A remote or in-person icebreaker tochallenge the team at the start of a workshop

The Banana Challenge is a fun icebreaker that can be done at the start of an in-person meeting, or remotely if some of your team members are working at distance, to build cohesion and motivate a work team.

How does it work? The team splits into sub-groups where everyone learns about each other based on different challenges. Each sub-group agrees on a suggestion to share with the other teams after discussing it between themselves. In each round, one team acts as a jury and scores the others.

Lasting about 15 minutes, this online icebreaker can be used before starting a team project to get to know each other and relax, or even as a solution to improve working relationships in an existing team. It's the ideal template to put everyone at ease and follow it up with a creative team working session.

Icebreakers, a key tool for efficient teamwork

Do you need to work as a group? It can be for training, a specific workshop or long-term project management. Before diving head-first into it, it can be a good idea to strengthen the bonds between the team members. The more comfortable people are together, the better they can collaborate.

What’s more, if you want to create a positive work dynamic and facilitate group discussions, this fun icebreaker will take you no more than 15 minutes and you won’t regret the time invested.

This template will help you animate and energize the start of your workshop, training session or team meeting, by putting participants in a good-natured competitive mood that will help everyone work better together. Trying to find original ideas quickly will put participants in a mindset ready to move a project forward or solve problems.

Launch a Banana Challenge with the Klaxoon template

As with most Klaxoon templates, start by inviting your team members to Klaxoon’s whiteboard.

Then, create teams of at least 4 people. This online icebreaker is ideal for groups of 12 people or more, because the challenge requires 3 teams of at least 4 people:

• Two that compete;
• One that acts as a jury.

In each round, the jury team, which doesn’t play but gives the points, changes. Once the teams are formed, everyone writes down their names in the table on the Board.

To start, set it for 4 minutes with the built-in timer. Allow 3 minutes for each team playing to consult each other, and then give one answer in the corresponding box for the challenge. The remaining minute is for the jury team to decide how many points to award:

• One point for the quickest team to answer;
• And three for the team winning the challenge with the most original answer, according to the jury.

At the end of the 4 rounds, count the scores and place the teams on the podium. Whatever the final ranking, all the participants will be well warmed up and ready to work as a team for a creative and effective workshop!