17 Best Team Building Activities That Work

The phrase team building has long suffered from unfortunate associations: name tags, awkward icebreakers, and the faint, collective sense that one would rather be anywhere else. Yet, when done well—when elevated beyond laminated worksheets and forced laughter—it becomes something altogether different. True team building, like good design or good wine, is about chemistry. It transforms a group of colleagues into a company of friends.

The best team building activities do not shout “bonding exercise.” They whisper it, elegantly. They draw people in through play, conversation, or shared discovery, until suddenly everyone realises they’re enjoying themselves. Properly chosen, these activities restore the simple pleasure of human connection—the currency on which every good team runs.

Here, then, are seventeen of the best team building activities that actually work. Some are energetic, some contemplative, some delightfully offbeat. All, however, have one thing in common: they make people feel human again.

1. Sixes Social Cricket

It begins, as great evenings often do, with a bat, a ball, and a cocktail. Sixes Social Cricket has turned the genteel sport of cricket into a quietly thrilling form of social theatre. The concept is disarmingly simple: step into a sleek batting net, face virtual bowlers projected with uncanny realism, and take your best swing. The result is a heady mix of adrenaline and amusement.

Colleagues cheer one another on. The CEO misses a shot and laughs. Someone from accounts, usually quite reserved, reveals an unexpected competitive streak. There are plates of impeccably cooked food, crafted drinks, and that rarest of sensations: genuine fun without embarrassment.

Sixes is not merely a game—it’s a social leveller. Hierarchies dissolve, camaraderie blossoms, and for an evening, the office becomes a team again. If you seek the gold standard of team building activities, start here. Everything else is commentary.

2. A Private Cookery Class

There is something quietly noble about cooking together. A private culinary session—led, ideally, by a chef who values provenance over pretence—draws people into rhythm and collaboration. Measuring, chopping, tasting; it’s teamwork made tangible.

It encourages natural conversation, builds trust, and rewards patience with immediate pleasure. Choose cuisines that allow everyone a role: Italian, Middle Eastern, or modern British, perhaps. The end result is not just a meal, but a shared creation—proof that harmony can be delicious.

3. The Escape Room (Reimagined)

Much maligned, often misused, yet when done properly, an escape room can still astonish. The secret lies in design. Avoid the cheaply themed, dimly lit variety and seek out those that blend narrative with intellect. A well-crafted puzzle suite becomes a microcosm of leadership and collaboration.

People reveal themselves under pressure: the quiet thinker who decodes clues, the manager who learns to listen, the joker who keeps spirits high. Fifteen minutes in, everyone has forgotten they are colleagues. They’re a team.

4. Art in the Afternoon

Book a private gallery tour—Tate Britain, perhaps, or a smaller contemporary space—and follow it with a guided workshop led by a practising artist. The act of creating, particularly for those unaccustomed to it, strips away self-consciousness.

Paint, sculpt, or collage; it scarcely matters. What matters is the process: ideas exchanged, laughter shared, boundaries lowered. Art reminds us that creativity isn’t confined to the marketing department. It lives in everyone, waiting for permission to emerge.

5. The Great London Treasure Hunt

A city is never more alive than when you are slightly lost within it. Commission a bespoke treasure hunt that leads teams through hidden streets, secret gardens, and forgotten corners of the capital. Include clues that demand both observation and wit.

It’s astonishing how swiftly professional personas fade when faced with a cryptic riddle in St James’s Park. The shared discovery of a hidden courtyard or an obscure pub becomes a story retold at Monday’s meeting, proof that adventure still exists—sometimes a few streets from the office.

6. The Wine Tasting (with a Twist)

Forget the stuffy image of wine tastings as exercises in vocabulary. The best versions are sensorial adventures. Choose a sommelier who values storytelling as much as tannins.

Blind tastings encourage teamwork: guess the grape, region, and year together. Add small prizes for accuracy and let conversation flow. Good wine, after all, is less about hierarchy than harmony. And nothing bonds a team quite like discovering they all prefer the same Syrah.

7. Clay Shooting in the Countryside

There is a certain poetry in the crisp crack of a shotgun across open fields. Clay shooting—when guided by experienced instructors—combines focus, coordination, and composure. It appeals to the inner strategist, the competitor, and the aesthete.

Add a countryside lunch, perhaps in a Georgian inn with decent claret, and the day becomes an education in grace under pressure. For urban teams, it’s both escape and refreshment: precision disguised as play.

8. Charity Day with Purpose

The noblest team building activities give back. Partner with a local charity or community project for a day that replaces PowerPoint with purpose. Paint a community hall, plant a garden, mentor students.

