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13 Problem-Solving Activities & Exercises for Your Team

• May 22, 2024
• Project Management
• 22 min read

Are you looking to enhance your or your team’s problem-solving abilities? Engaging in activities specifically designed to stimulate your and your team’s critical thinking skills can be an excellent way to sharpen your problem-solving prowess. Whether you enjoy puzzles, brain teasers, or interactive challenges, these activities provide an opportunity to overcome obstacles and think creatively.

By immersing yourself in problem-solving activities, you can develop valuable strategies, improve your decision-making abilities, and boost your overall problem-solving IQ.

One key aspect of successful problem-solving is ensuring clear and effective communication, such as when teams use critical tools available online. For example, testing emails for deliverability and using an email spam checker to avoid spam filters can improve team efficiency. Try Maileroo’s free mail tester to validate your email campaigns effectively. Get ready to unlock your full potential and tackle any challenge that comes your way with these exciting activities for problem-solving.

In this article, we will explore activities for problem-solving that can help enhance your team’s problem-solving skills, allowing you to approach challenges with confidence and creativity.

What Are Problem Solving Activities?

Problem-solving activities or problem-solving exercises are interactive games requiring critical thinking to solve puzzles. They enhance teamwork & critical thinking. Examples include building towers, navigating simulated challenges, and fostering creativity and communication.

For instance, imagine a team working together to construct the tallest tower using limited materials. They strategize, communicate ideas, and problem-solve to create the best structure, promoting collaboration and inventive thinking among team members.

Some widely practiced problem-solving activities include:

• A Shrinking Vessel: Teams must fit into a shrinking space, testing their cooperation and adaptability.
• Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower: Participants build a tower using marshmallows and spaghetti, promoting creative engineering.
• Egg Drop: Protecting an egg from a fall challenges problem-solving skills.
• Desert Island Survival: Teams simulate survival scenarios, encouraging creative solutions.
• Rolling Dice: A simple yet effective game involving chance and decision-making.
• Build a Tower: Constructing a stable tower with limited resources fosters teamwork and innovation, etc.

13 Easy Activities For Problem-Solving Ideas to Enhance Team Collaboration

Team building activities offer a great opportunity to test problem-solving abilities and promote effective collaboration within a group to problem solving group activities. By engaging in these activities, teams can break the monotony of the workplace and create a more inclusive and welcoming environment.

Here are nine easy-to-implement activities that can bring substantial change to your team culture and overall workplace dynamics.

#1. Crossword Puzzles

Objective: To enhance problem-solving skills, vocabulary, and cognitive abilities through engaging crossword puzzles. 

Estimated Time: 15-20 Minutes 

Materials Needed:

• Crossword puzzle sheets
• Pens or pencils
• Distribute crossword puzzle sheets and pens/pencils to each participant.
• Explain the rules of crossword puzzles and the goal of completing as many clues as possible within the given time.
• Participants individually or in pairs work on solving the crossword puzzle by filling in the correct words.
• Encourage critical thinking, word association, and collaborative discussions for solving challenging clues.
• At the end of the time limit, review the answers and discuss any interesting or challenging clues as a group.
• Enhanced Problem-Solving: Participants engage in critical thinking while deciphering clues, promoting effective problem-solving skills.
• Vocabulary Expansion: Exposure to new words and phrases within the crossword improves vocabulary and comprehension.
• Cognitive Stimulation: The mental exercise of solving the puzzle stimulates the brain, enhancing cognitive abilities.
• Team Collaboration: If done in pairs, participants practice collaboration and communication to solve clues together.
• Achievement and Motivation: Successfully completing the crossword brings a sense of accomplishment and motivates individuals to explore more puzzles.

Tips for Facilitators:

• Provide varying levels of crossword puzzles to accommodate different skill levels.
• Encourage participants to share strategies for solving challenging clues.
• Emphasize the fun and educational aspects of the activity to keep participants engaged.

#2. A Shrinking Vessel

Estimated Time: 10-15 Minutes

• Materials Needed: A rope and a ball of yarn
• Prepare the Setting: Lay a rope on the floor in a shape that allows all team members to stand comfortably inside it. For larger teams, multiple ropes can be used, dividing them into smaller groups.
• Enter the Circle: Have all team members stand inside the rope, ensuring that nobody steps outside its boundaries.
• Shrinking the Circle: Begin gradually shrinking the rope’s size, reducing the available space inside the circle.
• Adapt and Maintain Balance: As the circle shrinks, team members must make subtle adjustments to maintain their positions and balance within the shrinking area.
• The Challenge: The objective for the team is to collectively brainstorm and find innovative ways to keep every team member inside the circle without anyone stepping outside.
• Collaboration and Communication: The activity promotes teamwork and open communication as participants strategize to stay within the shrinking circle.
• Adaptability: Team members learn to adapt swiftly to changing circumstances, fostering agility and flexibility.
• Creative Problem-Solving: The challenge encourages inventive thinking and brainstorming to find unique solutions.
• Trust Building: By relying on each other’s actions, participants build trust and cohesion among team members.
• Time-Efficient: The short duration makes it an ideal icebreaker or energizer during meetings or workshops.
• Observe and Facilitate: Monitor the team’s dynamics and offer guidance to encourage equal participation and effective problem-solving.
• Encourage Verbalization: Prompt participants to voice their ideas and collaborate vocally, aiding in real-time adjustments.
• Debrief Thoughtfully: Engage the team in a discussion afterward, reflecting on strategies employed and lessons learned.
• Emphasize Adaptability: Highlight the transferable skill of adaptability and its significance in both professional and personal contexts.

#3. Human Knots

• Objective: Improving Collaboration & enhancing Communication Skills

Estimated Time: 15-20 minutes

• Materials: None required

Procedure: 

• Organize your team into a compact circle. For more sizable teams, subdivide them into smaller clusters, with each cluster forming its own circle. 
• Direct each individual to grasp the hands of two other people in the circle, with the exception of those positioned directly adjacent to them. This action will result in the formation of a complex “human knot” within the circle. 
• Present the challenge to the group: to unravel themselves from this entanglement while maintaining their hold on each other’s hands. If preferred, you can establish a specific time limit. 
• Observe the team members collaborating to unravel the knot, witnessing their collective effort to devise solutions and free themselves from the intricate puzzle.
• Team Cohesion: The activity encourages team members to interact closely, promoting bonding and understanding among participants.
• Effective Communication: Participants practice clear and concise communication as they coordinate movements to untangle the knot.
• Problem-Solving: The challenge stimulates creative thinking and problem-solving skills as individuals work collectively to find the optimal path for untangling.
• Adaptability: Participants learn to adapt their actions based on the evolving dynamics of the human knot, fostering adaptability.
• Trust Building: As individuals rely on each other to navigate the intricate knot, trust and cooperation naturally develop.
• Set a Positive Tone: Create an inclusive and supportive atmosphere, emphasizing that the focus is on collaboration rather than competition.
• Encourage Verbalization: Urge participants to articulate their intentions and listen to others’ suggestions, promoting effective teamwork.
• Observe Group Dynamics: Monitor interactions and step in if needed to ensure everyone is actively engaged and included.
• Reflect and Share: Conclude the activity with a debriefing session, allowing participants to share their experiences, strategies, and key takeaways.
• Vary Grouping: Change group compositions for subsequent rounds to enhance interactions among different team members.

#4. Egg Drop

Helps With: Decision Making, Collaboration

• A carton of eggs
• Construction materials (balloons, rubber bands, straws, tape, plastic wrap, etc.)
• A suitable location for the activity
• Assign each team a single egg and random construction materials.
• Teams must create a carrier to protect the egg from breaking.
• Drop the carriers one by one and increase the height if necessary to determine the most durable carrier.
• The winning team is the one with the carrier that survives the highest drop.
• Decision Making: Participants engage in critical decision-making processes as they select construction materials and determine carrier designs.
• Collaboration: The activity necessitates collaboration and coordination among team members to construct an effective carrier.
• Problem-Solving: Teams apply creative problem-solving skills to devise innovative methods for safeguarding the egg.
• Risk Management: Participants learn to assess potential risks and consequences while making design choices to prevent egg breakage.
• Celebrating Success: The victorious team experiences a sense of accomplishment, boosting morale and promoting a positive team spirit.
• Provide Diverse Materials: Offer a wide range of construction materials to stimulate creativity and allow teams to explore various design options.
• Set Safety Guidelines: Prioritize safety by specifying a safe drop height and ensuring participants follow safety protocols during construction.
• Encourage Brainstorming: Prompt teams to brainstorm multiple carrier ideas before finalizing their designs, fostering diverse perspectives.
• Facilitate Reflection: After the activity, lead a discussion where teams share their design strategies, challenges faced, and lessons learned.
• Highlight Collaboration: Emphasize the significance of teamwork in achieving success, acknowledging effective communication and cooperation.

As a teamwork activity, Egg Drop can help team members solve problems through collaboration and communication.

Each team can design and customize their own balloons and can display their team logo, slogan, or elements related to team culture through custom balloons . Awards can also be set up, such as the most creative balloon design, the strongest frangipani structure, etc., to increase the motivation for competition and participation. 

After the activity, team sharing and feedback can be conducted to allow everyone to share their learning experience and feelings about teamwork.

This combination allows team members to experience the importance of teamwork in creativity and practice, and strengthen team cohesion by completing challenges and sharing experiences.

#5. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Helps With: Collaboration

Estimated Time: 20-30 Minutes

Materials Needed (per team):

• Raw spaghetti: 20 sticks
• Marshmallow: 1
• String: 1 yard
• Masking tape: 1 roll
• Tower Construction: Instruct teams to collaborate and utilize the provided materials to construct the tallest tower possible within a designated time frame.
• Marshmallow Support: Emphasize that the tower must be capable of standing independently and supporting a marshmallow at its highest point.
• Prototype and Iterate: Encourage teams to engage in prototyping and iteration, testing different design approaches and refining their tower structures.
• T eamwork and Communication: Promote effective teamwork and communication as team members coordinate their efforts to build a stable and tall tower.
• Evaluation Criteria: Evaluate each tower based on its height, stability, and the successful placement of the marshmallow at the top.
• Collaboration: Participants collaborate closely, sharing ideas and working together to design and construct the tower.
• Innovative Thinking: The activity encourages innovative thinking as teams experiment with different strategies to build a stable tower.
• Time Management: Teams practice time management skills as they work within a specified time limit to complete the task.
• Problem-Solving: Participants engage in creative problem-solving to address challenges such as balancing the marshmallow and constructing a sturdy tower.
• Adaptability: Teams adapt their approaches based on trial and error, learning from each iteration to improve their tower designs.
• Set Clear Guidelines: Clearly explain the materials, objectives, and evaluation criteria to ensure teams understand the task.
• Foster Creativity: Encourage teams to think outside the box and explore unconventional methods for constructing their towers.
• Emphasize Collaboration: Highlight the importance of effective communication and teamwork to accomplish the task successfully.
• Time Management: Remind teams of the time limit and encourage them to allocate their time wisely between planning and construction.
• Reflect and Share: Facilitate a discussion after the activity, allowing teams to share their design choices, challenges faced, and lessons learned.

Objective: To engage participants in the strategic and analytical world of Sudoku, enhancing logical thinking and problem-solving abilities. 

Estimated Time: 20-25 Minutes 

• Sudoku puzzle sheets
• Pencils with erasers
• Distribute Sudoku puzzle sheets and pencils to each participant.
• Familiarize participants with the rules and mechanics of Sudoku puzzles.
• Explain the goal: to fill in the empty cells with numbers from 1 to 9 while adhering to the rules of no repetition in rows, columns, or subgrids.
• Encourage participants to analyze the puzzle’s layout, identify potential numbers, and strategically fill in cells.
• Emphasize the importance of logical deduction and step-by-step approach in solving the puzzle.
• Provide hints or guidance if needed, ensuring participants remain engaged and challenged.
• Logical Thinking: Sudoku challenges participants’ logical and deductive reasoning, fostering analytical skills.
• Problem-Solving: The intricate interplay of numbers and constraints hones problem-solving abilities.
• Focus and Patience: Participants practice patience and attention to detail while gradually unveiling the solution.
• Pattern Recognition: Identifying number patterns and possibilities contributes to enhanced pattern recognition skills.
• Personal Achievement: Successfully completing a Sudoku puzzle provides a sense of accomplishment and boosts confidence.
• Offer varying levels of Sudoku puzzles to cater to different skill levels.
• Encourage participants to share strategies and techniques for solving specific challenges.
• Highlight the mental workout Sudoku provides and its transferable skills to real-life problem-solving.

Helps With: Communication, Problem-solving, & Management

• A lockable room
• 5-10 puzzles or clues
• Hide the key and a set of clues around the room.
• Lock the room and provide team members with a specific time limit to find the key and escape.
• Instruct the team to work together, solving the puzzles and deciphering the clues to locate the key.
• Encourage efficient communication and effective problem-solving under time pressure.
• Communication Skills: Participants enhance their communication abilities by sharing observations, ideas, and findings to collectively solve puzzles.
• Problem-solving Proficiency: The activity challenges teams to think critically, apply logical reasoning, and collaboratively tackle intricate challenges.
• Team Management: The experience promotes effective team management as members assign tasks, prioritize efforts, and coordinate actions.
• Time Management: The imposed time limit sharpens time management skills as teams strategize and allocate time wisely.
• Adaptability: Teams learn to adapt and adjust strategies based on progress, evolving clues, and time constraints.
• Clear Introduction: Provide a concise overview of the activity, emphasizing the importance of communication, problem-solving, and time management.
• Diverse Challenges: Offer a mix of puzzles and clues to engage various problem-solving skills, catering to different team strengths.
• Supportive Role: Act as a facilitator, offering subtle guidance if needed while allowing teams to independently explore and solve challenges.
• Debriefing Session: Organize a debriefing session afterward to discuss the experience, highlight successful strategies, and identify areas for improvement.
• Encourage Reflection: Encourage participants to reflect on their teamwork, communication effectiveness, and problem-solving approach.

#8. Frostbite for Group Problem Solving Activities

Helps With: Decision Making, Trust, Leadership

• An electric fan
• Construction materials (toothpicks, cardstock, rubber bands, sticky notes, etc.)
• Divide the team into groups of 4-5 people, each with a designated leader.
• Blindfold team members and prohibit leaders from using their hands.
• Provide teams with construction materials and challenge them to build a tent within 30 minutes.
• Test the tents using the fan to see which can withstand high winds.
• Decision-Making Proficiency: Participants are exposed to critical decision-making situations under constraints, allowing them to practice effective and efficient decision-making.
• Trust Development: Blindfolding team members and relying on the designated leaders fosters trust and collaboration among team members.
• Leadership Skills: Designated leaders navigate the challenge without hands-on involvement, enhancing their leadership and communication skills.
• Creative Problem Solving: Teams employ creative thinking and resourcefulness to construct stable tents with limited sensory input.
• Team Cohesion: The shared task and unique constraints promote team cohesion and mutual understanding.
• Role of the Facilitator: Act as an observer, allowing teams to navigate the challenge with minimal intervention. Offer assistance only when necessary.
• Clarity in Instructions: Provide clear instructions regarding blindfolding, leader restrictions, and time limits to ensure a consistent experience.
• Debriefing Session: After the activity, conduct a debriefing session to discuss team dynamics, leadership approaches, and decision-making strategies.
• Encourage Communication: Emphasize the importance of effective communication within teams to ensure smooth coordination and successful tent construction.
• Acknowledge Creativity: Celebrate creative solutions and innovative approaches exhibited by teams during the tent-building process.

#9. Dumbest Idea First

Helps With: Critical Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Activity

Estimated Time: 15-20 Minutes

Materials Needed: A piece of paper, pen, and pencil

• Problem Presentation: Introduce a specific problem to the team, either a real-world challenge or a hypothetical scenario that requires a solution.
• Brainstorming Dumb Ideas: Instruct team members to quickly generate and jot down the most unconventional and seemingly “dumb” ideas they can think of to address the problem.
• Idea Sharing: Encourage each participant to share their generated ideas with the group, fostering a relaxed and open atmosphere for creative expression.
• Viability Assessment: As a team, review and evaluate each idea, considering potential benefits and drawbacks. Emphasize the goal of identifying unconventional approaches.
• Selecting Promising Solutions: Identify which seemingly “dumb” ideas could hold hidden potential or innovative insights. Discuss how these ideas could be adapted into workable solutions.
• Divergent Thinking: Participants engage in divergent thinking, pushing beyond conventional boundaries to explore unconventional solutions.
• Creative Exploration: The activity sparks creative exploration by encouraging participants to let go of inhibitions and embrace imaginative thinking.
• Critical Analysis: Through evaluating each idea, participants practice critical analysis and learn to identify unique angles and aspects of potential solutions.
• Open Communication: The lighthearted approach of sharing “dumb” ideas fosters open communication, reducing fear of judgment and promoting active participation.
• Solution Adaptation: Identifying elements of seemingly “dumb” ideas that have merit encourages participants to adapt and refine their approaches creatively.
• Safe Environment: Foster a safe and non-judgmental environment where participants feel comfortable sharing unconventional ideas.
• Time Management: Set clear time limits for idea generation and sharing to maintain the activity’s energetic pace.
• Encourage Wild Ideas: Emphasize that the goal is to explore the unconventional, urging participants to push the boundaries of creativity.
• Facilitator Participation: Participate in idea generation to demonstrate an open-minded approach and encourage involvement.
• Debriefing Discussion: After the activity, facilitate a discussion on how seemingly “dumb” ideas can inspire innovative solutions and stimulate fresh thinking.

This activity encourages out-of-the-box thinking and creative problem-solving. It allows teams to explore unconventional ideas that may lead to unexpected, yet effective, solutions.

#10: Legoman

Helps With: Foster teamwork, communication, and creativity through a collaborative Lego-building activity.

Estimated Time: 20-30 minutes

• Lego bricks
• Lego instruction manuals

Procedure :

• Divide participants into small teams of 3-5 members.
• Provide each team with an equal set of Lego bricks and a Lego instruction manual.
• Explain that the goal is for teams to work together to construct the Lego model shown in the manual.
• Set a time limit for the building activity based on model complexity.
• Allow teams to self-organize, build, and collaborate to complete the model within the time limit.
• Evaluate each team’s final model compared to the manual’s original design.
• Enhanced Communication: Participants must communicate clearly and listen actively to collaborate effectively.
• Strengthened Teamwork: Combining efforts toward a shared goal promotes camaraderie and team cohesion.
• Creative Problem-Solving: Teams must creatively problem-solve if pieces are missing or instructions unclear.
• Planning and Resource Allocation: Following instructions fosters planning skills and efficient use of resources.
• Sense of Achievement: Completing a challenging build provides a sense of collective accomplishment.
• Encourage Participation: Urge quieter members to contribute ideas and take an active role.
• Highlight Teamwork: Emphasize how cooperation and task coordination are key to success.
• Ensure Equal Engagement: Monitor group dynamics to ensure all members are engaged.
• Allow Creativity: Permit modifications if teams lack exact pieces or wish to get creative.
• Focus on Enjoyment: Create a lively atmosphere so the activity remains energizing and fun.

#11: Minefield

Helps With: Trust, Communication, Patience

Materials Needed: Open space, blindfolds

• Mark a “minefield” on the ground using ropes, cones, or tape. Add toy mines or paper cups.
• Pair up participants and blindfold one partner.
• Position blindfolded partners at the start of the minefield. Direct seeing partners to verbally guide them through to the other side without hitting “mines.”
• Partners switch roles once finished and repeat.
• Time partnerships and provide prizes for the fastest safe crossing.
• Trust Building: Blindfolded partners must trust their partner’s instructions.
• Effective Communication: Giving clear, specific directions is essential for navigating the minefield.
• Active Listening: Partners must listen closely and follow directions precisely.
• Patience & Support: The exercise requires patience and encouraging guidance between partners.
• Team Coordination: Partners must work in sync, coordinating movements and communication.
• Test Boundaries: Ensure the minefield’s size accommodates safe movement and communication.
• Monitor Interactions: Watch for dominant guidance and ensure both partners participate fully.
• Time Strategically: Adjust time limits based on the minefield size and difficulty.
• Add Obstacles: Introduce additional non-mine objects to increase challenge and communication needs.
• Foster Discussion: Debrief afterward to discuss communication approaches and trust-building takeaways.

#12: Reverse Pyramid

Helps With: Teamwork, Communication, Creativity

Materials Needed: 36 cups per group, tables

• Form small groups of 5-7 participants.
• Provide each group with a stack of 36 cups and a designated building area.
• Explain the objective: Build the tallest pyramid starting with just one cup on top.
• Place the first cup on the table, and anyone in the group can add two cups beneath it to form the second row.
• From this point, only the bottom row can be lifted to add the next row underneath.
• Cups in the pyramid can only be touched or supported by index fingers.
• If the structure falls, start over from one cup.
• Offer more cups if a group uses all provided.
• Allow 15 minutes for building.

Teamwork: Collaborate to construct the pyramid.

Communication: Discuss and execute the building strategy.

Creativity: Find innovative ways to build a tall, stable pyramid.

Clarify Expectations: Emphasize the definition of a pyramid with each row having one less cup.

Encourage Perseverance: Motivate groups to continue despite challenges.

Promote Consensus: Encourage groups to work together and help each other.

Reflect on Failure: Use collapses as a metaphor for overcoming obstacles and improving.

Consider Competitions: Modify the activity for competitive teams and scoring.

#13: Stranded

Helps With: Decision-making, Prioritization, Teamwork

Materials Needed: List of salvaged items, paper, pens

• Present a scenario where teams are stranded and must prioritize items salvaged from a plane crash.
• Provide teams with the same list of ~15 salvaged items.
• Instruct teams to agree on an item ranking with #1 being the most important for survival.
• Teams share and compare their prioritized lists. Identify differences in approach.
• Discuss what factors influenced decisions and how teams worked together to agree on priorities.
• Critical Thinking: Weighing item importance requires analytical thinking and discussion.
• Team Decision-Making: Coming to a consensus fosters team decision-making capabilities.
• Prioritization Skills: Ranking items strengthen prioritization and justification abilities.
• Perspective-Taking: Understanding different prioritizations builds perspective-taking skills.
• Team Cohesion: Collaborating toward a shared goal brings teams closer together.
• Encourage Discussion: Urge teams to discuss all ideas rather than allow single members to dominate.
• Be Engaged: Circulate to listen in on team discussions and pose thought-provoking questions.
• Add Complexity: Introduce scenarios with additional constraints to expand critical thinking.
• Highlight Disagreements: When priorities differ, facilitate constructive discussions on influencing factors.
• Recognize Collaboration: Acknowledge teams that demonstrate exceptional teamwork and communication.

Now let’s look at some common types of problem-solving activities.

Types of Problem-Solving Activities

The most common types of problem-solving activities/exercises are:

• Creative problem-solving activities
• Group problem-solving activities
• Individual problem-solving activities
• Fun problem-solving activities, etc.

In the next segments, we’ll be discussing these types of problem-solving activities in detail. So, keep reading!

Creative Problem-Solving Activities

Creative problem solving (CPS) means using creativity to find new solutions. It involves thinking creatively at first and then evaluating ideas later. For example, think of it like brainstorming fun game ideas, discussing them, and then picking the best one to play.

Some of the most common creative problem-solving activities include:

• Legoman: Building creative structures with LEGO.
• Escape: Solving puzzles to escape a room.
• Frostbite: Finding solutions in challenging situations.
• Minefield: Navigating a field of obstacles.

Group Problem-Solving Activities

Group problem-solving activities are challenges that make teams work together to solve puzzles or overcome obstacles. They enhance teamwork and critical thinking.

For instance, think of a puzzle-solving game where a group must find hidden clues to escape a locked room.

Here are the most common group problem-solving activities you can try in groups:

• A Shrinking Vessel
• Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower
• Cardboard Boat Building Challenge
• Clue Murder Mystery
• Escape Room: Jewel Heist
• Escape Room: Virtual Team Building
• Scavenger Hunt
• Dumbest Idea First

Individual Problem-Solving Activities

As the name suggests, individual problem-solving activities are the tasks that you need to play alone to boost your critical thinking ability. They help you solve problems and stay calm while facing challenges in real life. Like puzzles, they make your brain sharper. Imagine it’s like training your brain muscles to handle tricky situations.

Here are some of the most common individual problem-solving activities:

• Puzzles (jigsaw, crossword, sudoku, etc.)
• Brain teasers
• Logic problems
• Optical illusions
• “Escape room” style games

Fun Problem-Solving Activities

Fun problem-solving activities are enjoyable games that sharpen your critical thinking skills while having a blast. Think of activities like the Legoman challenge, escape rooms, or rolling dice games – they make problem-solving exciting and engaging!

And to be frank, all of the mentioned problem-solving activities are fun if you know how to play and enjoy them as all of them are game-like activities.

Team Problems You Can Address Through Problem Solving Activities

Fun problem-solving activities serve as dynamic tools to address a range of challenges that teams often encounter. These engaging activities foster an environment of collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, enabling teams to tackle various problems head-on. Here are some common team problems that can be effectively addressed through these activities:

• Communication Breakdowns:  

Activities like “Escape,” “A Shrinking Vessel,” and “Human Knots” emphasize the importance of clear and effective communication. They require teams to work together, exchange ideas, and devise strategies to accomplish a shared goal. By engaging in these activities, team members learn to communicate more efficiently, enhancing overall team communication in real-world situations.

• Lack of Trust and Cohesion:  

Problem-solving activities promote trust and cohesiveness within teams. For instance, “Frostbite” and “Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower” require teams to collaborate closely, trust each other’s ideas, and rely on each member’s strengths. These activities build a sense of unity and trust, which can translate into improved teamwork and collaboration.

• Innovative Thinking:  

“Dumbest Idea First” and “Egg Drop” encourage teams to think outside the box and explore unconventional solutions. These activities challenge teams to be creative and innovative in their problem-solving approaches, fostering a culture of thinking beyond traditional boundaries when faced with complex issues.

• Decision-Making Challenges:  

Activities like “Onethread” facilitate group decision-making by providing a platform for open discussions and collaborative choices. Problem-solving activities require teams to make decisions collectively, teaching them to weigh options, consider different viewpoints, and arrive at informed conclusions—a skill that is transferable to real-world decision-making scenarios.

• Leadership and Role Clarification:  

Activities such as “Frostbite” and “Egg Drop” designate team leaders and roles within groups. This provides an opportunity for team members to practice leadership, delegation, and role-specific tasks. By experiencing leadership dynamics in a controlled setting, teams can improve their leadership skills and better understand their roles in actual projects.

• Problem-Solving Strategies:  

All of the problem-solving activities involve the application of different strategies. Teams learn to analyze problems, break them down into manageable components, and develop systematic approaches for resolution. These strategies can be adapted to real-world challenges, enabling teams to approach complex issues with confidence.

• Team Morale and Engagement:  

Participating in engaging and enjoyable activities boosts team morale and engagement. These activities provide a break from routine tasks, energize team members, and create a positive and fun atmosphere. Elevated team morale can lead to increased motivation and productivity.

The incentives of event prizes can further stimulate the enthusiasm and participation of team members. The choice of prizes is crucial, as it can directly affect the attractiveness and participation of the event. Among them, Medals are essential prizes.

Medals are symbols of honor awarded to winners and represent the value and achievement of an event.

Medals also have a motivational effect, they encourage team members to pursue higher achievements and progress.

Medals are artistic and aesthetic. They are usually designed by designers according to different occasions and themes and have high collection value.

By incorporating these fun problem-solving activities, teams can address a variety of challenges, foster skill development, and build a more cohesive and effective working environment. As teams learn to collaborate, communicate, innovate, and make decisions collectively, they are better equipped to overcome obstacles and achieve shared goals.

The Benefits of Problem Solving Activities for Your Team

#1 Better Thinking

Problem-solving activities bring out the best in team members by encouraging them to contribute their unique ideas. This stimulates better thinking as team managers evaluate different solutions and choose the most suitable ones.

For example, a remote team struggling with communication benefited from quick thinking and the sharing of ideas, leading to the adoption of various communication modes for improved collaboration.

#2 Better Risk Handling

Team building problem solving activities condition individuals to handle risks more effectively. By engaging in challenging situations and finding solutions, team members develop the ability to respond better to stressful circumstances.

#3 Better Communication

Regular communication among team members is crucial for efficient problem-solving. Engaging in problem-solving activities fosters cooperation and communication within the team, resulting in better understanding and collaboration. Using tools like OneThread can further enhance team communication and accountability.

#4 Improved Productivity Output

When teams work cohesively, overall productivity improves, leading to enhanced profit margins for the company or organization. Involving managers and team members in problem-solving activities can positively impact the company’s growth and profitability.

How Onethread Enhances the Effect of Problem Solving Activities

Problem-solving activities within teams thrive on collaborative efforts and shared perspectives. Onethread emerges as a potent facilitator, enabling teams to collectively tackle challenges and harness diverse viewpoints with precision. Here’s a comprehensive view of how Onethread amplifies team collaboration in problem-solving initiatives:

Open Channels for Discussion:

Onethread’s real-time messaging feature serves as a dedicated hub for open and seamless discussions. Teams can engage in brainstorming sessions, share insightful observations, and propose innovative solutions within a flexible environment. Asynchronous communication empowers members to contribute their insights at their convenience, fostering comprehensive problem analysis with ample deliberation.

Centralized Sharing of Resources:

Effective problem-solving often hinges on access to pertinent resources. Onethread’s document sharing functionality ensures that critical information, references, and research findings are centralized and readily accessible. This eradicates the need for cumbersome email attachments and enables team members to collaborate with precise and up-to-date data.

Efficient Task Allocation and Monitoring:

Problem-solving journeys comprise a series of tasks and actions. Onethread’s task management capability streamlines the delegation of specific responsibilities to team members. Assign tasks related to research, data analysis, or solution implementation and monitor progress in real time. This cultivates a sense of accountability and guarantees comprehensive coverage of every facet of the problem-solving process.

Facilitated Collaborative Decision-Making: Navigating intricate problems often demands collective decision-making. Onethread’s collaborative ecosystem empowers teams to deliberate over potential solutions, assess pros and cons, and make well-informed choices. Transparent discussions ensure that decisions are comprehensively comprehended and supported by the entire team.

Seamless Documentation and Insights Sharing:

As the problem-solving journey unfolds, the accumulation of insights and conclusions becomes pivotal. Onethread’s collaborative document editing feature empowers teams to document their discoveries, chronicle the steps undertaken, and showcase successful solutions. This shared repository of documentation serves as a valuable resource for future reference and continuous learning.

With Onethread orchestrating the backdrop, team collaboration during problem-solving activities transforms into a harmonious fusion of insights, ideas, and actionable steps.

What are the 5 problem-solving skills?

The top 5 problem-solving skills in 2023 are critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, adaptability, and data literacy. Most employers seek these skills in their workforce.

What are the steps of problem-solving?

Problem-solving steps are as follows: 1. Define the problem clearly. 2. Analyze the issue in detail. 3. Generate potential solutions. 4. Evaluate these options. 5. Choose the best solution. 6. Put the chosen solution into action. 7. Measure the outcomes to assess effectiveness and improvements made. These sequential steps assist in efficient and effective problem resolution.

How do you teach problem-solving skills?

Teaching problem-solving involves modelling effective methods within a context, helping students grasp the problem, dedicating ample time, asking guiding questions, and giving suggestions. Connect errors to misconceptions to enhance understanding, fostering a straightforward approach to building problem-solving skills.

So here is all about “activities for problem solving”.No matter which activity you choose, engaging in problem-solving activities not only provides entertainment but also helps enhance cognitive abilities such as critical thinking, decision making, and creativity. So why not make problem solving a regular part of your routine?

Take some time each day or week to engage in these activities and watch as your problem-solving skills grow stronger. Plus, it’s an enjoyable way to pass the time and challenge yourself mentally.

So go ahead, grab a puzzle or gather some friends for a game night – get ready to have fun while sharpening your problem-solving skills!

