Team building is one of the most important investments you’ll ever make. When you demonstrate to your employees that you genuinely appreciate all of the hard work they do and invest in your team members’ well-being and professional growth, you’ll see a drastic improvement in overall employee satisfaction, engagement and retention. That’s why we’ve put together this list of the best team building activities Boston has to offer.
We don’t take team building lightly. Our team has researched and vetted countless team building companies to compile this list of the 20+ best corporate team building activities in the Boston area.
Keep reading to find the best team building activities and fun group activities for adults in and around Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, and Milton.
1. Museum Hack
Museum Hack offers some of the very best team building activities in Boston! Every one of Museum Hack’s tours is packed with super fun and interactive games designed to break the ice and get your team LOLing (literally). Tours also include sassy behind the scenes stories, epic photo challenges, games optimized for maximum team bonding, and more. Want to see art and hear stories that align directly with your company’s industry and unique goals? Museum Hack can completely customize your tour (they once ran a yogurt-themed museum tour for Dannon). Experience the best museums in Boston like you’ve never experienced any museum before, bond with your team, and have a ton of fun all at the same time! If you want to crank up competitiveness up a few notches on your next team outing, then check out Museum Hack’s Escape the Museum and custom team building scavenger hunts.
2. The Great Guac Off
The Great Guac Off™ is one of the best company team building activities in Boston! This guacamole making competition that doubles as a team building event is designed to boost collaboration, communication, and competition, all while your employees have a great time. The Great Guac Off is the ultimate fun team outing that achieves great results without feeling like work. Your team will be split into smaller groups who then battle it out in mini challenges and an epic competition to see who makes your office’s best guac (crazy secret ingredients highly encouraged). The Great Guac Off can be hosted anywhere, including at the official Boston location or even at your office. There’s no cap on guest count, which makes this an awesome corporate event for large groups.
3. Storytelling Workshops
Is your brand’s story clear, interesting, and engaging? Does it resonate with your audience? Stories are a powerful way to communicate and motivate people, which makes storytelling a useful skill not just for writing books, but for connecting with people. Every single department in your company — leadership, marketing, sales, HR and more — can benefit from upgraded storytelling skills. These storytelling workshops will teach everyone on your team to be world class storytellers who can better connect with your audience, your customers, and your other team members. Your employees will enjoy learning this tangible new skill together.
4. Gingerbread Wars
Gingerbread Wars is a great option for your team’s end of the year company holiday party. Each event includes holiday trivia, small festive challenges, and a high intensity gingerbread house building competition. Afterward, prizes will be awarded and gingerbread houses can be eaten. This team outing is so much fun that your coworkers won’t even notice all the awesome corporate team building activities mixed in. The atmosphere will be festive and merry. Snacks, cookies, professional photographer and BYOB are all possible additions to your company event. You can host the event at your office, the location of your choice, or at one of the Gingerbread Wars locations around Boston. Note: Gingerbread Wars only takes reservations from October through December (but elves answer the phone year round!) so it’s a good idea to book your company holiday party early.
5. Launchy Birds
Launchy Birds is fast-paced, competitive and one of the best team building activities in Boston. During this wildly chaotic team building event, you and your team will participate in fun activities for employees that use “construct and destruct” game strategies and mechanics to get your team bonding around shared goals. Here’s how it works: First, each team will construct a castle made out of odd materials, which requires communication, collaboration, and creativity. Next, groups will compete to knock the other castles down using equally odd projectiles. Launchy Birds is not for the faint of heart, but is a good team bonding event for large groups as well as small.
6. Women in Leadership by Museum Hack
Have you heard of Ching Shih? She led hundreds of male pirates to victory against the British and Chinese navies. Can you name (and share the story of) other great women leaders and artists from history? The Women in Leadership workshop and tour is a unique and empowering experience for all of your company’s leaders, including senior executives, young stars, and everyone in-between. This team outing is accessible to all genders. Each tour includes fun activities, group photos, and meaningful discussions. Plus, facilitators can customize the route to share and highlight women who were important in your company’s industry, leading to inspiration, empowerment, and engagement.
7. Team Building Hero
Team Building Hero offers a variety of company outing ideas and fun team building activities in Boston. Choose from Boston team building activities like museum tours, scavenger hunts, food making competitions, storytelling workshops, and company holiday parties. Unlike other companies, with Team Building Hero you’ll get a dedicated sales rep to handle all of your business’s team building needs to put together the best personalized recommendations and experiences. Bonus: If you book your entire year of team building activities with Team Building Hero, you’ll get a discount on each event.
