Random Team Generator and Team Picker [+Template]

This random team generator is a practical online tool that takes a list of names and randomly assigns people to teams. Add or remove teams and teams automatically rebalance.

makon cline

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If you want to randomly assign people to teams, you should use a random team generator. What are the benefits of using a random team generator? You don't have to worry about keeping teams "balanced," you don't have to draw straws, and most importantly, you remove any bias from the teams created.

When you should use a random team generator

What are some of the most common scenarios where a random team or group generator is needed? If you are teaching a class and frequently need to put students into groups for group projects, what do you do? The most common way might be to have everyone in the room "count off" where each student has to say a number up to the number of teams you want (e.g. four groups means each student says "1," "2," etc.) What are the downsides of this approach?

Takes a long time (especially when there's a large number of groups)

Students might move around in the classroom messing up the order

If you want to keep the teams the next day, if students are absent then it ruins the balance of teams

Another example of a situation where you need to generate random teams might be at a professional workshop. Let's say your team is doing team-building exercises and the group of 20 needs to be assigned to groups of 4. You could also do the above method where each team member counts off a number, or you might encourage people to "pick people you haven't worked with before." In spirit, this is great for building team chemistry and cross-team collaboration, team members may still pick others they are familiar with or pick those who they perceive to be "strong."

To save your randomized teams 👉
Copy this template
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The main benefit for randomizing teams

Aside from the "counting off" method, the main benefit of random group maker is that it removes bias. If you want to force your team members to work with others they are not acquainted or familiar with, the best way is to use a random name picker so that all biases are removed from the group assignment. If you are the workshop facilitator or teacher, you may feel tempted to pick "balanced" teams, but then your own biases may become a factor in the group selection.

Managing groups of students in a classroom and a team building workshop are just two scenarios in which a random team generator can help remove bias. Removing bias is also important for other areas of work and in the medical field as well. One of the most common ways to conduct medical research is with

randomized trials⁠

to remove

selection bias⁠

from the results.

The main benefit for picking groups at random is that it removes bias.

Problems to solve when assigning random teams

Most random team generator solutions are built in Excel or exist as a simple online application. What if you wanted a tool. For instance, this

random group generator tool⁠

in Excel by Trump Excel uses a combination of clever formulas, buttons, and macros in VBA to assign any number of people in a list randomly to teams. If you are the "team maker" at the office or for a meeting, chances are you may want more functionality in the team generator solution. You may ask the following questions:

How can I share the random team generator with a colleague or team?

How do I assign team members to groups who work remotely?

What if I have an odd number of team members? How do I quickly assign them to a team?

How can I selectively remove team members from the list but still have them available for future meetings or workshops where I need to assign them to a team randomly?

If you're trying to run a team building event where some team members are working remotely, you may have to share with them a Google Doc for them to feel involved. If you are generating random teams for a group exercise, you need a solution that is real-time and collaborative so that the remote and distributed team members are engaged with the exercise.

A random team generator that grows with your team

This random team generator template is not only a team randomizer, but also helps you keep track of who should be considered for a team in the first place. If you have an employee roster of 30 people, but 5 are out of the office, you only want the 25 to be randomly assigned to teams. However, you still want to keep the other 5 employees in the group and have a quick way of marking if they are present or not so that they can be included in the team randomizing process.

This template also allows you to add and subtract any number of participants quickly with a click of a button. Once you have decided on the number of teams, the Randomize Teams button will allow you to quickly assign all the "active" team members evenly to the new number of teams you have chosen.

Since this random team generator template can be accessed by multiple people in a real-time collaborative way, remote team members can see the team they have been randomly assigned to by just opening the doc in their browser. As your team grows in size, this doc will grow along with it so that it is the single source of truth for future random teams you pick!

Quickstart

Add names to the

Players⁠

section, and mark the ones who will be participating.

Add or subtract teams in the

Team Selection⁠

section.

Randomize the teams with the press of a button.

Random team generator FAQs

What is the purpose of this random team generator?

The purpose of this random team generator is to help group makers create teams without any bias. It is a much faster and simpler way of segmenting people into groups, regardless of the activity they are about to perform as a team.