Free Team Building Activities

What type of free team building activities are you looking for? Do you want to improve your team members’ knowledge of each other? Do you want to increase the level of trust within your team? Would you like your team to engage in outdoor (or indoor) exercises for leadership development?

Rather than offering you specific activities (there are virtually hundreds of them), we offer you a few specialized organizations’ names, plus a small bibliography:

Organizations’ Names:

Association for Experiential Education (opens in a new window)

American Society for Training and Development (opens in a new window)

Organization Development Network (opens in a new window)

Bibliography: (in chronological order):

John W. Newstrom, “The Big Book of Team Building: Quick, Fun Activities for Building Morale, Communication and Team Spirit” (McGraw-Hill, New York, NY: 2008). Free team building activities

John N. Peragine, “365 Low or No Cost Workplace Teambuilding Activities: Games and Exercises Designed to Build Trust & Encourage Teamwork Among Employees” (Atlantic Publishing Group, Ocala, FL: 2007).

Mark Levin, “Team Building Made Easy! - Dozens of Simple Activities to Energize any Group” (Mind Stretch Publishing, Columbus, NC: 2007).

Brian C. Miller, ”More Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 New Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes” (Amacom, New York, NY: 2007).

Bradley J Sugars and Brad Sugars, “Instant Team Building – Instant Success” (McGraw-Hill, New York, NY: 2005).

Kris Bordessa, “Team Challenges: 170+ Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication, and Creativity” (Zephyr Press, Chicago, IL: 2005).

Brian C. Miller, ”Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes” (Amacom, New York, NY: 2004).

Alanna Jones, “More Team-Building Activities for Every Group” (Rec Room Publishing, Richland, WA: 2002).

Alanna Jones, “Team-Building Activities for Every Group” (Rec Room Publishing, Richland, WA: 2000).

Simon Priest and Karl Rohnke, “101 of the Best Corporate Team-Building Activities We Know” (Kendall-Hunt, Dubuque, IA: 2000).

Michael A. Gass, “Book of Metaphors” (Kendall / Hunt Publishing, Dubuque, IA: 1995). Free team building activities

Karl Rohnke, “Cowstails and Cobras II: A Guide to Games, Initiatives, Ropes Courses, & Adventure Curriculum” (Kendall-Hunt, Dubuque, IA: 1989).

Karl Rohnke, “Silver Bullets: A Guide to Initiative Problems, Adventure Games and Trust Activities” (Kendall-Hunt, Dubuque, IA: 1984).

Andrew Fluegelman (editor), “More New Games” (Doubleday, New York, NY: 1981).

Joel Goodman and Matt Weinstein, “Playfair” (Impact Publishers, San Luis Obispo, CA: 1980).

Andrew Fluegelman (editor), “The New Games Book” (Doubleday, New York, NY: 1976).

This should get you started in the right direction.

Once you get familiar with several free team building activities, you might find that it is relatively easy to find and even to design (if you have the time) the exact team building activities that fit your needs.

To keep on learning about other useful skills, go back to the previous page, or click here and continue reading.

To learn more about the skills you need to manage the performance of your direct reports, go to our Management Skills page.

To learn more about the skills you need to lead the performance of your entire organization, go to our Leadership Skills page.

If you would like to enhance the effectiveness of your organization’s teams through free team building activities using our speaking or consulting services, please click on this link.