When we hear “team building activities,” many of us think of office scavenger hunts, murder mysteries, escape rooms, and brewery tours (all GREAT examples, by the way).
But team building doesn’t have to be an all-day event, covering a whiteboard full of agenda topics. Booking calendar time for some synergetic 5-minute team-building exercises can be a game changer.
It’s just as easy to carve out time to play 5-minute games for virtual meetings as well. Make it an icebreaker game or use it to close out the meeting. Either way, 5-minute team building activities for work have a big impact on your company culture.
Not only are 5-minute team building games a brilliant idea because… well… we’re busy. And it’s only 5 minutes. But they’re also perfect because, no matter the size or location of your teams, it’s easy to slide a fun activity into a 5-minute time limit.
You can plan 5-minute team building activities for small groups just as easily as you can for large groups, and the same for virtual team building activities.
Be the boss who preplans energetic 5-minute office games. Or pivot to 5-minute games for online meetings if you’re connecting remote teams. Pull the entire team together and give everyone a breather with one of these fantastically fun 5-minute team building ideas.
Want to improve your employee appreciation program this year?
Yes!1. Propose an icebreaker question at your next meeting
🚨 What is an icebreaker question?
An icebreaker question is simply a question you can ask your team members that allows them to reveal a little about themselves that may not be work-related. Which Olympic event would you compete in if you could choose any of them? What’s your favorite place that you’ve traveled to? These questions open up conversations and allow dialogue to flow easily among coworkers, even after the 5-minutes are up.
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: You can learn so much about your employees and coworkers with icebreaker questions. No wrong answers, just breaking the ice with fun, organic responses.
Pro Tip: To extra-energize your team building activity, check out the Icebreaker Box from Caroo, complete with snacks and a cocktail kit.
2. Instant Meme
🚨 What is Instant Meme?
We communicate so often with just gifs and memes, they’ve practically become their own language. With Instant Meme, the players flex their teamwork muscles to match the best ones to the random prompts they’re given, then everyone votes on which is the funniest. Warning – this can be a gut-buster!
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: Everyone loves memes! And 5 minutes of laughing with your team can change the whole vibe for the rest of the workday.
3. Who am I?
🚨 What is Who Am I?
Each person writes a secret about themselves on a piece of paper- something their coworkers wouldn’t necessarily know about them. The rest of the group then has to guess who each secret belongs to. Bet you never guessed that the intern who rarely speaks, actually has a podcast on something super interesting that your team may want to tune in to and support.
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: Learning about your employees’ interesting (and sometimes eclectic) lives helps you relate to them on a deeper level, and creates stronger bonds with their coworkers, all in just 5 minutes.
4. Meeting Mini Games
🚨 What are Meeting Mini Games?
With Weve’s menu of Mini Games, it’s tough to get bored of the same ole, same ole. They offer 24 self-hosted mini games for quick team building brilliance. Whether it’s a lip sync battle or a dash-through-the-house scavenger hunt, these 5-minute meeting games are great for getting everyone in a good mood.
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: The variety of games really keeps things fun and interesting. And you have an opportunity to learn a lot about your employees in just 5 short minutes.
5. Show and Tell (Pet Edition)
🚨 What is Show and Tell (Pet Edition)?
The pandemic isolation has definitely given a boost to the pet owners’ population. In fact, about 70% of US residents now have a pet (or pets), and chances are, most of them love to brag on their “babies.” This simple but fun game gives everyone a chance to show off their favorite companions, whether they’re two or four-legged, feathered, slithery, scaly, swimmy, and more.
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: Our pets bring a sense of ease and comfort to our lives. Taking 5 minutes to revisit those calm feelings can put everyone in a relaxed and open state of mind, and offers some team bonding over a shared interest.
6. Two Truths And A Lie
🚨 What is Two Truths And A Lie?
Put everyone’s human lie-detector skills to the test and see who fancies themselves a master manipulator with a five-minute game of Two Truths And A Lie. Each person presents two truthful statements and one sneaky little lie about themselves to the group. The rest of the team then has to guess which is actually the lie.
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: You can get really creative with this one, plus it discreetly puts everyone’s communication skills to the test. And some of the things you’ll learn about your colleagues may have you ROFL.
