How to Plan Games for a Work Retreat

If you're organizing a retreat for your employees, pack the trip with games that are not only fun, but also a great way to encourage teamwork and develop leadership and problem-solving skills. Consider these ideas to help the staff bond over the course of the memorable weekend.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Devise a "Who Am I?" game as an ice breaker to begin the weekend. Assign each person a role in the company, such as a mail clerk, receptionist or chief financial officer. Then, as staff members are mingling at a cocktail reception, for example, let them ask three questions about one another's duties and guess what the person's title is. If they guess correctly, they get to add the title to their list. Give a prize to the person who has the most job titles on their list when the session is over.

2. Invent role playing or storytelling games that will give introverted employees the chance to speak while playing a character. Ask small groups to act out humorous scenarios that will also showcase ways to deal with co-workers who like to gossip, shift blame, arrive late to work or slack on their share of project responsibilities, for example.

3. Create a "treasure hunt" with clues that only people from certain departments will understand. Divide the teams to give the staff from different sections the chance to work together and rely on one another.

4. Organize a silent auction with nothing but cryptic clues to describe the items (some desirable, like an afternoon off work, and others undesirable, like a pair of old socks). Have employees work in teams to figure out what the items are. Give each team a set amount of money to make bids and let them have the actual prizes they bid on.

5. Host an exercise to teach employees how to communicate clearly. Blindfold one member of the group with simple ingredients like slices of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly and a knife in front of him. Have another team member call out steps to create a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but instruct the blindfolded person to do exactly what he's told. If the "caller" just says, "Put the peanut butter on the bread," for example, have him simply place the jar on top of the bread.