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22 Unbeatable Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Problem-solving is a critical skill for professionals and with team building problem-solving activities, you can sharpen your skills while having fun at the same time.  

Updated: March 1, 2024

In the professional world, one thing is for sure: problem-solving is a vital skill if you want to survive and thrive. It’s a universal job skill that organizations seek in new potential employees and that managers look for when considering candidates for promotions.  

But there’s a problem. 

According to Payscale, 60% of managers feel that new grads entering the workforce lack problem-solving abilities – making it the most commonly lacking soft skill.  

Problem-solving skill needs to be practiced and perfected on an ongoing basis in order to be applied effectively when the time comes. And while there are tons of traditional approaches to becoming a better problem-solver, there’s another (much more interesting) option: team building problem-solving activities. 

The good news? This means learning and having fun don’t have to be mutually exclusive. And you can create a stronger team at the same time. 

16 In-Person Team Building Problem Solving Activities for Your Work Group  

1. cardboard boat building challenge, 2. egg drop , 3. clue murder mystery, 4. marshmallow spaghetti tower  , 5. corporate escape room, 6. wild goose chase, 7. lost at sea  , 8. domino effect challenge, 9. reverse pyramid  , 10. ci: the crime investigators, 11. team pursuit, 12. bridge builders, 13. domino effect challenge, 14. hollywood murder mystery, 15. code break, 16. cardboard boat building challenge, 6 virtual team building problem solving activities for your work group  , 1. virtual escape room: mummy’s curse, 2. virtual clue murder mystery, 3. virtual escape room: jewel heist, 4. virtual code break  , 5. virtual trivia time machine.

• 6. Virtual Jeoparty Social

There are a ton of incredible team building problem solving activities available. We’ve hand-picked 16 of our favorites that we think your corporate group will love too. 

Split into teams and create a cardboard boat made out of just the materials provided: cardboard and tape. Team members will have to work together to engineer a functional boat that will float and sail across water without sinking. Once teams have finished making their boats, they will create a presentation to explain why their boat is the best, before putting their boats to the test. The final challenge will have teams racing their boats to test their durability! Nothing says problem-solving like having to make sure you don’t sink into the water!

Every day at work, you’re forced to make countless decisions – whether they’re massively important or so small you barely think about them.  

But your ability to effectively make decisions is critical in solving problems quickly and effectively.  

With a classic team building problem solving activity like the Egg Drop, that’s exactly what your team will learn to do. 

For this activity, you’ll need some eggs, construction materials, and a place you wouldn’t mind smashing getting dirty with eggshells and yolks.  

The goal of this activity is to create a contraption that will encase an egg and protect it from a fall – whether it’s from standing height or the top of a building. But the challenge is that you and your team will only have a short amount of time to build it before it’s time to test it out, so you’ll have to think quickly! 

To make it even more challenging, you’ll have to build the casing using only simple materials like: 

• Newspapers 
• Plastic wrap
• Rubber bands
• Popsicle sticks
• Cotton balls

Feel free to have some fun in picking the materials. Use whatever you think would be helpful without making things too easy! 

Give your group 15 minutes to construct their egg casing before each team drops their eggs. If multiple eggs survive, increase the height gradually to see whose created the sturdiest contraption.  

If you’re not comfortable with the idea of using eggs for this activity, consider using another breakable alternative, such as lightbulbs for a vegan Egg Drop experience. 

With Clue Murder Mystery, your team will need to solve the murder of a man named Neil Davidson by figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime.

But it won’t be easy! You’ll need to exercise your best problem-solving skills and channel your inner detectives if you want to keep this case from going cold and to get justice for the victim.

Collaboration is critical to problem solving. 

Why? Because, as the old saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This expression reflects the fact that people are capable of achieving greater things when they work together to do so. 

If you’re looking for a team building problem solving activity that helps boost collaboration, you’ll love Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower.  

This game involves working in teams to build the tallest possible freestanding tower using only marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string.  

The kicker? This all has to be done within an allotted timeframe. We recommend about thirty minutes.  

For an added dimension of challenge, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower to make it a little more top heavy.  

Whichever team has the highest tower when time runs out is the winner! 

If you’ve never participated in an escape room, your team is missing out! It’s one of the most effective team building problem solving activities out there because it puts you and your colleagues in a scenario where the only way out is collaboratively solving puzzles and deciphering clues.  

The principle is simple: lock your group in a room, hide the key somewhere in that room, and have them work through challenges within a set time frame. Each challenge will lead them one step closer to finding the key and, ultimately, their escape.    

At Outback, we offer “done-for-you” escape rooms where we’ll transform your office or meeting room so you don’t have to worry about:

• Seeking transportation for your team 
• Capacity of the escape rooms  
• High costs 
• Excessive planning  

That way, you and your team can simply step inside and get to work collaborating, using creative problem solving, and thinking outside the box.   

In this smartphone-based scavenger hunt team building activity , your group will split into teams and complete fun challenges by taking photos and videos around the city. Some examples of challenges you can do in this activity are:

• Parkour:  Take a picture of three team members jumping over an object that’s at least waist-high.
• Beautiful Mind:  Snap a photo of a team member proving a well-known mathematical theorem on a chalkboard.
• Puppy Love:  Take a photo of all of your team members petting a stranger’s dog at the same time.

It takes a ton of critical thinking and problem-solving to be crowned the Wild Goose Chase Champions!

Can you imagine a higher-pressure situation than being stranded at sea in a lifeboat with your colleagues? 

With this team building problem solving activity, that’s exactly the situation you and your group will put yourselves. But by the time the activity is over, you’ll have gained more experience with the idea of having to solve problems under pressure – a common but difficult thing to do. 

Here’s how it works. 

Each team member will get a six-columned chart where: 

• The first column lists the survival items each team has on hand (see the list below) 
• The second column is empty so that each team member can rank the items in order of importance for survival  
• The third column is for group rankings  
• The fourth column is for the “correct” rankings, which are revealed at the end of the activity 
• The fifth and sixth columns are for the team to enter thee difference between their individual and correct scores and the team and correct rankings 

Within this activity, each team will be equipped with the following “survival items,” listed below in order of importance, as well as a pack of matches:  

• A shaving mirror (this can be used to signal passing ships using the sun) 
• A can of gas (could be used for signaling as it could be put in the water and lit with the pack of matches) 
• A water container (for collecting water to re-hydrate ) 
• Emergency food rations (critical survival food) 
• One plastic sheet (can be helpful for shelter or to collect rainwater) 
• Chocolate bars (another food supply) 
• Fishing rods (helpful, but no guarantee of catching food) 
• Rope (can be handy, but not necessarily essential for survival) 
• A floating seat cushion (usable as a life preserver)  
• Shark repellant (could be important when in the water) 
• A bottle of rum (could be useful for cleaning wounds) 
• A radio (could be very helpful but there’s a good chance you’re out of range) 
• A sea chart (this is worthless without navigation equipment) 
• A mosquito net (unless you’ve been shipwrecked somewhere with a ton of mosquitos, this isn’t very useful) 

To get the activity underway, divide your group into teams of five and ask each team member to take ten minutes on their own to rank the items in order of importance in the respective column. Then, give the full team ten minutes as a group to discuss their individual rankings together and take group rankings, listed in that respective column. Ask each group to compare their individual rankings with those of the group as a whole. 

Finally, read out the correct order according to the US Coast Guard, listed above.  

The goal of this activity is for everyone to be heard and to come to a decision together about what they need most to survive.  

If your team works remotely, you can also do this activity online. Using a video conferencing tool like  Zoom , you can bring your group together and separate teams into “break-out rooms” where they’ll take their time individually and then regroup together. At the end, you can bring them back to the full video conference to go through the answers together. 

Many problems are intricately complex and involve a ton of moving parts. And in order to solve this type of problem, you need to be able to examine it systematically, one piece at a time.  

Especially in the business world, many problems or challenges involve multiple different teams or departments working through their respective portions of a problem before coming together in the end to create a holistic solution. 

As you can imagine, this is often easier said than done. And that’s why it’s so important to practice this ability.  

With a collaborative team building problem solving activity like Domino Effect Challenge, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do as you and your group work to create a massive, fully functional chain reaction machine. 

Here’s how it goes. 

Your group will break up into teams, with each team working to complete their own section of a massive “Rube Goldberg” machine. Then, all teams will regroup and assemble the entire machine together. You’ll need to exercise communication, collaboration, and on-the-fly problem solving in order to make your chain reaction machine go off without a hitch from start to finish. 

Being a great problem-solver means being adaptable and creative. And if you’re looking for a quick and easy team building problem solving activity, you’ll love the reverse pyramid. 

The idea here is simple: break your group out into small teams and then stand in the form of a pyramid.  

Your challenge is to flip the base and the peak of the pyramid – but you can only move three people in order to do so.  

Alternatively, rather than doing this activity with people as the pyramid, you can do another version –  the Pyramid Build  – using plastic cups instead.   

This version is a little bit different. Rather than flipping the base of a pyramid to the top, you’ll need to build the pyramid instead–but in reverse, starting from the top cup and working down. 

With this version, you’ll need 36 cups and one table per group. We recommend groups of five to seven people. Give your group 20 to 30 minutes to complete the activity. 

To get started, place one cup face down. Then, lift that cup and place the subsequent two cups underneath it. 

The real challenge here? You can only lift your pyramid by the bottom row in order to put a new row underneath – and only one person at a time can do the lifting. The remaining group members will need to act quickly and work together in order to add the next row so that it will balance the rest of the pyramid. 

If any part of your pyramid falls, you’ll need to start over. Whichever team has the most complete pyramid when time runs out will be the winner!  

The value of being able to approach problems analytically can’t be overstated. Because when problems arise, the best way to solve them is by examining the facts and making a decision based on what you know. 

With CI: The Crime Investigators, this is exactly what your team will be called upon to do as you put your detective’s hats on and work to solve a deadly crime. 

You’ll be presented with evidence and need to uncover and decipher clues. And using only the information at your disposal, you’ll need to examine the facts in order to crack the case. 

Like many of our team building problem solving activities, CI: The Crime Investigators is available in a hosted format, which can take place at your office or an outside venue, as well as a virtually-hosted format that uses video conferencing tools, or a self-hosted version that you can run entirely on your own.  

Each member of your team has their own unique strengths and skills. And by learning to combine those skills, you can overcome any challenge and solve any problem. With Team Pursuit, you and your team together to tackle challenges as you learn new things about one another, discover your hidden talents, and learn to rely on each other.

This team building problem solving activity is perfect for high-energy groups that love to put their heads together and work strategically to solve problems as a group.

Collaborate with your colleague to design and build different segments of a bridge. At the end, see if the sections come together to create a free-standing structure!   

Together as a group, see if you and your colleagues can build a gigantic “chain-reaction” machine that really works!

In smaller groups, participants work together to solve the challenge of creating sections of the machine using miscellaneous parts, and at the end, you’ll have to collaborate to connect it all together and put it in motion.

The case is fresh, but here’s what we know so far: we’ve got an up-and-coming actress who’s been found dead in her hotel room following last night’s awards show.

We have several suspects, but we haven’t been able to put the crime on any of them for sure yet. Now, it’s up to you and your team of detectives to crack the case. Together, you’ll review case files and evidence including police reports, coroners’ reports, photo evidence, tabloids, interrogations, and phone calls as you determine the motive, method, and murderer and bring justice for the victim.

You’ll need to put your problem-solving skills to the test as you share theories, collaborate, and think outside the box with your fellow investigators.

Using Outback’s app, split up into small groups and put your heads together to solve a variety of puzzles, riddles, and trivia. The team who has completed the most challenges when time is up, wins!

Can you stay afloat in a body of water in a boat made entirely of cardboard? Now that is a problem that urgently needs solving.

With this team building problem solving activity, you and your colleagues will split into groups and create a cardboard boat made out of just the materials provided – cardboard and tape.

Team members will have to work together to engineer a functional boat that will float and sail across water without sinking. Once teams have finished making their boats, they will create a presentation to explain why their boat is the best, before putting their boats to the test. The final challenge will have teams racing their boats across the water!

If you and your team are working remotely, don’t worry. You still have a ton of great virtual team building problem solving options at your disposal.

In this virtual escape room experience, your team will be transported into a pyramid cursed by a restless mummy. You’ll have to work together to uncover clues and solve complex challenges to lift the ancient curse.

You’ve probably never heard of a man named Neil Davidson. But your group will need to come together to solve the mystery of his murder by analyzing clues, resolving challenges, and figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit a deadly crime. 

This activity will challenge you and your group to approach problems analytically, read between the lines, and use critical thinking in order to identify a suspect and deliver justice.  

If you and your team like brainteasers, then Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist will be a big hit.  

Here’s the backstory.

There’s been a robbery. Someone has masterminded a heist to steal a priceless collection of precious jewels, and it’s up to you and your team to recover them before time runs out.

Together, you’ll need to uncover hidden clues and solve a series of brain-boggling challenges that require collaboration, creative problem-solving, and outside-the-box thinking. But be quick! The clock is ticking before the stolen score is gone forever.

With Virtual Code Break, you and your team can learn to be adaptive and dynamic in your thinking in order to tackle any new challenges that come your way. In this activity, your group will connect on a video conferencing platform where your event host will split you out into teams. Together, you’ll have to adapt your problem-solving skills as you race against the clock to tackle a variety of mixed brainteaser challenges ranging from Sudoku to puzzles, a game of Cranium, riddles, and even trivia. 

Curious to see how a virtual team building activity works? Check out this video on a Virtual Clue Murder Mystery in action. 

Step into the Outback Time Machine and take a trip through time, from pre-pandemic 21st century through the decades all the way to the 60’s. 

This exciting, fast-paced virtual trivia game, packed with nostalgia and good vibes, is guaranteed to produce big laughs, friendly competition, and maybe even some chair-dancing. 

Your virtual game show host will warm up guests with a couple of “table hopper rounds” (breakout room mixers) and split you out into teams. Within minutes, your home office will be transformed into a game show stage with your very own game show buzzers! 

And if your team loves trivia, check out our list of the most incredible virtual trivia games for work teams for even more ideas.

6.  Virtual Jeoparty Social

If your remote team is eager to socialize, have some fun as a group, and channel their competitive spirit, we’ve got just the thing for you! With Virtual Jeoparty Social, you and your colleagues will step into your very own virtual Jeopardy-style game show—equipped with a buzzer button, a professional actor as your host, and an immersive game show platform! Best of all, this game has been infused with an ultra-social twist: players will take part in a unique social mixer challenge between each round. 

With the right team building problem solving activities, you can help your team sharpen their core skills to ensure they’re prepared when they inevitably face a challenge at work. And best of all, you can have fun in the process. 

Do you have any favorite team building activities for building problem-solving skills? If so, tell us about them in the comments section below! 

Learn More About Team Building Problem Solving Activities  

For more information about how your group can take part in a virtual team building, training, or coaching solution, reach out to our Employee Engagement Consultants.     

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I love how this blog provides a variety of problem-solving activities for team building. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to foster teamwork and collaboration!

Home » Games » 17 Fun Problem Solving Activities & Games [for Kids, Adults and Teens]

17 Fun Problem Solving Activities & Games [for Kids, Adults and Teens]

Everyone should learn problem solving, as it is important in both our personal and professional lives. Problems occur all around us and many people react with spontaneous emotion. Instead, effective use of problem solving skills can lead to rational thinking, a component of any successful endeavor.

Creative problem involves using one or more of the basic steps of problem solving in exercises designed to challenge the thinking. Problem solving activities work for every age group. In this article, we will present problem-solving activities for adults and kids. We will also provide you with group and team building problem solving ideas.

Table of Contents

There are four basic steps in problem solving:

• define the problem
• generate possible solutions
• evaluate and select possible solutions
• implement solutions

Problem solving activities use one of more of these steps.

Group Problem Solving Activities

Group activities provide an effective way to learn problem-solving skills. The following list of activities present problem solving skills in the form of games, a non-threatening and fun way.

Divide your group into teams of equal numbers. Give each team a ball of yarn. Instruct the teams to create a web using only the yarn. Once the teams have finished (you may have to set an amount of time for completion), switch the teams around so that every team has a web other than their own. Each team then blindfolds one team member. The goal is for the blindfolded individual to unwind the web following the verbal instruction of their teammates. In order to be successful, team members must concentrate, and give/follow directions. The first team that has dismantled the web wins this game.

To Do Scavenger Hunt

This scavenger hunt game involves solving a list of problem activities. Begin by dividing your group into teams. Give each group a list of to do activities. The list should begin with some simple tasks, with increasingly more difficult activities. Some suggested activities are:

• Write a one hundred word poem on a given theme.
• Find an object readily available in the area in which you are playing
• Drink a whole can or glass of a liquid
• Solve a Sudoku or cross word puzzle
• Write out all the lyrics of a song (a Christmas carol works well at holiday time)

The team that completes all the activities first, wins.

Impromptu Skits

Prior to playing this game, write down a few appropriate situations that deal events in the venue in which you are playing. For example, for a group involved in customer service, use dealing with an angry customer on the phone. If you have a large group, divide them into teams of six to eight members. Have each group choose a folded piece of paper on which you have written the subject of a skit they must create.  Give a set amount of time to prepare the skit and then have each team present their skit to the group. If you have a small group, have each person create one side of a conversation dealing with the problem for presentation to everyone.

Block Duplicating

Build a model out of building blocks. Provide each group member (or divide into teams for a large group ) enough blocks to duplicate the model. Set a specific amount of time for completing the duplicated model. The team that is the first to finish – or gets the furthest on completing their model – wins. The more difficult the original model, the longer this task will take.

Team Building Problem Solving Activities

When choosing team building problem solving activities, make sure the game you use suits the group of people – their ages and interests. The activities we have listed will help with not only problem solving, but also build decision making, collaboration, and listening skills.

Tower Building

Although there are many variations to this game, this one using spaghetti and marsh mellows is our favorite. Divide you group into teams with an equal number of players. Provide each team with an equal amount of spaghetti and marsh mellows. The goal is to see which team can build the highest tower within a set amount of time.

Personalized Crossword

For this game to be effective, you need one or more teams of 8 to 10 people. Have each team list the first and last names of their group members. The goal is to create a crossword puzzle with clues composed of hints about the person, for example, if only one team member has red hair, the two clues for her first and last name could be, “Red hair,” and “Ginger.” It should take each team 20 to 30 minutes to complete their puzzle. When all the teams are finished, trade puzzles so that every team has a different one. Make sure you provide a list of names for the puzzle solvers.

Picture Pieces Puzzle Game

Prepare for this problem solving activity by choosing a well-known picture or cartoon full of detail. Cut the picture into equal sized squares and give one to each member of the group. You will need as many pieces as you have participants. Additionally, give each person a pencil, ruler for help enlarging the picture, colored markers, and a clean sheet of paper. Instruct them to make the puzzle piece five times larger.

Problem Solving Activities for Adults

Divide your group into two teams. Line up the two teams front to back. Have the two groups face each other. Using chalk, spray paint, or masking tape (depending on the play surface) mark a square space for each person to stand on with one extra empty space between the two facing rows. You may also use a piece of paper for each person. The goal is for the two facing lines of players to change places.

Place these restrictions on movement:

• Only one person may move at a time.
• A person may not move around anyone facing the same direction.
• A person may not move backward.
• A person may not move around more than one person on the other team at a time.

Playing Card Mix-up

Divide your group into teams of six to eight participants. Give each team two decks of cards randomly mixed together. Tell the group they must sort them out without talking. As they working at the task, after a few minutes, change the way in which they are doing so using one of the following:

• If a team is sorting by suits from ace to king (4 stacks), tell them to collect the suits together by number (13 stacks).
• If a team begins by collecting the suits together, i.e. all the ones, twos, threes, etc., tell them to sort the suits from ace to king.

The team(s) that do so successfully by the end of a given time (depending on the size of your group) share what methods they used to accomplish the task.

Blindfolded games are always fun and provide the perfect challenge for adult problem solving. We have provided two for you.

Blind Formations

Have your group of adults put on blindfolds and form a large circle. Tie the ends of a rope together and lay in it a circle in the middle of the group, close enough that each person can reach down and pick up the rope. Tell them they must create a shape – a square, triangle, pentagon, etc. If you have a very large group, divide them into teams and provide a rope for each team. Let them compete to see who forms a particular shape quickest.

Line up Blind

Blindfold everyone and number the group by whispering a number to each individual beginning at one. Tell them to line up in numerical order without talking. Variations are many, with some of the favorites not requiring the whispering step being to line up according to height, birthday, surname, color of hair, etc.

Balloon Tower

Divide you group into teams of three and provide ten balloons and four 3-foot long strips of masking tape for each team. The object of this problem solving activity is to build the tallest freestanding tower in ten minutes. They can break the balloons if they wish. However, they may not use any additional materials and the tower must be built on a table or the floor. If you wish, you may add the following instructions:

• No talking.
• Each team member may use only one hand.
• One team member may not touch the materials and only give directions.

You can use one or more of these limitations in 60-second intervals. The first team to complete their tower wins this challenge.

Problem Solving Activities for Kids

The purpose of problem solving activities for kids is to get kids to think about a problem in a different way and have fun while solving it. Children will develop their creativity as they seek to implement a solution.

Walking the Plank

For this problem solving activity for older kids or teens, you will need four 2×6 boards. Divide your group into two teams with an equal number of children on each team. Place two of the four boards end to end on the ground or floor. Set the other two parallel to the first two about two or three feet apart. The goal is for each team to pass one board forward while standing on the other board in single file. If someone steps off a board, the team must start over. The team that succeeds in passing the boards a set number of times, or reaches a predetermined spot is the winner.

“Laser” Web

Use a large ball of string to create a giant web from one end of a room to the other. The goal is for individuals or teams to move through the web without touching the string. If they do so, they have been “zapped by a laser” and must try again. For greater suspense and for older players, use blindfolds or turn off the lights, allowing players to touch the string, but not pull it down or out of its original shape.

Group Drawing

Divide your group of kids into teams of three. Each person on the team has a one of the following roles:

• Drawer . The drawer attempts to recreate a pre-drawn design they cannot see. They take directions from the talker. They stand with their back to the talker and viewer and may not talk.
• Talker . The talker describes the design to the drawer, without seeing the design. They may question the viewer. They may not use hand gestures.
• Viewer . The viewer sees the design. However, they are not allowed to talk and must communicate nonverbally to the talker.  Additionally, they must not draw the design in the air or actually show the design with their gestures.

The activity ends when the viewers say they are satisfied with the drawings. You may wish to award a prize to the best drawing.

Prior to playing this game, write on individual slips of paper the names of animal pairs, one name on each slip. Distribute the slips of paper to each group, instructing them not to share which animal name they received. The kids then move around performing activities their animal might do. The goal is for the kids to get into pairs successfully in a set amount of time without talking or making any noises. Suggest the following activities:

• Cleaning or grooming
• Eating and drinking
• Walking or running

Alphabet Game

Have your players sit or stand in a circle. The goal is to shout out words in alphabetical order. Give the kids one of the following categories (or choose your own):

If a player takes longer than five seconds to think of a word, they are out. The last player remaining wins the game.

People achieve more when they solve problems and make decisions together. Our problem solving activities teach participants how to work out a solution, a talent useful in many different environments. Problem solving:

• Improves team work
• Helps participants address complex situations
• Utilizes different thinking styles
• Increases creativity
• Collectively leads to decision making
• Teaches both negotiation and cooperation

After completing a problem solving activity, encourage participants to discuss what process(es) they used in the exercise. Even kids are able to participate in such discussions. Also ask what was learned and if they have any opinions about how they could have solved the problem more efficiently.

Team-building exercises can improve problem solving and decision making in a new or established team. They work with every age group and in many different environments. Use our exercises to help solve problems and have some fun doing so.

Susan majored in English with a double minor in Humanities and Business at Arizona State University and earned a Master’s degree in Educational Administration from Liberty University. She taught grades four through twelve in both public and private schools. Subjects included English, U.S. and world history and geography, math, earth and physical science, Bible, information technologies, and creative writing.

Susan has been freelance writing for over ten years, during which time she has written and edited books, newspaper articles, biographies, book reviews, guidelines, neighborhood descriptions for realtors, Power Point presentations, resumes, and numerous other projects.

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Thanks for your help!!

excellent ideas – thanks !

Excellent ideas.

Thank you. My students have requested we do team-building activities; I thought we would start with problem-solving.

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Top 15 problem-solving activities for your team to master

May 27, 2022 - 10 min read

Some people see problems as roadblocks, others see them as opportunities! Problem-solving activities are a great way to get to know how members of your team work, both individually and together. It’s important to teach your team strategies to help them quickly overcome obstacles in the way of achieving project goals.

In this article, you’ll explore 15 problem-solving activities designed to enhance collaboration and creativity. Additionally, if you want to discuss the insights and outcomes with your team after the activities, you can use Wrike’s actionable meeting notes template. This template allows you to record meeting discussions, assign action items, and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

The importance of problem-solving skills in today’s workplace

According to a 2019  report by McKinsey , soft skills are increasingly important in today's world — and problem-solving is the top area in which skills are lacking. A company or team’s success weighs heavily on the willingness of managers to help employees improve their problem-solving abilities. Team building activities targeting focus areas like communication and collaboration, adaptability, or strengthening decision-making techniques help.

All problem-solving processes start with identifying the problem. Next, the team must assess potential courses of action and choose the best way to tackle the problem. This requires a deep understanding of your team and its core strengths. A problem-solving exercise or game helps identify those strengths and builds problem-solving skills and strategies while having fun with your team.

Problem-solving games aren't for just any team. Participants must have an open mind and accept all ideas and solutions . They must also have an Agile mindset and embrace different structures, planning, and processes. Problems usually arise when we least expect them, so there's no better way to prepare than to encourage agility and flexibility.

Another aspect to keep in mind when engaging in problem-solving games and activities: There are no winners or losers. Sure, some games might end with a single winner, but the true goal of these exercises is to learn how to work together as a team to develop an Agile mindset. The winning team of each game should share their strategies and thought processes at the end of the exercise to help everyone learn.

Here’s a list of fun problem-solving activity examples to try with your team. From blindfolds to raw eggs, these problem-solving, team-building activities will have your team solving problems faster than Scooby and the gang.

Classic team-building, problem-solving activities

1. a shrinking vessel.

Helps with: Adaptability

Why adaptability is important for problem-solving: Adaptability is highly associated with cognitive diversity, which helps teams solve problems faster , according to the Harvard Business Review. Innovation and disruption are happening faster than ever before . People, teams, and organizations that can adapt will come out on top.

What you’ll need:

• A rope or string

Instructions:

1. Using the rope, make a shape on the floor everyone can fit into.

2. Slowly shrink the space over 10-15 minutes.

3. Work together to figure out how to keep everyone within the shrinking boundaries.

2. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Helps with: Collaboration

Why collaboration is important for problem-solving: “Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individually,” writes Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline . We can solve problems better as a team than we can alone, which means developing your team’s collaboration skills will lead to better problem-solving outcomes.

What you’ll need (per team):

• 20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti
• 1 roll of masking tape
• 1 yard of string
• 1 marshmallow

1. The goal of this exercise is to see which team can use the materials provided to build the tallest tower within an allotted time period. The tower must be able to stand on its own.

2. To make this exercise more challenging, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower. This team problem-solving exercise helps people think on their toes while building camaraderie and leadership.

3. Egg Drop

Helps with: Collaboration, decision-making

Why decision-making is important for problem-solving: Making decisions isn’t easy , but indecision leads to team paralysis, stagnant thinking, and unsolved problems. Decision-making activities help your team practice making quick, effective choices. Train your team’s decision-making muscles and they will become more adept at problem-solving.

• A carton of eggs
• Basic construction materials such as newspapers, straws, tape, plastic wrap, balloons, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, etc., tarp, or drop cloth
• A parking lot, or some other place you don’t mind getting messy!

1. Each team gets an egg and must select from the construction materials.

2. Give everyone 20-30 minutes to construct a carrier for the egg and protect it from breaking.

3. Drop each egg carrier off a ledge (i.e. over a balcony) and see whose carrier protects the egg from breaking.

4. If multiple eggs survive, keep increasing the height until only one egg is left.

4. Stranded

Helps with: Communication, decision-making

Why communication is important for problem-solving: More employees work remotely than ever before. Good communication skills are vital to solving problems across  virtual teams . Working on communication skills while your team is together will help them solve problems more effectively when they’re apart.

Here's the setting: Your team has been stranded in the office. The doors are locked, and knocking down the doors or breaking the windows is not an option. Give your team 30 minutes to decide on ten items in the office they need for survival and rank them in order of importance. The goal of the game is to have everyone agree on the ten items and their rankings in 30 minutes.

Creative problem-solving activities

Helps with: Communication

What you'll need:

1. Divide everyone into small teams of two or more.

2. Select an overseer who isn't on a team to build a random structure using Lego building blocks within ten minutes.

3. The other teams must replicate the structure exactly (including size and color) within 15 minutes. However, only one member from each group may look at the original structure. They must figure out how to communicate the size, color, and shape of the original structure to their team.

4. If this is too easy, add a rule that the member who can see the original structure can't touch the new structure.

• A lockable room
• 5-10 puzzles or clues (depending on how much time you want to spend on the game)

1. The goal of this exercise is to solve the clues, find the key, and escape a locked room within the time allotted.

2. Hide the key and a list of clues around the room.

3. Gather the team into the empty room and "lock" the door.

4. Give them 30 minutes to an hour to find the key using the clues hidden around the room.

7. Frostbite

Helps with: Decision-making, adaptability

• A blindfold
• 1 packet of construction materials (such as card stock, toothpicks, rubber bands, and sticky notes) for each team
• An electric fan

Instructions:  Your employees are Arctic explorers adventuring across an icy tundra! Separate them into teams of four or five and have them select a leader to guide their exploration. Each team must build a shelter from the materials provided before the storm hits in 30 minutes. However, both the team leader’s hands have frostbite, so they can’t physically help construct the shelter, and the rest of the team has snow blindness and is unable to see. When the 30 minutes is up, turn on the fan and see which shelter can withstand the high winds of the storm.

8. Minefield

• An empty room or hallway
• A collection of common office items

1. Place the items (boxes, chairs, water bottles, bags, etc.) around the room so there's no clear path from one end of the room to the other.

2. Divide your team into pairs and blindfold one person on the team.

3. The other must verbally guide that person from one end of the room to the other, avoiding the "mines."

4. The partner who is not blindfolded can't touch the other.

5. If you want to make the activity more challenging, have all the pairs go simultaneously so teams must find ways to strategically communicate with each other.

9. Blind Formations

1. Have the group put on blindfolds and form a large circle.

2. Tie two ends of a rope together and lay it in a circle in the middle of the group, close enough so each person can reach down and touch it.

3. Instruct the group to communicate to create a shape with the rope — a square, triangle, rectangle, etc.

4. If you have a very large group, divide them into teams and provide a rope for each team. Let them compete to see who forms a particular shape quickest.

Quick and easy problem-solving activities

10. line up blind.

1. Blindfold everyone and whisper a number to each person, beginning with one.

2. Tell them to line up in numerical order without talking.

3. Instead of giving them a number, you could also have them line up numerically by height, age, birthday, etc.

11. Reverse Pyramid

Helps with: Adaptability, collaboration

1. Have everyone stand in a pyramid shape, horizontally.

2. Ask them to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid moving only three people.

3. This quick exercise works best when smaller groups compete to see who can reverse the pyramid the fastest.

12. Move It!

• Chalk, rope, tape, or paper (something to mark a space)

1. Divide your group into two teams and line them up front to back, facing each other.

2. Using the chalk, tape, rope, or paper (depending on the playing surface), mark a square space for each person to stand on. Leave one extra empty space between the two facing rows.

3. The goal is for the two facing lines of players to switch places.

4. Place these restrictions on movement:

• Only one person may move at a time.
• A person may not move around anyone facing the same direction.
• No one may not move backward.
• A person may not move around more than one person on the other team at a time.

13. Human Knot

1. Have everyone stand in a circle, and ask each person to hold hands with two people who aren’t directly next to them.

2. When everyone is tangled together, ask them to untangle the knot and form a perfect circle — without letting go of anyone's hand.

