Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Introduction
Welcome to “Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings,” your essential guide for infusing workplace gatherings with elements of wellness and enjoyment. We understand the challenges that come with creating a positive, engaging, and healthy office environment, so we’ve curated a comprehensive list of activities to improve the wellbeing of your staff while promoting team cohesion. These suggestions range from creative icebreakers and wellness challenge ideas to mindfulness exercises and physical activities. By incorporating these exercises into your regular meetings, you can drive personal connections, foster a supportive environment, emphasise wellness, and, most importantly, make meetings enjoyable.
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Icebreakers
Icebreaker activities are a fun way to get team members engaged and interacting at the start of a meeting. They help break the ice and allow colleagues to get to know each other better. Here are some fun icebreaker ideas to try:
Two Truths and a Lie
This classic icebreaker game is always a hit. Have each person share 3 statements about themselves, 2 of which are true and 1 that is a lie. The rest of the team has to guess which statement is the lie. This sparks conversation as team members explain the reasoning behind their guesses.
Bingo
Create bingo cards with facts or statements that may apply to team members (e.g. has run a marathon, plays an instrument, has visited Asia). Everyone mingles and finds people matching the facts on their card, filling it out like bingo. The first to complete their card wins! This activity encourages interactions between colleagues who may not know each other well.
Personal Scavenger Hunt
Give each person a list of fun facts or personal attributes to uncover about their team members. These could include favorite dessert, number of siblings, earliest childhood memory, etc. Set a time limit and have everyone mingle, using open ended questions to dig for the information on their lists. This activity helps colleagues make personal connections in a lighthearted way.
Starting meetings with quick icebreaker activities like these sets a fun, interactive tone. The whole team leaves feeling more connected, energised and engaged for the rest of the agenda items.
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Wellness Challenges
Wellness challenges are a great way to motivate employees to improve their health and wellbeing together as a team. Setting goals and tracking progress can inspire friendly competition and accountability. Consider setting up step challenges, hydration challenges, meditation challenges, or other activities tailored to your team’s interests.
Step Challenges
Step challenges encourage team members to increase their daily physical activity. Using fitness trackers or apps on their phones, employees can sync their step counts and compete on leaderboards to see who can get the most steps in over a set time period like a week or month. The friendly competition helps everyone move more. To keep things interesting, consider inter-department challenges or mixing up teams each week.
Hydration Challenges
Staying properly hydrated provides many health benefits, yet it’s common to forget to drink enough water during busy workdays. A hydration challenge gives employees a fun reminder to meet their fluid intake goals. Provide everyone with a large reusable water bottle to use at their desk. Hydration helps energy, focus and wellbeing.
Meditation Challenges
A team meditation challenge introduces the powerful practice of mindfulness, while helping manage stress. Using a meditation app, give colleagues guided meditations to do each day and log their minutes or sessions. Even 5-10 minutes per day can make a difference. Meditation benefits cognitive skills, emotional regulation, empathy and more. Turn mindfulness into a friendly competition and watch the positive impacts grow.
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Team Building Games
Team building games are a fun way to bring your team together, get everyone engaged and interacting, and build collaboration skills. Here are some popular team building game ideas to try at your next meeting:
Marshmallow Tower Challenge
The marshmallow tower challenge is a classic STEM activity that tests creativity and problem-solving. Split your team into small groups and give them equal piles of spaghetti sticks, tape, string, and marshmallows. Set a time limit and challenge them to build the tallest freestanding tower they can using just the supplies. The marshmallow needs to be on top. Tallest tower wins!
This activity encourages communication, planning, trial-and-error, and working together effectively. Make it more competitive by giving prizes to the winning team.
Egg Drop Challenge
The egg drop challenge involves building a structure to prevent an egg from cracking when dropped from a height. Give each team basic supplies like straws, tape, paper, balloons etc. Their goal is to build a container that protects the egg when dropped. Gather the team outside and test out their designs by dropping them from a high point. The team whose egg survives uncracked is the winner!
