Updated July 23, 2021

Are the rainy day blues dragging your Vancouver team down faster than an elevator to the first floor on Friday afternoon? Studies have proven that inclement weather is scientifically linked to tiredness, laziness, and a drop in production.

Fortunately, it’s not a corporate fate we must accept. Why not turn a rainy day or two into a bundle of fun and camaraderie with team-building exercises? A little laughter, relaxation, and bonding are just what the weather prescribed!

So, grab your cohorts and leave the spreadsheets and whiteboards for another day. But, do gather up some legos, marshmallows, hula hoops, and a whole lot of creativity to bide your time playing puzzles and games you’d never expect to find behind a cubicle.

15. Frostbite

Sharpen the survival mindset and encourage a little old-fashioned fun with indoor fort-building. Bring in the necessary tools to build a shelter (sheets, broomsticks, rope, etc) and then introduce a twist with a role-play scenario. Ask your team to nominate a chief, who will then be imaginarily plagued with frostbite and deemed unable to offer any physical aid. A few minutes later, the rest of the team members will be struck by snow blindness and must be blindfolded for the rest of the build. Ultimately, the team must overcome the obstacles and still successfully build a shelter. 

This game could be reimagined outdoors, in a retreat centre setting, like Loonlake Lodge & Retreat Centre outside Vancouver. Simply up the challenge and the team-building experience by asking your team to build with supplies from nature. Also, require the shelter to be wind-resistant, appropriate for shielding themselves from frostbite in a real-life scenario.

14. Shark Tank

For the next team-building exercise, divide your team into groups of entrepreneurs and investors with a mock setup of the popular TV show, Shark Tank. The catch? The entrepreneurs must use something already in the room as the product they are pitching. And, they must approach their chosen item as a viable product by giving it a brand name and slogan, developing business and marketing plans, and predictions of market size, sales projections, and profit margins. The investors will be given CEO identities, special interests, and an imaginary investment budget. The team of entrepreneurs who gain the most investments wins the game.

If your team members aren’t familiar with the Shark Tank concept, start the game by showing them some clips or an episode of the TV show.

13. Juggling Circle

Bring your team together in a standing circle and give them a juggling ball. Then, give them instructions to pass the ball around the group. For example, pass it to the left, pass it to the person two down from you on the left; pass it to the person four down from you on the left. After one ball is set in action, add another two balls into the mix, always keep an odd number of balls for an even number of people or vice versa. Amidst the ongoing chaos, each team member must rely on the others to keep track of which balls they must catch and where they should pass it next.

12.  Sneak-a-Peek Lego Towers

Who wouldn’t be thrilled to build a lego tower at work? First, divide your group into two teams; instructors and constructors. Give the instructors a 10-second sneak peek at a prefabricated Lego structure, complex in design yet easily replicable. Then, ask them to return to the group of constructors who haven’t seen the structure and give 25 seconds of instructions on how to build what they saw. Each member will have 1 minute to construct before giving a new member of the instructors’ group a sneak peek. This repeats until the structure has been completed. The first team to finish an accurate representation wins.

11. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Go back to primary school with a little food play and creative teamwork. Start by dividing your team into small groups. Then, set them up with a pile of uncooked spaghetti noodles, marshmallows, string, and masking tape. Finally, ask them to build the tallest tower in the room. 

Remind them that the tower can’t have any external supports, and it must stay standing for 5 seconds in order to win the game. 

10.Gopher Hole

Ask your team to cut a large hole directly in the centre of a tarp, it should be big enough for a beach ball to slip through. Then, instruct them to stand around the tarp each holding a corner or edge. Toss a beach ball into the tarp and encourage them to keep the beach ball bouncing and moving around the tarp, without letting it fall through the hole. This team-building activity encourages group coordination and communication skills to keep the ball in play as long as possible.

For a little added fun, this game could be taken outside! Why not pass a beach ball on the beach? For Vancouver team-building retreats, head to the lakeside oasis at Loonlake Lodge & Retreat Centre.

9. Rope On Deck

Lay a long rope out on the floor, creating a large circle that must fit the entire group of people inside. As each minute passes, shrink the circle to force the group tighter together. 

As the circle becomes smaller, your team will need to get creative to see how they can all fit inside. This may require hugging, kneeling, or even putting one person on another one’s shoulders. The object is to inspire outside-the-box thinking and collaboration.

8. Photo Finish

Get a little active and a little silly in the workplace with this fun team-building exercise. It’s all about encouraging your team to race to an imaginary finish line in order to catch a ”photo finish.” This is an incredible way to snap a unique and memorable team photo for the office. But, the challenge for your team members is to get organized so that everyone crosses the finish line together.