Our last two problem-solving activities work best when dealing with an actual problem:

14. Dumbest Idea First

Helps with: Instant problem-solving

1. "Dumb" ideas are sometimes the best ideas. Ask everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solution to the problem at hand.

2. After you have a long list, look through it and see which ones might not be as dumb as you think.

3. Brainstorm your solutions in Wrike. It's free and everyone can start collaborating instantly!

15. What Would X Do

1. Have everyone pretend they're someone famous.

2. Each person must approach the problem as if they were their chosen famous person. What options would they consider? How would they handle it?

3. This allows everyone to consider solutions they might not have thought of originally.

Looking for more team-building and virtual meeting games? Check out these virtual icebreaker games or our  Ultimate Guide to Team Building Activities that Don't Suck.

Additional resources on problem-solving activities

• Problem-Solving Model : Looking for a model to provide a problem-solving structure? This detailed guide gives you the tools to quickly solve any problem.
• The Simplex Process:  Popularized by Min Basadur's book, The Power of Innovation , the Simplex Process provides training and techniques for each problem-solving stage. It helps frame problem-solving as a continuous cycle, rather than a “one and done” process.
• Fun Problem-Solving Activities and Games : Looking for more ideas? Check out this list of interesting and creative problem-solving activities for adults and kids!
• The Secret to Better Problem-Solving:  This article provides tips, use cases, and fresh examples to help you become a whiz at solving the toughest problems.

How to organize problem-solving activities with Wrike

If you want to make problem-solving activities more effective, consider using team collaboration software such as Wrike. 

Wrike’s pre-built actionable meeting notes template helps you keep track of meeting discussions, assign action items, and keep everyone in the loop. It’s an effective tool to streamline your problem-solving sessions and turn insights into real projects.

Brianna Hansen

Brianna is a former Content Marketing Manager of Wrike. When she’s not writing about collaboration and team building games, you’ll find her in the kitchen testing out the latest recipes, sharing her favorite wine with friends, or playing with her two cats.

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14 Best Team Building Problem Solving Group Activities For 2024

The best teams see solutions where others see problems. A great company culture is built around a collaborative spirit and the type of unity it takes to find answers to the big business questions.

So how can you get team members working together?

How can you develop a mentality that will help them overcome obstacles they have yet to encounter?

One of the best ways to improve your teams’ problem solving skills is through team building problem solving activities .

“86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures.” — Bit.AI

These activities can simulate true-to-life scenarios they’ll find themselves in, or the scenarios can call on your employees or coworkers to dig deep and get creative in a more general sense.

The truth is, on a day-to-day basis, you have to prepare for the unexpected. It just happens that team building activities help with that, but are so fun that they don’t have to feel like work ( consider how you don’t even feel like you’re working out when you’re playing your favorite sport or doing an exercise you actually enjoy! )

What are the benefits of group problem-solving activities?

The benefits of group problem-solving activities for team building include:

• Better communication
• Improved collaboration and teamwork
• More flexible thinking
• Faster problem-solving
• Better proactivity and decision making

Without further ado, check out this list of the 14 best team-building problem-solving group activities for 2024!

Page Contents (Click To Jump)

Popular Problem Solving Activities

1. virtual team challenge.

Virtual Team Challenges are popular problem-solving activities that involve a group of people working together to solve an issue. The challenge generally involves members of the team brainstorming, discussing, and creating solutions for a given problem.

Participants work both individually and collaboratively to come up with ideas and strategies that will help them reach their goals.

Why this is a fun problem-solving activity: Participants can interact and communicate with each other in a virtual environment while simultaneously engaging with the problem-solving activities. This makes it an enjoyable experience that allows people to use their creative thinking skills, build team spirit, and gain valuable insights into the issue at hand.

	🙋🏻‍♀️ Survey says, your team will love this
	🔐 A virtual escape room experience
	🔪 Can you solve the crime before it’s too late
	🕹 The ultimate team challenge
	❓ Time to wager your trivia knowledge

Problem-solving activities such as Virtual Team Challenges offer a great way for teams to come together, collaborate, and develop creative solutions to complex problems.

2. Problem-Solving Templates

Problem-Solving Templates are popular problem-solving activities that involve a group of people working together to solve an issue. The challenge generally involves members of the team utilizing pre-made templates and creating solutions for a given problem with the help of visual aids.

This activity is great for teams that need assistance in getting started on their problem-solving journey.

Why this is a fun problem-solving activity: Problem-Solving Templates offer teams an easy and stress-free way to get the creative juices flowing. The visual aids that come with the templates help team members better understand the issue at hand and easily come up with solutions together.

	🎯 Help your team incorporate mindfulness into the workday
	🪐 Use the force to collect valuable feedback
	🦈 Pitch your million dollar idea
	🌮 Sync with your team on Tuesday!
	🗣 Ignite engaging conversations to kick off your next meeting

This activity is great for teams that need assistance in getting started on their problem-solving journey, as it provides an easy and stress-free way to get the creative juices flowing.

Problem Solving Group Activities & Games For Team Building

3. coworker feud, “it’s all fun and games”.

Coworker Feud is a twist on the classic Family Feud game show! This multiple rapid round game keeps the action flowing and the questions going. You can choose from a variety of customizations, including picking the teams yourself, randomized teams, custom themes, and custom rounds.

Best for: Hybrid teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Coworker Feud comes with digital game materials, a digital buzzer, an expert host, and a zoom link to get the participants ready for action! Teams compete with each other to correctly answer the survey questions. At the end of the game, the team with the most competitive answers is declared the winner of the Feud.

How to get started:

• Sign up for Coworker Feud
• Break into teams of 4 to 10 people
• Get the competitive juices flowing and let the games begin!

Learn more here: Coworker Feud

4. Crack The Case

“who’s a bad mamma jamma”.

Crack The Case is a classic WhoDoneIt game that forces employees to depend on their collective wit to stop a deadly murderer dead in his tracks! Remote employees and office commuters can join forces to end this crime spree.

Best for: Remote teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: The Virtual Clue Murder Mystery is an online problem solving activity that uses a proprietary videoconferencing platform to offer the chance for employees and coworkers to study case files, analyze clues, and race to find the motive, the method, and the individual behind the murder of Neil Davidson.

• Get a custom quote here
• Download the app
• Let the mystery-solving collaboration begin!

Learn more here: Crack The Case

5. Catch Meme If You Can

“can’t touch this”.

Purposefully created to enhance leadership skills and team bonding , Catch Meme If You Can is a hybrid between a scavenger hunt and an escape room . Teammates join together to search for clues, solve riddles, and get out — just in time!

Best for: Small teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Catch Meme If You Can is an adventure with a backstory. Each team has to submit their answer to the puzzle in order to continue to the next part of the sequence. May the best team escape!

• The teams will be given instructions and the full storyline
• Teams will be split into a handful of people each
• The moderator will kick off the action!

Learn more here: Catch Meme If You Can

6. Puzzle Games

“just something to puzzle over”.

Puzzle Games is the fresh trivia game to test your employees and blow their minds with puzzles, jokes , and fun facts!

Best for: In-person teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Eight mini brain teaser and trivia style games include word puzzles, name that nonsense, name that tune, and much more. Plus, the points each team earns will go towards planting trees in the precious ecosystems and forests of Uganda

• Get a free consultation for your team
• Get a custom designed invitation for your members
• Use the game link
• Dedicated support will help your team enjoy Puzzle Games to the fullest!

Learn more here: Puzzle Games

7. Virtual Code Break

“for virtual teams”.

Virtual Code Break is a virtual team building activity designed for remote participants around the globe. Using a smart video conferencing solution, virtual teams compete against each other to complete challenges, answer trivia questions, and solve brain-busters!

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Virtual Code Break can be played by groups as small as 4 people all the way up to more than 1,000 people at once. However, every team will improve their communication and problem-solving skills as they race against the clock and depend on each other’s strengths to win!

• Reach out for a free consultation to align the needs of your team
• An event facilitator will be assigned to handle all of the set-up and logistics
• They will also provide you with logins and a play-by-play of what to expect
• Sign into the Outback video conferencing platform and join your pre-assigned team
• Lastly, let the games begin!

Learn more here: Virtual Code Break

8. Stranded

“survivor: office edition”.

Stranded is the perfect scenario-based problem solving group activity. The doors of the office are locked and obviously your team can’t just knock them down or break the windows.

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Your team has less than half an hour to choose 10 items around the office that will help them survive. They then rank the items in order of importance. It’s a bit like the classic game of being lost at sea without a lifeboat.

• Get everyone together in the office
• Lock the doors
• Let them start working together to plan their survival

Learn more here: Stranded

9. Letting Go Game

“for conscious healing”.

The Letting Go Game is a game of meditation and mindfulness training for helping teammates thrive under pressure and reduce stress in the process. The tasks of the Letting Go Game boost resiliency, attentiveness, and collaboration.

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Expert-guided activities and awareness exercises encourage team members to think altruistically and demonstrate acts of kindness. Between yoga, face painting, and fun photography, your employees or coworkers will have more than enough to keep them laughing and growing together with this mindfulness activity!

• Reach out for a free consultation
• A guide will then help lead the exercises
• Let the funny videos, pictures, and playing begin!

Learn more here: Letting Go Game

10. Wild Goose Chase

“city time”.

Wild Goose Chase is the creative problem solving activity that will take teams all around your city and bring them together as a group! This scavenger hunt works for teams as small as 10 up to groups of over 5000 people.

Best for: Large teams

Why this is an effective group problem solving activity: As employees and group members are coming back to the office, there are going to be times that they’re itching to get outside. Wild Goose Chase is the perfect excuse to satisfy the desire to go out-of-office every now and then. Plus, having things to look at and see around the city will get employees talking in ways they never have before.

• Download the Outback app to access the Wild Goose Chase
• Take photos and videos from around the city
• The most successful team at completing challenges on time is the champ!

Learn more here: Wild Goose Chase

11. Human Knot

“for a knotty good time”.

The Human Knot is one of the best icebreaker team building activities! In fact, there’s a decent chance you played it in grade school. It’s fun, silly, and best of all — free!

Why this is an effective group problem solving activity: Participants start in a circle and connect hands with two other people in the group to form a human knot. The team then has to work together and focus on clear communication to unravel the human knot by maneuvering their way out of this hands-on conundrum. But there’s a catch — they can’t let go of each other’s hands in this team building exercise.

• Form a circle
• Tell each person to grab a random hand until all hands are holding another
• They can’t hold anyone’s hand who is directly next to them
• Now they have to get to untangling
• If the chain breaks before everyone is untangled, they have to start over again

Learn more here: Human Knot

12. What Would You Do?

“because it’s fun to imagine”.

What Would You Do? Is the hypothetical question game that gets your team talking and brainstorming about what they’d do in a variety of fun, intriguing, and sometimes, whacky scenarios.

Best for: Distributed teams

Why this is an effective group problem solving activity: After employees or coworkers start talking about their What Would You Do? responses, they won’t be able to stop. That’s what makes this such an incredible team building activity . For example, you could ask questions like “If you could live forever, what would you do with your time?” or “If you never had to sleep, what would you do?”

• In addition to hypothetical questions, you could also give teammates some optional answers to get them started
• After that, let them do the talking — then they’ll be laughing and thinking and dreaming, too!

13. Crossing The River

“quite the conundrum”.

Crossing The River is a river-crossing challenge with one correct answer. Your team gets five essential elements — a chicken, a fox, a rowboat, a woman, and a bag of corn. You see, the woman has a bit of a problem, you tell them. She has to get the fox, the bag of corn, and the chicken to the other side of the river as efficiently as possible.

Why this is an effective group problem solving activity: She has a rowboat, but it can only carry her and one other item at a time. She cannot leave the chicken and the fox alone — for obvious reasons. And she can’t leave the chicken with the corn because it will gobble it right up. So the question for your team is how does the woman get all five elements to the other side of the river safely in this fun activity?

• Form teams of 2 to 5 people
• Each team has to solve the imaginary riddle
• Just make sure that each group understands that the rowboat can only carry one animal and one item at a time; the fox and chicken can’t be alone; and the bag of corn and the chicken cannot be left alone
• Give the verbal instructions for getting everything over to the other side

14. End-Hunger Games

“philanthropic fun”.

Does anything bond people quite like acts of kindness and compassion? The End-Hunger Games will get your team to rally around solving the serious problem of hunger.

Best for: Medium-sized teams

Why this is an effective problem solving group activity: Teams join forces to complete challenges based around non-perishable food items in the End-Hunger Games. Groups can range in size from 25 to more than 2000 people, who will all work together to collect food for the local food bank.

• Split into teams and compete to earn boxes and cans of non-perishable food
• Each team attempts to build the most impressive food item construction
• Donate all of the non-perishable foods to a local food bank

Learn more here: End-Hunger Games

People Also Ask These Questions About Team Building Problem Solving Group Activities

Q: what are some problem solving group activities.

• A: Some problem solving group activities can include riddles, egg drop, reverse pyramid, tallest tower, trivia, and other moderator-led activities.

Q: What kind of skills do group problem solving activities & games improve?

• A: Group problem solving activities and games improve collaboration, leadership, and communication skills.

Q: What are problem solving based team building activities & games?

• A: Problem solving based team building activities and games are activities that challenge teams to work together in order to complete them.

Q: What are some fun free problem solving games for groups?

• A: Some fun free problem solving games for groups are kinesthetic puzzles like the human knot game, which you can read more about in this article. You can also use all sorts of random items like whiteboards, straws, building blocks, sticky notes, blindfolds, rubber bands, and legos to invent a game that will get the whole team involved.

Q: How do I choose the most effective problem solving exercise for my team?

• A: The most effective problem solving exercise for your team is one that will challenge them to be their best selves and expand their creative thinking.

Q: How do I know if my group problem solving activity was successful?

• A: In the short-term, you’ll know if your group problem solving activity was successful because your team will bond over it; however, that should also translate to more productivity in the mid to long-term.

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20 Problem Solving Activities to Improve Creativity

Creative problem solving requires creative problem solving activities. Even if you know all of the problem solving steps , it’s important to know exercises to actually execute each phase.  These exercises are techniques on how to improve problem solving skills and the art of problem solving.

Listed below are 20 interactive exercises that will help you through each step of the problem solving process.

Problem Solving Activities

Note: For the sake of demonstration, we use the same example for each exercise, in this case, the difficult problem of opening a jar of peanut butter (to make a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich of course).

Step 1: Define the Problem

Problem solving activities that help you phrase and understand the problem you are trying to solve:

#1. Newspaper Headline – Try writing your problem as if it were a headline in a newspaper. You can write it as if the problem still exists, or as if the problem were already solved. Try Tabloid headlines for even more creative ideas.

Example: “Local man attempts to provide joy to the world by opening a jar of peanut butter.”

#2. Future Party – Imagine it’s one year from today; what did you solve in the last year? How is the world different based on the solution? What were the steps you took to solve the problem?

Example:  “I can’t believe it’s been a year since we ate all the peanut butter from that crazy tight jar.”

#3. 40-20-10-5 – Explain your problem in up to 40 words. Then cut it down to 20 words; then to 10, then finally to only 5 words. These 5 words are the root of your problem (and likely the root of your solution as well).

Example:  (Starting at 10 words) “I want to open up this jar of peanut butter.” -> “Open this peanut butter jar.”

#4. Explain Life I’m Five – Explain your problem as if you were talking to a 5-year old kid. Use basic language and simple metaphors if necessary. Inspired by the subreddit ELI5 .

Example:  “There’s yummy-ness in this jar that I want to get out.”

Step 2: Brainstorm Ideas

Problem solving activities that help you generate a list of possible solutions that will solve your problem*:

#5. Ad Game – Have people mill about the room. When someone offers up an idea, everyone emphatically says “Yes!” and then the group continues to generate ideas, often building off the last idea that was just offered.

Example:   “We should use a tool to open this jar.” “Yes!” “And it should not hurt our hands.” “Yes!” “And it’ll be nearly effortless.” “Yes!”

#6. Dumbest Idea First – Hold a contest to get the dumbest idea out first. Encourage everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solutions to the problem. After you have a long list, go back through and see which ones may not be all that dumb.

Example: “Let’s open it using C4 explosives.”

#7. What Would X Do – Pretend you’re someone famous (or someone you admire) and ask yourself how they would solve the problem, what options would they consider?

Example:  (as Gandhi) “I will go on a hunger strike until the jar is ready to be open.”

#8. 10x10x10 Matrix – Generate a list of 10 ideas for solving the problem. Pick one of those ideas and generate 10 variations of that idea. Pick one idea from the new list and generate 10 more variations.

Example: (with just 5 ideas): –Round 1 (based on tools)–Dynamite, Power Drill, Vise grip, Scissors, Hammer. –Round 2 (based on vise grip)–Metal clamp, Pliers, Glue, Cement, Sticky Glove. –Round 3 (based on sticky glove)–Lots of tapping, Rubbing the seal, Punching, Soft caresses, Really strong hand.

*Note: Some of the exercises may not produce the perfect solution, but they can get you thinking differently.

Step 3: Decide on a Solution

Problem solving activities that help you narrow your list of possible solutions down to the best solution.

#9. Futures Wheel – Pick a possible solution and write it in the center of a piece of paper. List possible direct results/consequences of the solution around the center idea. List possible indirect results/consequences based on the direct results/consequences. Find more info here .

Example: Really strong hand leads to: ability to open other types of jars as well, big forearms, possible blisters, …

#10. Thiagi’s 35 – Use a point system to determine the preferred solution among your team, turning a possibly subjective discussion into an objective group decision. You can find a more detailed explanation on Thiagi’s site .

Example: Really strong hand – 7pts. Punching the jar – 3pts. A soft caress – 1pts.

#11. Idea Trial – When you can’t get agreement on which solution to choose, have the proponents of each idea represent them in “court.” Go through opening arguments, call witnesses and allow closing statements. Have the project board choose the winner.

Example: “Really strong hand, is it true you could also be used for terrible things, such as opening a can of sardines?”

#12. Coin-Flip – When deciding between two equally good solutions, flip a coin. When the coin is in the air, take note of what you secretly hope the result is and go with that (if you really can’t decide between the two, then go with the actual result of the coin-flip). Inspired by this poster.

Example: Heads is strong hands, tails is a soft cares. *Toss.* (I really don’t want to have to caress this jar of peanut butter…) Strong hands it is!

Step 4: Implement the Solution

Problem solving activities that help you implement the solution you have chosen:

#13. End in Mind – To create your plan, start with the end in mind and work backwards.  Establish key milestones and dates in reverse order, starting with the end-of-project celebration and ending with today.

Example: Eat delicious PB&J sandwich (5pm), Make delicious PB&J sandwich (4:58pm), Open Peanut Butter Jar (4:57pm), Build up grip strength (4:47), …

#14. Idea Mock-ups – Create a mock-up of the solution. You can a create physical mock-up using the various supplies in your office or a virtual mock-up using images from around the web.

Example: Tell me you wouldn’t buy this incredible product .

#15. Gamification – Turn the completion of your project into a game. Establish rules for how you earn points, create badges to celebrate milestones and track game progress. Learn more about gamification .

Example: For each squeeze of the PB Gripper, you get 1 point. 100 points earns you the Gripper Badge, 500 points earns you a pudding cup. After 1,000 points you should be able to open the Peanut Butter jar.

#16. Be a Character – Add some fun to your work by executing your plan as if you were a fictional character. Think about how they would operate and get into character.

Example: (as the Incredible Hulk): HULK SMASH!

Step 5: Review the Results

Problem solving activities that help you review the results you achieved and the way you achieved them:

#17. Apply McLuhan – Answer McLuhan’s tetrad of questions in context of your solution: 1) What does your solution enhance? 2) What does it make obsolete? 3) What does it bring back that was once obsolete and 4) What does it flip into when taken to the extreme?

Example: Using a strong grip to open the jar: 1) The ability to get peanut butter, 2) Other tools for opening jars, 3) The joy of cooking my own food, 4) Only eating peanut butter and nothing else.

#18. Word on the Street – Conduct “word-on-the-street” type interviews with members of your team, asking them how they felt about the project and the solution.

Example: “Sir, what’s your opinion on this new development on the ability to consume delicious peanut butter?”

#19. Stop-Start-Continue – Review the way you completed your project and pick activities you should stop (things you did on this project that you don’t think are necessary for future projects), start (things you didn’t do on this project but that you should do on future projects) and continue (things you did on the project that you should do on future projects).

Example: STOP doing every single exercise for one solution. START finding snacks to eat while waiting to get to the solution. CONTINUE eating peanut butter.

#20. Find the Funny – Write a monologue or stand-up set that covers some of the funny moments or ideas from the project. Share it with your team.

Example: What’s the deal with airline peanut butter?

Creative Problem Solving

The purpose of the above problem solving activities is to get you to think about the problem in a different way and have some fun while solving it–both of which will enhance your creativity in finding and implementing a solution. And as Einstein ( probably ) said:”The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

Note: The example used may be a bit facetious but these exercises do work for tougher problems. I wanted to include an example to facilitate understanding and it happened to be around snack time.

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9 thoughts on “20 Problem Solving Activities to Improve Creativity”

Thanks for sharing this article.

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Would you allow us to translate this (in Hungarian and Romanian) and use it in our class?

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23 Problem-solving games for busy work teams

Problem solving is a skill that can serve almost anyone, in any role, in any industry. The ability to think critically, and resolve issues is a welcome talent that is helpful for every organization. How can you encourage such thinking in your team? In this article, we are talking about our favorite problem-solving games, activities, and exercises for work. Use these activities to sharpen the reasoning and decision-making skills of your department or your entire company. Without further ado, let’s dive into the best problem solving games for getting the most of your next work event. 

In-person problem solving games

If you have the opportunity to get your team together in person, that’s a gift! Perhaps you are planning a company retreat or a department-wide in-person meeting. Whatever the circumstances, in today’s more digital workspace, it’s not always easy to have everyone in the same room. When you actually do, make the most of it! These activities are set up for in-person groups. They are part team-building activity, part icebreaker, and all fun! All of these activities are guaranteed to get people thinking, communicating, and having fun. If you have a particularly big group, you may want to browse our article on large group games too. 

1. Treasure hunt

Similar to a scavenger hunt, a treasure hunt is a lot of fun but with a bit more intention. Rather than collecting a random list of items, participants use clues to find more prompts and hints, until the group solves a mystery (or finds a treasure). You can also create a treasure map if you want to play into the “pirate” fantasy a little more. The important thing is that only clues point toward the next stop - areas of the map should not be spelled out, but involve some problem solving and critical thinking to figure out what the clue means. 

2. Story challenge

For the language lovers on your team, try this version of an ongoing story icebreaker. To play, each person receives a number of words (a word bank) that they can use to create a story. Then, everyone reads their piece out loud or presents it to the group. To come up with the words available for each person, you can use a random word generator online, or get creative. For example, consider instructing participants that they can only use words from the company website, or from the emails they received in their inbox yesterday. 

3. Moral dilemma

Similar to a “ would you rather ” game, this activity centers on ethical dilemmas. Players should try to flex their moral problem-solving muscles by tackling a social issue. For example, Scruples is a popular board game that can be played. Or, you can look online for versions of games like Dilemma or Quandary. This is a great way to learn more about your colleagues while getting a peek at the way they think. 

4. Build a shelter

How would you survive if you were stranded in an isolated place with a blizzard coming? Use this activity to find out! As an added complication, you can pretend that everyone is blinded by frostbite (by using blindfolds). The team leader must give the group instructions for building a shelter that can withstand the arctic winds. To play, you need a large space and some supplies. Then, select a leader (who can see) and blindfold everyone else. You’ll also need a large fan. The leader guides everyone in putting together their shelter (remember, while blindfolded). When everyone feels confident that their shelter is up to the test, turn on the fan and see if the structure can withstand the wind! This game is sure to lead to a lot of laughs and you’ll be surprised at some of the clever ideas that people come up with. This is also a powerful exercise for effective leadership - it’s not easy to reach a goal with a group that is blindfolded! Check out our article on team activities especially for leadership as well.

5. Improv games

You may think of improv games as more of an icebreaker activity, but the truth is there is a lot of brain power that goes into well-done improv. Look for ways to add both logic and entertainment to your next improv effort. Consider scenarios like banned words, where people cannot use a certain list of words, or “miracle cure”, where one person shares a problem they’re having and the other person must come up with the solution on the spot. Both are fun and easy ideas that don’t require anything but willing participants! If you need some other quick and easy team building activities , make sure to follow our blog. 

6. Spaghetti tower

In this classic team building game, users try to build a tower using uncooked pasta noodles and marshmallows. The instructions are simple: use the tools at your disposal to design and build the tallest tower in order to win the challenge. You can judge on height alone, or weigh other factors like innovation, number of towers, or stability. For more simple team building activities , make sure to follow our blog. 

7. What would you do?

Another classic icebreaker, this game involves coming up with some scenarios that require brain power to address. Here are some prompts you can use with your group: 

• What would you do if you were at the zoo and all the animals escaped? 
• What would you do if you were the first person to find out about an upcoming zombie apocalypse? 
• What would you do if you were in line for a really important item, and a person cut in front of you, getting the last item? 
• What would you do if you were invited for dinner at the home of someone you really needed to impress, and the food was terrible? 
• What would you do if an imposter that looks and acts just like you infiltrated your organization? How can you convince everyone that you’re the “real” you?

8. “MacGyver” challenge

MacGyver is an older television program where the hero escaped sticky situations by improvising tools made of unlikely materials. You can recreate this set-up in your event space or office. To play, challenge participants to use 3-5 items to reach a desired end result. For example, something like “a way to pick the door lock” or “escape vehicle” are fun options. You can either set out some various equipment, or have people collect their own based on what they can find around the office. Note: if you are doing this in a conference room or other rented space, it makes sense to have a table set up with random odds and ends for people to pick from. 

9. Egg drop challenge

This one will take you back to high school physics class! Break a larger group into smaller teams and challenge them to come up with a container that will protect an egg even when it’s dropped from up high. You can either let people know far enough in advance that they can discuss, design, and collect materials; or you can have supplies ready and have everyone build their creation on the spot. If you go that route, you’ll want to provide a variety of boxes, packing supplies, rubber bands, fabric, etc. Then set up a ladder and have each team drop their container and see if their egg remained intact. 

10. Shrinking circle

Adaptability and flexibility are huge in the business world. One way to focus on both of those items is by playing this simple and silly game. Start out by using a rope to create a large circle that everyone can fit in. Then, every few minutes, make the circle a bit smaller. Depending on how large the circle is in the first place, you can take away an inch or a foot each round. The challenge is for everyone present to stay inside the circle. This will require some serious innovation once the circle gets small, and lots of laughs almost always ensue. Note: People are likely to end up touching each other in this exercise. It’s difficult not to once the space gets small, like a game of Twister. You know your colleagues best - if that level of closeness would make anyone uncomfortable, it’s probably best to try a different exercise. 

Out-of-the-office problem-solving activities

Everyone once in a while, it can be really valuable to get out of your usual work environment and into a new mental space. If your team is planning a multi-day retreat, don’t be afraid to include an organized activity that will help everyone to think more critically. Most towns have at least one option for getting your group together and learning some new ways to problem solve. Do some research on what you have available locally, or work with an organization like Surf Office who can plan your next retreat - including the fun elements that your employees will be talking about for months to come! If you know that you can’t get out of the office right now, stick to this list of indoor team building activities . 

11. Escape room

The goal of an escape room is to follow a series of clues and take on some challenges in order to unlock the space that everyone is locked in. There are usually 5 - 10 puzzles that teams will work together to figure out. Typically finishing one leads to another clue, so that participants can move onto the next phase. Only when they’ve successfully completed all of the tasks can they find the key and escape. While you can definitely set up an escape room on your own, we think it’s worth finding a local version in your town (or wherever your retreat is taking place). These are professionally set up and usually in really cool spaces like an underground bunker or a historic building. An escape room is a good excuse to get out of the office and spend time with coworkers in a new environment. 

12. Murder mystery

These story-based games have people take on a role in a pretend scenario. They may take on a role like detective, dinner guest, or even killer in their dinner. Most of the time the games involve reading lines from a script, searching for clues, or even solving some simple challenges to move onto the next phase. Participants have to pay attention to conversations and context clues in order to get an understanding of who the killer might be. Observation and logic are key to catching the killer. Some murder mysteries involve getting dressed up and having a nice dinner, so if you’re looking for an idea for a big night out capping off your next retreat, this is perfect. 

13. Ax throwing

What do axes have to do with problem solving? You might be surprised. This is definitely an activity you’ll want to go to a professional venue for. Ax throwing outfits have everything you need, plus the right safety precautions. They have everything set up with the proper distances, buffers between throwing stations, safe ax materials, etc. Plus, many of them offer food and drinks! Ax throwing can help with problem solving because most people don’t excel at it their first time. It takes some practice and careful consideration to figure out where to stand, the best stance, the force of the throw, etc. As you take turns, you’ll make adjustments and also consider new methods based on observing your teammates. The more you watch and the more you try, the better you’ll get. In fact, instead of having people compete against each other, we suggest having the team compete against themselves, aiming for a higher total score in their second or third consecutive game. This activity allows you to observe others and then optimize - essentially learning from each other. 

14. Paper boat race

If you are able to visit a location by water, you can try this really fun activity. In this fun and creative exercise, participants build a small boat with paper (and other supplies) and then race them in a small body of water like a pond or stream. The boats are usually made by folding paper into a boat shape, but you can also try offering cardboard, balloons, popsicle sticks, or other crafty materials. You’ll also want to supply materials for decorating so that everyone can really have their creation stand out. Obviously the person who reaches the finish line first is the winner, but you can offer a few other prizes just for fun, like most beautiful boat or best effort. Make sure to check out our article on other creativity and innovation games , too. 

Problem-solving puzzles

When it’s just not possible to get everyone together, you can still encourage your team to put on their thinking caps and hone their skills. There are tons of critical thinking games, puzzles , and even apps that people can use to practice problem solving. You can encourage your team members to play these games in their spare time, or even set up a competition where people log minutes playing such games or using the apps. If you’re feeling really generous, give everyone a small stiped to be used on a problem solving app of their choice. This special touch makes a nice addition to a holiday gift, too!

Sudoku has become one of the most popular problem solving games for adults. There are dozens of free app options, as well as paperback books that you can pick up. The goal of this game is to fill each box on a 9×9 grid so that every row, column, and letter contains each number from one to nine. It sounds tricky - and it is - but players tend to find it addicting and the game has grown a huge following in recent years. Encourage people to play on their own by downloading an app or purchasing a puzzle book, or as a team by having the puzzles available in your office or at your next event. 

16. Crossword puzzles

These classic word games have players fill out words based on clues. Words interconnect, and people must think critically about the context clues of what they’ve filled out so far. These puzzles are super versatile and one of the best things about them is that you can make them yourself so they are themed. You can use an online crossword puzzle maker to create a custom puzzle with clues about your business or other relevant subjects. For your next event, it might be fun to have a custom crossword puzzle about your company history or trivia! 

17. Tic-tac-toe tournament

It sounds a little silly, but tic-tac-toe requires more brain power than one might think. Set up an ongoing tic-tac-toe board in your office and encourage people to use it on their breaks or when they have a few minutes to kill. You can set up a scoreboard and keep track of the leader; it’s a lot of fun to see the rankings change and to challenge the top performers. If you need an even simpler version of the same concept, simply set up the Connect Four game board in your break room and let people have at it! 

Problem-solving for virtual teams 

If your team is a bit scattered, it doesn’t mean that you can’t practice solving challenges together. In our digital world, there are plenty of options for online activities that teams can work on either independently or as a group. In the section above, we shared some ideas for independent work. These ideas are designed to bring your team together, no matter where they are. Set a time and have everyone hop onto your preferred communication tool, and then work together tackling these challenges. 

