5 Corporate Team Building Activities Ideas for Introverted Employees

Want to bring out the best in your introverted employees? Try these 5 corporate team building activities ideas with them in mind.

Are you a manager who is always looking for new ways to bring your employees together? Do you see the value in team building but don’t always think the exercises work for some of your more shy workers? Do you want to see all of your employees interacting and building bonds with one another?

Any great company knows that it takes a diverse workforce to make things happen — and that means employees need to learn to collaborate and support one another via fun team bonding ideas. But team building activities for the workplace often alienate more introverted employees. If you’re ready to include them in a way that will make them feel included and comfortable, read on to get our five top tips for team-building event ideas your introverted employees will actually do:

1. Obstacle Course

Outdoor obstacle courses are great interactive corporate team-building activities ideas that both build camaraderie and let introverts work as individuals at their own pace. They don’t have to talk very much — and they can work their way through the obstacle course with their own thoughts and a little help from their teammates.

2. Reflective Activities

Having your team work on reflective activities in which they have to read a story or watch a video and then write a response is a nice way to cap a day of team-building activities. But why not jumpstart the day with a reflective, mindful activity? This is the sweet spot and the comfort zone for introverts and could help them ease into a day of hyperactivity and talking about team-building concepts. When introverts feel comfortable, they open up. So try to incorporate mindfulness and reflection into your team-building day.

3. Venture Into the Escape Room

Escape Room games are a great way to involve the entire team — but the key to getting introverts participating is to keep the group small and with colleagues, they feel comfortable with. So this adventure escape game may be a corporate team-building activity you introduce later down the line with a close-knit group of employees who know each other rather than an activity you introduce at orientation.

In an escape room, there are clues scattered about, and the team must work together to put the clues together and actually escape the room! Perhaps give some of the more vocal people in the group a talk before going in and ask them to reach out to more introverted members to individually ask them their opinions on the clues while you are all in the escape room.

4. Make Time for Lunch

Even lunch can be a team-building exercise for your employees — and should become a regular part of the day. Assign employees lunch “teams” and send them to different parts of the city with gift cards. You can do this once a month to give small groups of people the opportunity to share a meal and learn something new about their fellow workers. This leads to increased productivity and creativity because employees begin to learn from one another and truly believe every person has something to offer the team.

5. Slow Dating

The speed dating concept is a frenzied activity designed to get you to meet as many people as possible and learn something about them. But turn this fun activity on its head and you get slow dating for introverts. Create a small group of employees who sit in a circle instead of lines across from one another. Present the first person in the group with a blank booklet and a pen. The first person writes a question on a random page of the blank booklet and then passes it to the next person in the circle, who answers it and writes another random question before passing it along through the circle. At the close of the circle, the last person reads the questions and answers and everyone guesses whose answer it is.