Improv games for team building: 10 virtual and in-office activities

Do you want to encourage your team to be spontaneous, creative, and confident? 

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Improv games are the way to go. 

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Improv, short for improvisation, is the art of creating spontaneous performances without a script based on an audience prompt. It’s used in theater and comedy–but it can add a huge amount to your team building strategy too.

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If you’re spending most of your time on virtual team building activities or short and free activities, improv fosters a different sense of openness.

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Try out some of these theater and improv games to build trust in your team.

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6 virtual improv team building activities

Improv games can take your remote team to the next level. 

• They require collaboration and communication. 
• They make everyone just more vulnerable because of the lack of preparation and the need to think on your feet.

They can increase team cohesion by making your team feel more connected.

Try these exercises:

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1. Gomada’s “Random Fairytales.” Combine creativity and hilarity in one by writing a short fairy tale–with a twist. Your team will come up with sentences, draw the prompts, then guess what the original sentence was. 
2. Scott Topper's Improv Fun games. There is no better way to do improv team building than with an emmy tv host Scott Topper. By the end of Scott’s improv session, participants will be able to adopt new skills and techniques for being more agile, increase confidence when thrown curveballs, and improve upon demo, presentation, and listening skills.
3. "Yes, And." Collaborate with your team by building on each other’s ideas. One person kicks off the game with a simple statement, and the next person has to add to it after saying, “Yes, and.” You can do this on a Zoom call or–for maximum fun–write it up in a group chat.
4. Rhymes. Who doesn’t love a good rhyme? The rule is simple: Every sentence has to rhyme with the previous one while still making a coherent story. If someone messes up, the next person has to take over.
5. One word at a time. Writing a story as a team isn’t easy, so why not make it harder by writing only one word at a time? This one works best in a Google Doc or a similar tool, where everyone can edit and view the same screen simultaneously.
6. Act as a character. If you’re a large team, break out into rooms and design one character as a group in each room. The more bizarre and absurd your character is, the better! Then mix up the breakout rooms so they’re a mix of random characters, and watch them interact–while acting those out–with each other. The goal is to guess the characters at the end. 

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Virtual improv games lend themselves to every medium. You can video, chat, or other collaboration tools to make the game convenient. It’s always good to assign a turn to everyone on the team to make it easy to keep track of who should go next. 

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Not satisfied? Check out some of these team building activities for work for more inspiration.

5 improv games in-person

Improv games are an even better tool in-person. Whether you’re working in an office or if your remote team is together at a retreat, you can experiment with these options: 

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1. Take an improv class. Acting builds confidence. It improves the ability to take risks and public speaking and active listening skills–which are important to develop in a team. A class is a great choice if no one in your team has done improv before or if people are hesitant.
2. Play Alphabet in a circle. Everyone stands in a circle. Each person has to say a statement, starting with the letters of the alphabet in the right order. Doing it in a conversation style is the hardest–and funniest–part. This is a great option for both small and large groups. 
3. "Zip, Zap, Zop." This is a fast-paced game that encourages quick thinking and teamwork. Players stand in a circle and take turns saying "zip," "zap," or "zop," while making eye contact with another player. If someone makes a mistake or hesitates, they are out–until there’s a winner. Pair this with some kind of prize for maximum fun. It works for both small and large teams. 
4. “Sell it to me.” If you have a smaller team, look around your office and ask everyone to pick up an object in 10 seconds. Then they have to develop a short and quick sales pitch for that object. 
5. “Scenes from a…”. Everyone in the team writes prompts following a theme like “scenes from a cafe.” The prompts are mixed up. People get split up into pairs, and the pairs have to act out the scene while the audience tries to guess what the scene is. This game is great for large groups. 

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Looking for more? Check out these unusual team building activities. 

Improv in the right context

Improv is great for some teams but not great for others. Because it forces someone in the spotlight and often requires some performance, it can be an introvert’s worst nightmare. 

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Team building only works when you pick activities that everyone can enjoy. Read the room. If you have people who don’t want to participate, the better alternative is to pick something else. 

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Want to find out more about building an amazing team?

• Check the top employee engagement platforms.
• Understand different engagement apps and solutions.
• Keep up to date with the latest engagement stats.