18. Virtual hackathon

A hackathon normally refers to an event where participants have a set amount of time to design and pitch a new product or solution. It’s normally used in the tech space for pitching things like new apps, but you can apply the concept in lots of other ways too. In this online version, teams work with each other using virtual meeting software and pitch ideas to a panel of judges. This type of event requires some advance notice for the participants, as they’ll want to collect a team and come up with some designs. If you want to raise the stakes, offer a prize for first place.

19. Online escape room

Just like an in-person escape room, in an online version people must solve a variety of puzzles in order to make it “out”. Digital escape rooms normally come in one of two ways: in a Zoom “room” led by a host, or in a choose-your-own-adventure style via Google Forms or other websites. To play virtually, staff will enter the meeting and follow the prompts they get, and it might involve screen sharing some Google tools to work on puzzles together. Because of the platforms and tools that may be involved, this activity is better for teams who are a bit more tech-savvy and comfortable with online meetings, apps, etc. 

20. Survival plans

Prioritizing is an important mental exercise. You can work on this with a game about survival. Have everyone imagine they are stranded on a desert island, and they must decide the correct order to perform life-saving steps in. Have this list handy, and ask everyone to pair off or get in small groups and number the list according to the best likelihood of survival: 

• Set up shelter
• Look around the island
• Signal for help
• Create weapons for self-defense
• Build a raft for water
• Start a fire
• Select a group leader
• Find other survivors
• Anything else you think of! 

The catch is that everyone must agree on the order of events!  That will typically involve discussion and coming to some sort of consensus. Once everyone is done with the exercise, have them present to the larger group and explain their reasoning. This exercise is good for team-building, communication, and problem resolution. Plus, you will be better prepared if you ever get stuck on a deserted island! 

21. Online role-playing games (like Dungeons and Dragons)

Seeing how people react in real-world situations is a really interesting way to get to know them better. Find an online game that has real-world actions and consequences, like Dungeons and Dragons. Or, you can make things even simpler by hopping on a Zoom together and reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book aloud, with the reader getting group consensus before making a decision. The important part is the discussion that will occur before choosing the next action. This is helpful for bonding and also helps you to see how your colleagues tick. These activities can be difficult to organize for big groups, so if you have a substantial team, try some of these team building activities for large groups instead. 

22. Google Docs story

Similar to an ongoing story icebreaker, this game is easy to do online as people have time. You start by creating a Google Doc that everyone on the team has access to. Then, have people go into the Doc and add to the story that’s developing. If you want, you can pick a prompt to kick things off - or you can just let the first person get creative and go for it! The more specific or bizarre the scenario, the more creative and clever people will have to get to add their portion. 

23. Model UN

Chances are you might be familiar with this concept from high school. Fortunately, adults can have a lot of fun with it too. You can play this virtually as long as everyone is a strong communicator. Each participant should take on the role of an international diplomat, and work together to form alliances and solve crises. Come up with a potential scenario that the UN must work through. Consider things like a global food shortage, natural disaster, or cyber-security threats. If your group is particularly large, you can have multiple people assigned to a country and they will have separate roles. If politics is a sensitive topic on your team, you might want to tweak this exercise to be focused on a business and treat participants like board members - or even a musical group! 

Set the tone of your next company retreat

These problem solving games and activities are great virtually any time - there is something for everyone, whether you’re remote or in person, on a large team or a small one. One of the best ways to implement a problem solving exercise is at the beginning of a team retreat. If you have organized a large meeting or team building event, consider getting things started with such an activity. Many of these problem solving games will get everyone thinking and make people more comfortable, plus a lot of them also serve as a form of icebreaker.

The next time you plan a work retreat , consider including a few of these on the agenda to set the tone for a fun, energizing event. Need help ensuring that your retreat is, in fact, fun and energizing?

Let Surf Office help ! We can help with organizing your next team retreat or all-company meeting so that you can focus on the fun.

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Top 22 Virtual Problem-Solving Activities to Strengthen Any Team

We live in a fast-paced environment where challenges often arise, both personally and professionally.

Especially in today’s workplace, professionals have to deal with social, ethical, and organisational problems.

This is where problem-solving skills come into play.

Strong problem-solving tactics can improve creativity and help team members make efficient and informed decisions.

While every professional might not be a natural born problem-solver, there are a lot of resources to help develop these skills.

In this article, we’ll go over the definition of problem-solving activities, their main benefits, and examples that can be put into practice in the workplace.

What Are Problem-Solving Activities?

These activities require problem-solving skills, which help find solutions for difficult situations.

Like any other skill, these tactics are best learnt through practice.

To make problem-solving activities worth the ride, participants have to be open-minded, listen to others, and accept alternative ideas and solutions.

An agile mindset can also be beneficial when participating in such activities because they’re based on understanding, collaborating , learning and staying flexible.

As problem-solving games are group activities, participants must be willing to collaborate and embrace agility and flexibility.

Another critical aspect is creating the mindset that there are no winners or losers.

The goal of these activities is to share strategies and learn from each other, rather than compete against one another.

The Four P’s to Problem-Solving

By following the four P’s in the problem-solving guide, one can resolve almost any problem that comes along.

Problem-solving activities begin with a discovery phase, where the problem is identified.

This is the step where you understand, dissect, and learn about the problem you’re trying to solve.

Until the problem has been well defined, you can’t move forward and prepare to form the right solution.

After you’ve analysed the problem, you have to develop several courses of action to solve the issue.

This is the phase where you generate several possibilities to ultimately decide on the best course of action for your problem.

After the problem has been defined and resolutions have been listed, it’s time to take action.

This is the step where you find the best approach and implement a plan that needs to be followed with precision.

You need to first visualise your plan and then execute it.

When the problem has been solved, you need to evaluate the plan and assess whether it could be improved for future situations.

While you should do your best to solve the issue, the truth is that there is always room for growth.

Reviewing and checking for room for further improvement is essential because it can help you achieve even greater results in the future.

Benefits of Developing Problem-Solving Skills in the Workplace

Employees are often asked to think outside the box for projects or find alternative solutions for work problems.

Problem-solving tactics are a great way to practice valuable skills relevant in the workplace.

There are a lot of situations where processes and workflow in organisations need improvement. Or, when deadlines are tight, team members have to find ways to deliver on time.

These are the exact scenarios that can be overcome if the team is able to turn problems into actionable solutions.

After all, performance is closely related to employee efficiency as achieving companies’ goals on time is crucial to success.

Having team members with good problem-solving skills means they can use critical thinking to make better decisions and ultimately increase business productivity and growth.

There are a wealth of advantages that problem-solving activities can bring to teams.

Here are a few benefits you can expect from employees well equipped with problem-solving skills:

Better risk management

Simply put, risk management skills help people know what could go wrong, assess risks, and finally take action to solve an issue.

Some people are very good at handling risk, while others are afraid of risky situations.

Whichever way your team members are naturally inclined, problem-solving techniques are here to help.

Participating in problem-solving tasks trains the mind to handle stressful situations better.

It’s impossible to avoid risk, and this is why it’s essential to be confident that your team knows how to handle risk and turn it into opportunity.

Better thinking

Team problem-solving techniques stimulate better thinking by pushing people to find progressive alternatives.

Better thinking also develops analytical skills, which help people find logical explanations for problems and identify practical solutions.

Better communication skills

As mentioned earlier, problem-solving activities are group tasks that can only be performed if participants work together.

Humans are competitive by nature which can be problematic when trying to create a cohesive team. Problem-solving skills nurture understanding and collaboration within a company.

By solving problems together, employees learn how to better communicate and listen to others.

Having transparent and effective communication improves engagement and productivity and leads to better relationships .

Increased team cohesion

If your team already has good communication skills , this will likely lead to increased team cohesion .

Regardless of your business’s profile or size, success comes from having a united team.

Team cohesion reduces anxiety, brings motivation, and increases employee satisfaction.

Being on a cohesive team means that employees work together for the same goal, and everyone contributes to the group’s overall success.

People are social creatures, so it’s imperative that everybody feels heard, understood, and included.

Efficiency / increased productivity

Exercising problem-solving activities can boost performance and workplace productivity, leading to overall growth and profits.

Having solid problem-solving skills equips employees with the ability to find efficient solutions promptly.

By reducing the time spent solving specific problems, companies benefit from improved workplace productivity , leading to better profit margins.

Problem-solving activities foster creativity and encourage team members to express their ideas.

Creative thinkers know how to find the balance between analytical skills and innovative solutions, thus providing new perspectives.

No matter how well-established company processes are, there are always situations that require alternative ways of thinking.

Creative thinking skills boost people’s confidence in putting forth unique ideas.

List of the Top 22 Virtual Problem-Solving Activities

Virtual problem-solving activities for teams are meant to challenge participants to think outside the box and find solutions to problems while also having fun. Remember that these exercises should be playful and enjoyable.

Here is a list of virtual problem-solving activities that teams of any size can play:

• Dumbest Idea First
• Brainstorm Ideas
• End in Mind
• Stop, Start, Continue
• Idea Mock-Ups
• Be a Character
• Crossword Puzzles
• Online Escape Rooms
• Murder Mysteries
• Virtual Hackathons
• Treasure Hunts
• Moral Challenge
• Improv Games
• Poem/Story Challenge
• What Would You Do?
• Lost at Sea
• Coworker Feud
• Virtual Code Break
• War of the Wizards
• Ultimate Game Show

Online problem-solving activities can be played through video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, Webex, etc.

Let’s take a closer look:

1. Dumbest Idea First

Dumbest Idea First, as the name suggests, is a problem-solving exercise in which participants are asked to think of the dumbest possible solutions to the problem presented.

After all ideas have been presented, look through the list.

You might be surprised to find that some ideas are not as dumb as first thought!

Helps with : creative problem-solving .

2. Brainstorm Ideas

One of the most common problem-solving activities is brainstorming ideas with your team.

Brainstorming ideas’ objective is to generate as many ideas as possible.

After the list is complete, team members review them and decide which is most suitable for the given scenario.

There are a lot of methods to aid the brainstorming process.

You can play word games, create a mood board, play improv games, or even doodle.

Helps with : lateral thinking.

3. End in Mind

The End in Mind technique is an excellent activity for solving group problems that require participants to start with the end.

In this exercise, you have to backtrack, finding solutions for the issue.

It challenges team members to think of the “what,” “why,” and “how” of a problem, thus coming up with alternative approaches.

Helps with : analytical thinking.

4. Stop, Start, Continue

“Stop, Start, Continue” is a technique used for delivering or requesting feedback.

This problem-solving activity consists of a list of three categories that each member has to think about:

• Stop: three things that the team should stop doing
• Start: three things that the team should start doing
• Continue: three things that the team should continue doing

This exercise aims to solve problems in new ways while also having fun.

Helps with : team cohesion, critical thinking.

5. Idea Mock-Ups

Idea mock-ups are processes in which solutions to problems are found via mock-ups.

It’s a virtual solving problem activity as you can use images from the internet that can be easily shared with the team members.

This exercise aims to have players try out a bunch of different scenarios until the perfect match for the problem is found.

6. Be a Character

Have you ever dreamed of being a character from a movie or a book? Then this is the perfect exercise for you.

By playing this group game, participants impersonate a character and approach problems through that person’s mindset.

Helps with : creativity , thinking outside the box.

7. Idea Trial

The Idea Trial is another fun virtual problem-solving activity that encourages participants to find solutions for a particular problem.

Players need to present their ideas to the “court.”

They can go through the entire process, such as opening and closing statements, and call witnesses to support their ideas.

Helps with : risk management, communication skills.

8. Crossword Puzzles

Everybody has heard of crossword puzzles, but not everyone has thought of transforming them into a virtual problem-solving activity.

All you have to do is use an online crossword puzzle to create a custom puzzle for your team.

To make it more exciting and engaging for your team, you should consider your company’s niche and your teammates’ interests.

Helps with : critical thinking.

9. Online Escape Rooms

Like in-person escape rooms, their online counterpart requires participants to escape rooms and work together to solve puzzles virtually.

Digital escape rooms provide two alternatives for players: either a Zoom room led by a host or from a specialised website.

These are significant virtual problem-solving activities that are both fun and challenging.

Helps with : cooperation, communication.

10. Murder Mysteries

Murder mysteries are story-based problem-solving activities that require participants to take on the roles of suspects and detectives.

The aim of the game is to identify the killer by searching for clues and occasionally solving small puzzles.

These group exercises are complex because they require players to be observant and search for hidden clues using logic.

Luckily for you, there are many options for playing murder mystery games online .

Helps with : observation, logical thinking.

11. Virtual Hackathons

Hackathons are events where a group of people pitch a product or service in a given period.

Even though it originated in the programming world, hackathons can be easily applied to any industry.

Virtual hackathons refer to the online version of these events, where participants work together via online meeting software to design solutions.

These are great virtual team problem-solving activities because they don’t require much organisational work.

You just have to announce the event’s theme, explain the problem when the hackathon begins, and set a timeline.

Helps with : efficiency, cooperation.

12. Treasure Hunts

Like escape rooms or murder mysteries, treasure hunts are group games that require players to find hidden objects by following a trail of clues.

Treasure hunts are fun problem-solving activities that teach participants how to collaborate and communicate with each other.

They can have specific themes or be a more general hunt.

Helps with : communication, cooperation.

13. Moral Challenge

While most group problem-solving activities focus more on finding alternative problem resolutions, moral challenges lean more towards ethics.

These group techniques are just as important as the others as not all problems are factual; some are ethical.

Moral challenge exercises are better played in a group because each participant can represent a different opinion or moral belief.

The moral issue becomes harder to resolve and implicitly forces team members to find common ground.

Moral challenges are equally important in decision-making processes as rational thinking.

Some of the most well-known moral challenges online are the Moral Machine or the Dilemma .

Helps with : communication skills.

14. Improv Games

Improv games have their roots in acting and comedy and are group activities designed around participants’ acting without a script, or improvising.

These problem-solving activities force players to keep the story going in an entertaining and logical way.

This kind of group exercise helps build collaborative skills while boosting team members’ confidence.

Helps with : collaboration, imagination.

15. Poem/Story Challenge

If most of the problem-solving activities mentioned are based on logical thinking, the poem/story challenge revolves around writing skills.

While not all businesses rely on this, it’s still an excellent exercise for groups, as it stimulates the imagination and improves public speaking.

All you have to do is ask participants to create a story or a poem using a limited word bank.

After they have crafted their stories, they read them aloud in front of the group.

Helps with : creativity, public speaking.

16. What Would You Do?

“What Would You Do?” is a hypothetical problem-solving activity that challenges your team to brainstorm ideas and react to different scenarios.

To play this game with your team members, prepare some problem-solving stories in advance, then read them one by one.

Participants have to say what they would do in these circumstances.

Helps with : lateral thinking, imagination.

17. Lost at Sea

Lost at Sea, also known as Stranded at Sea, is a team-building activity that encourages interaction and teamwork.

Give participants a scenario where they’re stranded on an island with just a handful of objects.

To increase their chances of survival, they need to rate the objects based on their utility.

Players should work individually first and then together to decide which objects are most important.

If multiple groups play this game, the moderator can ask each group to compare their individual and collective rankings.

They should also consider why any scores differ.

At the end of the game, players reflect and feedback on their choices.

Helps with : decision making, collaboration, critical thinking.

18. The Hunt

Its purpose is to challenge players to collaborate under pressure as they compete for glory.

This is a virtual problem-solving activity suitable for a business of any size.

It works best played in small teams of four or five, so players have the opportunity to interact with one another.

Helps with : team decision making, lateral thinking, creativity.

19. Coworker Feud

This game is a new take on the classic game show Family Feud, and it consists of multiple rapid rounds.

The players are asked to provide fast answers to a fun assortment of questions the host presents.

The aim is to guess the five most popular answers to win points for the round.

The team with the most points is declared the winner of the game.

Helps with : fast-thinking, communication.

20. Virtual Code Break

Virtual Code Break is a virtual team-building activity specially designed for remote players.

Its purpose is to challenge players to think outside the box, improve problem-solving skills, and leverage their own and each other’s skills.

This game uses an intelligent video conferencing solution so that teams of all sizes can play from anywhere globally.

Players compete against each other by answering trivia questions and solving riddles and puzzles.

Helps with : better thinking, collaboration.

21. War of the Wizards

War of the Wizards is a 90-minutes virtual team-building activity that promises to be both fun and creative.

To play this game, participants roleplay as powerful wizards to conquer evil forces through the power of storytelling.

They have to play mini-games and competitions, develop their characters, and make decisions together to win.

Helps with : teamwork, imagination.

22. Ultimate Game Show

In this 90-minute virtual event, players bond together as a team while playing different quizzes to win the final prize.

This competition works for hybrid teams, as well as for fully remote teams.

Helps with : collaboration, fast-thinking.

Plenty of organisations face daily challenges that affect team productivity and get in the way of attaining business goals.

While it’s impossible to avoid those situations, there are many ways to train team members to work collaboratively to resolve problems effectively.

Problem-solving activities act as educational tools that bring all participants closer as a team and help them develop problem-solving skills. By nurturing solution-generating capabilities, your team learns to communicate better, act fast in risky situations, and find creative solutions.

The virtual problem-solving activities listed in this article are excellent practices for real-life conflict resolution that can benefit everyone within an organisation.

Stefan is a Co-Founder and a President of Brosix. His many years experience as a programmer, give him an unique perspective to lead the team and build Brosix in a way to best serve the customers.

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7 Easy problem-solving activities & how your team benefits from them

Introduction

“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” – Robert Schuller

Problem-solving activities are a great way to know how team members identify problems, the way they react to them, how quickly they can find potential solutions, and then implement the best one.

When working with a team, there are not one but several types of problems that might occur and as a leader, your mindset should be to guide your team to solve those problems.

You have to take the initiative to make your team better at generating creative solutions when things go wrong.

In this article, you will find 7 easy problem-solving activities designed to encourage teamwork and unlock your team’s creativity.

7 of the easiest problem-solving activities for teams of all sizes

There are some amazing creative activities out there that can work well for team building. These will help you put your team’s problem-solving abilities to the test while they learn how to bring their best qualities forward for effective collaboration.

These creative problem-solving games will break the monotony at the workplace and help you build a more inclusive and welcoming environment for the whole team for effective team building. Here are some of the easiest activities that will help bring substantial change to your team culture and the workplace as a whole.

1. Human knots

Helps with: Collaboration & communication skills 

Estimated time: 15-20 minutes

Things you’ll need: Nothing 

How to do it: 

Make your team stand in a small circle. If your team is large, then you can divide it into smaller groups and make them stand in multiple circles. Each person should hold the hands of two other people standing in the circle, but not of those who are standing directly beside them. 

This should result in creating a “human knot.” The fun part (also the challenging) begins now. Ask each member of the group to untangle themselves without letting go of each other’s hands. You can set a time limit if you want. You can watch your team members as they work out moves to untangle their bodies. 

This activity gives them a chance to communicate and collaborate to solve the problem quickly. They may or may not fully entangle themselves but would have started to work together to solve the problem. 

Why communication is essential to problem-solving

When working as a team, no problem is big enough. A bunch of committed individuals can collaborate to overcome even the most difficult of hurdles. When all team members come together and put in a joint effort as per strategy, the problem will likely be resolved sooner.

Having problems communicating your ideas to the team? Use ProofHub discussions to keep track of ideas and important pitches.

2. A shrinking vessel

Helps with : Adaptability & Quick Thinking 

Estimated time: 10-15 Minutes 

Things you’ll need: A rope and a ball of yarn 

Take a rope and place it on the floor in a particular shape such that all your team members can stand inside it. If your team is large, you can use multiple ropes and divide your team into smaller groups. 

The challenging part starts when all team members are made to stand inside the rope, and you start to shrink the rope slowly. As space reduces, team members will have to make subtle adjustments to maintain their position as well as balance inside the shrinking circle. 

No one should step outside the circle. The challenge before your team is to quickly think together about how to keep everyone inside the circle. 

Why adaptability is essential to problem-solving

This amazingly effective problem-solving activity is for teams who are facing adaptability issues. Adaptability and cognitive diversity go hand in hand, which enables your team to work out things faster. People and organizations that can adapt quickly usually come out on top because they can condition themselves to change circumstances and environments and take on board new ideas and concepts.  

3. Marshmallow spaghetti tower

Helps with: Collaboration 

Estimated time: 20-30 Minutes 

Things you’ll need (per team): 

• 20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti
• 1 marshmallow
• A yard of string
• A single roll of masking tape  

Ask your team to utilize all the available materials to construct the tallest tower within a specific period. The tower must stand on its own and be able to support a marshmallow. 

The point behind this problem-solving activity is to train the team to think on their feet while encouraging prototyping and iteration. This activity also helps to promote and build strong camaraderie and leadership. 

Why collaboration is essential to problem-solving – 

Peter Singe, in the Fifth Discipline , writes, “ Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can be individual .” This means we can solve problems better when working as a team than we can alone. 

This problem-solving activity emphasizes team collaboration, which is crucial for the success of any group, irrespective of its size. It also shows that success is dependent upon close collaboration between team members.

4. Frostbite

Helps with: Decision Making, Trust, Leadership

Things you’ll need: 

• An electric fan 
• Construction materials (toothpicks, cardstock, rubber bands, sticky notes, etc.)

Divide your team into groups of 4-5 people each (applicable for large teams). Each team should have its leader to guide them. Remember, team leaders, are not allowed to use their hands in any way to help their respective groups. Now, the fun part of this problem-solving activity is that team members are blindfolded, so they can’t use their hands! 

Every team is given 30 minutes to build a tent. The time is set to create a sense of urgency within the team. For example, give your team a scenario where they have to make a tent to save themselves from approaching thunderstorms. The tent should be able to withstand high winds from the storm.

After the game is over, you can turn on the fan to see which tent can stand on its own even after withstanding winds blowing at high speed. 

This problem-solving activity aims to improve the listening skills of team members to execute the task as per the leader’s instructions. 

Why decision-making is essential to problem-solving

When managing teams and projects , team managers are burdened with the responsibility of making decisions that concern all. Decision-making is essential to problem-solving because if the right decision is taken at the right time, it could resolve the problem, eventually benefiting the entire team and the organization.

5. Egg drop

Helps with: Decision Making & Collaboration 

• A carton of eggs
• Construction materials (balloons, rubber bands, straws, tape, plastic wrap, etc.)
• A place where you can let things get messy! 

Give a single egg to each team and let it choose randomly from different construction materials. The task that is to be assigned to each team is that it has to create a carrier for an egg that prevents it from breaking. 

Once teams are done with creating carriers, place an egg in them and drop them (from over a ledge or a balcony), one by one. The purpose is to find which team’s carrier (s) can save an egg from breaking.

If multiple eggs remain unbroken, you can keep increasing the height of the fall to find out the last egg that survives even after falling from a higher height. The winning team is the one that created the most durable carrier that survived until the last.  

The idea behind this problem-solving activity is to encourage all members of the team to work together towards achieving the common goal. 

Why teamwork is essential to problem-solving

Joint efforts by a group of individuals to achieve the set target by utilizing limited resources can save the organization valuable time, money, and resources. 

6. Dumbest idea first 

How it helps: Critical Thinking & Creative Problem Solving 

Estimated time: 15-20 minutes 

Things you’ll need:  A piece of paper, pen, and pencil 

As the name of this problem-solving activity suggests, the idea is to present a problem to your team and ask them to quickly come up with the dumbest ideas for the problem at hand. This could be a real-world problem that your team is facing, or it could be an imagined scenario. 

Once all team members have written down the dumbest ideas, they could think of, evaluate every idea to determine which ones are most likely to work and which ones are least likely to be seen as a viable solution that can work. 

How critical thinking is essential to problem-solving

Some problems need  to be solved by out-of-the-box thinking. Creative problem-solving ideas might sound unorthodox to work, but these give you additional options to consider. You can discover some solutions that might not be obvious to start with but can be incredibly effective in delivering expected results. 

Brainstorm these dumb (or not so dumb) ideas in ProofHub through online chat. And start your uninterrupted collaborative journey for FREE today. 

How it helps: Communication, Problem-solving, & Management

• A lockable room
• 5-10 puzzles or clue 

Hike the key and a list of clues around the room. Ask team members to solve all the clues to find the key and unlock the room to escape within the allotted time. Hide the clues and, most importantly, the key around the room. 

Ask all team members to enter the room and lock the door. Give them 30 minutes or 1 hour to find the key using the clues hidden in the room. This problem-solving activity can get your team going up and running as they race against the time to find a solution to the problem at hand. 

How putting intensive efforts is essential to problem-solving

Complex problems require an intensive team effort. Your team can achieve specific, time-bound goals by collaborating closely and thinking quickly under pressure.

What team problems are these activities going to solve?

1. lack of mutual trust.

Trust is the basis of strong relationships. No team can hope to achieve success if members do not want to engage with each other and make that human connection that is so vital for them for better collaboration.

Team members should first know each other well, both professionally and personally, primarily before they are assigned a large, complex project where tensions will run high at some point. 

2. Not having a central location for information sharing

When some team members do not get easy access to crucial information related to a project, it can lead to a dreaded information gap within the team. Scattered information makes matters worse for managers and team members.

Having all the information stored and organized in a single location, in the form of files and folders, makes information accessibility easy for all team members. Team members can collaborate on them effectively , review, proof, and share feedback in one place , which saves a whole lot of time.

3. Lack of transparency

“According to an American Psychological Association survey that spoke to more than 1,500 workers , it was found that 50% didn’t feel that their employers shared the information they required to be successful within their jobs.”

For any project to be a success, teams, managers, and clients must be on the same page. Without transparency, trust will take a backseat within the team, and it can lead to a plethora of problems that can spell doomsday for the company. 

The task of establishing transparency starts at the top. Project managers are responsible for setting a prime example for their team members in terms of the way they conduct themselves. Employees are likely to follow their leader’s behaviors, positive or negative, and it becomes your responsibility to inspire them through positive actions.  

4. Poor communication 

“David Grossman reported in “The Cost of Poor Communications” that a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees.”

Poor communication happens when it doesn’t happen regularly across the team, and not all members participate in it. It can also occur when team members interrupt one another, maintain silence, and indicate problems but fail to address them formally. Some members may nod in agreement but may not agree in reality. 

Using different communication modes can bridge the gap between team members. At the same time, encouraging members to share their ideas and concerns openly can also help clear any misunderstandings, doubts, and confusion. 

5. Lack of purpose 

“ One in two employees report that their jobs lack purpose, and an equal number feel disconnected from their company’s mission.”

If I think about the teams I least enjoyed working with, they were the ones that had a vague understanding of what exactly their purpose was and how they planned to achieve that goal. It’s hard to put in your best efforts when you don’t know the purpose behind the work you’re doing. The most satisfying teamwork occurs when the purpose is well-defined and team members are aligned with each other. 

6. Conflict and tension 

“ $359 billion in paid hours or the equivalent of 385 million working days are lost each year due to workplace conflict.”   

Conflicts and tension can be healthy and trigger useful debates if managed carefully. However, team members can cross the line often. The negative effects of workplace conflict include but are not limited to, poor productivity, absenteeism, work disruptions, project failure , lower retention rates, and termination. Different opinions in the workplace are common, but it’s their mishandling that can spell troubles for an organization.

Team leaders can practice constructive criticism to make employees realize their shortcomings without making them feel humiliated. You can appreciate their strong points but should not hesitate to point out their weaknesses (in performance or conduct) in an affirmative tone.  

7. Uncertainty of roles 

This is a common problem, especially among large teams. Some team members are not clear about their roles; what are they supposed to do, and when. At the end of the day, the blame game happens. Team members blame their managers and vice versa, and it’s all due to poor task management. 

By creating and assigning custom roles , managers can allow team members or clients to do things that fall under their work domain and job responsibilities. 

8. Lack of motivation 

“When managers recognize employees’ contribution, their engagement increases by 60%”.

Having demotivated employees working for you is probably the biggest misfortune of your organization. However, have you ever tried to find out the reason for some of your employees losing motivation? It can be due to not being appreciated at work , not feeling like a part of the team, personal reasons, etc. 

Whatever the reason may be, a team manager should quickly confront the situation to solve it for good. Having one-on-one discussions with team members can go a long way in helping you to know about the exact reasons behind their below-par performance and come up with effective solutions. 

What are the benefits of these problem-solving activities ?

“ But how problem-solving activities are going to help me, my team members, and the organization?” Many readers, especially team managers, must have this question in mind while reading this article. 

I understand that readers want to know how problem-solving activities can benefit them. So, I have prepared a list of the pros of such activities to develop positivity in the workplace. Read on to know more about it. 

1. Better thinking

Problem-solving activities help in bringing about the best in every member of the team. Every member enthusiastically puts forth his unique idea of solving the problem. This helps team managers to weigh in different solutions for resolving a problem and then choose the most suitable one. In other words, this process stimulates better thinking. 

For example – A remote team with widely dispersed members was struggling with a lack of communication . Emails and texting were just not good enough. Mike was leading the team, and he asked all members to suggest ways to improve communication within the remote team. 

John suggested using online chat software for instant group or individual chat, Sid suggested using video conferencing software for daily team meetings, and Shane suggested using telephonic calls, texting, and emails for official communication. 

As a result of quick thinking and sharing of ideas, Mike and his team benefited greatly by using different communication modes to share information and feedback easily.  

2. Better risk handling 

Some people can handle a higher amount of risk. It’s because they have successfully dealt with difficult situations before. Team problem-solving activities help in conditioning the minds of individuals so they can respond to stressful situations better. 

3. Better communication 

Regular communication between team members can help to solve problems efficiently. Problem-solving activities within teams foster cooperation and intra-team communication, which eventually creates a better understanding between team members.

“ Try ProofHub TODAY for on-time project delivery and on-point team accountability.”

4. Improved productivity output

When a team works as a strong unit, the company or organization experiences improved productivity, which eventually leads to improved profit margins. The involvement of managers and team members in problem-solving activities can have a positive result for the company in terms of overall growth and profitability. 

How management tools can help you sort out your team collaboration problems

Even though the aforementioned problem-solving activities can be amazingly effective in enhancing collaboration and communication within your team, there’s no denying the fact that using a top-rated team collaboration and project management software like ProofHub can help team managers solve quite a few problems efficiently. 

Whether you’re having trouble with delayed communication, poor organization of files and folders, poor time management, inadequate task management , or low control over teams and projects, ProofHub is your all-in-one solution to put an end to your managerial woes and help you and your team achieve more in less. 

Some powerful features of ProofHub include: 

• Workflows and Kanban Boards
• Online Proofing
• Gantt Charts
• Online Discussions
• Custom Reports
• Timer and Timesheets
• Third-party Integrations
• Announcements
• IP Restrictions 

Pricing –  Simple pricing for all team sizes. For information on our pricing plans, kindly visit our pricing page .

The final thought

Many organizations face a plethora of problems that haunt their teams consistently. These problems have a rippling effect on the team’s performance, hamper its productivity, and cause delays in the organizational goals. 

However, problem-solving activities can bring all members closer as a team and encourage them to contribute to resolving problems effectively while having fun. These easy problem-solving activities can improve your team’s solutions-generating capabilities, eventually benefiting everyone.

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11 Problem Solving Activities That Will Blow Your Mind!

  Problem solving activities is a vital skill in the professional world, but many new graduates lack this skill.

Team building problem-solving activities offer a fun and interactive way to develop problem-solving skills while creating a stronger team.

Whether in-person or virtual, these activities provide an opportunity for teams to enhance their problem-solving skills and collaboration.

List of In-Person / Virtual Problem Solving Activities

Key takeaways.

• Problem-solving activities for team building are essential in developing problem-solving skills and creating a stronger team.
• Both in-person and virtual options are available for team building problem-solving activities.
• In-person activities include the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge, Egg Drop, Clue Murder Mystery, Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower, Corporate Escape Room , Wild Goose Chase, Face-2-Face Feud, Reverse Pyramid, Move it.
• Virtual activities include Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse, Virtual Clue Murder Mystery, Jewel Heist, and Virtual Trivia Time Machine.
• Each activity offers a unique challenge that requires teamwork and problem-solving skills.

In-Person Team Building Activities to Solve Problems

In-person team building problem-solving activities are a great way to strengthen your work group while developing crucial problem-solving skills.