This activity requires creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork. It also provides a fun hands-on STEM challenge. Adjust the height and allowed materials to make it easier or harder.
Office Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts are a lively way to get people moving and interacting within your office space. Make a list of common office items, rare finds, or silly selfies/photos teams must “hunt” for. Split into teams and give them the list and a time limit. The team who finds the most items fastest wins!
Scavenger hunts encourage team bonding, communication, creativity, and friendly competition. Adjust the items list based on your office layout and what you want teams to discover. Consider including bonus challenges, puzzles, or clues to make the scavenger hunt more exciting.
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Mindfulness Activities
Mindfulness activities encourage employees to be fully present and aware. This can reduce stress, improve focus, and promote wellbeing. Consider setting aside 5-10 minutes during team meetings for a quick mindfulness practice. Here are some ideas:
Gratitude Practice
Have each person share:
- One thing that went well this week
- Something they feel grateful for today
Expressing gratitude boosts positivity, relationships, and mental health.
Loving-Kindness Meditation
Guide the team to send silent good wishes or extending love and good will to:
- Themselves
- Loved ones
- Colleagues
- Difficult people
- The wider world
This builds self-compassion, empathy, and connection. Conclude by wishing everyone peace.
Practicing mindfulness together can nourish qualities like patience, generosity, and focus. This leads to greater productivity, collaboration, and wellbeing.
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Creative Activities
Creative activities are a great way to energise your team, spark innovation, and bring people together through shared experiences. Consider incorporating some of these ideas into your next team meeting:
Collaborative Drawing
Give each person a section of a large sheet of paper and a marker. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes. Each person starts drawing something in their section, then passes the paper to the person on their left once the timer goes off. Everyone builds off the existing drawings until the paper makes its way around the full circle. The end result is a unique collective drawing filled with different styles and ideas. Laugh at the fun artwork you’ve all created together!
Haiku Poetry
Haikus originated in Japan and contain 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 structure. Challenge your team to come up with creative haikus about your workplace. Provide the first line like “We work at [company]” and have everyone complete their own haiku poem building off that starting point. Share your poems and vote on favorites.
Improvisation Games
Improv exercises emphasise spontaneity, storytelling, and teamwork. Try a game like “Yes, and…” where people build a story by only answering questions with “Yes, and…”. Or do “Story, Story, Die” where each person says one word of a story in order around a circle, with the word “die” ending a scene. Improv is a fun way to get people thinking on their feet and supporting each other.
Creative activities energise teams through art, writing, and performance. Encourage imagination and you’ll likely get memorable results.
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Physical Activities
Getting your team moving and being active together during meetings can be a fun way to boost energy levels, engage people, and promote wellbeing. Consider incorporating some of these physical activities into your next team meeting:
Desk or Chair Yoga
Simple desk yoga exercises done together as a group help release tension and stiffness from sitting all day. Lead your team through gentle seated twists, overhead reaches, forward folds, or other basic yoga moves right at their desks. Even just 5 minutes of gentle desk yoga can re-energise everyone.
Stretch Breaks
Schedule short 2-3 minute stretch breaks during longer meetings or sessions. Have everyone stand up and do some shoulder rolls, neck stretches, hip openers, or other simple movements to get blood flowing. Stretches that specifically target parts of the body that get tight from computer work are ideal.
Walking Meetings
When possible, take your meetings on the go and make them walking meetings! Heading outside for a walk while talking helps clear minds, gives people a chance to move, and facilitates creative thinking. Let people take turns leading the group on different walking routes around your office or nearby park.
Getting active together doesn’t have to be complicated. Simple 5-10 minute bursts of yoga, stretches, or outdoor walks give your team a mental and physical reset button during meetings. Experiment to see which physical activities work best for your group!