7. 5-Minute Mafia Game
🚨 What is 5-Minute Mafia Game?
Kinda like a speed round of roleplaying. Each team member is assigned a character on either the Mafia or civilian teams but doesn’t know anyone else’s assignment. The objective is to be on the side that dominates and runs the other team out of town (or… whatever the Mafia does to hypothetically make people “go away”).
Pro Tip: If you want to extend the fun past 5 minutes, give the Virtual Clue Murder Mystery a shot.
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: This is a great idea as a “continuing series” in your team meetings. Each meeting could start with 5 minutes of roleplaying where the last 5-minute episode left off.
8. 5-Minute Team Trivia
🚨 What is 5-Minute Team Trivia?
Toss in a little 5-minute competition with random trivia questions for your whole team to take a shot at. Mix a little pop culture with social studies, add a tiebreaker, and voila! Five minutes to have a little fun, detach from work just a bit, and engage in a team bonding group activity like online trivia.
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: What’s more perfect for hybrid and remote teams than a trivia game from Water Cooler Trivia? Super fun questions get teammates involved and a little friendly interoffice rivalry never hurt anyone. This is the kind of team building activity that you can build into weekly meetings or standups to boost engagement at your company.
9. Spread Some Gratitude
🚨 What is Spread Some Gratitude?
Open up your recognition platform piggy bank and spread some love to other team members in your organization. You don’t even have to invest in a long-term program right away.
Check out some of these tools for free to find the one you like best:
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: We all like to feel appreciated, especially at work. Taking 5 minutes to spread some gratitude has a positive effect that lasts long after those 300 seconds have passed.
10. Send a cocktail kit to sip on a beverage during an afternoon meeting
🚨 What is a cocktail kit?
We’re so glad you asked! A cocktail kit is a super convenient arrangement of everything you need to fix a fabulous after-hours cocktail. The best part is that you get to decide what defines “after hours.” Go ahead and give your team 5 minutes to prep their potions and join the Zoom meeting with a little zing. The folks at Caroo even have a dedicated Happy Hour Box that you can order to the office or send straight to your guests’ doorsteps if your meeting is virtual!
👍🏻 Why this is a great team building activity to play in 5 minutes: There’s no rule saying that happy hour only exists inside a bar or lounge. Five minutes is plenty of time for everyone to open their cocktail kit, clink some ice in a glass, and concoct a relaxing drink (or mocktail) to sip during an afternoon team meeting.
Conclusion
Five minutes feels very different depending on the circumstances. Five minutes stuck in traffic on the way to an appointment can feel like an eternity, while those final 5 minutes before your next meeting can have you scrambling to prepare and counting the rapidly-ticking seconds.
“One of the most powerful reasons for team building is to get results. Through a series of planned team building events that are fun and motivational, teams build skills like communication, planning, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.”
Five minutes at work equals 300 seconds of answering emails, updating calendars, returning a missed call, organizing a desk, or any one of a hundred other necessary, yet tedious tasks still on the daily to-do list.
Why not capitalize on the value of 300 whole seconds?
Believe it or not, just 5 minutes spent doing these types of team bonding activities helps to build trust, improves employee engagement and morale, and is a quick and fun way to improve the overall work environment. Games, in general, improve team spirit and broaden our sense of camaraderie with our coworkers.
Whether your teams are playing in person or managing a remote work situation, 5-minute team building games create opportunities to welcome new team members, promote teamwork, and support your employees’ well-being.
People Also Ask These Questions About 5-minute Team Building Activities
Q: What are some good quick team building activities that take five minutes?
- A: Some good quick team building activities that take five minutes are actually laid out for you in the paragraphs above. Just scroll up a bit.
Q: How do I choose a short team building activity that is only five minutes long?
- A: You can choose a short team building activity that is only five minutes long by knowing your team and what gets them excited. Then choose an activity that’s most engaging for your squad.
Q: What are critical thinking 5-minute team building activities?
- A: An example of a critical thinking 5-minute team building activity would be posing a thought-provoking question, then having your team discuss their answers.
Q: How do I start an icebreaker 5-minute team building activity?
- A: You can start an icebreaker 5-minute team building activity by asking a question like “What three things would you need to survive on a desert island?” Or with any of the other stellar suggestions we’ve made in the above article.