8. Bites of Boston
Bites of Boston is a great option for your company outing ideas list. Bites of Boston offers neighborhood food tours that are full of fun activities for employees. On tour, you’ll sample a variety of food from local eateries, learn about the eatery’s interesting history, and make memories with your team. Bites of Boston is passionate about teaching you all about the history, culture and architecture that makes each neighborhood so unique. Each tour lasts approximately three hours and covers about one to one-and-a-half miles of walking distance. This is a great option for smaller groups as the number of guests is capped between 12 and 16. Boston team building activities include: Sweet & Savory South End, Allston Arts & Eats, Chinatown’s Culture & Cuisine, and Classic Bites of Boston.
9. Host A Meetup
Meetups aren’t just for local book clubs and hiking groups; meetups can be highly beneficial for companies too. Hosting your own meetup is a great way to create a fun event for your employees while also getting your brand and name out into the local community. Meetups can (and should) be lots of fun and there are a million and one ways to do it. Plan a small or large event that highlights your mission, brand and values, from the location to the food and activities. Don’t forget to invite your customers, suppliers, vendors and local community along with your own team. Hosting a meetup is a great way to connect people in your network who may never have met otherwise in a fun way and show them how much you appreciate that they are part of your community.
10. Strayboots
Strayboots’ scavenger hunts and Boston team building activities make for fun corporate events. You’ll work together to solve various clues, overcome difficult challenges, and make lots of fun memories in the process. Strayboots offers more than one type of competitive scavenger hunt. They have four uniquely Boston team building activities, including a strategy game, a food and drink team building scavenger hunt in downtown Boston, an activity for welcoming new hires, and a scavenger hunt of Boston’s Back Bay.
11. Trapology Boston
Trapology Boston is home to challenging escape rooms in Boston. Like most escape games, you and your team will have a limited time to follow a series of difficult clues, solve puzzles, and ultimately escape before the clock runs out. Trapology Boston offers five escape rooms with different challenges, making this corporate event full of fun group activities for adults. Trapology Boston is a good choice for a team outing for both small and large groups. Each escape room can hold up to 10 people. If you have a larger team, your group will be split up into different rooms and you’ll compete not only against the clock but each other, too.
12. Boston Public Market
A group visit to the Boston Indoor Public Market is a great option for a slightly more unique team building activity. The market is open year-round and is home to 35 different New England artisans and food producers. Spend the afternoon sampling local food, taking fun photos together, and bonding with your team. If you want to add more structure to your day, create a mini scavenger hunt of the market or check out group events at The Kitchen at The Boston Public Market. The Kitchen hosts hands-on seasonal cooking classes and workshops.
13. Blue Hills Reservation
Another great option for unique company team building activities in Boston is taking a group trip to one of the city’s local parks. Blue Hills Reservation, located just a few miles outside of busy Boston, is a great place to hold fun corporate events. There are a whopping 125 miles of trails to explore! If hiking isn’t your thing, then your team could participate in any one of the following fun group activities for adults: mountain biking, horseback riding, camping, swimming, boating, canoeing and kayaking, and many more. Blue Hills Reservation is a cool place for an outdoor adventure. Get your team out of the office and moving together. With activity levels ranging from easy to difficult, you’ll find the right fit for your team at Blue Hills Reservation. We love that this is a cost-effective team outing option that’s great for both small and large teams.
14. Cashunt Boston
Does hustling around the city, striking wacky poses, leap frogging down the street, and dancing your way to the next clue sound like fun to you? If so, then check out Cashunt Boston’s two-and-a-half-hour multi game scavenger hunt style team building events. Cashunt offers five different Boston team building activities: Boston Hustle, Back Bay Hustle, Havad Yahd Hustle, Foxboro Dash, and Smartphone Gate. All of these fun corporate events include a 30-minute post game debrief where awards are handed out and coworkers can compare adventures. You’ll also get free photos and video of the day. You must have at least eight people in your team to book an event with Cashunt Boston. If you have more people, you’ll be split up into smaller groups to compete for a prize.
15. Alice’s Table
Alice’s Table hosts unique company team building activities in Boston. Alice’s Table will teach your group the ins and outs of creating the perfect floral arrangement. Your event with Alice’s Table can be held at your office or at one of the company’s venue partners. Alice’s Table’s fun corporate events take between one to two hours, depending on the complexity of the flower arrangements chosen. The best part? You’ll get to go home with your own beautiful flower arrangement and lots of new knowledge on how to do it yourself. Alice’s Table has worked with teams from Google, Jonathan Adler, Bumble, MiniLuxe, David’s Teas, CBRE, Hubspot, and more.
16. Boda Borg Boston
Boda Borg Boston is questing in real life (AKA a real-world gaming experience). Each quest with Boda Borg is a series of two to five challenges your team will have to work together to overcome. Boda Borg Boston has more than 20 different quests to choose from. There will be both physical and mental tasks that you and your team will have to work through in order to move to the next level. Each challenge presents a task that only a group that is working well together can solve. The stakes are high; if you fail a challenge, then you’ll have to go back to the beginning or choose a new quest altogether. This team outing is perfect for smaller groups, as you only need three people to launch a quest. Are you ready to break out of prison, win a TV game show, explore a haunted house, or run an obstacle course?