These activities offer a hands-on and interactive approach to team building .

They allow participants to work together towards a common goal. Below are 11 engaging in-person activities that will challenge your team’s problem-solving abilities:

In-person team building problem-solving activities offer a fantastic opportunity to enhance problem-solving skills and foster collaboration among team members.

Here are 8 exciting activities that will challenge and engage your work group:

• Cardboard Boat Building Challenge:  Teams will design and construct a functional boat using only cardboard and tape. The objective is to create a boat that can float and navigate through water without sinking.
• Egg Drop:  Participants will create a protective casing for an egg using limited materials like newspapers, straws, tape, and balloons. The challenge is to prevent the egg from breaking when dropped from a height.
• Clue Murder Mystery:  Teams will work together to solve a murder mystery by deciphering clues and identifying the culprit, motive, and means. This activity tests participants’ problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills.
• Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower:  The goal is to build the tallest freestanding tower using marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string. This activity promotes teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving.
• Corporate Escape Room:  Participants must collaborate to solve puzzles and uncover clues that will help them escape a locked room. This activity encourages teamwork, problem-solving, and quick thinking under pressure.
• Wild Goose Chase:  Teams will embark on a smartphone-based scavenger hunt, completing challenges and riddles in the city. This activity fosters problem-solving, communication, and teamwork.
• Team Pursuit:  Teams compete in a series of challenges that require problem-solving, teamwork, and communication. The objective is to accumulate points by successfully completing each challenge.
• Family Feud: Teams face off in a wild, yet friendly and funny game of revealing top surveys.  Questions can be customized specifically to your group. This activity requires problem-solving, communication, and coordination.

1. Cardboard Boat Building Challenge

Teams are tasked with designing and constructing a functional boat using only cardboard and tape.

The challenge lies in creating a boat that can sail across water without sinking.

This activity requires creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving skills to engineer a sturdy and seaworthy vessel.

This activity not only fosters collaboration and teamwork but also encourages participants to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions.

It requires teams to analyze the principles of buoyancy, weight distribution, and structural integrity to design a boat that can support their team members.

Throughout the process, participants will face challenges and setbacks, but these obstacles provide valuable learning experiences and opportunities for growth.

The Importance of the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge

The Cardboard Boat Building Challenge offers several benefits for teams in the workplace.

Firstly, it promotes effective communication and collaboration as team members brainstorm ideas, delegate tasks, and work together towards a common goal.

Also, this activity enhances problem-solving skills as participants encounter unexpected obstacles and devise creative solutions.

By engaging in the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge, teams also develop resilience and adaptability.

They learn to embrace failure as a stepping stone towards success and understand the importance of persistence and continuous improvement.

This activity fosters a positive team culture, encouraging individuals to support and motivate each other throughout the challenge.

Overall, the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge is a fun and interactive team-building activity that not only strengthens bonds among team members but also cultivates essential problem-solving and communication skills.

It provides a memorable and engaging experience that can be applied in a professional setting, helping teams become more effective, innovative, and collaborative.

Benefits of the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge	Skills Developed
Enhanced teamwork and collaboration	Problem-solving
Effective communication	Resilience and adaptability
Creativity and innovation	Persistence

2. Egg Drop

The Egg Drop activity is a challenging and engaging team-building exercise that tests creativity, problem-solving skills, and collaboration.

Teams are given the task of designing a contraption that can protect an egg from a fall using limited materials.

With only items such as newspapers, straws, tape, and balloons at their disposal, teams must think quickly and strategically to build a casing that can withstand a drop without breaking the egg.

This activity not only promotes critical thinking and innovation but also encourages effective communication and teamwork.

Teams must work together to brainstorm ideas, share their knowledge and expertise, and come up with the best possible solution.

It requires a combination of individual creativity and collective effort to design and construct a successful contraption.

By participating in the Egg Drop activity, teams learn valuable lessons about problem-solving under pressure, thinking outside the box, and the importance of collaboration.

It provides a fun and interactive way for team members to bond and develop their problem-solving skills while facing a common challenge.

The Egg Drop is an exciting team-building activity that will leave participants feeling accomplished and motivated to overcome future obstacles together.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

3. Clue Murder Mystery

Teams become detectives in a thrilling murder mystery scenario.

By gathering clues, analyzing evidence, and working together, participants must solve the mystery by identifying the culprit, motive, and means.

This activity requires critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication to crack the case.

the Clue Murder Mystery is a popular choice. In this interactive and engaging activity, teams must put their problem-solving skills to the test as they work together to solve a murder.

By gathering clues, analyzing evidence, and collaborating effectively, teams can uncover the truth and identify the culprit, motive, and means.

This activity not only fosters critical thinking and problem-solving abilities but also promotes teamwork and communication.

Participants must work together to share information, brainstorm ideas, and piece together the puzzle.

The Clue Murder Mystery is a thrilling and challenging experience that will keep teams engaged and motivated while honing their problem-solving skills.

“The Clue Murder Mystery activity requires teams to think critically and collaborate effectively to solve the mystery and uncover the truth.”

5 Benefits of the Clue Murder Mystery Activity

• Promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Fosters teamwork and collaboration
• Enhances communication and information sharing
• Provides a thrilling and engaging experience
• Promotes creativity and analytical thinking

Overall, the Clue Murder Mystery activity is an excellent choice for in-person team building problem-solving activities.

It challenges teams to think critically, work together, and communicate effectively while having fun and solving a thrilling mystery.

By participating in this activity, teams can develop and enhance their problem-solving skills, which are essential for success in the professional world.

4. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower is a popular team-building activity that encourages collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

In this activity, teams are tasked with building the tallest freestanding tower using only marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string.

The challenge lies in constructing a stable structure within a given timeframe.

This interactive exercise promotes teamwork as team members must work together to brainstorm ideas, share perspectives, and delegate tasks.

It requires critical thinking skills as participants analyze the strengths and weaknesses of different tower designs.

Additionally, the activity encourages creativity as teams experiment with different techniques to construct a sturdy tower.

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower activity is not only a fun and engaging team-building exercise but also serves as a metaphor for problem-solving in the workplace.

It highlights the importance of strong communication, adaptability, and resourcefulness when facing challenges.

By participating in this activity, teams can develop their problem-solving skills while strengthening their bonds and fostering a collaborative environment.

Example of a Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower:

Team	Tower Height (inches)
Team A	24
Team B	28
Team C	32

In the example above, Team C built the tallest tower, standing at 32 inches.

This showcases the competitive nature of the activity and the determination of each team to excel.

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower activity not only fosters healthy competition but also reinforces the importance of teamwork and problem-solving skills in achieving success.

5.  Wild Goose Chase

The Wild Goose Chase is an exciting and interactive team-building activity that combines the thrill of a scavenger hunt with the power of problem-solving and teamwork.

In this smartphone-based adventure, teams explore the city and complete challenges by taking photos and videos.

It’s a thrilling race against time as teams navigate their way through a series of clues, collecting points along the way.

Engaging in the Wild Goose Chase activity not only promotes problem-solving skills but also enhances communication and collaboration within teams.

The challenges require teams to think creatively and work together to come up with innovative solutions.

It’s a fantastic opportunity for team members to showcase their individual strengths and contribute to the collective success of the team.

The Wild Goose Chase is a versatile activity that can be customized to fit different team sizes and goals.

Whether it’s a small team bonding exercise or a large-scale company-wide event, this interactive game is sure to leave a lasting impression.

So gear up, grab your smartphones, and get ready for a thrilling adventure that will take your team to new heights!

“The Wild Goose Chase activity was both challenging and fun. It brought our team closer together and forced us to think outside the box. We had a great time exploring the city and completing the various challenges. Highly recommended!” – Participant from ABC Company

Get ready to embark on an adventure like no other with the Wild Goose Chase!

This team-building activity will not only strengthen your problem-solving skills but also foster collaboration and camaraderie within your team.

So, put on your thinking caps, keep your eyes peeled, and prepare for an unforgettable experience that will leave you with memories to cherish.

Benefits of the Wild Goose Chase:

• Promotes problem-solving skills
• Enhances communication and collaboration
• Encourages creativity and out-of-the-box thinking
• Builds camaraderie and teamwork

So why wait? Plan your Wild Goose Chase adventure today and watch your team bond, laugh, and conquer challenges together!

Activity	Location	Duration
Wild Goose Chase	Citywide	2-4 hours

6.  Reverse Pyramid

The Reverse Pyramid activity is a fun and challenging team-building exercise that requires problem-solving and communication skills.

In this activity, teams are tasked with rearranging themselves from a pyramid shape horizontally, by flipping the base and the apex using only three movements.

It may sound simple, but it requires strategic planning, coordination, and effective communication among team members.

By participating in the Reverse Pyramid activity, teams can strengthen their problem-solving abilities and learn to work together more efficiently.

This exercise encourages creative thinking as teams explore different strategies to achieve their goal.

It also fosters collaboration and trust, as team members rely on each other’s input and support to successfully complete the task.

Through the Reverse Pyramid activity, participants develop their communication skills by effectively conveying ideas, coordinating movements, and adapting to changes in the team’s plan.

It promotes a sense of unity and camaraderie as teams celebrate their accomplishments together.

This activity can be adapted for various group sizes and is suitable for in-person team building events.

Benefits of the Reverse Pyramid Activity:

• Encourages creative thinking
• Fosters collaboration and teamwork
• Develops effective communication
• Builds trust and unity within the team

Overall, the Reverse Pyramid activity is an engaging and effective way to enhance problem-solving abilities and strengthen team dynamics.

It provides an opportunity for team members to work together towards a common goal, while also having fun and building stronger connections with one another.

Incorporating this activity into a team building event can lead to improved problem-solving skills and a more cohesive and productive team.

7.  Move It!

As a team-building activity, Move It! requires two teams to navigate specific movement restrictions and switch places.

This dynamic challenge promotes teamwork, decision-making, and adaptability.

The objective is to communicate, strategize, and problem-solve effectively to achieve a successful switch.

The activity tests the team’s ability to think on their feet and work together seamlessly.

Move It! encourages teams to work collaboratively and find innovative solutions to overcome the restrictions imposed.

By embracing open communication and actively seeking out strategies, teams can optimize their chances of a successful switch.

This exercise fosters a sense of unity and camaraderie, as team members learn to rely on each other’s strengths and support one another.

With its emphasis on teamwork, decision-making, and adaptability, Move It! cultivates essential skills that are vital in the professional world.

By participating in this activity, teams can enhance their problem-solving abilities, learn to make quick and effective decisions, and develop their capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.

Ultimately, Move It! provides a fun and engaging experience that strengthens team dynamics and encourages growth.

8.  Face to Face Feud

Looking for a  fun and interactive office game idea  for team building? Consider adapting the  classic game show Family Feud !

This game encourages communication, collaboration, and friendly competition among team members.

How to Set up Family Feud Style Game for the Office

To set up Feud  for the office, you’ll need to:

• Divide your team into two groups
• Hire a facilitator  to read the questions and keep track of points
• Create a list of questions related to your workplace or industry
• Create a survey to gather responses for each question from your team members
• Display the game board and prepare buzzers for each team

Once the game is set up, it’s time to play!

Teams take turns answering survey questions and earning points for the right answers.

The team with the most points at the end of the rounds wins the grand prize.

3 Main Benefits of Face-2-Face Feud

Face-2-Face Feud is a great game for team building because it:

• Encourages communication and collaboration among team members
• Promotes friendly competition and team bonding
• Allows team members to share their knowledge and insights with each other
• Builds team momentum and boosts morale

Basically, playing this game played in the office is just a fun and engaging way to build stronger teams  and enhance team morale.

Virtual Team Building Problem Solving Activities | Top 3

Virtual team building problem solving activities are an effective way to enhance collaboration and problem-solving skills for remote teams.

These activities provide an opportunity for team members to work together and tackle challenges in a virtual environment.

Here are five engaging virtual problem-solving activities that can transform your work group:

1.  Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse

In this virtual escape room, team members must solve puzzles and unravel the mystery of the Mummy’s Curse to successfully escape.

It requires critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication to work together and solve the challenges within a given time limit.

Team members will need to utilize their creativity and collaborate effectively to crack codes, decipher clues, and escape the room.

This activity fosters teamwork and encourages participants to think outside the box.

2.  Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist

In this virtual escape room scenario, teams are tasked with planning and executing a daring jewel heist.

Participants must work together to solve puzzles, decipher codes, and navigate through a virtual environment to successfully complete the mission.

This activity encourages problem-solving, teamwork, and effective communication as team members collaborate to achieve their common goal.

It’s an immersive and engaging way to enhance problem-solving skills in a virtual setting.

3.  Virtual Trivia Time Machine

The virtual trivia time machine is an interactive activity that combines problem-solving and general knowledge.

Teams travel through time, answering trivia questions and solving puzzles from different historical periods.

By working together, participants can pool their knowledge, brainstorm solutions, and strategize to win the game.

This activity fosters collaboration, critical thinking, and effective communication while having fun in a virtual team environment.

Activity	Description
Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse	Solve puzzles to escape the cursed room
Virtual Clue Murder Mystery	Uncover clues to solve a mysterious murder
Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist	Plan and execute a daring jewel heist
Virtual Code Break	Crack codes and solve intricate puzzles
Virtual Trivia Time Machine	Answer trivia questions from different historical periods

Frequently Asked Questions – Problem Solving Activities

frequently asked questions

What are some problem-solving activities for team building?

Some problem-solving activities for team building include the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge, Egg Drop, Clue Murder Mystery, Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower,

Corporate Escape Room, Wild Goose Chase, Reverse Pyramid, CI: The Crime Investigators, and Team Pursuit.

Are there virtual problem-solving activities for remote teams?

Yes, there are virtual problem-solving activities for remote teams. Some examples include Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse,

Virtual Clue Murder Mystery, Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist, Virtual Code Break, and Virtual Trivia Time Machine.

What is the Cardboard Boat Building Challenge?

The Cardboard Boat Building Challenge is an in-person team building activity where teams create a functional boat using only cardboard and tape.

Teams must work together to engineer a boat that can float and sail across water without sinking.

How does the Egg Drop activity work?

The Egg Drop activity challenges teams to design a contraption that can protect an egg from a fall using limited materials.

Teams must think quickly and creatively to build a casing for the egg using items such as newspapers, straws, tape, and balloons.

What is the Clue Murder Mystery activity?

In the Clue Murder Mystery activity, teams must solve a murder by identifying the culprit, motive, and means.

This activity requires problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and collaboration.

How does the Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower activity work?

The Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower activity promotes collaboration and problem-solving skills.

Teams must work together to build the tallest tower possible using only marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string.

What is the Corporate Escape Room activity?

The Corporate Escape Room activity immerses teams in a scenario where they must solve puzzles and decipher clues to escape a locked room.

Participants must collaborate, think critically, and use problem-solving skills to work through challenges and find the key to their escape.

How does the Wild Goose Chase activity work?

The Wild Goose Chase is a smartphone-based scavenger hunt activity where teams complete challenges by taking photos and videos in the city.

This activity requires problem-solving, communication, and teamwork as teams work together to complete fun challenges.

What is the Lost at Sea activity?

Lost at Sea is an in-person activity that simulates being stranded in a lifeboat with limited supplies.

Teams must work together to rank survival items in order of importance, making decisions under pressure.

This activity tests problem-solving skills and the ability to collaborate and make tough choices in a high-stakes situation.

How does the Reverse Pyramid activity work?

The Reverse Pyramid activity challenges teams to rearrange themselves from a pyramid shape horizontally.

The goal is to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid using only three movements.

This quick and fun team-building activity promotes problem-solving and communication skills.

How does the Move It! activity work?

Move It! is a team-building activity where two teams must switch places while following specific movement restrictions.

Teams must communicate, strategize, and problem-solve to successfully switch places. This activity promotes teamwork, decision-making, and adaptability.

Got Team Building Games? – PRESS PLAY!  #boostmorale

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Written by Lisa Lawrence

Team building events | team collaboration | team communication, november 14, 2023, events & game shows, recent posts, how to gamify team meetings with it’s playtyme game shows.

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12 Best Problem-Solving Activities for Employees, Adults and Team Building

Last updated July 31, 2024

if you are looking for free problem-solving activities and exercises to use in training sessions for employees, adults, or students, here are 12 that you can use below. Enjoy!

Page Contents

Benefits of Using Problem-Solving Activities When Teaching

There is no better way to teach problem-solving skills, be it for employees or students than giving them the chance to try some fun exercises that provide a hands-on opportunity to learn key techniques.

Many participants learn by doing rather than just by listening to a teacher or trainer and these fun activities help to embed learning in the participants’ minds.

12 Group Problem-Solving Activities

1. scavenger hunt.

Time needed : 1 hour

Number of Participants : 8 or more.

Items Needed :

• Print-out of items that they have to find
• Smartphone to take photos

Intention : This problem-solving activity is great for getting participants to try and solve a fun problem together. Participants will need to work together well as a team hence this activity also works great as a team-building activity, in addition to being one of the most enjoyable problem-solving activities for employees or students.

How to Run the Activity : You will need to do a little preparation ahead of the activity, the first thing being to prepare a list of the items that participants have to find and photograph during the activity.

The items can be things such as signage, a natural feature, or the front of a specific building or it can be something more random such as a blue flower, a butterfly, a water fountain or a landmark.

You will need to decide on the location and area in which the scavenger hunt will take place, i.e. it might take place in your company building or if you have a park nearby you could run the activity there (do consider the weather though and ensure it is a safe place for participants).

To start running the activity, randomly divide the teams into groups of 5 and then hand one list to each group (that details the items they must find and take a photograph of).

Give participants a set time such as 30 minutes (but you can use 45 minutes as needed) to find as many items as they can as a group.

I would suggest explaining that all 5 participants must be captured in the photo with each item, to ensure they work as a team .

At the end of the 30 minutes, all groups should return to the meeting point and then show you (the training coordinator) the photos. Then announce the winning group and, if you wish, give them a small prize.

I like to then hold a 15-minute overview discussion to ask the participants some questions for general discussion, such as about what strategies and problem-solving skills they used to find the items.

2. Shrinking Vessel

Time needed : 30 minutes.

Number of Participants : Groups of 8 can work best but you can adapt as needed.

Items Needed : Some long pieces of rope (or balls of string) and chalk to mark boundaries.

Intention : This is one of those problem-solving activities for team building that helps participants with their adaptability skills and quick thinking.

How to Run the Activity : You will need to create a large oblong space on the floor that represents the ‘vessel’ in this activity.

Use the ropes/string and if needed chalk (if you have permission to mark the floors) to create the impression of the vessel on the floor.

To start the activity itself, begin by explaining to the participants that the objective is to try and fit the team onto (into) the vessel without anyone touching or being outside of the boundaries of the vessel. The issue though is that after 3 minutes, the vessel will get smaller!

Start a stopwatch so that an alarm will go off every 3 minutes.

Now ask the team to stand inside the vessel before the 3 minutes is up.

Then after 3 minutes, the participants can step out of the marked vessel and you will reduce the size of the vessel, i.e. by moving one of the ropes/string to make the vessel space a little smaller.

The team must once again stand inside the vessel but this time in the smaller vessel.

Continue this activity, making the vessel smaller and smaller every 3 minutes.

Participants will need to use creative thinking and work well together to all fit into a shrunken vessel as it gets smaller!

3. Dumbest Idea First

Time needed : 25 minutes.

Number of Participants : 6 participants or more.

Items Needed : Paper and pens.

Intention : One of my favourite problem solving activities, this gets a lot of laughs but is also great for getting participants to think outside the box.

How to Run the Activity : Start by dividing everyone into groups of 4 or 5.

Now you need to introduce the problem they will solve, so you will need to have written down some problems beforehand. Let me give you one example problem and also some examples of dumb answers you might expect:

Some dumb solutions participants might have come up with could include: Create Instagram posts only in Morse code. Share daily photos of the office chairs. Reply to every comment from your followers, with a love heart.

Give participants 15 minutes to brainstorm in their groups and to write down the dumbest and craziest ideas they can think of to solve the problem you provide them with.

Make it clear to participants that the crazier and wilder the ideas, the better. They should think outside the box.

After the 10 minutes is up, ask each group to read out the answers they have given to the problem.

As a full class, they will then select the top three dumbest answers, i.e. the three most innovative and unusual answers.

What makes this one of the best problem solving activities for employees is the fact that it is such a fun way to tackle finding a solution to a problem.

4. What Would You Do?

Time needed : 45 minutes.

Number of Participants : 5 or more participants.

Equipment Needed :

• Whiteboard and marker.
• Pieces of paper with the names of famous people (real or fictional) written on them (i.e., Michael Jordan, Prince Harry, Hilary Clinton, Lady GaGa, Madonna, Sherlock Holmes etc).

Intention : This problem solving activity offers another opportunity for participants to try and use creative thinking to work as a team and find a solution.

How to Run the Activity : Begin by dividing everyone into groups of 4 or 5 and then give each some paper and pens, and a character card (a different one for each group).

A lazy employee Bob is one of the team but he is simply not doing his fair share of the work and this is creating a bad atmosphere in the team. The project at the moment is to market the new fashion line and it’s essential to get this project moving fast as there is limited time. The issue is that Bob is affecting the whole project and there are 6 weeks left to get this campaign completed. Possible Things to Discuss How exactly can this issue with Bob be solved? How can Bob be motivated and supported while the project is kept on track? What can you do to make sure the project stays on track while the issue is sorted?

Allow each team to spend 20 minutes discussing the scenario you have given them, but remind the groups that they must try and think of solutions from the perspective of the famous person they have been given.

They need to really try and understand both the scenario and the character they have been given.

What specific skills might their character have, for example, that that person would perhaps use to address the scenario?

Example Character Skills If the character is a famous sports manager, for example, they might have great leadership skills and perhaps be able to mentor and support Bob to begin to solve the issue.

Ask the groups to write down their thoughts.

After the 20 minutes is complete, ask each group to read out their scenario and character name to the group, and then the ideas they came up with.

>> Problem-Solving Teaching & Training Materials

5. Legoman Activity

Number of Participants : 8 or more participants.

• Multiple sets of Lego bricks (enough for each team to have a substantial number of pieces)
• A pre-built Lego structure (kept hidden from participants)

Intention : If you are looking for fun problem-solving activities then the Legoman Activity is a great option. This activity requires strategic thinking , in addition to teamwork and communication skills.

How to Run the Activity : You are going to need to create a Lego structure beforehand and then hide this under a sheet inside the training room. Participants will need to copy the design so make the design something that can be copied but that is not too easy.

Split teams into groups of 4 (but adapt as needed according to class size and available Lego sets/pieces).

Now it’s time to explain how the activity will work to the participants:

The team (except for one person) will need to copy the pre-designed Lego structure BUT they will do so blindfolded!

The one person without a blindfold will be able to see the structure and will guide the others in her/his team to build the structure.

The chances are that the teams will not perfectly copy the structure but they should be able to get close and the trick will be the listening skills and communication skills of everyone involved.

Give teams 15 minutes to try and build the structure.

After the 15 minutes participants can take off their blindfolds and take a look at the structure they built and the one they were trying to copy. Participants might also want to take a look at the efforts of the other groups.

6. Stranded

Time needed : 60 minutes.

Number of Participants : 10+ participants.

Items Needed : A handout detailing the list of survival items.

Intention : In addition to being great in terms of problem-solving activities for team building, this also requires decision-making skills and negotiation skills.

How to Run the Activity : Explain to participants that they have to imagine that they are stuck on a desert island, completely stranded and with no clue as to when and if help will be available, so they need to survive for an indefinite amount of time.

From a list of 25 items, the teams must choose which 9 items the team would want to be washed up ashore if they had a choice.

The handout you provide to the teams will detail each of the 25 options and will include things such as dry matches, a fishing net, a machete, a large empty plastic bottle, a blanket etc.

For this activity divide everyone into teams of 5 and allow them 30 minutes to discuss, debate and decide on what items from the list you provided to them, to keep.

After the 30 minutes, bring the whole class together and ask each group to explain to the rest of the class, what items they chose and why.

7. Build a Bridge

Items Needed : Whatever materials you can provide, i.e. cardboard, masking tape, strips of rope, and small boxes. Also scissors and some heavier objects such as some heavy books. Each team will also need a ruler.

Intention : This is one of the classic problem-solving activities for adults that I love using when providing training for employees. It promotes problem-solving through teamwork.

How to Run the Activity : Before the activity starts, you will need to lay out the materials for each group in different spaces around the training room or classroom.

Start the activity by dividing everyone into teams of 4 or 5 and explain to them that, using the materials you have provided them with, they need to build a bridge that will be 50 cm long (you can adapt the length as you wish) and the bridge will need to support the heavy product (i.e. book) that you have given them.

Give teams 30 minutes to make their bridge.

After the 30 minutes, as the training facilitator you will place the book on the bridge and see if the bridge remains standing, i.e. if it is strong enough to support the heavy item.

8. Innovation Challenge

Number of Participants : 5 more more participants.

Items Needed : Whiteboard (if available), paper and pens.

Intention : This is one of the best classroom and virtual problem solving activities and also works well for teaching innovative thinking. This activity pushes participants to come up with new and interesting ideas.

Improving the Communication in the Remote Team In Pulpa Productions, the company have decided to allow all employees to work online virtually and many employees are now working from abroad using coworking hubs such as in Thailand and Spain. What the company need to replicate is the sense of unity, teamwork, and collaboration that existed when everyone worked from the same office space. Key Elements What online and virtual tools might help? How can virtual team-building activities and virtual social events be integrated? What else can be done to make sure Pulpa Productions build in this new online working environment?

How to Run the Activity : Divide everyone into teams of 4, 5 or 6 (dependent on the size of the class) and ask each team to spend 30 minutes brainstorming in their groups, working on the scenario above (or make up your own scenarios related and tailored to the company or people you are providing training for). They should write down a list of any ideas they have.

After the 30 minutes is over, teams need to spend another 30 minutes coming up with a plan, based on the ideas they wrote down.

9. Reverse Brainstorming

Time needed : 20 minutes.

Purpose : This is another of those problem solving activities that drives participants to think outside the box and find new and interesting ideas.

How to Run the Activity : You will need to prepare a challenge or issue that participants need to solve (see the example in the last activity regards a company moving to remote working) and use that as needed).

To start this activity divide participants into groups of 5 and then hand each group a copy of the scenario that they will try to solve.

Explain to participants that this is an activity with a difference in that they will focus, to start with, on creating negative ideas, i.e. ideas that make the scenario worse and not better.

So, in the example of remote working in activity 8, for example, what could we do to create even more dis-unity in the company moving to work fully as a digital company? Or how could we try to increase miscommunication online, or select virtual tools which will not help at all?

Give participants 10 minutes to work in their groups, and to write down their ideas.

This can be a lot of fun for participants because it can bring out the mischievous side but at the same time, it does use problem-solving skills and requires teamwork to discuss the ideas.

Now ask the participants to work in their groups again and to work out positive solutions to overcome each of the negative ideas they wrote down. Allow another 10 minutes for this.

At the end of the 10 minutes, ask each group to give a couple of their negative ideas and the positive ideas they used to counteract the negatives.

10. Brainwriting

Number of Participants : 5 or more.

Items Needed : writing materials and pens.

Intention : The idea of this problem-solving activity is to get all participants equally involved in coming up with ideas, whereas in other activities it is sometimes a few natural leaders who take charge.

How to Run the Activity : You will need to prepare some scenarios (although you can use the scenario from Activity 8 on this page regards a company moving to remote working only).

Now ask participants to spend 10 minutes by themselves, writing down the solutions that they can think of for the scenario you present them. They should not talk to anyone else while jotting down their own ideas.

The idea is that this is about being inclusive and making sure that everyone has an opportunity to offer ideas and be fully involved .

After the 10 minutes is complete, now have participants share their ideas with another participant.

During this exchange, the participants can add to the other person’s list, i.e. adding ideas inspired by what the other person has written. Allow 5 minutes for this.

Participants can also modify ideas on their own list, based on the inspiration from the other ideas they read and hear about.

Participants should share ideas with another participant and so on until they have shared with 4 or 5 others.

The beauty of this activity is that it helps to generate ideas without one or two very dominant employees (or students if teaching students) from taking control. In Inclusive leadership , giving a voice to every employee is essential.

11. The 5-3-1 Method

Intention : This problem solving exercise helps participants learn how to spread the net wide in terms of thinking of lots of possible solutions, and then whittling the number down to one, as a group.

How to Run the Activity : 5-3-1 is a popular problem-solving method and in this activity, we use it to get participants individually to come up with 5 ideas, then for them to join up in groups and whittle their ideas down to 3 as a group, and then finally for the class to get it down to one final idea.

To get started, provide participants with a scenario that they need to solve (use the scenario on this page in Activity 8 as needed).

Now ask participants to spend 10 minutes alone to think of their 5 possible solutions.

After the 10 minutes then put people together into groups of 4 and they must all share their ideas with each other (in their group) and together they will come up with a final list of 3 ideas.

Then bring the class back together and get each group to read out their 3 ideas and write them on a whiteboard.

Now as a full class, discuss which idea is the best and then at the end take a vote and you have the one remaining idea.

The 5-3-1 Method is very good for team decision-making and for collaborative projects.

12. Customer Journey Mapping

Number of participants : 4 or more.

Purpose : This is quite a hands-on style activity and well suited if you are teaching or providing training related to customers and marketing or customer service.

This is all about trying to understand the customer’s journey, the trust funnels and anything you can improve to solve pain points and anything that blocks a potential customer from completing a sale or purchase.

How to Run the activity : Start by dividing participants up into groups of 4 or 5 and if you have people from different departments present, mix them up.

Now ask the teams to think of the customer avatar and to write down exactly what the classic profile would be. Their interests, hobbies, age etc.

Now have the teams map out the customer journey including:

• How do they discover your business? What are the discovery points ( touch points )?
• What do you offer to build trust when they come across you?
• What pain points do you help with?
• How might our typical customer (your avatar customer) fit in with the above answers?

Is there a match or disunity between the avatar customer and what you actually offer service-wise?

To end the activity have each group share their thoughts with the rest of the class on the avatar customer they wrote down, and some of their answers to the other questions.

Problem Solving Activities

In addition to providing you with these free problem solving activities above, I just want to draw your attention to the Problem Solving skills Training materials – see below:

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Top 50 problem solving activities, games & puzzles for remote teams

Blockchain and Crypto / March 6, 2022 by admin

Here is a list of the top 50 problem solving activities, games & puzzles best suited for remote teams. Read on!

What are problem solving activities?

The success of a company or organization depends heavily on the managers’ ability to help workers develop their problem solving skills. Problem solving activities that address areas such as teamwork and cooperation, adaptability or reinforcement of decision-making strategies help.

All processes of problem solving begin with the identification of the problem. The team will then evaluate the possible course of action and select the best way to tackle it. This needs a profound understanding of your team and its core strengths.

Not only among corporates, but problem solving activities find their use in educational settings as well. Students who are good at solving problems will become much more successful than those who are not. Remote work and education are on the rise.

Enabling smooth interpersonal communication to solve problems can become a task in these situations. However, engaging all the people concerned in problem solving activities before shifting to the remote space can ease the process.

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Key skills evaluated in problem solving activities

Problem solving skills refer to the necessary thinking skills that an individual or group uses when met with a challenge. Many issues require the use of several skills; others are easy and may require only one or two skills. These are some skills that help to solve problems,

• Communication skills
• Decision-making skills
• Analytical thinking
• Negotiation skills
• Logical reasoning
• Persistence
• Lateral thinking

Problem solving skill examples

Several problems occur at the workplace. Problem solving skills can be technical problems that occur on websites or apps or addressing client concerns. Problems could be simple or complex. Business managers spend time and resources to solve problems.

They encourage their team to improve their analytical and logical abilities. Common issues in companies can be exploding data or changing technology, or financial management.

Did you know? Emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in problem solving!

