DIY Team Building Activities You Can Facilitate

DIY Corporate Team Building Activities: Do-It-Yourself Books from Corporate Games

FROM OUR EXPERTS…

In addition to the three user-friendly manuals listed at the end of this page, Corporate Games can package a few of its events for you to facilitate yourself. The price for these is less than having us come and facilitate these corporate team building activities. They are not inexpensive, however, because these are not boxed games that are pulled from a shelf. They have to be prepared individually for the number of participants that you have. The Puzzling Team Challenge, for example, is a totally customized event that no one else could use.

Here are the titles available for doing it yourself…

Mousetrap Car Grand Prix

This is a fun, spirited design competition and race that will have everyone cheering. Each Mousetrap car is built from balsa wood, plastic “CD’s” for wheels, metal rods for axles and construction paper for the body. The spring of a mouse trap provides the main power for the car, though we also provide other materials to make key racing modifications. Teams have time to build, experiment and make modifications to enhance speed and distance—before competing in very spirited races. This team building game offers great flexibility in terms of space requirements, venue and time frame so it can be done virtually anywhere – in time frames ranging from 90 minutes to 3 hours.

Towering Objectives

A fabulous group problem solving game that was designed to accommodate meetings that had only 60-90 minutes for an effective team building/experiential learning event. The activity challenges teams of 8 people to design and construct a tower out of cards and tape– that will hold the weight of up to 40 oz. of water resting on top of it. There are many pieces of information and specifications that need to be communicated and translated into tangible product. A debriefing session really helps crystallize the importance of the business skills that are being utilized.

The Puzzling Team Challenge

Each team of 10-12 people has a 63 to 100 piece jigsaw puzzle that they must try to complete– before any other team completes theirs. Another goal for each team is to “find the hidden message” on the back of their completed puzzle. There are a couple of factors that make this seemingly easy task more difficult, and force them to really organize and communicate. The factors in this team bonding game include:

The puzzle pieces they start with come from all the other puzzles as well as their own.

All teams will be told to get up and shift tables at two different times during the exercise– so each team is working on a different puzzle, and has “inherited” someone else’s “problem.” (In real life, we all are required to drop what we’re doing and “shift gears” at some point. This is a test of how the teams handle this.)

The “hidden message” is on the back of each puzzle, and actually, it is one big message, that can only be read when all teams have flipped over their finished puzzles and placed them side by side (the proverbial “Big Picture”). There is a full debriefing on the meaning of the activity.

Lost at Sea

This activity was designed to support the Time Management section of Stephen Covey’s book, “Seven Principles of Highly Effective People.” In this activity, teams are each on a “life raft” and leaving a “sinking ship.” They must decide what to take (there is a weight limit) and what to do during their first day adrift at sea. The day, of course, is riddled with events and crises. The team that is most effective at planning and working together can avoid “crisis management” and is “saved” first.

These events and corporate team building activities include all materials necessary and complete written instructions for each team, a facilitator’s guide, which includes room set-up information and debriefing questions.

Call for pricing, which depends upon the number of teams.

Three manuals for those on a budget or who want to “do it yourself”:

• GREAT GAMES FOR COMPANY PICNICS
• ICE BREAKERS FOR BUSINESS MEEETINGS (3rd Edition)
• EASY AND EFFECTIVE TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES (3rd Edition)

These provide easy to follow, step-by-step explanations of corporate team building activities we have designed for your use. Though a few have similarities to what is listed on our website, these are NOT the same events that are described on our web pages. They are much easier to set-up and facilitate; they don’t require a lot of equipment or materials.

Each manual has an introduction and a “tips” section to help ensure success. Additionally, we provide phone support for all these books. If you have any questions, just call us.

The Picnic Games manual provides an assortment of 12 games that will suit a wide range of group profiles-from the very physically fit to the couch potato. Most of the activities are physical but non athletic in nature. They all require teamwork and are not your typical picnic games.

The Ice Breaker manual offers a list of 17 different ice breakers that encourage mingling and an easy way for people to get to know more about each other. Both this manual and the team building manual include materials that you can copy right from the binder, as well as a diskette for customizing the instructions to your own company. The diskette is for use with Microsoft Publisher (not included).

The Team Building manual provides a range of activities that require communication and group problem solving, thereby asking your team to use the skills that are needed to be a successful team at work. The corporate team building activities designed for this manual are suitable for everyone; they do not rely at all on physical agility. They all provide a fun, entertaining way to practice teamwork. As with the Ice Breaker manual, a diskette is included for you to customize the instruction sheets if you wish.

Note: For more detailed descriptions of any of these manuals, please send an email to with your request for more information. Make sure to indicate which manual you are interested in.

COST: Each manual is $75.00. The price includes ground shipping within the U.S.

Three Ways to Order:

1) You can email your order to

Easy & Effective Team Building – Hard Copy Binder – $75

Easy & Effective Team Building – PDF File Upload Only – $75

Easy & Effective Team Building – PDF Upload and hard copy binder – $85

Ice Breakers for Business Meetings – Hard Copy Binder – $75

Ice Breakers for Business Meetings – PDF File Upload – $75

Ice Breakers for Business Meetings – PDF Upload & Binder – $85

Great Games for Company Hard Copy Binder – $75

Great Games for Company Picnics – PDF File Upload – $75

Great Games for Company Picnics – PDF Upload & Binder – $85

All order are shipped Ground via Fed Ex unless otherwise requested.

OR

2) Call 800-790-GAME (4263) and give us your order by phone. If you need overnight or other express delivery you must call in your order, because there are additional shipping charges.

OR

3) Send us company check plus a written request stating which manual(s) you want and shipping address to:

Corporate Games, Inc.
4428 Sandalwood Drive
Pleasanton, CA 94588

We will process your order as soon as it is received and send it out via GROUND service (Fed Ex).

International Orders for the Hard Copy Binders

Please email your request to . Shipping is additional, and cost depends upon your location. We will email you a total cost including shipping and an order form that you can fax back to us with your credit card information.

Important Notes:

The team building games and events found on our website are not the corporate team building activities in these manuals. We facilitate the events listed on our website. A few of the activities listed in the manual have some similarities, but are extremely simplified versions of what we offer. Most people do not have the time to put into a complex event, and therefore, we try to keep these fairly simple and straightforward, yet unique and very effective.

These manuals are not for consultants or companies looking to provide picnics, team building or ice breakers to their clients. It is for a company’s internal use only.

Because of the nature of this manual (presented in a binder so that pages can easily be copied), all sales are final (no refunds).

The cost of each manual is $75 USD (two for $140; three for $210). For companies within the United States, this cost includes GROUND shipping. Shipping is additional if not within the United States. A company may opt to have the manual uploaded to them via email (in a PDF file for Adobe Acrobat Reader) to get the manual immediately or save on overnight shipping costs. In this case, after uploading, only the “instruction sheet” diskette will be sent to them, not the hard copy binder. If you wish to have both the PDF file uploaded and a binder mailed to you, the cost is $85 per manual.