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Fun Competitions
Competitions are a great way to energise your team and bring out their competitive spirit in a fun way. Here are some ideas for friendly competitions you can organise during team meetings:
Trivia
Trivia contests allow team members to show off their knowledge about various topics. You can find ready-made trivia games online or come up with your own custom trivia questions tailored to your team’s interests. Keep score and award small prizes to the winners.
To add some activity, have team members move around the room to different “stations” for each trivia category.
Some trivia ideas:
- Pop culture trivia
- Trivia about your industry
- Trivia on your company history
Talent Shows
Give your team a chance to showcase their special talents by organising a miniature talent show! It could be singing, dancing, playing an instrument, stand-up comedy, or any other performance.
Make participation optional but encourage everyone to watch and cheer on their colleagues. Award silly prizes for categories like “Most Unique Talent” or “Best Costume.”
Talent shows help your team bond and get to know each other better in a fun way. They reveal hidden talents and give employees a chance to shine.
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Healthy Snack Breaks
Taking a break for a healthy snack is a great way to boost energy and morale during team meetings. Bringing in nutritious snacks shows that you care about your team’s wellbeing. Consider the following ideas:
- Bring healthy snacks to share: Prepare a platter of cut up fruits and vegetables, hummus, whole grain crackers, nuts, or other energising snacks. Ask team members to contribute their favorite healthy treats. Having a variety makes it more interesting.
- Smoothie breaks: Get a blender and have ingredients on hand for making smoothies. Let team members customise their own with fruits, yogurt, milk, protein powder, etc. Smoothies make for a filling and fun snack.
- Fruit tasting: Bring an assortment of interesting fruits for people to sample. Some ideas are starfruit, guava, lychee, pineapple, or mango. Talk about the unique flavors and health benefits while enjoying the tasting experience together.
The snack break is not only nourishing, but gives people a chance to step away from their desks, stretch their legs, socialise, and refocus before diving back into the meeting. Just be sure to provide napkins and cleaning supplies to keep the office tidy!
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Reflection Activities
Reflection activities encourage team members to share thoughts and feelings, promoting open communication, connection, and positivity. Consider setting aside 5-10 minutes at the end of meetings for a quick reflection round.
Highs and Lows
Have each person share a “high” (something good that happened recently) and a “low” (a challenge or difficulty). Listen without judgement and offer encouragement. This allows people to celebrate wins and vent frustrations.
Rose, Bud, Thorn
Ask team members to identify a “rose” (something they enjoyed), a “bud” (something they look forward to), and a “thorn” (an obstacle). This helps people express appreciation as well as concerns.
Plus/Delta
Invite everyone to share one thing that went well (“plus”) and one thing that could be improved (“delta”). This provides constructive feedback and sparks ideas for positive change. Consider recording the input and reviewing frequently.
Reflection rounds promote self-awareness, empathy, optimism, and transparency. Make them a regular ritual to foster workplace wellbeing.
Fun Wellbeing Activities for Team Meetings: Conclusion
In conclusion, fostering wellbeing at the workplace shouldn’t be a chore or an afterthought; rather, it should become part of the fabric of your office culture. By implementing the activities we’ve recommended in your team meetings, you’ll not only be promoting physical health and mental wellbeing, but also strengthening team connections and enhancing morale. Integrating these fun wellness activities into your meetings can be an instrumental step towards generating a more positive, healthier and cooperative work environment. Remember, the road to office wellness starts with simple, actionable steps that create a sense of camaraderie and shared goals. Start today to see the transformation in your office’s wellness culture. We wish you the best as you apply these strategies and build a happier, healthier workplace environment.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is intended for general knowledge and educational purposes only. It should not be construed as professional health, legal, or business advice. Readers should always consult with appropriate health professionals, human resource experts, or legal advisors for specific concerns related to mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information at the time of publication, Wellbeing In Your Office cannot be held responsible for any subsequent changes, updates, or revisions of the aforementioned content.