A Team Building Scavenger Hunt Without The Eye-Rolling

Colleagues who don't normally speak end up in the same team with a shared problem. That's the point, and it's harder to achieve than it sounds - left to themselves, people cluster with the colleagues they already eat lunch with.

Walking helps too. A conversation while moving through a street is easier than a conversation across a table, especially between people who barely know each other. Nobody has to hold eye contact, and there's always something to point at.

And it doesn't require anyone to perform. That matters more than most organisers realise: quiet people dread activities where they'll be watched, and a hunt gives them something to do rather than something to be.

Put the new starters with people who'll talk to them. This is the one part worth thinking about individually rather than randomising.

Say what it is in plain terms: teams, a route, puzzles, roughly two hours, back at a named café at a named time. No language about synergy, unlocking potential or stepping outside comfort zones - that phrasing is exactly what makes people dread these afternoons.

Say clearly that it's optional in practice as well as on paper, and that anyone who wants to sit it out can join at the end. Some people have reasons they'd rather not explain.

Give the schedule in advance, including the finish time, so people can plan the rest of their day. Someone with childcare will remember whether you did this.

Score on correct answers, not on finishing first. If speed decides it, the team with the youngest legs wins and nothing about the activity mattered.

Keep the points simple enough to explain in one sentence. Complicated systems generate arguments that outlast the afternoon.

And keep the prize small and slightly ridiculous. A meaningful prize turns a light afternoon into a competition people take personally, which is the opposite of what you booked it for.

Tasks requiring people to approach strangers - fun for two people in any group, mortifying for the rest. Anything built around drinking, which quietly excludes whoever isn't. Challenges that single out an individual for laughs. And anything that runs into personal time without asking first.

The test: would you be comfortable if someone in their second week had to do this?

Most guides insist on a structured debrief about what the activity taught everyone. In practice, sitting a group down to extract lessons from a puzzle walk is where the goodwill from the afternoon gets spent.

A drink afterwards where people compare answers does the same work and doesn't feel like a workshop. If you want something more, ask one open question and let the conversation go where it wants.

For teams that are mostly remote, this format is unusually valuable, because it's the rare in-person day with a reason to exist beyond a room full of presentations. If people are travelling in, put the hunt in the early afternoon so late trains don't break it, and don't schedule anything immediately after.

Writing a work hunt takes a day of walking and testing, and one broken clue stops every team at the same corner. Ready-made city routes avoid that: the puzzles are tied to permanent things, teams run themselves from a phone, and several teams play the same route at once.

You can see which cities have routes and pick one near the office. The page on how the game works is useful if you need to explain the format to whoever approves the budget.

For invoicing, larger groups and a shared start, there's a setup for companies and groups.

Two hours of playing, two and a half including gathering and finishing. Longer than that and people start checking the time.

Any size, in teams of four to six. Fifty people works as ten teams on the same route.

Emphasise the answers rather than the ranking, and keep the prize trivial. Most reluctance is about being judged, not about walking.

Only if the game genuinely runs in the languages your team reads. Check that rather than assuming, since wordplay puzzles don't translate.

Check the stated distance first. Routes are typically two to four kilometres, flat, but that isn't nothing.

Self-guided formats don't, which is why they scale. That also means nobody is managing group dynamics, so composing the teams well matters more.

Assign the teams yourself, brief it in plain language, score on answers rather than speed, and let the debrief be a drink. For the format itself in more detail, we've written about using a city game for team building.

Planning one for a specific team? Send us the details through the contact page and we'll tell you honestly whether it fits.