At work it’s so important for a team to feel engaged, connected with each other, and comfortable raising issues and discussing problems.

You don’t get that for free simply by being labelled a “team” - people can be shy, work can be awfully boring, and remote work may mean you never talk to your team outside of Slack messages.

Things like this lead to disengaged teams, which are not only less fun to be in, they are less productive.

Social activities and games are a great way of increasing engagement and connection in your team.

I’ve compiled a list of these I’ve either used myself to great success in my teams, or participated in, that were fun, unforced, mostly remote-friendly, and everyone has enjoyed.

A quick note: These activities need some level of involvement from all participants. If people in your team would much rather work, that’s ok! Just keep this in mind when planning who gets involved.

“Who’s Photo is this?” (Also Known as Photo Roulette")

Remote Friendly? Yes.

What is it?: “Who’s Photo is This?” is a guessing game where players are guessing who out of the team has taken a submitted photo.

How to play: Players each find a photo they’ve taken that doesn’t explicitly identify them, but also tells a story: an overseas trip mishap, a hidden talent or hobby.

These photos are submitted to a “Game Master” who collects the photos, and will run the game, showing one random photo for each round.

For each photo, players have some time to discuss what could be happening in the photo, and who could be the owner, who themselves is playing and can try to mislead others.

Everyone then guesses the photo owner (keep a tally of the score if you’re feeling competitive), and the photo-snapper is revealed.

Why it’s a good pick: I’ve run and played this game in several teams, and it’s a great way to learn more about your co-workers, their life and hobbies, and get surprised when someone has enjoyed the same pastime as you.

I’ve also run versions of this game called “Photos Facts and Fibs” where two players are given a photo only one of them actually owns.

One player tells the real story, and one makes up a story that sounds like it could be true, and the rest of the team has to vote on who they think is telling the truth. This can be lots of fun if your team has some sneaky social deduction players.

2. Hobby Lightning Talk

Remote Friendly? Yes.

What is it?: Hobby Lightning Talks are an awesome activity to get people to share what they love, preceded by frantic presentation making.

How to play: Assuming there’s an hour for the activity, subtract 5 minutes for each player and use the remaining time as setup time.

During this time, each participant selects a hobby of theirs and creates a presentation (Google presentation or Canva are great!) of how it’s done, the history, their own personal experience, whatever they can fit into a 5 minute talk.

When setup time is done, each participant gets a hard-stop 5 minute time slot to give their presentation, take questions, and of course be praised for their amazing creative skills.

Why it’s a good pick: Hobby Lightning Talks are a fantastic way of learning about your peers, and even show off your presentation or powerpoint skills, or even just flexing your hobby. I’ve seen some ridiculously coherent and creative presentations put together for this that have blown me away.

3. “Just One” Using Pictures

Remote Friendly? Yes.

What is it?: “Just One” is a board game that we can put a twist on to make it fresh, free, and get people drawing (I love drawing games).

How to play: Each round one player is a “guesser” trying to guess a keyword, while the other players try to give a hint.

A random word is used (random word generators online are good here, especially if they can do easy-hard words), and each player draws not the word, but something related to the word. For instance, if the word is airplane, I might draw clouds, or a tarmac, a bird, etc.

The guesser then looks at all the drawings of what the word is related to, but not, and tries to guess the word.

Why it’s a good pick: This game is a great creative experience to see how people think and their drawing abilities.

It also gets really interesting when you move from easier words like “airplane” to harder words such as “reaction” or “philosophy”. You can also make this game remote-friendly by using collaborative online drawing tools like Excalidraw.

4. No-bake Baking Session

Remote Friendly? Unfortunately, this is less remote-friendly because of the need to be in the office, but I have seen similar remote activities showing off what team members have baked or cooked in the week.

What is it?: While office spaces are rarely equipped with the appliances or tools for baking, there are lots of no-bake recipes that are perfectly possible in an office if you bring ingredients and maybe a tool or two.

How to play: The key for a good no-bake baking session is to let everyone make their own, small dessert (I’ve used mini cheesecakes in the past, like this one from Sally’s Baking).

Starting from scratch and letting one person read and lead steps one-at-a-time is a great way to get everyone directing and not just doing their own thing or following someone next to them.

And of course, choosing something that can be decorated is perfect because everyone gets to add their own flair to what they are making.

Why it’s a good pick: I’ve had great success with no-bake baking in the office. Besides getting a tasty treat at the end, there’s the benefit of getting others in your company interested and excited when they pop into the kitchen and see what you’re doing.

5. Misc: Volunteering Day

Remote Friendly? In person is best!

What is it?: Volunteering is an awesome triple-threat of a team activity, getting a team doing something physically together, getting out of the office, and doing something with a good social impact.

How to “play”: Volunteering as an activity can depend a bit on your company. Some companies offer volunteering leave, volunteering budget, or even organise the opportunities themselves.

If this is not available at your company, it’s a great opportunity to make a case for it.

This is highly preferred to spending your own leave and money to volunteer, as you can do that yourself outside of work time and to your own discretion.

Several organisations have corporate volunteering opportunities available (you can find some just by searching “corporate volunteering” on Google).

These often have a blanket cost of a few hundred, or cost-per-person, which is fair because one-off volunteers are rarely immediately useful, and often take up time from organisation employees, or even other volunteers.

A payment helps ensure the opportunity actually helps the organisation, and your company gets the benefit of being able to show they contribute.

Again, this activity is less remote-friendly (if you’re able to find remote volunteering opportunities I’d be very interested to hear about them!), and highly depends on your company, but is an amazing opportunity for all involved.

Why it’s a good pick: Team building, helping an awesome cause, and looks great on the resume.

More Game, Less Talk

I’ve been in companies and teams (and friend groups) that have had a much higher preference for games and less concerned with connection, and while I very much appreciate both, the above are very much leaning into the social aspect.

Below are a few examples that lean harder into the game category:

Reverse Charades - One person tells another how to position their body with only verbal instructions, and the person being positioned tries to guess who/what they are
Jackbox Games - A collection of digital minigames spread across several “party packs”. My favourites are “Champ'd Up”, “Mad Verse City”, and “Trivia Murder Party”
Gartic Phone - An online game of broken telephone, but instead of whispering to each other you alternate between drawing and describing. I’ve played a ridiculous amount of this.
Kaggle - Free online multiplayer trivia, can use premade question packs, or build your own
Amazing Race - High-effort, but can be lots of fun. Usually planned for several days before
Custom Game - I’m only putting this because I’m passionate about this at the moment. This involves building a game
Virtual Escape Room - To be honest, I know these exist but I’ve never done one before - I have my first coming up soon at time of writing