The holidays are upon us, complete with office treats and parties. This time of year is also a great opportunity to build camaraderie with your co-workers, as well as build unity, strengthen morale, and decrease stress in the office.

Our friends at RefreshLeadership.com put together a list of four teamwork games to play at your next company holiday party, so take a look and tell us which one is your favorite in the comments below!

Office Celebrity
The game Celebrity is great for parties, but this play off of this classic is bound to break any barriers between coworkers and lead to knowing one another better. When workers know more about each other, they tend to work better together!

1. Break your office into two teams.
2. Write everyone’s name on separate pieces of paper and place them in a bowl.
3. Round One: The first team has one member get up and pull a name from the bowl. He or she tries to get their team to guess which worker it is by giving characteristics of that person. After the team guesses it, another name is chosen and so on until a minute has passed. After one minute, the second team picks one member to try and get their team to guess as many names as possible during a minute. This goes on, switching teams and rotating players until all of the names have been guessed. Replace all names back into the bowl. Keep a tally of how many names each team correctly guessed.
4. Round Two: Same as round one, but each moderator can only use ONE word to describe each name drawn.
5. Round Three: Same as the previous rounds, but each moderator can’t use words to describe drawn names, but instead must act them out. The team with the most correct names tallied after three rounds wins!

Two Truths, One Lie
Another great way to see how well everyone knows each other is by playing Two Truths, One Lie. This is a fun game that will help team members find out more about one another.

1. Have your team members bring chairs and sit in a circle.
2. Tell each person to think of two truths about themselves and one lie.
3. Have a starting person tell the three stories. It’s best to have the truths be something about them that no one else would know.
4. After the person says the two truths and lie to the group, have the rest of the team discuss and try and come to a consensus on which story is the lie.
5. Have the person reveal which is the lie, and then have the next person go.

Trivia
Trivia is one of the most simple to set up and most enjoyable. From history to current events to business questions, engaging in a simple game of trivia will sharpen minds and encourage teamwork and office competition.

1. Split your employees into teams of three to six people.
2. Choose three rounds of topics (i.e., World History, Art and Music, Movies, etc.).
3. Ask five questions involving the first topic. After each question, have a member of each team silently write down an answer on a piece of paper with their team name and turn it in to the trivia moderator.
4. After each round, give the answers to questions so the teams can keep a tally of how they’re doing.
5. After three rounds, the team with the most right answers wins. (You may need to have a “lightning round” for a tie breaker.)

Office Scavenger Hunt
One great way to loosen up a stiff work day is to have an office-wide scavenger hunt! Although you could just have a simple search-and-find checklist, this is a great opportunity to engage workers by simple problem solving.

1. Create an in-depth series of clues with each clue leading to a different one. (This works best in riddles, like “The best way to cure a case of Monday morning tiredness to get you ready for the day.” And then hide the next clue by your office coffee maker.)
2. Break your office into three to five teams, giving each one the first clue.
3. Set a time frame for the office to complete the scavenger hunt.
4. As each team finds the next clue by figuring out where the previous clue was directing them, encourage teams to involve each person during the problem solving process.

This is a competition after all, so offer a prize for the first team that finishes the hunt.

What teamwork games do you play at your holiday parties? Let us know in the comments section below!

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