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Problem solving scenarios

Many problem solving scenarios occur at work. The basis to solve any problem is to evaluate and arrive at a solution. Analytical skill or problem solving ability is a skill many employers evaluate while hiring candidates.

Strong problem solving skills can be an asset to any organization. Organizations organize problem and solution activities to improve the problem solving abilities in the workplace.

1. Decision making games

Businesses are looking for new and innovative ways to stimulate their staff. Decision making games help employees to learn new skills and work effectively as a team. Decision making activities help to improve the creative problem solving and decision-making skills of the team. Here are some best Decision-making games,

1. Dumb Idea first – This game gives a hypothetical problem that could occur in your company. Ask each manager to think of the dumbest solution to the problem. After compiling the list of the ideas, the team reviews them.

You have a brainstorming session to make the “dumb ideas” feasible. This problem solving exercise underlines the importance of out-of-box thinking.

Benefits: Decision-making skill

Time duration: 10 to 15 minutes

Team size: 2 to more team managers

Material: Paper and pencil

2. Egg Drop Idea – The objective of the game is to build a container to protect the egg when dropped from a specified height using the material provided. Each team nominates a presenter who explains why the egg will survive the fall.

Once they have presented the idea, the team drops the egg to check if the idea has worked. Egg drop pyramid activities like the marshmallow challenge help teams to think on their feet.

Benefit: Decision-making skill and is a top problem solving skill example

Time duration: 15 – 30 minutes

Team size: 6 or more

Material: A cartoon of eggs, aprons to protect clothes, material for packing (cardboard, tape, elastics, plastic straws, etc.), material to clean up.

Instructions:

• Every team gets an egg and should choose from the building materials. 
• Grant everyone 20-30 minutes to build an egg carrier and guard against breaking. 
• Remove each egg carrier from a ledge (that is, over a balcony) to see which carrier prevents it from cracking. 
• If several eggs survive, continue to heighten until only one egg remains.

3. Dog, Rice, and Chicken – The dog, rice, and chicken game can be fun decision-making activities for adults. In this game, one team member plays the farmer, and the other team members are villagers who advise him. The farmer has to take three items chicken, dog, and rice across the river by boat.

There are the following constraints:- only one item can be carried on the boat. He cannot leave the chicken and dog alone because the dog will eat the chicken. He cannot leave the chicken alone with the rice because the chicken will eat the rice grains.

Benefit: creative problem solving examples that are applicable at work.

Time duration: 10-15 minutes.

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2. Teambuilding puzzle

Team building exercises are fun and creative ways to get your team to work together and improve problem solving skills.

1. Lost at Sea – In this game, you and your friends have chattered a yacht to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Since you do not have any navigation experience, you hire a captain and a two-person crew. Unfortunately, the crew and captain die when a fire breaks out on the yacht.

The yacht is severally damaged and is sinking. You and your friends have managed to save 15 items and a lifeboat. Your task is to rank the 15 items while you are waiting to be rescued. The activity lost at sea team building underlines the importance of problem solving skills in the workplace.

Benefits: Team building exercise and interaction

Time duration: 30 to 40 minutes

Team size: 4 to 6

Material: Lost in sea ranking for interaction chart for each member

2. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower – The marshmallow team-building activities have the goal of building the tallest tower as quickly as possible. To make the task more challenging the marshmallow is placed at the top of the tower. This is a fun puzzle activity for team building.

Benefit: Teambuilding puzzle

Time duration: 30 minutes

Material required: 20 sticks on raw uncooked spaghetti, a marshmallow, masking thread, and yarn of thread.

3. Go for Gold – This is an example of a marshmallow challenge similar to activities. The objective of this exercise is to create a structure using pipes, rubber tubing, and cardboard to carry a marble from point A to point B using gravity.

Benefit: team building problem solving scenario examples

Team size: Minimum 6 persons

Material required: Each member has different material

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3. Work Problem Solving

Work problem solving activities help to use the skills you used in problem solving activities in your workplace.

1. Create your own – this game aims to create a brand new problem solving activity for the organization. The team can brainstorm for 1 hour. After one hour each team has to give a presentation about their activity outlining the key benefits.

Benefit: Understanding the problem solving process. Build creativity, improve negotiation, and Decision-making skills

• When the participants arrive, you declare that they will create an original problem solving activity on their own, rather than spending an hour on an existing problem solving team-building exercise. 
• Divide members into teams and encourage them to develop a new problem solving team-building exercise that will fit well with the organization. The activity should not be one they have engaged in or heard of before.
• Every team has to show their new activity to everyone else after an hour and outline the main benefits.

2. Shrinking Vessel – make a shape on the floor using a rope where all the team members can fit. Reduce the size every 10 -15 minutes. The real challenge for the team is figuring out how to work together and keep everyone together.

Benefits: Adaptability and cognitive diversity

Material: Rope and large room

• Place on the floor a big circle of rope. Position your whole team inside the circle. 
• Lessen the circle size steadily. When it gets smaller, advise the team to keep the entire team inside the circle. Nobody must move out of the loop. See how small you can make the area until it cannot remain inside.

3. Legoman – the team is divided into groups of two or more people. Select an impartial individual who will make a structure in 10 minutes. Each team will compete to recreate it in fifteen minutes. Only one person is allowed to see the structure. They need to communicate vital parameters like color, shape, and size.

Benefits: Communication

Tools: Lego

4. What Would X Do – This problem solving activity stimulates teams to think of new ideas.

• Benefits: Instant problem solving
• Time Duration: 10-15 minutes
• Materials Required: N/A
• Let every team pretend to be someone famous. 
• Every team needs to address the issue as if they were a famous person. Which are the choices they would consider? How will they do this? 
• It helps all to consider options they may not have initially thought of.

Tip: Before you decide, a problem is worth solving, weigh the risks of solving it versus not solving it. 

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4. Team building riddles

Team building riddles are a great way to show the team group problem solving is usually more effective.

1. Barter puzzle – the team is broken into groups. Give each team a different jigsaw puzzle to solve. The groups have to complete the puzzle at the same time. The twist in the game is that some pieces of their puzzle belong to other puzzles.

The goal is to complete the puzzle before the other teams. Each group has to come with their method to convince other teams to handover the pieces they need, either by bartering pieces or donating time to the other teams. This puzzle piece team-building activity helps teams to collaborate.

Benefit: Team building and negotiating.

Material: Jigsaw puzzle for each team

Time: 30 minutes

2. Scavenger Hunt – in this game, each team has a list of the article to locate and bring back. The goal of the game is to finish the assigned list first. In the scavenger hunt, the team has a time limit to make the game more challenging. You have the flexibility of having the hunt outside or within the premises. The team-building puzzle game helps the team to look for creative solutions.

3. Escape – the goal is to solve clues and find the key to unlock the door in a limited time. Hide the key and a list of clues around the room. The team has 30 to 60 minutes to figure out the clues and unlock the door.

Benefit: Team building exercise

Material: Rope, key, lockable room, 5 to 10 puzzles

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5. Work together problems

Work together on problems helps to underline the need to collaborate while solving issues at work. Group challenge activities help the team work well together.

1. Bonding belt – each group is divided into 5 to 6 participants, who are bound together with rope or tape so that their movements are limited. The team has to reach from point A to point B, and the time is recorded. The teams collaborate to beat their previous score.

Benefits: Helps the team to collaborate and skills for problem solving scenario/

Time: 20 to 30 minutes

Material: Cling film, belt, or rope

2. Scramble puzzle – the team members with blindfolds sit in a circle with the puzzle. The teammate without the blindfold sits outside the circle, with their back to the group. The blindfolded group tries to assemble the pieces of the puzzle. The outsider who has the same puzzle gives the team instructions to solve it.

Benefits: trust, leadership, and communication

Material: Preschool-level puzzles and blindfolds.

3. Flip it over – this is a classic work-together problem. In this game, 6 to 8 participants stand together on a blanket/towel/tarp. The challenge is to flip over the blanket or reverse it. The rule is that none of the participants can leave the blanket.

Benefit: Work together exercise

Duration: 30 minutes

Material: Blanket

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6. Team building survival games

Team building survival games helps to fine-tune problem solving scenarios that may occur at work. The activities encourage creative problem solving and decision making.

1. Stranded – Stranded helps in building effective communication. In this setting, the team is stranded in an office. The rooms will be locked, and doors and windows cannot be broken down. The team is asked to make a list of 10 items that they need to survive.

They need to rank items in the order of their importance. The team has to agree on the items and the order. Stranded is one of several popular survival team-building exercises.

Benefit: Team building and Decision-making exercises

• Your team is stuck inside the building. Doors are closed, so there is no option to kick down the doors or smash the windows.
• Grant the team 30 minutes to determine what ten things they need to thrive in the office and list them in order of importance.
• The goal of the game is to get everyone to agree in 30 minutes about the ten things and their ranking.

2. Minefield – you randomly place items around the room or hallway and there is no clear path from one end of the room to another. The team is divided into pairs. One team member is blindfolded, and the other team member is the guide.

The guide navigates the blindfolded person across the minefield. The two partners cannot touch. This survival team-building activity underlines the need for clear communication.

Benefits: Communication and collaborative problem solving

Duration: 10-15 minutes

Material: Blindfold, empty room or hallway, and collection of random items.

3. Frostbite – in this survival scenario team-building exercise the team is trapped in Siberia. Each team has to elect a team captain. The team has to build a storm shelter with the material provided.

The twist in the game is the team captains cannot help physically since they have frostbite. Other team members are suffering snow blindness and are blindfolded. The electric fan will be turned on in 30 minutes to see if the shelter built will survive the storm.

Benefit: Leadership, skills action plan, and team building survival games

Team size: 4 to 5 members

Material: An electric fan, blindfold, simple building materials like cardboard paper, rubber bands, toothpicks, masking tape, straws, sticky notes, etc.

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7. Group decision making games

Group decision making games help encourage creative problem solving and decision making at work. Here is a bunch of group decision making games

1. Reverse Pyramid – the team members stand in a pyramid shape. The next step is to flip the base and apex of the pyramid. The limiting factor in only three persons can move.

Benefits: Group Decision-making and collaboration

2. Tower of Hanoi – in this game, there are three towers/posts/rods with 5 or more discs arranged conical shape with the smallest shape at the top. The objective of the game is to move the entire stack to another location retaining the shape. Some conditions of the games are only one disc can be moved at a time. Only the top disc can be moved. Another rule of the game is larger disc cannot be put on a smaller disc.

Benefits: This team-building exercise helps problem solving within the participants.

3. Human Knot – the team stands in a circle every person holds hands with a person not standing next to them. When everyone is cross-connected, the aim is to untangle the structure without letting go of anybody’s hand.

Benefit: group problem solving

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8. Funny problem solving games

We need to solve problems for personal and professional lives. Funny problem solving exercises are a light way. Funny problem solving can help reduce stress levels.

1. Pencil drop – in the pencil drop challenge, one end of the pencil is tied to a pencil and the other is tied around the waist of a team member. The other team member puts the pencil into the bottle placed below. The participants are not allowed to use their hands.

Benefit: Team bonding

Team size: 2 members each

Material: Some pencil and bottle

2. Blind drawing – this game requires two players to sit back to back. One participant describes an image in front of them without giving stating anything obvious. The other participant needs to draw it using the description. The outcome can be fun.

3. Be the character – in this activity, you pretend to be an imaginary character while trying to solve a problem. This game gives a unique perspective on your solution and whether the solution is feasible for other members.

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9. Group problem solving activities for adults

Group problem solving activities are very efficient, especially for adults. These can be used in any setting to enhance problem solving skills. 

1. Human Knots

• Benefits: Communication skills, collaboration
• Time Duration: 10 – 15 minutes.

This is one of the most straightforward group problem solving activities that can be done with any group. It facilitates communication and critical thinking in the face of a challenging and complex question. Various group members will possibly suggest a variety of solutions, and each will need to be reviewed and adopted by the organization as a whole.

• Have the group stand in a small circle (make several circles when you are a larger group). Every person in the loop will hold the hands of 2 other people who are not directly next to them. That would make a messy crossed arms knot.
• Ask the group to disentangle themselves without moving their hands at any point in time. They may be unable to disentangle completely to form a circle again. Still, they would have begun to work together to solve the problem by the end of the activity.

2. Frostbite 

• Benefits: Leadership, decision-making, trust, adaptability
• Time Duration: 30 minutes.
• Materials Required: An electric fan, blindfold, simple building materials like cardboard paper, rubber bands, toothpicks, masking tape, straws, sticky notes, etc.

Your group is trapped in the barren deserts of Siberia, and a sudden winter storm is approaching. You have to create a shelter with only the materials in hand that can survive the storm’s harsh winds. The leader of your expedition was afflicted with frostbite in both hands, sadly, and all the others experience severe snow blindness.

• Divide the group into clusters of 4-5. Every group will have to elect a chief. 
• Group leaders are not allowed to use their hands to support the group in any way, and group members should be blindfolded during the exercise. 
• The groups have 30 minutes to build a small tent structure that can withstand the wind from the fan’s highest location. 

3. Dumbest Idea First

• Benefits: Critical thinking, creative problem solving, quick problem solving
• Time Duration: 15 – 20 minutes
• Materials Required: Pen or pencil, a piece of paper.

Dumbest Idea First is one of the most creative problem solving activities for groups. This can encourage your creativity by thinking out of the box and lead you to ideas that would typically sound too insane to work. You can broaden the possibilities by looking at these crazy solutions first, and find potential alternatives that might not be as obvious.

• Present your team with a question. It could be a real-world dilemma facing the group, or it could be a created scenario. For example, your company attempts to beat a rival to win a high-paying customer contract, but the customer bends to your competitors. You have a short period before they make the final decision to change their mind.
• With the given question, advise your group to come up with the dumbest ideas to tackle the issue. Anything can be written down. 
• After each person has put forward a few ideas, go through the list, and analyze each plan to see which are the most feasible. List them from the highest level of feasibility to the lowest level.  

4. Wool Web 

• Benefits: Leadership, communication
• Time Duration: 30 minutes
• Materials Required: Some balls of yarn.

As hard as replicating the magnitude of the real-world problems is, that is no excuse not to try! Wool web creates a dilemma that appears complicated at first, but groups will learn to break down complicated challenges into solvable problems one move at a time.

This happens by using the right strategy and working together. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most stimulating problem solving activities for adults.

• Split the group into similarly large teams. Every time, it receives a yarn ball. 
• Tell each team to turn the yarn ball into a vast web. Give them around 5-10 minutes to do this. When done, rotate all the teams so that every team is on a yarn web they have not set up. 
• Every group must choose one person to untangle the web. That individual would be blindfolded and be guided by the rest of the team on how to unwind the web using only verbal instructions. The first team to achieve it wins the game.

5. Tallest Tower 

• Benefits: Creative thinking, collaboration
• Materials Required: 1 bag of marshmallows, one packet of uncooked spaghetti.

Simple building projects can help group members create strategies to overcome box issues. Tallest Tower is another one of the most creative problem solving activities. Groups will compete with only two materials to make the tallest tower in a fixed period.

• Divide the group into two, which have an equal number of players. Provide 20 – 30 uncooked spaghetti noodles and 3-4 marshmallows to every team. 
• Groups must compete in the provided period to build the tallest tower using only the materials supplied. A marshmallow has to be set at the top of the tower.

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10. Problem solving activities for students

Below is a bunch of problem solving activities for students and kids,

1. Brainstorm Bonanza – Brainstorm Bonanza is one of the best problem solving activities for students. As a teacher, making your students create lists relevant to something you are teaching at the moment can be a fantastic way to help them expand their knowledge of a subject when learning to solve problems.

• Benefits: Problem solving
• Materials Required: Pen and paper

1. If you are discussing a real, current, or fictional occurrence that did not work out well, let your students imagine ways that the protagonist or participants might have produced a better, more favorable result.

2. They can brainstorm independently or in groups. 

2. Clue Me In – this is one of the most enjoyable problem solving games. It facilitates logical thinking and cognitive development.

• Benefits: Cognitive development, logical thinking
• Time Duration: 20 minutes
• Materials Required: A bag, clues, items as necessary
• Select a collection of things relating to a specific occupation, social phenomenon, historical incident, object, etc.
• Assemble individual objects (or pictures of things) commonly linked to the target response.
• Place all of them in a bag (five-10 clues ought to be enough).
• Then, have a student reach into the bag and take out clues one by one.
• Select a minimum number of clues to draw before they make their first guess (two-three).
• After that, the student should guess, pulling each clue until they think it is right.
• See how quickly the student can solve the riddle.

3. Survivor Scenario – Create a hypothetical situation that allows students to think creatively to make it through. One example may be being stuck on an island, realizing that three days of help would not come.

The community has a small amount of food and water and has to establish shelter from the island’s objects. This would undoubtedly be one of the fascinating problem solving activities for students.

• Benefits: Logical thinking, collaboration
• Encourage working together as a group.
• Listen to each student who has an idea about making it safe and secure across the three days.

4. Moral Dilemmas – Create several potential moral dilemmas that your students can face in life, write down, and place each object in a bowl or container. These things may include items like, “I’ve seen a good friend of mine shoplifting. What is it that I would do?” or “The cashier gave me an additional $1.50 in change after I purchased candy from the shop. What is it that I would do?”

• Benefits: Logical thinking
• Time Duration: 5 minutes per student
• Materials Required: Container, bits of paper with moral dilemmas written
• Ask every student to draw an item from the bag one after the other and read it aloud. 
• They must then tell the class the response on the spot as to how they would handle the situation.

5. Problem solving box – this is an activity that will help on both cognitive and emotional levels for students. 

• Benefits: Logical thinking, decision making
• Materials Required: Box, paper, pen
• Have your students design and decorate a medium-sized box with a top slot. Name it as the “Problem Solving Box.”
• Invite students to write down anonymously and apply any concerns or problems they may have at school or at home, which they do not appear to be able to work out on their own.
• Let a student draw one of the things from the box once or twice a week, and read it aloud.
• Finally, as a group, let the class work out the best way students can approach the problem and eventually solve it.

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11. Problem solving activities for kids

Below is a bunch of problem solving activities for kids,

1. Puzzle-solving – Solving puzzles is one of the best problem solving activities for kids out there. Essentially, every puzzle is a big collection of muddled-up items to figure out and bring back together again.

Kids must be introduced to puzzles with regularity. These are useful for improving skills in reasoning. The best kinds to choose from are wooden puzzles with a wooden frame. They last long, and the structure serves as the foundation to direct children during construction. 

• Benefits: Reasoning skills
• Time Duration: Varies
• Materials Required: Puzzles according to the age level

Instructions: 

• Show the kids a demo of how a particular puzzle can be solved. 
• Then, let them choose a puzzle of their liking from the available choices. 
• Ask them to solve their chosen puzzles. 

2. Memory Games – Memory games will improve memory and attention to detail for your child. 

• Benefits: Attention to detail
• Materials Required: Matching pairs of images
• Using matching pairs of images and turn them all face down, shuffled, on a table.
• Take turns to pick any two cards, and face them on the table.
• You hold the cards if you turn over a similar pair, and if the pair does not match, turn the cards over before it is your turn to try again. 
• A teacher/parent must encourage the kids to concentrate on where the pictures are, and seek to find a matching pair on each turn.

3. Building games – Construction toys like building blocks, wooden blocks, or legos should be a staple in a kid’s home every day. Playing with them is one of the most fun problem solving activities for kids. Anything that your child builds is a challenge as it involves thinking about what to create and how to put together the parts to get a workable and usable design. 

• Benefits: Decision making
• Materials Required: Construction toys.

1. Let your child build a challenge openly and often, and ask him/her to build a particular structure, with conditions. For instance:

• Create two towers with a bridge that connects them.  
• Create a creature that stands alone and has three arms.

2. Observe how your child uses trial-and-error before finding a way to bring the idea into motion.

4. Tic-Tac-Toe – this is an excellent game for teaching decision-making skills. It encourages kids to think before they act and weigh the potential consequences. 

• Materials Required: Pencil, paper
• Draw a simple tic-tac-toe table on paper or chalkboard.
• Take turns to add a nought or a cross to the table to see who is the first to make a line of three.
• Your kid will likely catch on in no time before placing their symbol and start thinking carefully.
• Coloured counters or different items can be used to play this game as well.

5. Building a Maze – This activity is fun and fits for any age. It will also be a lot more enjoyable than doing a maze in an activity book, particularly for younger kids. 

• Materials Required: Chalk
• Draw a big maze with jumbo chalk on the paving. Make passages, including one or two, which end in an impasse. Teach your kid how to get out of it.  
• Make the maze more complicated and add more dead-end passages as your child gets better at figuring out a path and finding the way out.

Also Read: Developing a blockchain – hire an expert blockchain developer now!

What is a problem solving process?

When a team or person faces an issue or obstacle, it can be tempting to quickly track a potential solution and set up a fast fix. This could happen without understanding the complexity of the problem and pursuing a systematic approach to seeking a solution.

The attempts to address issues or obstacles may become unstructured and frustrating without a consistent method. End-to-end processes for problem solving offer a mechanism for a community to tackle any size or nature, and see results. Problem solving activities for adults, kids, and students can help make the problem solving process very useful.

Army problem solving process

There are 7 steps to problem solving army model,

• Recognize and define the problem – The first step army problem solving process is defining the problem precisely and determining the root cause.
• Gather facts and make assumptions – You need to gather all information you have at your disposal. Common resources for information may be documentation and policies. Assumptions are unsubstantiated facts. Use facts rather than assumptions when you need to analyze the scope of the problem.
• Generate alternatives – One of the key steps in military problem solving is finding ways to solve the problem. Ideally, it best to have multiple approaches to solve the problem. Take input from peers and subordinates if possible.
• Analyze possible solutions – Analyze each possible solution with advantages and disadvantages. You evaluate each solution according to screening and feasibility criteria. Reject the solution when it fails in the screening process.
• Compare Alternatives – Another crucial step in the army problem solving model is to evaluate alternatives for cost and benefits. You need to consider your experience and immediate future. Tabulating each solution with the pros and cons will help clear the picture.
• Make an executive your decision – Make a decision and prepare an action plan, and put it in motion.
• Assess the result – You need to monitor the implementation of the plan and modify it if required. Establishing critical steps and milestones will help to ensure success.

Army problem solving games

• Capture the flag – the game helps in team building and army problem solving. Two teams compete against one another to retrieve a flag or object from the opposing team camp base and get into their camp base. This game is flexible, and ground rules need to be set before the game starts.
• Paintball – Paintball is a fun military problem solving activity. You can have many modifications and variations of the paintball game. The aim is to fire paint pellets at the opposing team. Laser tag is another variation of the game.
• Firing blind – Firing blind is a game where each team has a large number of water balloons. At the other end of the field has to hit the target is protected by a tarp from direct firing. The team has to hit the target that is covered. One team member acts as the observer and directs the team to hit the target with the water balloons.

Also Read: Interested in NFT – find an expert NFT consultant now!

Obstacles to problem solving

Problem solving can take time and patience, one of the best ways to solve any problem is pausing and evaluating the problem. Obstacles to problem solving are,

• Misdiagnosis – Misdiagnosis is a common problem can occur due to preconceived idea, biases or judgments. Defining and having a concrete understanding of the problem is the first step in the problem solving activity. This can be difficult. If you are not careful, you may spend your time and resources solving the wrong problem and finding the wrong solution.
• Communication bias – Communication barriers are caused when we are unable to explain the problem to the team, or presuming we know more than everyone else. Everyone on the team must be on the same page. You may need to acknowledge you have a limited understanding of the problem.
• Solution bias – A common obstacle in problem solving is thinking there may be a universal solution or thinking the same solution can solve multiple problems. You need to evaluate a problem independently than try to force-fit a solution that worked previously.
• Cognitive bias – One of the barriers to finding an effective solution is cognitive bias, or the tendency to jump to conclusions. To find solutions fast firms often end up with an irrelevant solution. This may cause more problems down the line.
• Lack of empathy – Every problem is associated with human emotions or abilities. It is important to identify and recognize people affected by the problem or it will be difficult to find a solution that will solve help.

Also Read: Developing an NFT – hire an expert NFT developer now!

Famous virtual problem solving software

Traditionally watercoolers chat is a great way to bring people together and help team members interact with one another. A virtual water cooler has a similar concept where people interact in a similar virtual setting or a dedicated virtual room. It allows remote teams to bond. Software that offers virtual water coolers services,

• unremot.com – provides users with a unique water cooler experience. The app provides unique solutions to remote teams.
• Microsoft Teams
• Informal Whatsapp group
• Donut over slack channels

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Fun Team-Building Problem-Solving Activities

Teamwork is what allows organizations to overcome their biggest obstacles and thrive in a crowded global marketplace. As Andrew Carnegie said generations ago, teamwork is what enables “people to attain uncommon results.” When teams work together effectively, they can give their employers a competitive edge and increase their individual and collective levels of success. Even teams that sometimes seem like they’ll work seamlessly on paper fail to meet, let alone exceed, the mark, whatever that goal might be. As a manager, it’s your job to help the team you oversee succeed. One way you can do that is by engaging your team in some fun team-building problem-solving activities.

It’s important to note that the point of those activities isn’t to ensure everyone likes one another. While it would be great if your entire team consisted of friends, the odds are better than not that some team members may simply not like others—and that’s okay! A team doesn’t have to consist of BFFs to be effective and goal-oriented. In fact, the differences that exist between the members of your team will give everyone a chance to learn, gain alternative points of view, and achieve greater effectiveness.

Creative Problem-Solving Activities from Let’s Roam

The experts at Let’s Roam have carefully constructed a series of team-building activities that will help you to build stronger connections, increase productivity, and improve morale. These exercises can be used in the office, or virtually for remote teams, and focus on problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and more. Our planners will work with you to ensure that your next event is a worthwhile endeavor for your staff, so don’t hesitate. Get started today!

The Two Cs: Communication and Collaboration

For the members of a team to work well together, they must know how to communicate and collaborate. Those two critical skills will be the basis for your team’s ultimate success. Luckily, some team-building activities are designed to enhance employee communication and collaboration abilities.

The Best Team-Building Problem-Solving Activities

Can you tell what i changed.

“Can You Tell What I Changed?” is a communication activity that doesn’t take too long. To get started, divide your team into two groups and have each one form a line that faces the other. Give the members in each line the opportunity to observe the individual standing across from them for a minute or two.

Instruct one line to turn around and have the members of the other make five changes to their appearance. Those changes can be as simple as letting their hair out of a ponytail, removing a pair of glasses, and/or taking off a tie. After the members of the second line are done making changes, have the people in the first line turn back around. Ask the members of the first line to identify the changes they recognize.

This activity is a great icebreaker for teams that were only recently put together. It’s also an innovative way to enhance people’s observation skills and to get them to pay attention to things they may overlook otherwise.

Let’s Create a Story for the Ages

Creativity is an important skill that’s often necessary for problem-solving. “Let’s Create a Story for the Ages” is an effective team-building exercise that will enhance your team’s ability to communicate and think creatively.

To prepare for this activity, gather a series of sequential pictures that are big enough for everyone to see. Hang those pictures in the front of the room and have your team sit down where they can see them.

Ask one team member to start a story by coming up with one line about the first picture. Once that person shares the story’s opening line, have another person repeat what was just said and come up with the next sentence. Continue in this manner until your team has told a complete tale that covers all the pictures on display.

A variant of the activity just described is to divide your group into small teams, each consisting of four or five people. Give each of the new teams a piece of paper, pen, and 15–20 minutes to write its own story about the pictures. When the time limit expires, have each team present its story to the rest of the group. After each team has read its tale, allow your whole team to discuss the different interpretations of the pictures.

We Stand Together

“We Stand Together” is a fun, at times guffaw-inducing activity that requires employees to communicate and collaborate to succeed. Divide your team into pairs and have each pair sit back-to-back with their arms linked. The goal of each pair is to then stand up as one without unlinking their arms. Once a duo accomplishes this task, you can assign another pair to the first so that all four can attempt to achieve the same goal together.

Whether they’re working in a pair or foursome, participants will have to communicate and collaborate to stand as one. If anyone is ticklish, be prepared for your whole team to enjoy a few moments of shared laughter, which can truly go a long way in uniting your team.

Activities to Improve Team-Building and Problem-Solving Skills

When you’re confident your team has developed the collaboration and communication skills to succeed as one, it’s time to move on to activities that will help them develop the team-building and problem-solving abilities they’ll need to succeed as a unit. Be sure to pick activities that will help everyone develop the critical talents they’ll need to succeed.

For example, problem-solving requires team members to brainstorm, flex their logical and lateral thinking muscles, actively listen, engage their creativity, and adopt a “what if” mentality. Whereas communication and collaboration are the basis for successful team-building and problem-solving, these other abilities are what your team needs to build on top of that foundation, so to speak.

Build a Campsite

While taking your team on an outdoor retreat may help members develop some team-building and problem-solving skills, that’s not what’s being suggested here. Instead, you can move the furniture in a conference to the side and gather the following items: a small tent, some tennis balls or softballs, and enough chairs and blindfolds for every member of your team.

Divide your team into groups of five or six. Pick one group to kick things off, instructing them to bring their chairs closer to the tent and balls while having the others move their chairs back. The chosen group members should then put on their blindfolds and attempt to make a campsite.

The goal is for them to put up the tent, construct a ring for a campfire using the balls, and position their chairs around the fire ring all while blindfolded. To accomplish this feat, the group will have to work together and solve problems along the way. This activity is fantastic for developing adaptability to challenging conditions.

The Lego Challenge

If you have young kids, then you know that stepping on a Lego without a shoe on isn’t a fun experience. Now, you have reason to go around, collect all those pain-inducing building blocks, and put them to use without feeling guilty. Just be sure you collect enough Legos!

Divide your team into groups under ten. Give each group a set of Lego blocks. Instruct each group to build a structure using their playthings, but only share scant details about what the final structures should look like or what their purpose should be. Give the groups an hour or more to finish their projects depending on how many Legos they have to work with. When the designated amount of time expires, let each group show off its creation and explain what it is. Then, allow your whole team to discuss the various structures, the motivations behind each one, and how improvements might be made.

The goals of this team-building activity are to refine problem-solving techniques improve communication between team members.

Untying the Knot

“Untying the Knot” is a really fun activity to engage your team with. Depending on the size of your team, the whole team can do this as one, or you may have to parcel out members into several groups of ten or less. Assuming your team is small enough to do this together, have everyone stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a circle facing each other. Each person should extend their right hand and take ahold of someone else’s.

Everyone should then do the same with their left hands, making sure they don’t grab the two hands of the same individual who’s across from them. The result will be a hand-holding human knot, which your team members must work together to untangle without letting go of anyone’s hands.

Although this activity may seem simple enough, it will challenge your employees to engage in teamwork before they’re “free.” It will also require some creative thinking and innovative problem solving for the activity to come to an end.

Red Rover Variant

You might remember dashing across the street while trying to avoid being tagged as a kid when you played “Red Rover,” but this variant of the childhood game is comparatively tame and less physically tiring. At least, it’s meant to be tamer and less physically taxing.

Your entire team can do this activity together, or you can break the large group into smaller teams. If you’re dividing your staff into groups, have each one pick a person who’ll act as the “farmer.” The remaining members of each group will assume the role of villagers.

The farmer in each group is responsible for transporting three things to the other side of a figurative river using a boat. A dog, some rice, and a chicken are the things the farmer must get to the other bank. The farmer’s dilemma is as follows:

• The farmer can only transport one thing on the boat
• Leaving the chicken and the dog on the same shore without supervision isn’t feasible because the dog might eat the chicken
• Similarly, the chicken can’t be left unsupervised with the rice because the animal may consume the grain

How will the farmers and their respective villagers complete the task of getting all three items to the other shore with those constraints? After the game, allow some time to come together to assess their approaches and discuss the different outcomes.

If you want to enhance your team’s problem-solving skills with “Egg Drop,” it’s best to warn your employees to dress down a few days in advance of this team-building activity, as things have the potential to get messy. As you may have inferred from the name of this game, you’ll also need to get some eggs to play, as well as a few other supplies.