The benefit is twofold: the team feels useful, and the company acquires soul. It also provides that rarest of outcomes—an event that feels genuinely meaningful rather than merely well organised.

9. Cocktail Creation Evening

There’s a reason bartenders are such good conversationalists. A cocktail class invites experimentation, mischief, and craftsmanship. Under the tutelage of a skilled mixologist, colleagues learn balance—of flavours, yes, but also of personalities.

Watching someone from HR shake a martini with unexpected flair is oddly satisfying. And when the evening ends with everyone sipping their own invention, one suspects that harmony has been achieved, at least until morning.

10. The Outdoor Adventure Day

Not the corporate assault course variety, but something more considered: paddleboarding on the Thames, hiking the Chilterns, or sailing on the Solent. The outdoors has a way of humbling the ego and elevating perspective.

Shared exertion builds quiet respect. A touch of fresh air and mild peril can achieve what a dozen meetings never could: trust born of mutual effort.

11. The Literary Salon

One for the intellectually inclined. Select a short story or essay—something with texture, perhaps Zadie Smith or Julian Barnes—and invite the team to a salon-style discussion over wine and supper.

Conversation ranges from the text to life itself, and suddenly colleagues who rarely speak beyond project updates are debating character, motive, and meaning. It’s civilised, illuminating, and far more revealing than small talk.

12. The Cook-Off Challenge

Divide into teams, assign mystery ingredients, and set the timer. The results are invariably chaotic, often hilarious, occasionally inspired. It’s a culinary competition as comedy, a gentle reminder that improvisation is a life skill.

Reward ingenuity, applaud failures, and dine together on the outcome. There’s something rather beautiful about a room full of professionals reduced to joyful amateurs.

13. The Whisky Masterclass

For those who appreciate craftsmanship, whisky offers a masterclass in patience. A guided tasting led by a connoisseur reveals more than notes of oak and smoke—it reveals history, geography, and ritual.

It invites conversation about process, time, and the art of doing one thing perfectly. Which, come to think of it, is what teamwork aspires to as well.

14. Improv Theatre Workshop

Few activities dismantle inhibitions faster. Under the guidance of a theatre professional, colleagues learn to listen, react, and adapt. Improvisation is not about performance; it’s about trust.

The laughter is abundant, but so too are the insights. Quick thinking, empathy, and timing—skills as vital to comedy as they are to business. And there’s something deliciously humbling about watching one’s boss mime an invisible umbrella.

15. Garden Design Challenge

Commission a horticulturalist to guide the team in designing and planting a small garden—perhaps a courtyard or community space. It’s tactile, creative, and strangely meditative.

As soil meets skin, conversation flows differently. The act of creation feels grounding, quite literally. And at the end, something living remains—a metaphor that requires no explanation.

16. Museum at Night

Arrange a private after-hours tour of a major museum. Without the crowds, art and history become intimate companions. Guides can weave stories through the galleries, linking artefacts to ideas of innovation and collaboration.

Afterwards, gather for drinks among the marble statues. There’s something quietly intoxicating about seeing the British Museum or the V&A transformed into your private salon. Culture always sharpens the collective mind.

17. The Culinary Journey Dinner

End the list as one should end a good evening: with dinner. But not any dinner. Commission a chef to create a tasting menu that moves through flavours and continents, each course paired with a brief story or memory.

Between courses, teams discuss what they taste, guess ingredients, and share impressions. It’s refined, immersive, and oddly bonding. The table, after all, remains the oldest and best form of social technology.

The Essence of Good Team Building

Across these experiences, a common thread emerges: the best team building activities do not impose togetherness. They invite it. They rely on charm, atmosphere, and the delicate art of timing. They are structured enough to give shape, yet free enough to allow discovery.

In every great company, the most valuable asset is invisible. It is trust—the unspoken sense that one’s colleagues are allies rather than obstacles. Good team building nurtures that trust without ever mentioning it aloud. It reminds people that they belong to something larger than themselves.

It need not involve danger, humiliation, or synthetic enthusiasm. Indeed, the most successful activities are those that feel like a privilege rather than a punishment. They carry a touch of indulgence, a hint of craftsmanship, an echo of genuine care.

Why It Matters

In an age of screens and deadlines, we forget how to look each other in the eye. The office becomes transactional; communication turns digital. Team building, properly reimagined, restores the human element.

It’s the glass raised at Sixes after a perfect shot. It’s the shared laughter over a failed soufflé. It’s the moment in an art studio when someone realises they can still draw. These fragments of connection are the architecture of culture—the difference between a company that functions and one that thrives.

And that is why, when planning your next offsite or celebration, you would do well to start where play meets craftsmanship, where laughter meets taste, where the evening unfolds not as an obligation but as an experience.

Start, in short, at Sixes.