Did you know that colleagues who spend regular time outside of work significantly improve their team productivity and effectiveness? While on-the-job collaboration boosts camaraderie, fun and lighthearted team activities provide valuable opportunities for everyone to get to know each other better, break communication barriers, and build trust. This naturally translates into much better working relationships and stronger team output!
If you’re looking for unique ways to bring your coworkers together this summer, group games may be just the solution you need. Keep reading the article for 20 of our liveliest summer team-building activities to keep spirits high throughout the next few months!
But before you do, check out this post if you need ideas to focus your team-building efforts in specific areas (like wellness and well-being).
10 In-Person Summer Team-Building Activities
With pandemic restrictions slowly ebbing, meeting and having fun with your coworkers in person is much easier. Check out 10 of our favorite summer office games and activities for teams working in-house. Note that most of these ideas can still work great even if your team is remote!
1. Hot Sauce Making Class
This summer group activity will immerse your team in a world of flavors and spices like they’ve never experienced before. Participants will create hot sauces, taste for flavor and heat, and deliver a final vote for the “tearless hot sauce champ” of the class! They will enjoy connecting and walk away with a few new sauce-making skills to impress future party guests.
2. Pizza Making Workshop
Who knew pizza-making could be a five-star summer team-building idea?
Guided by a master pizza chef, your team members will understand the basics of crafting an authentic Italian pizza by the end of this event. Host this get-together at the office or online – it’s entirely up to you.
3. Bubble Tea Making and Tasting
While grabbing bubble tea with friends is a classic summer group activity, it’s also fun to make it from scratch! Participants will cook up tapioca pearls, create recipes, and learn some Taiwan boba fun facts and history. This activity is a great way to enjoy a cool beverage together as a team while honoring another culture.
4. Mafia Mystery Night
Designed for adults, this summer group activity will captivate your team in intrigue, suspicion, and wit – all in an imaginary town setting. Some participants will play innocent and respectable town members, while others will act as shady mafia members. The innocent town members must uncover, identify, and vote out the imposters. But clever disguises and psychological tricks will make the task much more challenging than the innocents expect! The town members will need to work together to solve the mystery.
5. Corporate Survivor
If you’d like an outdoor summer game for large groups, look no further than Corporate Survivor. Participants must split into two or more “tribes” trapped on a deserted island. Each tribe must collect points and advantages as the game plays out to survive. However, it’s not as simple as just gathering points. There are twists and turns requiring participants to outwit, outplay and outlast others. Which team will combine their strengths and overcome their weaknesses most effectively?
6. The Big Picture: Collaborate to Create a Giant Masterpiece
This summer team activity will challenge your employees to unleash their artistic creativity while working in small teams. That’s not as easy as it sounds! Participants will feel tempted to do their own thing, but they’ll soon discover that the only way to complete a masterpiece out of one giant blank canvas successfully is to cooperate. This activity won’t be a cakewalk, but it will be well worth it!
7. Golf Simulator Event with a PGA Pro
Another fun team-building game for summer, Golf Simulator provides a unique opportunity for participants to improve their golf skills while trying something new and challenging together.
Guided by a real gold pro, your team will enjoy mini drop-by swinging lessons or more structured competitions – whatever they prefer. Enjoy this activity if you have enough space in your office, or take it outdoors!
8. Aromatherapy Blend Bar
Could your team use a wellness boost this summer? Aromatherapy might just be the refresher everyone needs. During this activity, participants will explore the holistic benefits and uses of aromatherapy to reduce stress and increase energy levels. They’ll also have an opportunity to create their own special, unique blends for use at home or at the office.
9. Volunteering Day
Research shows that many employees enjoy volunteering and wish they had more opportunities to do so at work! If you’re looking for an evergreen summer group activity idea, volunteering is the way to go. Tap into your team’s spirit of generosity and sense of social responsibility by organizing a charity day. For example, your team could pick up trash at a city park or serve at a soup kitchen.
If you want to learn how to plan and launch a well-organized corporate volunteering program, check out this post!