To turn this team-building activity into something a bit more unique to your Vancouver team, take them to an outdoor setting that effectively transfers the sense of adventure Canadians are known for. For example, the challenge could be to cross the photo finish line together in kayaks or after hiking a trail in a local, old-growth forest. Look into this option at Loon Lake Lodge and Retreat Centre, about an hour outside Vancouver.

7. Shipwrecked

Start this survival-themed team-building exercise with a story, explaining to your team that they must imagine themself in a precarious situation. Their plane has just gone down in the middle of the Pacific not far from Vancouver. And now, they must quickly make a decision together about which items to salvage from the wreck before it sinks. Within their reach are a variety of items including food, tarps, flares, weapons, matches, etc. Give your team 25 minutes to decide together which items are most needed and to rank them in order of importance.

6. The Willow in the Wind

Select one person as a team leader and instruct the rest of the group to make a tight circle around him/her. The leader will serve as “the willow,” and must maintain an upright, rigid position at all times. Then, the members of the circle will begin physically guiding the leader in different directions, gently pushing and rolling him/her around the circle. At the same time, they must always offer enough support that ‘the willow” never trips or falls, as he/she isn’t able to move his/her feet or use his/her hands to prevent a collision. This is a game of trust!

5. Blindfolded Picasso

Blindfolded Picasso is an art-inspired game, similar to the aforementioned Lego game. But, this time, instead of building a tower, your team members must instruct a chosen artist how to draw an object he/she can’t see. The twist is that your team must explain the item in question without ever revealing what the item actually is. In addition, the artist creating the drawing must be wearing a blindfold. The object of this team-building challenge is to strengthen verbal communication.

4. Swift Swap

If you have a Vancouver team that generally works remotely, getting together for a ‘meet and greet’ is an excellent way to help the team build their bonds. Swift Swap is an amazing ice breaker and is especially effective for teams who rarely have in-person interactions or who have a large group of new hires.

Line up the participants in two teams, asking them to stand face to face from the opposite team. Give them 15 seconds to simply observe the team on the other side. Then, ask each team to turn around and put their focus on the people in their own line. Next, instruct them to make 10 visible adjustments in 40 seconds. For example, members can swap shoes, trade necklaces or glasses, change hairstyles, etc. Afterward, the teams will line up and face each other again. The challenge is for each team to identify what changes the other team made.

3. Blind Wine Waiter

This rainy day activity is reserved for a very unique situation and is likely better used during a team-building retreat. It may not be appropriate for an office, or when your team members must drive home from work unless you swap out the alcohol for something different like sparkling juice. That being said, happy-hour-inspired gatherings can provide incredible team-building experiences. They often allow coworkers to loosen up and more easily bond with each other.

To play Blind Wine Waiter, divide your team into groups of 5-6 people, nominating one as the leader and the others as the waiter. Then, give each team one bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and one wine glass. Ask the leader to get on the floor and sit on his/her hands. Then, attach blindfolds to each waiter. Next, instruct the team to serve the leader a glass of wine, with each team member completing only part of the task. Hence, one must find the wine bottle, one must find the corkscrew and open the bottle, another must find the glass and hold it, while yet another person pours the wine. The last person must hold the glass to the leader’s lip so he/she can drink from it. Repeat and remix until everyone in the group has had a glass of wine.

2. Loop the Hoola Hoop

Combine a little physical activity with unexpected strategy, and likely a whole lot of laughter when you bring a hula hoop into the workspace. Start by gathering your team into a standing circle, and then ask them to loop their elbows together making a chain. Open the elbows of two people, loop a hula hoop over them, and close their arms back together again. Then, instruct them to find a way to pass the hula hoop around the entire circle while keeping the chain intact.

1. Birthday Line-Up

In an effort to promote nonverbal communication and teamwork, team members are not allowed to speak or make noises during a game of Birthday Line-Up. So, without talking, your team must organize themselves in a straight and accurate line in calendar order. For example, the person with a birthday earliest in the year will stand at the start of the line. While the person with the latest birthday in December will stand at the end of the line. Everyone else must fill in the centre of the line while respecting chronological order. And never speaking a word in the process!

For an added bonus, use this game as a gift-giving opportunity. After the line-up is complete, determine which month hosts the most birthdays for your team. Then, announce you’ll be organizing a team-building retreat to be scheduled for that month.

If you’d like to take your team out of the office for a Vancouver team-building retreat, check out Loon Lake Lodge and Retreat Centre. Come rain or shine, all seasons of the year - we’re located just an hour from downtown!