You’ll divide your team into two or more groups. Each group will be charged with creating some sort of protective packaging for its eggs. The goal is for each group to fashion packaging that will protect the eggs from breaking when they’re dropped from a pre-determined height.

To incentivize your team, designate a reward that the winning group will get to enjoy and tell everyone what the prize is before the competition begins. The team that designs the packaging that keeps the most eggs wins.

If you’re on a tight budget, don’t worry! You can still come up with a prize that won’t cost much, or perhaps won’t cost anything at all. For example, you can let each member of the winning team park in your parking spot for a day. Alternatively, you can let the winning group enjoy an extra day of causal dress the following week.

What Would You Do

While there will be some instances when your team will have a lot of time to solve a problem, it’s likely your employees will have to make decisions fast at other times. To give your team members the chance to practice their quick decision-making abilities, you may want to set aside time for them to engage in an activity called “What Would You Do.”

In this activity, each team member will be given the opportunity to pretend to be the famous person of their choice. Once in that role, the famous individual will be presented with a problem. First, the person must decide if the problem is even worth solving. If it is, the individual must come up with potential solutions in a set period of time. After those solutions are divulged, the team can discuss them and look for possible improvements to each suggested resolution.

Puzzling (AKA “The Barter Puzzle”)

Your employees might find themselves puzzled when they play “Puzzling.” For this activity, you will need to divide your team into smaller groups and come prepared with a different jigsaw puzzle for each group. Before giving each its puzzle, mix a few pieces into the boxes that will be given to other groups.

As each group labors to be the first team to finish its puzzle, its members will eventually realize some key pieces are missing. When the other groups come to the same realization, they’ll need to identify which group or groups have the pieces they need and figure out a way to get them.

The ensuing inter-group bartering may include things like loaning a member to another group. It may also include bribes like buying lunch. Whatever tactics are used, your employees are sure to have a good, collective laugh as they engage their powers of persuasion, teamwork, and problem solving—and there’s nothing puzzling about that, is there?

Escape Room

In recent years, escape rooms have become pretty common and readily accessible in many locations. Even if one isn’t located close to your business, you can create one in your building with just a bit of effort.

The point of an escape room is to challenge the people in the room to work together to find the key and get out of the locked space. Themed escape rooms give you the chance to challenge your team in different ways that are in keeping with various subjects.

For your team to get out of the room, your employees will have to uncover and decipher a series of clues. Every clue will point them in the direction of another hint they’ll need to act upon until they find the final clue that will identify the key’s hiding spot.

Scavenger Hunt

You can involve your team in an indoor or outdoor company scavenger hunt , but this type of activity is even more engaging when you plan it across multiple locations. The goal of a scavenger hunt is for your employees to find sundry items that are either widely accessible or hidden in different places. With each successive discovery, your employees will find a clue that indicates where the next item on their list of things to recover is located.

You can add an element of competition to a scavenger hunt by dividing your team into small groups that will compete to see which group will find all the things on their list first. Heightening that spirit of competition is easy. All you have to do is announce an enticing prize that will be given to the winning group before the hunt begins.

Can You Build It

“Can You Build It” is a game that requires participants to make careful observations, communicate clearly, solve problems, and work as a team. For this game, you’ll need to break out the Legos once again or pick up different materials that can be used to create a structure that you’ll build in advance of your employees engaging in this activity.

To start, hide the structure you built so that no one can see it. Give your team the materials they’ll need to recreate what you made. Allow one person to see your structure. That individual will then describe the structure to the rest of the team and the team will work together to try to recreate it.

If your team fails to make a facsimile of your structure, let someone else take a peek at your creation. Your team will then try to recreate the structure again. The activity will continue in a similar manner until your team successfully and accurately replicates your structure.

This activity engages many of the talents that are necessary for effective team building and problem solving. It requires teammates to trust each other and brainstorm, for example. Communication, observing, and coming up with clever solutions are also required in “Can You Build It.”

That’s One Way to Hula

All you need for “That’s One Way to Hula” is a hula-hoop and some good-spirited employees. For this activity, have your team stand in a circle holding hands. Break the circle by separating two of those joined hands and slip a hula-hoop onto the arm of one of the participants before rejoining their hands. The challenge then becomes for each participant to pass the hula-hoop to a coworker without letting go of the hands the person is holding.

If your team is large, consider separating it into groups. By doing this, you can create a competition to see which group can get the hula-hoop around the entire ring of participants the fastest.

Plan a Fundraiser

While encouraging your team to volunteer is certainly laudable, the problem with doing so is that your team’s success isn’t in the capable hands of its members. If, for example, your team volunteers at an animal rescue, your employees will be told what to do and how and when to do their assigned tasks.

Although volunteering is undeniably worthwhile, rewarding, and necessary for many non-profits, having your team plan a fundraiser may be a better way to give back to others. By planning a fundraiser, your team will have to work together to choose the type of event you’ll host. Your employees will then need to develop a plan to achieve their common objective.

From picking a venue to choosing how to market the fundraiser, deciding who’ll be invited to the event, identifying a realistic fundraising goal, and much more—your team will have plenty to decide and a lot of tasks to execute to pull off a successful event. As is the case with a lot of functions, even ones for great causes, obstacles will probably arise, which your employees will need to come together to overcome.

Social responsibility is one of the key drivers behind employee engagement across industries. Engaging your team with a fundraiser is a great way to improve their team-working and problem-solving abilities while helping them feel more satisfied with their jobs.

As a bonus, putting together a fundraiser can help your business generate some goodwill and increase customer loyalty. Increasingly, consumers are seeking out businesses that share their values. By having your team plan a fundraiser, you can demonstrate that your organization cares about the same things that your ideal customers do.

Team-building and problem-solving activities are a win-win for your team, your business, and your target audience. In addition to facilitating the development of professional skills, these exercises can help you to come away with a clear indication of which team members have the greatest potential to evolve into future team leaders.

Have you utilized team bonding activities? Use the comment section below to let us know which problem-solving activities you have tried and whether or not you experienced positive results.

If you want to start team-building with your employees, don’t hesitate to contact Let’s Roam to help you to plan and customize company events . Whether your group is in an office, remote, or a combination of stationary and virtual teams , our professional guides will help you every step of the way!

Frequently Asked Questions

The expert event guides at Let’s Roam have documented several effective problem-solving exercises . They also offer team-building activities including scavenger hunts , custom trivia , and more.

In addition to facilitating the development of skills such as communication, collaboration, and adaptability, problem-solving exercises can help business managers to identify future team leaders.

You can help your team with a series of problem-solving activities . Plan team-building events that will challenge employees’ collaborative skills, problem-solving techniques, and leadership abilities.

Need help planning a team-building event?

Schedule a quick, complimentary 15 minute chat with an event planner to book your next team building event with breeze., featured products & activities.

Problem Solving Activities: 7 Strategies

• Critical Thinking

Problem solving can be a daunting aspect of effective mathematics teaching, but it does not have to be! In this post, I share seven strategic ways to integrate problem solving into your everyday math program.

In the middle of our problem solving lesson, my district math coordinator stopped by for a surprise walkthrough. 

I was so excited!

We were in the middle of what I thought was the most brilliant math lesson– teaching my students how to solve problem solving tasks using specific problem solving strategies. 

It was a proud moment for me!

Each week, I presented a new problem solving strategy and the students completed problems that emphasized the strategy. 

Genius right? 

After observing my class, my district coordinator pulled me aside to chat. I was excited to talk to her about my brilliant plan, but she told me I should provide the tasks and let my students come up with ways to solve the problems. Then, as students shared their work, I could revoice the student’s strategies and give them an official name. 

What a crushing blow! Just when I thought I did something special, I find out I did it all wrong. 

I took some time to consider her advice. Once I acknowledged she was right, I was able to make BIG changes to the way I taught problem solving in the classroom. 

When I Finally Saw the Light

To give my students an opportunity to engage in more authentic problem solving which would lead them to use a larger variety of problem solving strategies, I decided to vary the activities and the way I approached problem solving with my students. 

Problem Solving Activities

Here are seven ways to strategically reinforce problem solving skills in your classroom. 

Seasonal Problem Solving

Many teachers use word problems as problem solving tasks. Instead, try engaging your students with non-routine tasks that look like word problems but require more than the use of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to complete. Seasonal problem solving tasks and daily challenges are a perfect way to celebrate the season and have a little fun too!

Cooperative Problem Solving Tasks

Go cooperative! If you’ve got a few extra minutes, have students work on problem solving tasks in small groups. After working through the task, students create a poster to help explain their solution process and then post their poster around the classroom. Students then complete a gallery walk of the posters in the classroom and provide feedback via sticky notes or during a math talk session.

Notice and Wonder

Before beginning a problem solving task, such as a seasonal problem solving task, conduct a Notice and Wonder session. To do this, ask students what they notice about the problem. Then, ask them what they wonder about the problem. This will give students an opportunity to highlight the unique characteristics and conditions of the problem as they try to make sense of it. 

Want a better experience? Remove the stimulus, or question, and allow students to wonder about the problem. Try it! You’ll gain some great insight into how your students think about a problem.

Math Starters

Start your math block with a math starter, critical thinking activities designed to get your students thinking about math and provide opportunities to “sneak” in grade-level content and skills in a fun and engaging way. These tasks are quick, designed to take no more than five minutes, and provide a great way to turn-on your students’ brains. Read more about math starters here ! 

Create your own puzzle box! The puzzle box is a set of puzzles and math challenges I use as fast finisher tasks for my students when they finish an assignment or need an extra challenge. The box can be a file box, file crate, or even a wall chart. It includes a variety of activities so all students can find a challenge that suits their interests and ability level.

Calculators

Use calculators! For some reason, this tool is not one many students get to use frequently; however, it’s important students have a chance to practice using it in the classroom. After all, almost everyone has access to a calculator on their cell phones. There are also some standardized tests that allow students to use them, so it’s important for us to practice using calculators in the classroom. Plus, calculators can be fun learning tools all by themselves!

Three-Act Math Tasks

Use a three-act math task to engage students with a content-focused, real-world problem! These math tasks were created with math modeling in mind– students are presented with a scenario and then given clues and hints to help them solve the problem. There are several sites where you can find these awesome math tasks, including Dan Meyer’s Three-Act Math Tasks and Graham Fletcher’s 3-Acts Lessons . 

Getting the Most from Each of the Problem Solving Activities

When students participate in problem solving activities, it is important to ask guiding, not leading, questions. This provides students with the support necessary to move forward in their thinking and it provides teachers with a more in-depth understanding of student thinking. Selecting an initial question and then analyzing a student’s response tells teachers where to go next. 

Ready to jump in? Grab a free set of problem solving challenges like the ones pictured using the form below. 

Which of the problem solving activities will you try first? Respond in the comments below.

Shametria Routt Banks

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2 Responses

This is a very cool site. I hope it takes off and is well received by teachers. I work in mathematical problem solving and help prepare pre-service teachers in mathematics.

Thank you, Scott! Best wishes to you and your pre-service teachers this year!

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Problem-Solving Mindset: How to Achieve It (15 Ways)

One of the most valuable skills you can have in life is a problem-solving mindset. It means that you see challenges as opportunities to learn and grow, rather than obstacles to avoid or complain about. A problem-solving mindset helps you overcome difficulties, achieve your goals, and constantly improve yourself. By developing a problem-solving mindset, you can become more confident, creative, and resilient in any situation.A well-defined problem paves the way for targeted, effective solutions. Resist the urge to jump straight into fixing things. Invest the time upfront to truly understand what needs to be solved. Starting with the end in mind will make the path to resolution that much smoother.

Sanju Pradeepa

* This Post may contain affiliate Links, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you using such links. *

Ever feel like you’re stuck in a rut with no way out? We’ve all been there. The problems life throws at us can seem insurmountable. But the truth is, you have everything you need to overcome any challenge already within you. It’s called a problem-solving mindset. Developing the ability to see problems as puzzles to solve rather than obstacles to overcome is a game changer. With the right mindset, you can achieve amazing things.

In this article, we’ll explore what having a problem-solving mindset really means and how you can cultivate one for yourself. You’ll learn proven techniques to shift your perspective, expand your creativity, and find innovative solutions to your biggest problems. We’ll look at examples of people who have used a problem-solving mindset to accomplish extraordinary feats. By the end, you’ll have the tools and inspiration to transform how you think about and approach problems in your own life.

Table of Contents

What is a problem-solving mindset.

A problem solving mindset is all about approaching challenges in a solution-focused way. Rather than feeling defeated by obstacles, you look at them as puzzles to solve. Developing this mindset takes practice, but the rewards of increased resilience, creativity and confidence make it worth the effort.

• Identify problems, not excuses. Rather than blaming external factors, look for the issues within your control. Ask yourself, “What’s really going on here and what can I do about it?”
• Focus on solutions, not problems. Once you’ve pinpointed the issue, brainstorm options to fix it. Don’t get stuck in a negative loop. Shift your mindset to answer the question, “What are some possible solutions?”
• Look for opportunities, not obstacles. Reframe the way you view problems. See them as chances to improve and learn, rather than roadblocks stopping your progress. Ask, “What’s the opportunity or lesson here?”
• Start small and build up. Don’t feel overwhelmed by big challenges. Break them into manageable steps and celebrate small wins along the way. Solving little problems builds your confidence to tackle bigger issues.

Be patient with yourself and maintain an open and curious attitude . With regular practice, you’ll get better at seeing the solutions, rather than the obstacles. You’ll become more flexible and innovative in your thinking. And you’ll discover that you have the ability to solve problems you once thought insurmountable. That’s the power of a problem-solving mindset.

Why Developing a Problem Solving Mindset Is Important

Developing a problem-solving mindset is crucial these days. Why? Because life throws curveballs at us constantly and the only way to overcome them is through creative solutions.

Having a problem-solving mindset means you view challenges as opportunities rather than obstacles. You approach them with curiosity and optimism instead of dread. This allows you to see problems from new angles and come up with innovative solutions.

Some key characteristics of a problem-solving mindset include:

• Flexibility. You’re open to different perspectives and willing to consider alternative options.
• Creativity. You think outside the box and make unexpected connections between ideas.
• Persistence. You don’t give up easily in the face of difficulties or setbacks. You continue experimenting and adjusting your approach.
• Adaptability. You accept change and are able to quickly adjust your strategies or plans to suit new situations.
• Resourcefulness. You make the most of what you have access to and find ways to overcome limitations.

Developing a problem-solving mindset takes conscious effort and practice.

The Key Characteristics of Effective Problem Solvers

To become an effective problem solver, you need to develop certain characteristics and mindsets. Here are some of the key traits shared by great problem solvers:

1. Openness to New Ideas

Effective problem solvers have an open and curious mind. They seek out new ways of looking at problems and solutions. Rather than dismissing ideas that seem “out there,” they explore various options with an open mind.

2. Flexibility

Great problem solvers are flexible in their thinking. They can see problems from multiple perspectives and are willing to adapt their approach. If one solution isn’t working, they try another. They understand that there are many paths to solving a problem.

3. Persistence

Solving complex problems often requires persistence and determination. Effective problem solvers don’t give up easily. They continue exploring options and trying new solutions until they find one that works. They see setbacks as learning opportunities rather than failures.

Why Persistence is Important: 8 Benefits & 6 Ways to Develop

4. creativity.

Innovative problem solvers think outside the box . They make unexpected connections and come up with unconventional solutions. They utilize techniques like brainstorming, mind mapping, and lateral thinking to spark new ideas.

5. Analytical Thinking

While creativity is key, problem solvers also need to be able to evaluate solutions in a logical and analytical manner. They need to be able to determine the pros and cons, costs and benefits, and potential obstacles or issues with any solution. They rely on data, evidence, and objective reasoning to make decisions.

7 Types of Critical Thinking: A Guide to Analyzing Problems

How to cultivate a problem-solving mindset.

To cultivate a problem-solving mindset, you need to develop certain habits and ways of thinking. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Look for Opportunities to Solve Problems

The more you practice problem solving, the better you’ll get at it. Look for opportunities in your daily life to solve small problems. This could be figuring out a better way to organize your tasks at work or coming up with a solution to traffic in your neighborhood. Start with small, low-risk problems and work your way up to more complex challenges.

2. Ask Good Questions

One of the most important skills in problem solving is asking good questions. Questions help you gain a deeper understanding of the issue and uncover new perspectives. Ask open-ended questions like:

• What’s the real problem here?
• What are the underlying causes?
• Who does this impact and how?
• What has been tried before? What worked and what didn’t?

3. Do Your Research

Don’t go into problem solving blind. Do some research to gather relevant facts and data about the situation. The more you know, the better equipped you’ll be to come up with innovative solutions. Talk to people with different viewpoints and life experiences to gain new insights.

4. Brainstorm Many Options

When you start thinking of solutions, don’t settle for the first idea that comes to mind. Brainstorm many options to open up possibilities. The more choices you have, the more likely you are to discover an unconventional solution that really fits the needs of the situation. Think outside the box!

5. Evaluate and Decide

Once you have a list of possible solutions, evaluate each option objectively based on criteria like cost, time, and effectiveness. Get input from others if needed. Then make a decision and take action. Even if it’s not the perfect solution, you can make changes as you go based on feedback and results.

6. Question your beliefs

The beliefs and assumptions you hold can influence how you perceive and solve problems. Ask yourself:

• What beliefs or stereotypes do I have about this situation or the people involved?
• Are these beliefs grounded in facts or just my personal experiences?
• How might my beliefs be limiting my thinking?

Challenging your beliefs helps you see the problem with fresh eyes and identify new solutions.

The Ultimate Guide of Overcoming Self-Limiting Beliefs

7. seek different perspectives.

Get input from people with different backgrounds, experiences, and thought processes than your own. Their unique perspectives can reveal new insights and spark innovative ideas. Some ways to gain new perspectives include:

• Discuss the problem with colleagues from different departments or areas of expertise.
• Interview customers or clients to understand their needs and priorities.
• Consult experts in unrelated fields for an outside-the-box opinion.
• Crowdsource solutions from people of diverse ages, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

8. Look beyond the obvious

We tend to focus on the most conspicuous or straightforward solutions, but the best option isn’t always obvious. Try these techniques to stimulate unconventional thinking:

• Restate the problem in new ways. A new phrasing can reveal alternative solutions.
• Remove constraints and imagine an ideal scenario. Then work backwards to find realistic options.
• Make unexpected associations between the problem and unrelated concepts or objects. Look for parallels and analogies in different domains.
• Play with hypothetical scenarios to find combinations you may not logically deduce. Some of the wildest ideas can lead to innovative solutions!

With an open and curious mindset, you can overcome assumptions, gain new insights, and find unconventional solutions to your most complex problems. The key is looking at the situation in new ways and exploring all possibilities.

Mindset is Everything: Reprogram Your Thinking for Success

9. practice active listening.

To become an effective problem solver, you need to practice active listening. This means paying close attention to what others are saying and asking follow-up questions to gain a deeper understanding of the issues.

Listen without judgment

When someone is explaining a problem to you, listen with an open mind. Avoid interrupting or criticizing them. Your role is to understand their perspective and concerns, not pass judgment. Nod, make eye contact, and give verbal affirmations like “I see” or “go on” to show you’re engaged.

Ask clarifying questions

If something is unclear or you need more details, ask questions. Say something like, “Can you explain that in more detail?” or “What specifically do you mean by that?” The more information you have about the problem, the better equipped you’ll be to solve it. Ask open-ended questions to encourage the other person to elaborate on their points.

Paraphrase and summarize

Repeat back parts of what the speaker said in your own words to confirm you understood them correctly. Say something like, “It sounds like the main issues are…” or “To summarize, the key points you’re making are…” This also shows the other person you were paying attention and care about addressing their actual concerns.

10. Withhold suggestions initially

When someone first presents you with a problem, avoid immediately suggesting solutions. Your first task is to understand the issue thoroughly. If you start proposing solutions too soon, it can seem like you’re not really listening and are just waiting for your turn to talk. Get clarification, summarize the issues, and ask any follow up questions needed before offering your input on how to solve the problem.

Developing the patience and discipline to actively listen takes practice. But by listening without judgment, asking clarifying questions, paraphrasing, and withholding suggestions initially, you’ll gain valuable insight into problems and be better equipped to solve them. Active listening is a skill that will serve you well in all areas of life.

11. Ask Lots of Questions

To solve problems effectively, you need to ask lots of questions. Questioning helps you gain a deeper understanding of the issue, uncover hidden factors, and open your mind to new solutions.

Asking “why” helps you determine the root cause of the problem. Keep asking “why” until you reach the underlying reason. For example, if sales numbers are down, ask why. The answer may be that you lost a key client. Ask why you lost the client. The answer could be poor customer service. Ask why the customer service was poor. And so on. Getting to the root cause is key to finding the right solution.

Challenge Assumptions

We all have implicit assumptions and biases that influence our thinking. Challenge any assumptions you have about the problem by asking questions like:

• What if the opposite is true?
• What are we missing or ignoring?
• What do we think is impossible but perhaps isn’t?

Questioning your assumptions opens you up to new perspectives and innovative solutions.

12. Consider Different Viewpoints

Try to see the problem from multiple angles by asking:

• How do others see this problem?
• What solutions might employees, customers, or experts suggest?
• What would someone from a different industry or background recommend?

Getting input from people with diverse experiences and ways of thinking will lead to better solutions.

13. Brainstorm New Possibilities

Once you have a good understanding of the root problem, start generating new solutions by asking open-ended questions like:

• What if anything were possible, what solutions come to mind?
• What are some wild and crazy ideas, even if implausible?
• What solutions have we not yet thought of?

Don’t judge or evaluate ideas at this stage. Just let the questions spark new creative solutions. The more questions you ask, the more solutions you’ll discover. With an inquisitive mindset, you’ll be well on your way to solving any problem.

14. Document what you find

As you research, keep notes on key details, facts, statistics, examples, and advice that stand out as most relevant or interesting. Look for common themes and threads across the different resources. Organize your notes by topic or theme to get a better sense of the big picture. Refer back to your notes to recall important points as you evaluate options and determine next steps.

Doing thorough research arms you with the knowledge and understanding to develop effective solutions. You’ll gain a deeper appreciation for the complexity of the problem and be able to make more informed choices. Research also exposes you to new ideas you may not have considered. While it requires an investment of time, research is a crucial step for achieving an optimal solution.

15. Start With the End in Mind: Define the Problem Clearly

To solve a problem effectively, you need to first define it clearly. Without a concrete understanding of the issue at hand, you’ll waste time and energy grappling with a vague, nebulous challenge.

Identify the root cause

Ask probing questions to determine the underlying reason for the problem. Get specific by figuring out who is affected, what’s not working, where the breakdown is happening, when it started, and why it’s an issue. Look beyond the symptoms to find the source. The solution lies in resolving the root cause, not just alleviating surface-level pain points.

Gather objective data

Rely on facts, not opinions or assumptions. Observe the situation directly and collect information from multiple sources. Get input from people with different perspectives. Hard data and evidence will give you an accurate, unbiased view of the problem.

Define constraints and priorities

Determine any restrictions around time, money, resources, or policies that could impact your solution. Also identify what’s most important to solve—you can’t fix everything at once. Focus on high-priority issues and leave lower-priority problems for another time.

Frame the problem statement

With a clear understanding of the root cause, supporting data, and constraints, you can craft a concise problem statement. This articulates the issue in 1 or 2 sentences and serves as a guiding vision for developing solutions. Refer back to your problem statement regularly to ensure you stay on track.

Final Thought

Developing a problem-solving mindset is within your reach if you commit to continuous learning, looking at challenges from new angles, and not being afraid to fail. Start small by picking one problem each day to solve in a creative way. Build up your confidence and skills over time through practice.

While it may feel uncomfortable at first, having an adaptable and solution-focused mindset will serve you well in all areas of life. You’ll be able to navigate obstacles and setbacks with more ease and grace. And who knows, you may even start to enjoy the problem-solving process and see problems as opportunities in disguise. The problem-solving mindset is a gift that keeps on giving. Now go out there, face your challenges head on, and solve away!

Solve It!: The Mindset and Tools of Smart Problem Solvers by  Dietmar Sternad

• Creative Problem Solving as Overcoming a Misunderstanding by Maria Bagassi  and  Laura Macchi * (Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy) ,
• Mindsets: A View From Two Eras by Carol S. Dweck 1  and  David S. Yeager 2 published in National Library of Medicine ( Perspect Psychol Sci.  Author manuscript; available in PMC 2020 May 1. Published in final edited form as: Perspect Psychol Sci. 2019 May; 14(3): 481–496. )

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With regular practice, a problem solving mindset can become second nature. You’ll get better at seeing opportunities, asking the right questions, uncovering creative solutions, and taking action. And that will make you a highly valuable thinker in any organization or team.

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10 Best Problem-Solving Therapy Worksheets & Activities

Cognitive science tells us that we regularly face not only well-defined problems but, importantly, many that are ill defined (Eysenck & Keane, 2015).

Sometimes, we find ourselves unable to overcome our daily problems or the inevitable (though hopefully infrequent) life traumas we face.

Problem-Solving Therapy aims to reduce the incidence and impact of mental health disorders and improve wellbeing by helping clients face life’s difficulties (Dobson, 2011).

This article introduces Problem-Solving Therapy and offers techniques, activities, and worksheets that mental health professionals can use with clients.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free . These science-based exercises explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology, including strengths, values, and self-compassion, and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

What is problem-solving therapy, 14 steps for problem-solving therapy, 3 best interventions and techniques, 7 activities and worksheets for your session, fascinating books on the topic, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

Problem-Solving Therapy assumes that mental disorders arise in response to ineffective or maladaptive coping. By adopting a more realistic and optimistic view of coping, individuals can understand the role of emotions and develop actions to reduce distress and maintain mental wellbeing (Nezu & Nezu, 2009).

“Problem-solving therapy (PST) is a psychosocial intervention, generally considered to be under a cognitive-behavioral umbrella” (Nezu, Nezu, & D’Zurilla, 2013, p. ix). It aims to encourage the client to cope better with day-to-day problems and traumatic events and reduce their impact on mental and physical wellbeing.

Clinical research, counseling, and health psychology have shown PST to be highly effective in clients of all ages, ranging from children to the elderly, across multiple clinical settings, including schizophrenia, stress, and anxiety disorders (Dobson, 2011).

Can it help with depression?

PST appears particularly helpful in treating clients with depression. A recent analysis of 30 studies found that PST was an effective treatment with a similar degree of success as other successful therapies targeting depression (Cuijpers, Wit, Kleiboer, Karyotaki, & Ebert, 2020).

Other studies confirm the value of PST and its effectiveness at treating depression in multiple age groups and its capacity to combine with other therapies, including drug treatments (Dobson, 2011).

The major concepts

Effective coping varies depending on the situation, and treatment typically focuses on improving the environment and reducing emotional distress (Dobson, 2011).

PST is based on two overlapping models:

Social problem-solving model

This model focuses on solving the problem “as it occurs in the natural social environment,” combined with a general coping strategy and a method of self-control (Dobson, 2011, p. 198).

The model includes three central concepts:

• Social problem-solving
• The problem
• The solution

The model is a “self-directed cognitive-behavioral process by which an individual, couple, or group attempts to identify or discover effective solutions for specific problems encountered in everyday living” (Dobson, 2011, p. 199).

Relational problem-solving model

The theory of PST is underpinned by a relational problem-solving model, whereby stress is viewed in terms of the relationships between three factors:

• Stressful life events
• Emotional distress and wellbeing
• Problem-solving coping

Therefore, when a significant adverse life event occurs, it may require “sweeping readjustments in a person’s life” (Dobson, 2011, p. 202).

• Enhance positive problem orientation
• Decrease negative orientation
• Foster ability to apply rational problem-solving skills
• Reduce the tendency to avoid problem-solving
• Minimize the tendency to be careless and impulsive

D’Zurilla’s and Nezu’s model includes (modified from Dobson, 2011):

• Initial structuring Establish a positive therapeutic relationship that encourages optimism and explains the PST approach.
• Assessment Formally and informally assess areas of stress in the client’s life and their problem-solving strengths and weaknesses.
• Obstacles to effective problem-solving Explore typically human challenges to problem-solving, such as multitasking and the negative impact of stress. Introduce tools that can help, such as making lists, visualization, and breaking complex problems down.
• Problem orientation – fostering self-efficacy Introduce the importance of a positive problem orientation, adopting tools, such as visualization, to promote self-efficacy.
• Problem orientation – recognizing problems Help clients recognize issues as they occur and use problem checklists to ‘normalize’ the experience.
• Problem orientation – seeing problems as challenges Encourage clients to break free of harmful and restricted ways of thinking while learning how to argue from another point of view.
• Problem orientation – use and control emotions Help clients understand the role of emotions in problem-solving, including using feelings to inform the process and managing disruptive emotions (such as cognitive reframing and relaxation exercises).
• Problem orientation – stop and think Teach clients how to reduce impulsive and avoidance tendencies (visualizing a stop sign or traffic light).
• Problem definition and formulation Encourage an understanding of the nature of problems and set realistic goals and objectives.
• Generation of alternatives Work with clients to help them recognize the wide range of potential solutions to each problem (for example, brainstorming).
• Decision-making Encourage better decision-making through an improved understanding of the consequences of decisions and the value and likelihood of different outcomes.
• Solution implementation and verification Foster the client’s ability to carry out a solution plan, monitor its outcome, evaluate its effectiveness, and use self-reinforcement to increase the chance of success.
• Guided practice Encourage the application of problem-solving skills across multiple domains and future stressful problems.
• Rapid problem-solving Teach clients how to apply problem-solving questions and guidelines quickly in any given situation.

Success in PST depends on the effectiveness of its implementation; using the right approach is crucial (Dobson, 2011).

Problem-solving therapy – Baycrest

The following interventions and techniques are helpful when implementing more effective problem-solving approaches in client’s lives.

First, it is essential to consider if PST is the best approach for the client, based on the problems they present.

Is PPT appropriate?

It is vital to consider whether PST is appropriate for the client’s situation. Therapists new to the approach may require additional guidance (Nezu et al., 2013).

Therapists should consider the following questions before beginning PST with a client (modified from Nezu et al., 2013):

• Has PST proven effective in the past for the problem? For example, research has shown success with depression, generalized anxiety, back pain, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and supporting caregivers (Nezu et al., 2013).
• Is PST acceptable to the client?
• Is the individual experiencing a significant mental or physical health problem?

All affirmative answers suggest that PST would be a helpful technique to apply in this instance.

Five problem-solving steps

The following five steps are valuable when working with clients to help them cope with and manage their environment (modified from Dobson, 2011).

Ask the client to consider the following points (forming the acronym ADAPT) when confronted by a problem:

• Attitude Aim to adopt a positive, optimistic attitude to the problem and problem-solving process.
• Define Obtain all required facts and details of potential obstacles to define the problem.
• Alternatives Identify various alternative solutions and actions to overcome the obstacle and achieve the problem-solving goal.
• Predict Predict each alternative’s positive and negative outcomes and choose the one most likely to achieve the goal and maximize the benefits.
• Try out Once selected, try out the solution and monitor its effectiveness while engaging in self-reinforcement.

If the client is not satisfied with their solution, they can return to step ‘A’ and find a more appropriate solution.

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Positive self-statements

When dealing with clients facing negative self-beliefs, it can be helpful for them to use positive self-statements.

Use the following (or add new) self-statements to replace harmful, negative thinking (modified from Dobson, 2011):

• I can solve this problem; I’ve tackled similar ones before.
• I can cope with this.
• I just need to take a breath and relax.
• Once I start, it will be easier.
• It’s okay to look out for myself.
• I can get help if needed.
• Other people feel the same way I do.
• I’ll take one piece of the problem at a time.
• I can keep my fears in check.
• I don’t need to please everyone.

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PST practitioners have many different techniques available to support clients as they learn to tackle day-to-day or one-off trauma.

5 Worksheets and workbooks

Problem-solving self-monitoring form.

Ask the client to complete the following:

• Describe the problem you are facing.
• What is your goal?
• What have you tried so far to solve the problem?
• What was the outcome?

