Team building activities are known for how they can improve the culture of an office or business. It leads to more cooperation, higher morale and increased productivity. Employees have an opportunity to bond with their fellow coworkers and feel like part of a family and not just an employee

Yet, many companies drop the ball when it comes to some of their team-building efforts. And when these activities don’t work, they have an opposite effect on morale and productivity.

Instead of picnics and trust falls, think outside the box and try some unique and fun activities that the staff will love. These days, if you want to motivate younger employees then try some of the ideas on this list below.

1 – Scavenger hunt

 Scavenger hunts have long been around but are taking on a new life as a team-building activity. A team-building scavenger hunt can not only foster cooperation amongst team members, it also ups the ante by adding some competition between the different teams.

One important thing to do, however, is to make sure you divide up the different departments to different teams. If you pit one department against another, then you may end up creating silos in your business and hurt interdepartmental cooperation in the long run.

2 – Plane crash

As a team-building activity to encourage creativity when problem-solving, “plane crash” is an interesting way to do it. And each time only takes 30 minutes or so and relies on collaboration.

The premise is that your team’s plane has crashed on a desert island. The team can take 12 items from around the office to help them survive and be rescued. It’s up to each person to convince the rest of the team why they think that item they pick should be included.

Communication and consensus are required for them to get through the tragedy.

3 – Paper plane contest

On the same plane theme, there is the paper plane contest. Each team can choose from a variety of available plane designs and then try to fly their plane further than the competing teams.

It is good since it doesn’t require going far from the office as it can be played indoors too.  Like the “plane crash” game, it relies on consensus. The members have to agree on the design with each member arguing on behalf of one design over another until they decide on one to make.

4 – Conference call trivia

Remote workers also need some team bonding activities. These days with more and more remote working employees, it pays to try to get them to feel part of the team.

You can have some trivia games while on a conference call by dividing people into teams and competing. It will help to get a sense of people’s personalities that seem to only exist as a screen name on your Slack team.

When remote workers feel part of the team, they are less likely to leave the company for greener pastures later on.