10. Company Picnic
Nothing beats a picnic during the hottest summer months (often June, July and August). This team-building activity is a simple yet effective way for teams to have fun, relax and enjoy some good food and music outdoors. This article will walk you through more than 30 ideas to help you plan the perfect picnic, no matter your budget.
10 Virtual Summer Team-Building Activities
Even if your team is remote, there are still many fun ways to enhance engagement, communication, relationships, and collaboration! Below are 10 of our favorite summer group ideas for virtual teams.
1. Creating Healthy Habits in 2022
One of the best ways to show your team care is to invest in their health. Hosted by an award-winning holistic nutritionist, this summer activity will treat your team to a fantastic cooking class where they’ll learn to create dynamic dishes using everyday staples. But that’s not all! They’ll also walk away with a treasure trove of tips for making everyday eating healthy, delicious, and accessible.
2. Get Moving Team Challenge
This two-week challenge is the perfect idea for summer team-building themed around wellness. Get your coworkers to commit to daily exercise by setting and smashing personal movement goals. They’ll have access to online workout videos and receive daily emails and other internal communication to keep them motivated during the challenge. The Get Moving Team Challenge package also comes with the tools everyone needs to communicate and keep track of each other’s progress.
3. Lemongrass Chicken Satay Wraps
Introduce your team to a new cooking style with a classic Chinese dish loaded with tart-hot Southeast Asian flavors. The Lemongrass Chicken Satay Wraps class will teach your team the basics of Asian flavors, using a wok or frying pan, techniques for sautéing, marinating, and more. A real chef will host the class from a professional studio – because your team deserves the best!
4. Kits for a Cause
If your team cannot volunteer in person, Kits for a Cause may be the perfect summer group activity to make a difference in the community together! The hosts of this event will match your group with a local charity that needs support and create a customized itinerary. Your team will get to speak to the selected charity, learn about the challenges they face, and ask questions about the cause. Then they’ll pack custom kits full of items their chosen charity needs most.
5. Chunky Blanket Making Class
Some people say that knitting is just as relaxing as meditation or yoga. The best part is making something creative and practical at the same time! This is a super fun summer team-building activity hosted by a professional instructor who will take your team through all the steps of knitting a chunky blanket from start to finish. By the end of the class, your team will have enjoyed a relaxing time together and have their very own hand-made blanket to snuggle during the colder months!
6. Paint Nite
Paint Nite is another fun virtual summer team activity to help your coworkers relax while exploring their creative side.
The activity host will guide your team to create their own versions of a featured image with no previous experience. Prior participants described this class as super easy, fun, and relaxing.
7. Mindfulness with Mandala
This hypnotic and soothing activity will help your employees relax by creating mandala art. The host will provide step-by-step instructions so each team member can follow and create their own work of art while socializing. And with the premium package, there’s no need for anyone to bring anything – except maybe their favorite drink.
8. Magic of the Mind
Treat your team to a Magic of the Mind session, an interactive, fast-paced mentalism show hosted by a professional performer. What can your employees expect? Nothing short of an epic combination of misdirection, theatrical trickery, and illusions to keep them on their toes! Your team will leave the show mindblown and talk about the experience for ages to come – we promise you.
9. Team “Fortune Telling” Oracle Readings
This one-of-a-kind summer group activity for adults will deliver an engaging, interactive oracle card reading experience via zoom. Your team members will each receive an Oracle card, and the host will teach them how to interpret the meanings behind the symbols. By the time the session is over, your employees will know how to solve tricky problems, strengthen their intuition and tell each other’s fortune with a deck of Oracle cards.
10. Live at the Hive
We all love nature, but how many of us really understand how the creatures around us live? This summer team-building idea will teach your team about the secret life of some of nature’s greatest wonders – bees! Live at the Hive is a fun group summer activity where your coworkers will join expert beekeepers for a virtual tour. Participants will get to observe the inner workings of a beehive and ask questions. After this experience, your team will never look at bees, flowers, and honey the same way again!
Treat Your Team this Summer
Remember: laughing and having fun together will boost morale and engagement better than any boring professional development seminar ever will! There is no sweeter way to engage your team this summer than through group games and activities designed to help everyone communicate and collaborate more effectively.
Try our favorite team activities this summer, and let us know how you liked them by leaving a review!