Reactions to Stress

It can be helpful for the client to recognize their own experiences of stress. Do they react angrily, withdraw, or give up (Dobson, 2011)?

The Reactions to Stress worksheet can be given to the client as homework to capture stressful events and their reactions. By recording how they felt, behaved, and thought, they can recognize repeating patterns.

What Are Your Unique Triggers?

Helping clients capture triggers for their stressful reactions can encourage emotional regulation.

When clients can identify triggers that may lead to a negative response, they can stop the experience or slow down their emotional reaction (Dobson, 2011).

The What Are Your Unique Triggers ? worksheet helps the client identify their triggers (e.g., conflict, relationships, physical environment, etc.).

Problem-Solving worksheet

Imagining an existing or potential problem and working through how to resolve it can be a powerful exercise for the client.

Use the Problem-Solving worksheet to state a problem and goal and consider the obstacles in the way. Then explore options for achieving the goal, along with their pros and cons, to assess the best action plan.

Getting the Facts

Clients can become better equipped to tackle problems and choose the right course of action by recognizing facts versus assumptions and gathering all the necessary information (Dobson, 2011).

Use the Getting the Facts worksheet to answer the following questions clearly and unambiguously:

• Who is involved?
• What did or did not happen, and how did it bother you?
• Where did it happen?
• When did it happen?
• Why did it happen?
• How did you respond?

2 Helpful Group Activities

While therapists can use the worksheets above in group situations, the following two interventions work particularly well with more than one person.

Generating Alternative Solutions and Better Decision-Making

A group setting can provide an ideal opportunity to share a problem and identify potential solutions arising from multiple perspectives.

Use the Generating Alternative Solutions and Better Decision-Making worksheet and ask the client to explain the situation or problem to the group and the obstacles in the way.

Once the approaches are captured and reviewed, the individual can share their decision-making process with the group if they want further feedback.

Visualization

Visualization can be performed with individuals or in a group setting to help clients solve problems in multiple ways, including (Dobson, 2011):

• Clarifying the problem by looking at it from multiple perspectives
• Rehearsing a solution in the mind to improve and get more practice
• Visualizing a ‘safe place’ for relaxation, slowing down, and stress management

Guided imagery is particularly valuable for encouraging the group to take a ‘mental vacation’ and let go of stress.

Ask the group to begin with slow, deep breathing that fills the entire diaphragm. Then ask them to visualize a favorite scene (real or imagined) that makes them feel relaxed, perhaps beside a gently flowing river, a summer meadow, or at the beach.

The more the senses are engaged, the more real the experience. Ask the group to think about what they can hear, see, touch, smell, and even taste.

Encourage them to experience the situation as fully as possible, immersing themselves and enjoying their place of safety.

Such feelings of relaxation may be able to help clients fall asleep, relieve stress, and become more ready to solve problems.

We have included three of our favorite books on the subject of Problem-Solving Therapy below.

1. Problem-Solving Therapy: A Treatment Manual – Arthur Nezu, Christine Maguth Nezu, and Thomas D’Zurilla

This is an incredibly valuable book for anyone wishing to understand the principles and practice behind PST.

Written by the co-developers of PST, the manual provides powerful toolkits to overcome cognitive overload, emotional dysregulation, and the barriers to practical problem-solving.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. Emotion-Centered Problem-Solving Therapy: Treatment Guidelines – Arthur Nezu and Christine Maguth Nezu

Another, more recent, book from the creators of PST, this text includes important advances in neuroscience underpinning the role of emotion in behavioral treatment.

Along with clinical examples, the book also includes crucial toolkits that form part of a stepped model for the application of PST.

3. Handbook of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies – Keith Dobson and David Dozois

This is the fourth edition of a hugely popular guide to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies and includes a valuable and insightful section on Problem-Solving Therapy.

This is an important book for students and more experienced therapists wishing to form a high-level and in-depth understanding of the tools and techniques available to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists.

For even more tools to help strengthen your clients’ problem-solving skills, check out the following free worksheets from our blog.

• Case Formulation Worksheet This worksheet presents a four-step framework to help therapists and their clients come to a shared understanding of the client’s presenting problem.
• Understanding Your Default Problem-Solving Approach This worksheet poses a series of questions helping clients reflect on their typical cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to problems.
• Social Problem Solving: Step by Step This worksheet presents a streamlined template to help clients define a problem, generate possible courses of action, and evaluate the effectiveness of an implemented solution.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others enhance their wellbeing, check out this signature collection of 17 validated positive psychology tools for practitioners. Use them to help others flourish and thrive.

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While we are born problem-solvers, facing an incredibly diverse set of challenges daily, we sometimes need support.

Problem-Solving Therapy aims to reduce stress and associated mental health disorders and improve wellbeing by improving our ability to cope. PST is valuable in diverse clinical settings, ranging from depression to schizophrenia, with research suggesting it as a highly effective treatment for teaching coping strategies and reducing emotional distress.

Many PST techniques are available to help improve clients’ positive outlook on obstacles while reducing avoidance of problem situations and the tendency to be careless and impulsive.

The PST model typically assesses the client’s strengths, weaknesses, and coping strategies when facing problems before encouraging a healthy experience of and relationship with problem-solving.

Why not use this article to explore the theory behind PST and try out some of our powerful tools and interventions with your clients to help them with their decision-making, coping, and problem-solving?

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free .

• Cuijpers, P., Wit, L., Kleiboer, A., Karyotaki, E., & Ebert, D. (2020). Problem-solving therapy for adult depression: An updated meta-analysis. European P sychiatry ,  48 (1), 27–37.
• Dobson, K. S. (2011). Handbook of cognitive-behavioral therapies (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
• Dobson, K. S., & Dozois, D. J. A. (2021). Handbook of cognitive-behavioral therapies  (4th ed.). Guilford Press.
• Eysenck, M. W., & Keane, M. T. (2015). Cognitive psychology: A student’s handbook . Psychology Press.
• Nezu, A. M., & Nezu, C. M. (2009). Problem-solving therapy DVD . Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://www.apa.org/pubs/videos/4310852
• Nezu, A. M., & Nezu, C. M. (2018). Emotion-centered problem-solving therapy: Treatment guidelines. Springer.
• Nezu, A. M., Nezu, C. M., & D’Zurilla, T. J. (2013). Problem-solving therapy: A treatment manual . Springer.

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Fun Coding Problems to Enhance Skills

Enhance your coding skills with fun challenges for all levels. From FizzBuzz to N Queens Problem, these puzzles will boost your problem-solving abilities and software development skills.

Looking to boost your coding skills while having fun? Dive into these coding challenges designed for all levels, from beginners to advanced programmers. Each challenge not only sharpens your coding knowledge but also enhances your problem-solving abilities, software development skills, collaboration, and adaptability. Whether you're preparing for job interviews or just want to test your skills, these puzzles offer a great mix of learning and enjoyment.

• Beginner Challenges: FizzBuzz, Reverse a String, Find the Factorial, Count Vowels
• Intermediate Challenges: Shuffle an Array, FizzBuzz Tree, Merge Sort, Valid Parentheses
• Advanced Challenges: Shortest Path, Regular Expression Matcher, Binary Search Tree, N Queens Problem

Beyond individual challenges, explore new languages and frameworks like Rust, Elixir, Flutter, and GraphQL. Participate in Advent of Code for daily puzzles, contribute to open source projects, and never stop learning to expand your coding horizons. Remember, the key to becoming a better programmer is continuous practice and learning from both successes and mistakes.

Selecting Fun Coding Challenges

We've picked some coding challenges that are fun and cover different levels of difficulty. They help you practice a wide range of coding skills, from the basics to more complex problem-solving. Whether you're just starting out or you've been coding for a while, these challenges will test your knowledge and push you to think creatively.

Beginner Challenges

If you're new to coding or want to brush up on the basics, these challenges are a good start:

FizzBuzz - For numbers from 1 to 100, say "Fizz" for multiples of 3, "Buzz" for multiples of 5, and "FizzBuzz" for both. This helps you practice basic logic and using the % sign to find multiples.

Reverse a String - Try to flip a string around without using any shortcuts. This helps you understand strings, loops, and how to work with arrays.

Find the Factorial - Work out factorials using a method that calls itself. This is a good way to learn about math, calling the same function within itself, and making your code efficient.

Count Vowels - Figure out how many vowels are in a string, both by going through the string and by using the method that calls itself. This is great for getting better at working with strings, loops, and this recursive method.

Intermediate Challenges

Ready to level up? These challenges will make you think a bit harder:

Shuffle an Array - Mix up the elements in an array randomly. This teaches you about arrays, using randomness, and sorting things.

FizzBuzz Tree - Make a tree where each part says "Fizz", "Buzz", or "FizzBuzz" depending on its value. This is for practicing with trees, calling functions within themselves, and using the % sign again.

Merge Sort - Sort an array by dividing and conquering, using a method that calls itself. This helps you learn about sorting things efficiently and breaking down problems.

Valid Parentheses - Check if the brackets in a string are properly closed and opened. This is good for learning about using stacks, working with strings, and paying attention to small details.

Advanced Challenges

For those who really want to challenge themselves, try these tough ones:

Shortest Path - Find the quickest way between two points in a network. This teaches you about networks, lining up tasks, and finding the best solutions.

Regular Expression Matcher - Create your own way to match patterns in strings. This is for learning about strings, patterns, and how to parse them.

Binary Search Tree - Add, remove, and look for elements in a binary search tree. This helps you practice with trees, calling functions within themselves, and dealing with tricky situations.

N Queens Problem - Place queens on a chessboard so none of them can attack each other. This is great for learning about backtracking, using arrays, and solving complex problems.

By trying these coding challenges, you'll gradually improve your skills. Mastering them will give you the confidence to tackle any coding problem!

List of Fun Coding Challenges

1. fizzbuzz.

FizzBuzz is a well-known coding challenge that checks your basic understanding of programming and how to think logically.

Skill Level

FizzBuzz is a great starting point for beginners.

Programming Concepts

• If/else statements
• Using the % sign to find multiples
• Working with text
• Showing results on the screen

FizzBuzz is all about practicing loops, if/else decisions, using the % sign to work with numbers, handling text, and displaying results.

Problem-Solving Complexity

The challenge is straightforward with clear instructions and an easy solution.

Creativity and Logic

• Not much creativity needed
• Some logical thinking required

You don't need to be super creative because the task is clear. But, you'll need to think logically about how to meet the conditions and show the right output.

Overall, FizzBuzz is a fun way for beginners to get better at the basics. It's a simple challenge that helps you practice important skills before moving on to harder problems.

2. Reverse a String

Turning a string backwards is a great first step for beginners. It's a simple way to get used to loops and arrays.

This challenge involves going through strings and arrays step by step.

• Low to moderate

You'll need to think a bit, but the idea is pretty simple.

• A little creativity needed
• Some logical thinking necessary

The challenge tells you what to do, so you won't need to get super creative. However, you'll have to use logic to make sure the letters flip the right way.

Overall, this is a good starting challenge. It's not too hard and helps you learn how to work with strings and arrays logically. Plus, it's a nice way to get into coding & development without getting too overwhelmed.

3. Palindrome Checker

• Beginner to Intermediate

Checking if a word or phrase is the same forwards and backwards can be a fun challenge. It's a bit more complex than just flipping a string around but still easy enough for beginners who are ready for something a bit harder.

You'll loop through the string, comparing letters from the start and end to see if they match. Putting this in a function helps keep your code organized.

This one needs more thinking than the simpler tasks. You have to figure out how to compare the letters correctly and deal with any tricky parts.

• A bit of creativity needed
• Logical thinking is important

You'll need to think of a smart way to check the letters. Logic is also crucial to make sure you're catching all possible palindromes.

Overall, this is a good step up from the easier challenges. It asks you to think a bit more about how to use conditionals and logic in a slightly more complicated way. It's a good way to get ready for even tougher coding puzzles and improve your programming skills in a fun way.

4. Sudoku Solver

• Intermediate to Advanced

Solving Sudoku puzzles is a bit more complicated. It's a good challenge for people who already know a bit about coding. You'll need to know how to use recursion (where a function calls itself) and backtracking (going back to try different solutions when you hit a dead end).

• Backtracking algorithms
• Multi-dimensional arrays
• Checking rules

You'll use recursion and backtracking to try out different numbers in the puzzle until you find the right ones. The Sudoku board is set up as a grid (multi-dimensional array), and you have to make sure all the numbers follow the Sudoku rules.

This puzzle is pretty tough because there are a lot of rules to remember and you have to think carefully about where to put each number.

• Being creative helps
• You need to think things through carefully

You can be creative in how you approach the problem, but logical thinking is key. You have to be really methodical and make sure every number fits just right.

The Sudoku Solver is a great way to test and improve your coding skills. It's challenging, but solving it feels great. You'll learn a lot about coding and how to think through complex problems.

5. The Magic Equation Challenge

This challenge is for those who've got some coding under their belt. It mixes math with coding in a way that's both fun and a bit challenging.

• Math tricks
• Calling functions within functions
• Spotting patterns
• Making your code run smoothly

You'll be using math tricks, calling functions within other functions (that's recursion), spotting patterns, and figuring out how to solve problems without making your code slow.

Figuring out these magic equations can be tough. You need to look closely to see the patterns and figure out the solution.

• Being creative can help
• Logic is super important

Thinking outside the box might help you see patterns you'd miss otherwise. But, you'll definitely need to use logical thinking to make sure your solutions work.

Tackling the Magic Equation Challenge is a great way to push your math and coding skills. It's all about spotting patterns, using recursion, and applying logic. Plus, it's a satisfying puzzle to solve, boosting both your problem-solving abilities and your programming skills. It's a cool way to keep learning and improving in the world of software development.

6. Perfect Tic-Tac-Toe

Making a Tic-Tac-Toe game that can't lose is a bit tricky. You need to understand how to plan ahead with game trees, use minimax algorithms to always choose the best move, and know about recursion.

• Minimax algorithms

You'll create a plan for all possible moves using a game tree. Then, with minimax and recursion, your game will always know the smartest move to make. The game board is just a simple 3x3 grid.

Designing a Tic-Tac-Toe game that always wins requires careful thinking. You need to look at all the different ways the game could go.

• Being creative is good when making the AI
• You really need to think things through

You can have fun figuring out the best way to set up your game's AI with the minimax algorithm. But, you definitely need to use logic to make sure your game always picks the winning move.

Making a Tic-Tac-Toe game that never loses is a cool challenge for those looking to improve their coding skills. It combines game planning, algorithms, recursion, and logical thinking in a way that's enjoyable. Getting it right is satisfying and helps you become better at coding and development.

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Expanding your coding horizons.

There's a whole world of coding problems out there that can help you learn new things. By trying different kinds of problems, you can learn about new ways to solve them. This is important if you want to get better at coding.

Exploring New Languages and Frameworks

The world has a lot of programming languages and tools, and each one is good at different things. Learning new ones can give you new ideas and ways to solve problems.

Here are a few you might want to try:

• Rust - This language is all about being fast and safe. It's good for making things like game engines or security software.
• Elixir - A language that's great for making systems that need to be running all the time. It's based on Erlang and is very reliable.
• Flutter - A tool from Google for making mobile apps easily. You can make apps for both iPhones and Android phones with it.
• GraphQL - A new way to build APIs that lets clients ask for exactly what they need. It's more flexible than the old way.

Trying these out can open up new job opportunities and make you a better coder.

Taking on Advent of Code

Advent of Code is a fun way to practice coding in December. The puzzles get harder each day and cover different topics.

Doing these puzzles can help you:

• Learn new ways to solve problems
• Get better at a programming language
• See how you're improving over time
• Learn from how others solve the same puzzles

It's a fun challenge that can make you think creatively.

Contributing to Open Source

Helping out with open source software is a great way to learn. You'll get to:

• Read and understand big projects
• Find and fix problems
• Write code that fits in with what's already there
• Work with others to get your changes added

This can teach you a lot about coding in the real world. Start with small tasks and move up to bigger ones as you learn.

Never Stop Learning

Always be looking for new things to learn in coding. Join communities, keep up with new tech, and work on your own projects. There's always something new to learn if you keep looking for it. The best part of coding is getting better and learning new things.

Trying out fun coding problems is a great way to get better at programming while having a good time. These challenges help you in many ways:

• Get better at solving problems: They teach you how to tackle big problems by breaking them down into smaller parts and thinking through them step by step.
• Learn new things: As you take on different challenges, you'll learn about various ways to code, organize data, and solve problems.
• Get ready for job interviews: Many jobs ask you to solve these kinds of problems during interviews. Practicing can help you do well.
• See how you're doing: On websites like HackerRank and LeetCode, you can earn points and see your progress over time.
• Learn from others: If you're stuck, you can check out how others solved a problem and learn from their approach.
• Keep up with new tech: Coding challenges introduce you to the latest in programming languages, tools, and tech trends.
• Enjoy the process: It feels great to figure out a tough problem on your own.

No matter if you're just starting or have been coding for a while, it's important to keep trying new and harder puzzles. This way, you keep getting better while enjoying what you're doing.

Related Questions

How do you challenge yourself in coding.

To get better at coding, it's a good idea to solve problems regularly. Websites like HackerRank, LeetCode, or CodeSignal have tons of coding challenges for different skill levels. You can also try joining coding contests or hackathons to push yourself and learn from others.

Do coding challenges make you a better programmer?

Yes, coding challenges can definitely help you become a better programmer. They:

• Make you think of new ways to solve problems
• Show you different coding concepts
• Help you get faster and more efficient at writing code
• Teach you to break down big problems into smaller parts
• Let you learn from mistakes and improve your solutions

By taking on new coding puzzles regularly, you'll grow your skills and become a more versatile programmer.

How can I improve my problem-solving skills for programming?

To get better at solving programming problems, try these tips:

• Make sure you understand the problem before trying to solve it
• Break big problems into smaller ones
• Plan your solution with pseudocode before you start coding
• Use diagrams to help think through solutions
• Look for patterns and make functions you can use again
• Keep practicing with coding challenges
• Learn from mistakes and how others solve problems
• Work with other coders
• Always be curious and open to learning new things

What is the most useful coding skill?

Some key coding skills include:

• Thinking logically and breaking down problems
• Writing clean, organized code that can be used again
• Knowing important data structures and algorithms
• Being good at finding and fixing bugs
• Picking up new programming languages and tools quickly
• Working well with others
• Keeping up with new tech trends and best practices

Getting good at these things will make you a strong programmer ready to handle lots of different projects.

Related posts

• Navigating Competitive Programming Challenges
• Best Programming Challenge Websites for Professional Growth
• 5 Fun Coding Problems
• Solving Fun Coding Problems Together

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How Can This Work? With Problem-Solving and Optimism

Personal perspective: pessimism can limit life for people with disabilities..

Updated July 24, 2024 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

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• The key is empowering disabled people to make the best decisions for themselves

I recently went to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and it was one of the most joyful experiences of my life. I have wanted to go for all of the 30 years I knew it existed, but it is not an ADA-friendly festival so for the last decade I had assumed it was one of those experiences that someone like me just couldn’t have.

The festival includes all of my favorite things. Telluride itself is ridiculously, transcendently beautiful. It’s a tiny old town at the base of a valley hemmed in by soaring San Juan peaks and crashing waterfalls. The town has soul. It’s a mix of old mining town and new ski mecca that gives that uniquely Colorado vibe of live and let live, dress in your favorite little black dress or your grungiest sweats, eat great food (as long as it’s camping-clean), see nature, and breathe mountain air. The Bluegrass Festival is one of the oldest summer festivals at Telluride; 50 years of gathering to celebrate the pleasure of live music.

My brother and his family have been going every year for 20 years with a group of friends and this year when they invited me (again) to share in their well-orchestrated dance of festival expertise, I wanted to go so badly it hurt worse than my pain. But my habitual pessimist kicked in saying it just wasn’t possible. Recent surgery. Sitting for hours on a lawn chair in a field. Driving time to get there and back. Recovery time to heal from the trip. Costs and expenses.

But then some optimists full of sunshine, namely my boyfriend and my sister-in-law, both shifted into problem-solving mode. I resisted their enthusiasm; it’s a bad habit I have, distrusting people who are trying to help me navigate the world. It’s hard to trust that they really “get” my challenges. But in this case, they both know me and care about me, and they were both so concerned and engaged and persistent and so very, very, excited, my resistance, in the end, proved futile.

The difference between their thoughts and my own? I think of the problems, they focus on solutions. There's a profound difference: “Here’s why I can’t.” And, “How do we make it work?”

For example:

Me: I can’t drive the six hours it takes to get there. It hurts, and the nerve damage in my feet makes it difficult to walk.

Them: Fly. Break up the drive over two days and visit hot springs along the way.

Me: I can’t sit in a lawn chair all day for three or four days, and I can’t bring my wheelchair because it would get stuck in the mud if it rains.

Them : Bring four different chairs and switch between them. Walk around. Only go for a few hours a day.

Me: When I don’t work, I don’t get paid, so I can’t afford the recovery time I’ll need.

Them: Recovery time may not be necessary (see above). Life is short, you just had surgery. Enjoy!

Me: I don’t have the resources.

Them: Let us help.

So, I went. The whole group knew and understood my challenges, and many hands made light work, and lo, I found myself dancing to the music I love in a crowd of happy festivarians under a literal rainbow like the happy ending to a children’s picture book.

There’s a technique on the behavioral side of cognitive-behavioral therapy called problem-solving therapy . It helps people to work through stressful situations, and importantly for me, it helps people with depression and disability learn how to cope. There are multiple steps, including identifying the problem very clearly, imagining multiple solutions, assessing which solution is best, allowing the patient (in the context of therapy) to choose the best solution, and then making a plan for how to get it done.

Of course, my people didn’t solve this problem with me in a clinical setting, or even with this therapeutic approach in mind. But when I was reflecting on how important the difference in their thinking and mine was, it was nice to see some research that supports how we worked together to conquer this particular demon. And, importantly, it's just as important that they didn’t make any decisions for me. Research also shows that when problem-solving comes from a caregiver without consulting with and listening to the disabled person they care for, the acceptance of disability decreases, and health outcomes worsen. 1

Naturally, there were bumps along the way (rain! mud! can't find our friends!), and for the record, I did need recovery time (incidentally, assessment of how it went is an important part of problem-solving therapy). And, I sincerely wish the festival and the town of Telluride would take steps to make ADA accessibility a bigger priority. I did not see a single person there in a wheelchair, and that’s also problem in need of solving.

Even so, my soul felt healed from being there and doing this glorious thing I thought I couldn’t do. I returned home feeling like a different person who could do literally anything I put my mind to. I can't wait for next year.

https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1999-00517-006

Jen Sarché is a writer and public health officer who has worked with the Kaiser Family Foundation, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, among others.

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Sticking up for yourself is no easy task. But there are concrete skills you can use to hone your assertiveness and advocate for yourself.

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Fun teaching resources & tips to help you teach math with confidence

Multiply Decimals Classroom Scavenger Hunt {FREE}

Do your 5th or 6th grade students need to practice multiplying decimals? Get them up and moving with this simple Multiply Decimals Scavenger Hunt for your classroom!

Once students are familiar and comfortable multiplying large whole numbers, it may seem like multiplying decimals will be a snap. After all, isn’t it basically the same thing, just with a decimal point? Although the standard algorithm is the same, there’s a lot more going on when dealing with decimal values and it’s important to build a conceptual understanding first rather than jumping into a procedure. This will help students avoid common mistakes and misconceptions when they begin using the standard algorithm (the “line it it and multiply” procedure).

Once students have a foundation and understand how decimal values relate to fractions or mixed numbers (including a “whole” and a “part”), they need lots of exposure and practice. And this multiply decimals scavenger hunt is perfect for giving them that extra practice!

Multiply Decimals: What’s Included

This free download includes everything you need for the whole class scavenger hunt , as well as some independent practice pages .

The focus is on multiplying whole numbers by tenths and multiplying tenths by tenths .

Here’s what’s included:

• 10 Scavenger Hunt problems (half-sheets)
• Student recording page to show work
• Answer key for the scavenger hunt
• Multiply whole numbers by tenths worksheet
• Multiply tenths by tenths worksheet
• Answer keys for both independent worksheets

Prep Needed for the Multiply Decimals Scavenger Hunt:

This decimals activity does require a little prep, but if you print on card stock paper and laminate, you can reuse it again and again with no prep.

To begin, print the “hunt” cards and cut them in half . There are 10 problems included on half-sheet pieces of paper.

Hang the question cards around your classroom in any order.

Then simply print a recording sheet for each student and you’re all set to begin.

How the Scavenger Hunt Works:

I like to put students in pairs so they can discuss and help each other as they make their way through the scavenger hunt, but that’s not necessary. They can also work independently if they prefer.

Either way, I give students a clip board so it’s easier to move about the room and show their thinking/solutions for each problem.

When they’re ready to start, they head to any problem they want and try to solve the decimal multiplication problem.

If you have a large class, you may want to assign students/pairs a starting question so they’re not all gathered around the same card at once.

Once students have a solution to the problem, they look for that solution on another card in the room.

When they find the solution, they then solve the decimal problem on THAT card , and search for the answer around the room.

They continue solving and hunting for the answer until they end up back where they started .

This will signal to them that they’ve correctly solved all the problems and are finished with the scavenger hunt !

If at anytime they can’t find a solution , or end up where they started without answering all the questions , they know they did something wrong and need to check their work .

If you enjoy this lesson, become a Math Geek Mama+ member and gain access to the entire library of engaging math lessons like this one, hundreds of math games and low-prep practice worksheets for grades 5-8 !

Learn more about Math Geek Mama+ right HERE .

Get Kids Up and Moving:

I love using scavenger hunts on occasion because it is a break from the normal routine .

It gives kids a chance to get up, stretch and move about the room, talk math with their partner, and just do something different .

Plus, it is self-checking , allowing students to look for their own mistakes and make corrections, a valuable skill in math class.

And if your students are familiar with the basics of how these hunts work, you can do this every once in a while without having to explain a new procedure . You can even use these in your sub plans !

Independent Practice or Assessment Included:

Once students are finished with the hunt (or as a review before they begin), you may want to use the included worksheets as independent practice or assessment .

This scavenger hunt focuses on multiplying whole numbers by tenths and multiplying tenths by tenths.

As a quick review or assessment, two worksheets are included to cover these skills.

Use these as homework, graded classwork or extra review for kids who are still struggling with this skill.

Ready to try this out with your students? Use the link below to head to my shop and grab this activity for FREE.

{Click HERE to go to my shop and grab the FREE Multiply Decimals Scavenger Hunt!}

Looking for more decimal operations resources check out these ideas:.

• {FREE} Multiply Decimals with Grids: Cut & Paste Set
• {FREE} Multiplying Decimals Word Problems Set
• How to Add Decimals: Simple Strategies & Tips
• Adding & Subtracting Decimals Partner Challenge {FREE!}
• Spin It! Multiplying Decimals Game for Kids {FREE}

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The Kamala Harris coconut tree meme, explained as best we can

Lexie Schapitl

Rachel Treisman

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on July 10 in Dallas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images hide caption

For more on Biden's decision and the now open 2024 race, head to the NPR Network's live updates page .

In the weeks before President Biden announced he would not be seeking reelection , some Democrats online rallied behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s new nominee. And their symbol became the coconut tree.

Not long after Biden announced on Sunday he was dropping out of the race, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tweeted out just three emojis : a coconut, a palm tree and an American flag. EMILYs LIST, the PAC focused on electing Democratic women, explicitly endorsed Harris in a tweet and, in a more subtle show of support, also added the tree and the coconut to its username. And Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii posted a picture of himself climbing up a coconut tree , adding, "Madam Vice President, we are ready to help."

🥥 🌴 🇺🇸 — Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) July 21, 2024

So how did the coconut tree emerge as the emblem of Harris' most devoted, or at least most-online followers? It's a story more than a year in the making.

Why are we even talking about coconut trees?

The “coconut tree” meme originates from a May 2023 speech Harris gave at a White House event for advancing opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

At one point near the end of her remarks, Harris talked about how the initiative's work would be focused on young people, but it should also take into account the needs of their families, teachers and communities, "because none of us just live in a silo."

We’re proud to endorse @kamalaharris as the next president of the United States because we know she is a qualified accomplished leader. She is the only candidate positioned to win against Trump in November, and the best voice to define the stakes in this election! #allinforkamala pic.twitter.com/CmdgImMaDz — EMILYs List 🥥🌴 (@emilyslist) July 21, 2024

"Everything is in context," Harris said, before launching into the now-famous anecdote.

"My mother ... would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, 'I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?' " Harris said with a laugh. "You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."

The moment was first meme’d in earnest in February of this year, when for a period of time, one could not open X, formerly known as Twitter, without seeing clips of or oblique references to those remarks.

this video is literally like medicine to me. i watch it once every week or two and every time i do i get an enduring hit of light euphoria for the next 45 minutes pic.twitter.com/eIF6Rwiir0 — charlie squire (@evil_female) February 9, 2024

But the meme took on new life this summer , after President Biden’s disastrous debate performance fueled speculation that he might step aside as the Democratic nominee. Harris’ supporters, also known as the KHive, were waiting in the wings.

Since then, the moment has been remixed into Charli XCX’s “ Von Dutch ” and Britney Spears’ " Gimme More ." Democratic operatives have spoken of being “ coconut-pilled .” The meme flourished into 2028 debate fan fiction . Google searches for "coconut tree" started climbing in the U.S. in early July.

Like all of us, the coconut tree moment exists in the context of all in which it lives and what came before it. Which is to say, it’s part of a larger set of memes surrounding Kamala Harris’ political persona. Harris has been spawning memes longer than she’s been vice president. We Did It, Joe , is likely the most well-known. But her laugh , her bus , her dance moves and her love of Venn diagrams have all become social media fodder.

We did it, @JoeBiden . pic.twitter.com/oCgeylsjB4 — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 7, 2020

So why did the coconut tree break through?

It's impossible to say why any particular meme — political or otherwise — catches fire over another. But part of Harris’ persona as portrayed on the internet is just that she   brings an energy that’s in stark contrast to President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

“We want something to laugh at and laugh with. And that's what Kamala does. And I think the coconut tree clip is a perfect example of that,” said Rebecca Jennings, a senior correspondent at Vox covering internet culture. 

Put another way, Harris — even being 59 and the incumbent vice president —represented something new in a campaign defined by old. And that stoked some enthusiasm among voters who were very unenthused.

“There's a sense of, like, nihilism that's like – OK, we have to do this again , and we have to do Trump and Biden again ,” Jennings said. “And so when you see clips of Kamala, it's like, well, at least that's fun to watch. At least it's, you know, not the same thing we've been seeing on screens for 10 years. It's a break in the just the drudgery of what what everyone thought this election was going to be.”

Young Democrats — among the most dissatisfied with Biden as a candidate, and the most online — also helped fuel the movement. As Washington Post internet culture reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote : "Harris’s new online prominence could help give the Democratic Party new prominence with young people — including major content creators — who are hesitant to vote for Biden again due to his climate policies, support of Israel’s war in Gaza, mishandling of the ongoing pandemic, and signing a bill that could ban TikTok."

One man's gaffe is another man's meme

From the coconut trees to the Venn diagrams, the Harris memes embrace what detractors might consider a gaffe. Trump, for instance, has dubbed Harris " laughing Kamala ," saying the laugh makes her seem "crazy."

Take another example, which grew out of one of Harris' go-to lines dating back to her 2020 presidential run: “I can imagine what can be, unburdened by what has been.”

The RNC compiled a supercut of Harris being "unburdened" and shared it on social media, arguing that it shows she is “unoriginal, annoying, and highly incompetent.” But the attacks aren’t sticking, as her supporters have taken ownership of the line and the laughter.

Jennings said it’s reminiscent of the critiques hurled at Trump throughout his political career, only to be welcomed by his base.

“People like the fact that he was saying offensive things,” Jennings said. "And I think it's strange for Republicans to kind of now be on the other end of that – which is making all these, you know, memes and videos of Kamala being goofy and quirky and the left being like, “Hell, yeah, brother.”

• election 2024
• Kamala Harris
• internet memes