Remember Jigsaw Puzzles? We Made Them Into a Team Sport
We're not going to tell you that jigsaw puzzles are making a comeback. You already know. You did one during the pandemic. Possibly two.
What we will tell you is that we took the humble jigsaw puzzle, added a team, added a clock, and added a layer of strategy most people don't see coming. The result is one of the better team building puzzle games we've put together at Throwback. It's called Puzzle, Divide & Conquer. It's new. And we’d like you to experience it.
Try the Digital Version While You're Here
We built a digital version of the puzzle using the Throwback logo. Give it a shot. There's a leaderboard to see how you stack up.
Now picture that in person, with your whole team, multiple puzzles going simultaneously, and there’s a key to sorting the pieces when the clock starts.
So How Does This Team Building Puzzle Game Actually Work?
We're not going to give the whole thing away. Half the fun is figuring it out in real time. But here are the broad strokes.
Each team gets a bag. In that bag are the pieces to not one but two jigsaw puzzles, all mixed together. Before anyone starts building, the team sorts, divides, and organizes.
But, teams aren’t left to sort the pieces based on the front image alone. That would be too frustrating. There’s a key to figuring out how to divvy everything up into relevant piles.
Then you split into groups and attack each section at the same time, working in parallel to complete your puzzles as quickly as possible.
When the sections are done, they come together. That's when it either clicks beautifully or falls apart hilariously, depending on how well your team communicated in the first couple of minutes.
The team that fully assembles both puzzles first wins.
The Part Where Your Team Reveals Itself
Here's something we didn't fully anticipate when we designed this team building puzzle activity: the sorting and dividing phase tells you everything.
Who takes charge immediately? Who waits for direction? Who starts sorting without being asked? Who grabs the wrong pile and confidently defends it? You'll know within about 90 seconds. No personality quiz required.
That's not why we designed it. We designed it because it's fun. But it's a nice bonus if you want to walk away having learned something about how your team actually works together.
Who Is This Jigsaw Puzzle Team Building Activity For?
Everyone, honestly. We mean that less as a sales line and more as a logistical reality. The game scales up or down without losing anything.
Corporate teams get an activity that doesn't feel like an activity. No facilitated debrief. No talking about your feelings. No one asks you to rank your communication style on a scale of one to five. Just puzzles, a clock, and the realization that your team is either really good at this or really not.
Birthday groups and social crews get something to actually compete over, which beats another round of trivia. Schools and youth groups get something that looks like play and works like a lesson in spatial reasoning, communication, and performing under pressure.
The Custom Puzzle Part (This Is the Good Stuff)
Here's what separates this from buying a puzzle at Target: we can put whatever you want on it. Your company logo. A team photo. A product launch graphic. A picture of your CEO that will haunt them for the rest of the offsite.
We offer custom puzzle images across our events for exactly this reason. An experience built around your brand hits differently than something generic. When people race to assemble a puzzle they actually recognize, the energy in the room shifts.
And it's not just puzzles. Customization is something we bring to every Throwback event, from the branding to the game mechanics to the structure of the whole day. The experience should feel like yours. Not like something we ran for the last group and will run again for the next one.
One More Thing
We've run enough field day events to know what works and what doesn't. The best team building puzzle activities feel immediately intuitive. They create natural moments of communication without forcing them. And they give everyone on the team a real role to play, not just the loudest people in the room.
Puzzle, Divide & Conquer does that. Not because we engineered it to. Because handing someone a bag of mixed-up puzzle pieces and saying "go" turns out to be a pretty reliable way to bring out the best in people.
Or the most chaotic. Both are fun to watch.