide the audience through a structured interaction that gets everyone involved. If you want to see how I set it up and how it works in a large-scale event, you can check out my video titled “This is How You Open a Keynote Speech.” It demonstrates how I get even the most reluctant participants to uncross their arms and engage with each other.
These four team-building activities will help you create an environment where real connections are made, and teams are strengthened. Whether you’re planning a corporate event, an offsite retreat, or a simple team meeting, these exercises will elevate the experience and leave a lasting impact.
I’m Chad Littlefield. There are 500 other videos like this with really useful stuff. Consider subscribing. Have an awesome day!