Fun Meeting Games

Games help break the ice socially, energize employees in the middle of a long work day and focus the collective creative energy of the group. In addition to being fun and entertaining, the real benefit of games lies in boosting productivity and creating a spirit of confidence and teamwork during a meeting.

Before the meeting, the facilitator should create sheets with lists of different traits. The facilitator can be humorous and creative but can also includes common personality traits or characteristics of specific people who will be attending the meeting. Depending on the size of the meeting, a list of 10 to 20 traits is typically appropriate. Some ideas include "Speaks more than one language," "Owns a cat," "Travels frequently" or "Completes crossword puzzles in ink." At the beginning of the meeting, each participant will receive a sheet and a writing utensil. The goal is for each participant to find one other person in the room who fits each trait and to obtain an autograph from that person. The person with the highest number of unique autographs wins the game.

The game facilitator should create small paper tags with the names of famous historical figures, celebrities or fictional characters. At the beginning of the game, each meeting participant will have a name taped on her back. The participants then mingle and ask each other questions to figure out their famous identity. The trick is that everyone must use "yes" or "no" questions. If a participant receives a "yes" answer, she can keep asking the same person until she receives a "no" response. When the participant has figured out her own identity, she moves her tag to the front of her shirt and helps the other participants until everyone knows their famous identities.

At the beginning of the meeting, each participant is instructed to write down two true facts about himself and one lie. This game is particularly effective if the participants don't know each other well, but it can be modified for more familiar groups. If the participants know each other already, ask them to choose unusual trivia facts about themselves, their likes and dislikes or personal childhood memories. Everyone takes turns reading their truths and lies aloud. The other participants have to guess which of the three items is not true. The person who fools the group gets extra points as well as the person who guesses the most lies correctly.

Before the game, the facilitator should tie the ends of a long piece of string together to form a large circle. All of the participants begin by standing in a circle with their eyes closed and holding on to the string with both hands. The participants should try to hold the string at roughly the same height, usually waist level. The facilitator instructs the participants to form the string into different shapes. The shapes start out easy, such as triangles or squares, and then progress to more difficult shapes, such as figure-eights or hexagons. The participants must keep their eyes closed the entire time and must communicate clearly with each other.