Weekend Guessing Game
Time for the team building activity: 10–15 minutes
Setup effort: Easy (collect short inputs)
Estimated cost: Free
Business value: Strengthens team familiarity, encourages informal conversation, and builds human connection through team building
What is the Weekend Guessing Game?
Weekend Guessing Game is a light, interactive team building activity where participants try to match weekend activities to the correct colleague.
Before the session, each participant submits one short description of something they did (or plan to do) over the weekend. The facilitator then reads the activities aloud, and the group guesses who each one belongs to.
Because the content is recent and personal but low-risk, the game creates natural curiosity and conversation.
It is especially effective for Monday meetings, team check-ins, and onboarding moments.
How do you run the Weekend Guessing Game?
Before the session, ask participants to submit one short, workplace-appropriate weekend activity. For example:
“Tried to bake sourdough for the first time”
“Went hiking at sunrise”
“Built IKEA furniture for four hours”
Compile the responses anonymously.
During the activity:
Read one activity aloud.
Ask the group to guess who did it (via chat, hands, or shout-out).
Reveal the correct person.
Optionally invite a very short comment from them.
Keep each round under 45 seconds to maintain energy.
The full team building activity typically runs 10–15 minutes.
Why it’s great for a team
Many teams jump straight into work updates on Monday without rebuilding social connection after the weekend.
Weekend Guessing Game works well because it reintroduces the human layer quickly and playfully. In a short team building moment, it helps teams:
humanize colleagues beyond their roles
create natural laughter and surprise
encourage full-group participation
build memory anchors around teammates
warm up the room for the week
It is particularly effective for distributed teams that lack informal Monday morning conversations.
From a team dynamics perspective, light personal sharing increases approachability and reduces perceived distance between colleagues.
Teams that regularly include small human moments in weekly rhythms often report stronger team warmth and smoother collaboration.
How to organize it effectively
Preparation quality and pacing are key.
Ask for submissions ahead of time and provide clear guidance:
keep it short
keep it workplace appropriate
avoid overly obvious clues
Before the session, review entries to ensure variety and clarity.
During facilitation, keep the guessing phase fast. If the group stalls, offer a light hint (for example: department or region).
For larger groups, chat-based guessing works best to maintain broad participation.
In remote team building settings, displaying the activity text on screen improves focus.
To keep the format fresh over time, you can vary themes such as:
weekend plans
recent small wins
something new learned
When well prepared, Weekend Guessing Game is a simple but highly effective team building activity that brings back human connection at the start of the workweek.