You've been tasked with organizing the next team-building event, and the pressure is on. Everyone's rolling their eyes at the thought of another forced "fun" activity where they'll have to share their greatest weakness or fall backward into a colleague's arms. You need something engaging that won't make your team cringe—something that actually helps people connect without feeling like an awkward corporate exercise.
A human scavenger hunt might be exactly what you're looking for. Unlike traditional scavenger hunts that focus on finding objects, human scavenger hunts center around discovering interesting facts, experiences, and skills about your colleagues—turning what could be a dreaded team-building session into a genuinely fun social experience.
A human scavenger hunt focuses on finding people with specific traits, experiences, or skills rather than collecting objects. Participants receive a list of characteristics or experiences and must find colleagues who match each description. It's an interactive way to discover surprising facts about the people you work with every day.
For example, instead of hunting for "a red pen," you might look for "someone who has lived in three different countries" or "someone who can speak two languages." The activity encourages conversation beyond work-related topics and helps colleagues discover shared interests they never knew they had.
According to Wonderopolis, scavenger hunts have been bringing people together since the 1930s, though the human-focused variation has become increasingly popular in professional settings because it requires minimal preparation while maximizing interaction.
Traditional team-building exercises often feel forced and artificial. Human scavenger hunts, however, offer several advantages:
As one Reddit user shared, "Our team did a human scavenger hunt last quarter, and I learned more about my colleagues in that hour than I had in the previous year of Zoom calls."
Here are 30 prompts to use in your next human scavenger hunt, organized by category:
Before starting, establish some ground rules:
If organizing as a team competition, ensure teams are mixed across departments and hierarchy levels. This prevents existing cliques from sticking together and maximizes new connections.
"I usually choose local places and make a list of happenings, and then let the team vote," shared one Reddit user, highlighting the importance of involving team members in the decision-making process.
Remote teams can still enjoy human scavenger hunts with slight modifications:
One user recommended the Backyard Hunt app to create a custom QR code scavenger hunt, making it easier to coordinate virtual or hybrid scavenger hunts.
The conversations started during a human scavenger hunt shouldn't end when the activity does:
To help you get started, we've created a ready-to-use template that you can print and distribute to your team. This carefully curated list includes a mix of professional backgrounds, personal experiences, and fun facts that will help your colleagues discover unexpected connections.
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This printable template includes engaging prompts like finding someone who has worked in multiple industries, speaks another language, or has interesting hobbies. The beauty of these prompts is that they naturally lead to follow-up questions and deeper conversations. For instance, when someone finds a colleague who "has met a famous person," they'll naturally want to know who it was and hear the story behind the encounter.
Feel free to print this template as is, or use it as inspiration to create your own customized version that better fits your team's unique characteristics and interests.```
Tailor your human scavenger hunt to specific themes:
For tech-savvy teams, consider using specialized apps or platforms:
For longer team-building sessions or retreats:
Human scavenger hunts can be intimidating for more introverted colleagues. Consider these adaptations:
The rise of remote and hybrid work doesn't mean you can't enjoy human scavenger hunts:
The real value of a human scavenger hunt extends far beyond the activity itself. The connections formed and information shared create foundations for stronger workplace relationships and improved collaboration.
As teams struggle with "general lack of enthusiasm for team-building exercises" (as noted by several Reddit users), human scavenger hunts offer a refreshing alternative—they're simple to organize, genuinely engaging, and actually effective at helping colleagues connect.
The best team-building activities don't feel like team-building activities at all—they feel like genuinely enjoyable social experiences that happen to make you work better together afterward. Human scavenger hunts strike this balance perfectly, turning the dreaded "mandatory fun" into actual fun that builds meaningful connections.
After your human scavenger hunt, don't be surprised if you hear colleagues referencing what they learned about each other weeks or even months later. "Remember when we found out Javier used to be a professional dancer?" These discoveries become part of your team's shared narrative and strengthen your collective identity.
So the next time you're tasked with planning a team activity, skip the trust falls and personality tests. Instead, create a simple human scavenger hunt that lets your colleagues discover each other as the interesting, multifaceted people they are—beyond their job titles and daily tasks.
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