Make your own jigsaw puzzle games as a team building activity...

Using puzzles as a team building activity is quite common. The puzzle can be an icebreaker, or part of broader problem solving exercises that get your team working better together.

Benefits of Puzzles

Puzzling can be done in the comfort of any building with enough space for tables to build the puzzles on. And you don't have to worry about the weather ruining your planned event. You can team build with small groups or large, and the possibilities for tweaking the exercises are only limited by your imagination.

A good team building exercise will usually require team members to:

• communicate,
• help each other,
• negotiate,
• work together to solve a problem,
• trust each other, and
• discover how much the team members need each other.

  This can all be achieved if you solve jigsaw puzzles together.

Why? Because you can customize it to fit with the objectives or theme of your teambuilding.

• A standard size custom jigsaw puzzle can be made from your own photo, artwork or other image at a surprisingly low cost from jigsaws2order.com, or alljigsaws.co.uk.
  
  
• If you want a gigantic jigsaw puzzle as the focus for a team building activity, I suggest you talk to your local printer. It will probably be more cost-effective. Get your printer to download special vector images of a jigsaw puzzle template from a site like Shutterstock. These images can be resized to any size without losing quality.

However, you can also try out these ideas:

1. Use off-the-shelf puzzles in creative ways
   White Mountain Puzzles, a top US puzzle manufacturer for more than 30 years, recently shared this idea on its blog. One of its customers planned to use jigsaw puzzle games for her team building exercise in a business environment for about 80 customer service reps:

   “We cut up the colored photo of what the puzzle looks like, and then there is a trivia game that teams have to answer (kind of like Family Feud). Whoever answers the questions correctly wins a piece of what the puzzle actually looks like. There are several teams going against each other so not everyone gets a lot of pieces of the picture.

   Then, the team has to work together to put the puzzle together with what they have. It's hard to put a puzzle together without knowing what it looks like.”

2. Make your own jigsaw puzzle as the team building activity

   Rather than using a manufactured puzzle, you could also make your own jigsaw puzzle as the team building activity itself. For this you will need a blank jigsaw puzzle template. You could use this simple puzzle template, or you can buy a variety of puzzle kits from www.jigsawpuzzle.com.
   

   Basic instructions: Cut out a piece of cardboard the same size as the image you want to convert to a jigsaw. Glue your image onto it. If you want it to be long-lasting, you can spray or paint it with varnish. Size a puzzle template to fit, and glue it to the back of the cardboard. Use sharp scissors or a craft knife to cut out the cardboard along the puzzle template lines.

   This could be a simple exercise, or could be extended by first getting the team to create its own artwork (depicting a corporate message or advertising slogan perhaps), turning it into a jigsaw and giving it to another team to put back together.

   You might also get some ideas from this classroom activity called 'We All Fit In' that I saw on a resource site for teachers. Basically each student decorates a large size jigsaw piece and then the class works together to assemble the pieces.

3. Play jigsaw puzzles on line as a team

   Another option if you don’t want to create or make your own jigsaw puzzle is to play jigsaw puzzles on line. Take a look at these downloadable online jigsaws of famous team building quotes from Training-Games.com.

   Daily jigsaw puzzles on line are some of the most highly visited sites on the internet. However, most people don’t know that there are also options where you can play on line jigsaw puzzles as a team.
   
   Shockwave has a jigsaw party option where you put together jigsaw puzzles with your online friends – perhaps this could be a team building option for a small virtual team?

4. Use jigsaw puzzle piece clip art or Word templates
   Images of jig saw puzzle pieces fitting together is a classic theme for teams and teamwork.

   Jigsaw puzzle piece clip art is very popular. However, I also would recommend these fabulous Microsoft Word templates using images of blank jigsaw puzzle pieces. There are more than 100 different templates. I think they'd be perfect for team building documents or invitations for team events.

5. Surprise your team with a speciality jigsaw puzzle

   If you haven't done jigsaws for a while (since you were a child perhaps?), you might be surprised at the different types of jigsaws available now. Take a look at the range of 3D, rollaway and portable jigsaws from Puzzle Master - have fun!

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   Successful team building exercises have a long lasting effect. Taking plenty of pictures and posting them where everyone can see them is one way to do this.

   However, you could also continue the puzzle theme and:

   • make your own jigsaw puzzle of the photos of the team activity as a collage or photomosaic …and continue the fun in a follow up exercise.

   • use one of our inspirational team building quotes such as, TEAM, Together Everyone Achieves More as a custom made puzzle for the winning team.

   • Make personalized jigsaw puzzles or postcards as mementos of the team event. Or email an online jigsaw puzzle game to everyone as a follow-up to your team building activity.

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   Resource List - Jigsaw Puzzle Stores, Companies and Make Your Own Jigsaw Puzzle Options

   Make your own jigsaw puzzle with your own photo or image:
   
   Jigsaws2Order.com Send in your digital photo and this company will turn it into a custom jigsaw puzzle. This site also has an option to create a photo collage puzzle which could be a great option for corporate teambuilding activities.

   UK visitors who want to make personalized jigsaw puzzles could check out UK jigsaw puzzles distributor, alljigsawpuzzles.co.uk
   
   Jigsaw Party and free on line jigsaw puzzles:

   Free online jigsaw games are available from major game site, Shockwave - see the Shockwave jigsaw puzzle section. Please note that you need to sign up as a Shockwave member to use the jigsaw party game where you solve a jigsaw with your team members or friends on line.

   Create custom jigsaw puzzle postcards using your own photos

   Shockwave also allows you to create electronic personalized postcard jigsaw puzzles. Create custom greetings using your own photos, turn them into puzzles, and email them to friends and family. Choose from 10 themed templates and 10 greetings, or create your own from scratch. Configure your puzzle with a choice of 4 difficulty settings and 4 puzzle piece shapes, and then send them off.

   Word templates with a Jigsaw Piece Theme

   This great range of Microsoft Word templates uses jigsaw pieces as the image elements. They are fantastic resources for a wide variety of team related activities and purposes.
   
   
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