17. Brooklyn Boulders
Is your team active? Do your employees enjoy a physical challenge? Are your coworkers the type who want to try something new? Brooklyn Boulders, located nearby in Somerville, is home to different styles and levels of climbing – bouldering, auto-belay, top-roping, and lead climbing. Even if your team has never climbed before, this is a cool space for a team bonding activity. You and your team will be guided by experts through all the basics of bouldering, earning your official auto-belay certificate. Nothing builds trust like belaying your co-workers on a massive rock climbing wall. You also have the option to include additional fun activities for employees like yoga, bootcamp, and meditation.
18. Howl at the Moon
The trendy bar, Howl at the Moon, conveniently located in Boston’s Financial District, is a good option for your next team offsite or corporate event. Howl at the Moon offers corporate entertainment in the form of awesome live musical performances. The live show can be tailored to your team’s needs. The in-house musicians can play anything from easy listening to rock to Lady Gaga to Bruce Springsteen. Howl’s talented entertainers can even perform an original song specifically composed for your event to pay tribute to your company or product launch. You can also include customized food and beverage packages. Howl at the Moon offers a variety of corporate event packages and company outing ideas that accommodate groups ranging from 10 to 340.
19. Selfup
Selfup offers a variety of fun corporate team building activities in Boston. Selfup’s activities are great for corporate events, company parties, and team building activities. Fun activities for employees include the following classes: Italian Dinner with Tiramisu Finale, Cocktails Mixology Class, Authentic Japanese Sushi, The Perfect Homemade Dumplings, and more! Not only will your team have a great time cooking and bonding, you’ll also pick up a few new tricks to use at home in your own kitchen. Selfup events are very easy to book. Simply head over to the website, choose an activity, pick a date, and book.
20. Boston Public Garden
On a warm sunny day, the Boston Public Garden is a great location for DIY team building activities in Boston. Did you know the Boston Public Garden was the first public botanical garden in America? There is so much to explore during an afternoon at the park. Enjoy and explore the lagoon, fountains, monuments and, of course, beautiful local flora and fauna. Plan a park day for your team complete with food, drinks, and games. Bring along some music and you’ve got yourself the perfect team offsite to promote camaraderie and show your team that you appreciate the work your employees do.
21. Paddle Boston
How does spending a few hours getting to know your team in a relaxed environment away from screens sound? Paddle Boston offers just that with guided canoe or kayak tours. Don’t worry if you’ve never done either of these team building activities before. Your group will be led by an expert guide who will give a lesson before the tour starts. Spend the next hour or two out on Boston’s waterways, take in the city from a new perspective, learn all about the wildlife, and get to know your coworkers outside the office. After the canoe or kayak portion of your tour, you’ll be greeted with a delicious meal and a lovely view. Paddle Boston has four different team building packages to choose from.
22. The Trivia Factory
The Trivia Factory hosts trivia and bingo nights that are a great option for Boston team building activities. Each game lasts two-hours and four rounds with 20 difficult trivia questions ranging on a variety of topics and a bonus round with four final make it or break questions. Pro tip: The songs played between each question provide a hint to the next question’s answer and your team can get extra points for naming the artist, so make sure you and your team are paying attention to everything. The Trivia Factory is a great way to challenge your team and improve employees’ ability to communicate and think quickly under pressure. This fun group activity for adults is definitely challenging, but it’s not impossible.
23. Mobsters & Lobsters
Mobsters and Lobsters is a cool and local option for Boston team building activities. Are you interested in learning more about local criminal lore and the darker side of Boston’s history? If so, then you’ll love this team bonding activity! Mobsters & Lobsters will take you on an adventure that explores Boston’s sinister side. While on a trolley ride through the city’s historic mobster underworld, you’ll hear stories and see sites of historic heists, mobster hideaways, hangouts and more. Your tour will wrap with a famous lobster dinner at one of Boston’s top waterfront restaurants. Mobsters & Lobsters is ideal for small to medium size groups; the max number of people is 40.
The Final Word About Team Building Activities in Boston
Investing in the right company team building activities will always be a win for your business. Great team outings result in happier employees, and happier employees are more satisfied, engaged, and don’t want to look for employment elsewhere.
With so many incredible Boston team building activities to choose from, there’s no reason you shouldn’t get at least one company team building activity on your calendar today!
If you have any questions about company team building activities in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, and Milton, or other cities in the surrounding area shoot us a message. We’ll help find the right team building event for you!