10 Team-Building Practices That Strengthen Company Culture
Most team-building feels forced. Icebreakers, trust falls, mandatory fun; they check a box but rarely create the kind of connection that actually improves how people work together.
The team-building practices that matter aren’t about games or gimmicks. They’re about creating space for people to see each other as humans, understand different perspectives, and build the trust that makes collaboration natural instead of effortful.
We asked entrepreneurs and executives to share the single team-building practice that has had the biggest positive impact on their company. Their answers reveal a clear pattern: the most effective practices aren’t elaborate or expensive. Instead, they’re consistent, authentic, and designed to build genuine understanding rather than manufactured enthusiasm.
Create Regular Moments For Human Connection
The most effective team-building practice I’ve seen is creating regular moments where people slow down and actually experience each other as humans, not just coworkers.
Some of the simplest things mattered the most: shared meals, taking time to eat together, holiday gatherings where work talk wasn’t the point, or events where families were invited and people could see one another in a fuller context. Those moments build trust in a way no off-site icebreaker ever will.
On a larger scale, our most impactful investment was quarterly in-person gatherings. We brought people together for a few days to align on strategy, reflect on what we’d learned, hear directly from leaders across the company, and reconnect as a team. It took real effort and real budget, but it paid dividends in clarity, trust, and momentum.
Team building works when it’s about connection and shared understanding, not forced fun. When people feel known and included, collaboration follows naturally.
Lena McDearmid, Founder, Wryver
Introduce Family And Pets On Video Calls
We are all on Zoom and Teams nonstop now, and it’s way too easy to forget there are real people on the other side of the screen, especially when a lot of the team has never actually met in person.
We have a simple rule: if an animal, kid, or partner shows up on camera, they get introduced.
It started as a joke. Someone’s dog walked through a meeting, we laughed, and then it just stuck and has become a great informal team-building exercise.
We’ll pause for a minute and let someone show their dog, their cat, their kid, or whoever just wandered into their space. Yeah, it can slow a meeting down for a moment. But those moments help us actually know each other, not just work with each other. Seeing a dad sit with his three-year-old on his knee for half the meeting and a woman petting her Chihuahu,a who just couldn’t help sticking his nose in the camera, brings joy to the team and reminds everyone that we are real people with real lives.
Seeing people’s real lives makes it easier to understand them, give them grace, and work better together. In a remote world, that little bit of humanity goes a long way toward bringing the team closer.
Shawn Riley, Co-Founder, BISBLOX
Organize Mission-Aligned Community Impact Days
One team-building practice that made a significant difference in our sustainability company was organizing hands-on impact days, where the whole team worked together on community projects, like local cleanups or creating urban gardens. Unlike typical office exercises, these activities aligned with our mission and gave everyone a shared sense of purpose. Within six months, internal collaboration metrics improved by 23.7%, cross-department project completion rose by 18.4%, and employee satisfaction scores increased by 21.9%. The most powerful effect was that team members started communicating more openly and proactively, bringing ideas from these projects back into day-to-day work. The experience showed that when team-building connects directly to company values, it strengthens both culture and performance, creating measurable improvements that extend far beyond a single event.
Swayam Doshi, Founder, Suspire
Hold Weekly All-Hands With Human Moments
A weekly all-hands has been our biggest team-building practice, especially because we work remotely.
Getting everyone on the same video call each week gives us shared context and clear priorities. It removes a lot of second-guessing, and it helps people feel like they are part of one team instead of a bunch of separate screens.
We keep it useful, but we also keep it human. After the key updates, we build in a small interactive moment like a quick game or trivia so people can relax and connect.
We also do simple things in chat, like sharing weekend photos, because those little glimpses of real life make relationships stronger. On top of that, we encourage quick video check-ins during the week when something is easier to talk through live.
The reason it works is that connection builds trust, and trust changes how a remote team operates. People ask for help sooner, share information more freely, and collaborate without friction. When you support mission-driven organizations in the nonprofit space, that trust shows up in the quality and speed of how you serve.
Steve Bernat, Founder and CEO, RallyUp
Lead With Empathy And Flexible Expectations
One of the most impactful shifts I’ve made as a founder and CEO has been choosing to lead with empathy and flexibility, especially as my life evolved alongside the business.
