Team Building Activities for Introverts

If you're organising team building for a company, you'll probably have a mix of personalities in the room. Some people will volunteer for almost anything. Others will be much more reserved, particularly if they don't know what's planned.

A common worry is that quieter people won't take part, or might even decide not to come. There's also the risk that the loudest people take over once the activity starts.

That doesn't mean you need to choose something quiet.

Introverts can be competitive. They can enjoy physical activities, problem solving and taking the lead. Someone who hates the idea of singing in front of their colleagues might be perfectly happy trying to beat them at Team Olympics.

The better question is what people will actually be asked to do.

Will people be put on the spot?

Working with your team to solve a problem feels very different from unexpectedly being asked to stand up in front of everyone.

That's something worth thinking about when you're choosing the activity. Singing, dancing, acting something out or doing something deliberately silly for a video will be great fun for some people. For others, the possibility of being singled out like that can make them uncomfortable before the event has even started.

At Dynamic Events, our event managers don't call individuals up in front of the group and force them to perform.

In many of our activities, the task itself also makes it difficult for one loud personality to do everything.

With Code Breaker, teams have puzzles to solve before they can progress. It isn't about who talks the most. People have to think, spot things and work out the answers.

With Big Picture, everyone paints their own section of a larger mural. In SolarBuddy, everyone builds their own solar device. Participation is part of what you're doing rather than something the event manager has to force.

The Hand Project has teams working together to build a hand, while Dome Works is about figuring out how to build a structure. Arctic Survival works more like an escape game, with the team concentrating on solving what is in front of them.

Those are all very different activities, but they don't depend on having the biggest personality in the room.

Knowing what's coming can help

You don't necessarily need to reveal the activity beforehand, but giving people some idea of what to expect can be reassuring.

If someone hears “surprise team building”, they don't know whether that means solving puzzles with five colleagues or being asked to dance in front of 50 of them.

You can remove a lot of that uncertainty simply by telling people they'll be working in teams and won't be called up to perform on their own.

The briefing on the day matters too. We've seen people who are reserved at the beginning settle once the activity has been explained and then get properly into it when their team starts.

Nobody needs to be pushed into suddenly becoming outgoing.

Sometimes you don't need an icebreaker

If people don't know each other particularly well, you might think you need an icebreaker before the main activity.

For some people, going around a room saying their name and an interesting fact about themselves is more uncomfortable than the team building that follows.

A shared task gives people something else to talk about.

Put a Code Breaker puzzle in front of a group and they immediately have a reason to start talking. Someone spots something, another person has an idea and the conversation starts because they're trying to solve the puzzle.

You don't have to force the interaction first.

Competitive team building can work too

We wouldn't assume that having quieter people in the group means avoiding energetic or competitive activities.

Team Olympics, Challenger and Back to School Sports Day can all work with mixed personalities. The way the challenges are structured naturally gets different members of the team taking part as the event progresses.

The focus is also on competing together. You're not standing on your own with the whole room watching you.

Someone can be reserved when the event starts and still be fiercely competitive once they're comfortable with what they're doing.

Which activities are worth considering?

Code Breaker, Big Picture, SolarBuddy, The Escape, Arctic Survival, Caricature Team Building Workshop, Dome Works and The Hand Project are all options we'd look at for a group where the organiser is conscious of how different personalities will take part.

And if your team wants something active, don't rule out Team Olympics, Challenger or Back to School Sports Day.

Think about whether the format gives different people something useful to do, whether one big personality can take over, and whether anyone is likely to feel they're going to be put on display.

Ultimately, you're trying to find something that can work for the quietest and loudest people in the room.

You can browse our team building activities to see the different options for your group.