Becoming a mother fundamentally changed how I viewed leadership. I realized that when people feel seen as whole humans, not just employees, they show up with far more creativity, trust, and commitment. Leading with empathy and flexibility is also something we try to foster with our manufacturing and artisan partners in India.
In our business, we have clear goals and strict deadlines, but we’ve learned that nature doesn’t always follow a corporate calendar. Being a hand-crafted brand means working in harmony with the elements; when we use traditional techniques like block-printing, a monsoon rainstorm or a few overcast days directly impact the drying and printing time of our cotton. Having the clarity and calmness to realize that quality can’t be rushed, and sometimes the kindest thing you can do for your brand and your team is to respect the pace of the craft.
Anjali H., Founder, Malabar Baby
Rotate Ownership Of Team Culture
The team-building practice that’s had the biggest impact for us is assigning a rotating culture team. Not HR. Not leadership. A small group of people from different roles who cycle in for a few months at a time and are responsible for noticing friction, surfacing wins, and fixing the small stuff before it turns into resentment.
What makes this work is that culture stops being a slogan and starts being owned by the team itself. When the same voices aren’t always responsible, perspective stays fresh. The unexpected benefit was trust. Wins get celebrated without feeling forced. Team-building isn’t about bonding exercises. It’s about shared stewardship. When culture becomes a responsibility that moves around the room, people protect it more seriously.
Cody Jensen, CEO & Founder, Searchbloom
Schedule Casual Idea Huddles Without Pressure
Our company has seen the most positive impact through a team-building practice that has recently become a regular company-wide occasion, our routine chill call. The purpose of the routine chill call is to provide our staff with time during work to brainstorm their ideas in a casual, informal setting.
Once we were able to remove the pressure associated with the compulsory meeting that previously required everyone to have a formal report prepared before attending, we found that our team members stopped being intimidated by our group and started to feel secure in sharing their thoughts with the group.
This new-found confidence in what our team members had to say resulted in some of the best ideas the company has ever seen, which has greatly influenced the development of our brand. The chill call has ultimately changed the culture of our company by demonstrating that the best innovations usually occur when people are comfortable enough to share their most innovative ideas with others.
Milos Eric, Co-Founder, OysterLink
Host Cultural Exchange Showcases
Our most impactful practice has been hosting cultural exchange showcases where teammates share food, music, traditions, and personal stories. These sessions build genuine understanding across generations and backgrounds, which strengthens trust and reduces barriers between teams. The result is a more cohesive culture and smoother day-to-day collaboration.
Karim Hamri, CEO, tttoolbox
Arrange Quarterly Cross-Department Shadowing
Among the most effective team-building activities that we have adopted is our so-called “Perspective Swap Sessions.” Every quarter, members of teams in various departments are given days to shadow each other. This ensures that everyone can appreciate the problems and processes that cannot be encountered in their respective job descriptions.
The result? Increased compassion, teamwork, and better team relationships. It is also an awesome method of fostering creative problem-solving and silo-busting. This is an innocent practice that has become a game-changer in achieving corporate unity and generating innovation within the company.
David Ratmoko, Owner and Director, Metro Models
Play Daily Wordle To Warm Up Meetings
I think the team building should be part of the daily work. One thing we did is during our regular team meeting, we will do a Wordle (from New York Times) together. We are a small team. So I will literally share my screenshot and complete the Wordle as a team.
This not only helps build relationships daily but also helps warm up the meeting before we dive into more serious business conversations.
Travis Fei, CEO and Co-founder, BTInsights
What stands out across these team-building practices is authenticity over activity. Whether it’s introducing pets on video calls, hosting quarterly gatherings, or playing Wordle before meetings, these practices work because they create real moments of human connection rather than checking off a cultural to-do list.
The most effective team-building doesn’t require elaborate planning or big budgets. It requires intention to create regular opportunities for people to see each other beyond their job titles, understand different perspectives, and build the kind of trust that changes how teams collaborate.
Strong teams aren’t built through occasional offsite events or forced bonding exercises. They’re built through consistent practices that remind people they’re working with humans, not just coworkers. The founders who understand this don’t treat team-building as an event. Instead, they build it into the rhythm of how their company operates.
