Looking for some effective team-building exercises to bring your team together?
Since the pandemic, COVID-19 has been disrupting businesses all over, most teams have been forced to go remote.
So how do you run team-building games for remote teams?
Don’t worry! You can always run virtual team-building activities.
That’s why we’re sharing this carefully designed list of virtual team building activities and exercises. These engaging activities have always worked during my training programs and they will help you build a close-knit and successful team!
Oh, and they’ve worked well for my own distributed team too!
What Is Virtual Team Building?
Virtual team building is the ongoing process of bringing remote teams together. It’ll help your team achieve deeper bonds by creating a collaborative environment that’s similar to an in-office setting!
Why is virtual team building important?
The physical distance of remote work can quickly turn into emotional distance which, in turn, leads to isolation. And when your employees feel isolated, they won’t be comfortable working alongside their fellow team members!
This is why it’s important to create a comfortable team environment that remote workers can rely on.
Virtual team building efforts consist of several carefully designed strategies, games and activities that are meant to bring more human interaction to virtual work. It’ll help your team connect with each other – making them feel like they’re actually part of a community!
And of course, a happier team obviously leads to higher employee retention!
5 Virtual Team Building Games and Activities
The difficulty with building chemistry in most remote teams is that you could be spread across several time zones.
To tackle this, many of these activities and exercises can be performed by recording videos of the activities before putting them on a workspace channel where everyone can view them.
However, if you can gather your team on a group video call together, then that’s the perfect scenario!
This will make playing these games more fun since it’s happening live, whether you’re playing:
- Virtual board games or different jigsaw puzzles
- An online game of Pictionary or office trivia
- Another icebreaker activity such as virtual karaoke
Additionally, getting on a video call is even better for team chemistry.
Don’t believe it?
A study by Remote.co found that “87% of remote workers feel more connected through the use of video conferencing.” So if you have the opportunity to use video alongside your team-building efforts and icebreaker games – grab it! There are many free video conferencing tools available, like Zoom, that can be used.
Here’s a list of fun team building ideas and engaging activities you can use to bring your virtual team closer:
1. Virtual Escape Room
There is a heist to steal a priceless collection of precious jewels. You and your team need to recover these jewels before time runs out. Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist will foster more collaboration, creative problem-solving and brainstorming as your team will together uncover hidden clues and solve mind-boggling challenges.
2. Virtual Clue Murder Mystery
Teams will race against the clock as they try to solve the mystery behind the murder of Neil Davidson. As they examine clues, review case files and be detectives, their problem-solving skills, collaboration, analytical thinking and communication are being strengthened as well. This is a fun and exciting virtual team building activity for the whole team.
3. Virtual Happy Hour Trivia
Your host, Hamish McDuff will make your team feel like you just had a memorable happy hour in the pub with good old friends. He will host two rounds of virtual pub trivia and will have a ton of surprises ready for the multiple category options to choose from. With themes like “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” to Sports and even Celebrity Real Estate, your team will definitely have a memorable night at the pub.
4. The Team Quest
If you’re looking for a laugh-inducing game with just the right amount of rivalry, you can’t miss out on The Team Quest! It doesn’t matter what size your group is, you and your team will have the time of your lives playing this awesome and exciting game!
The dedicated host will guide you through the whole experience, crack jokes and engage with absolutely every member of your team! In The Team Quest you will have a chance to experience our fans’ all-time favourites: test your knowledge with Trivia and Buzz-In Challenges, see how well you know your colleagues during a round of fact-matching and show off your artistic skills in Pictionary! The event will wrap up with a photo-booth, where you can get silly, strike a pose, use the virtual props and end the gameplay with a laugh!
To ensure you have the best experience ever, you can even personalise all of the content and theme the game to any occasion or topic of your choice! And one more important thing to remember: every bit of this fun experience takes place on a dedicated browser platform.
5. Movie Night
This is a unique team building activity that’s great for boosting morale.
When you gather your team for non-work related purposes, they tend to relax and open up more.
Hosting a movie night every so often is a fun way to get the team together to have fun outside of the virtual office.
You may be wondering: “How do we do this when we live in different cities?”
Stream the movie through a video conference room and keep an instant messaging chat box open so team members can comment and make remarks during the movie.
Experiences like this give remote employees something to bond over and joke about later on. Plus it forces team members to take a little downtime and relax!
Conclusion
Remote teams may not get the same face-to-face contact that collocated small teams get, but that doesn’t mean they have to feel disconnected from one another!
Bit.AI reports that “97% of employees and executives believe lack of alignment within a team impacts the outcome of a task or project.”
So you see, bonding is essential to form a cohesive unit!
Virtual team bonding increases employee motivation, efficiency and collaboration. It makes employees feel connected and valued, which in turn makes them highly dedicated to their tasks and the organization in general.
Collaborative online activities allow managers to improve team leadership skills and recognize each employee’s talents and skills, making for more efficient task delegation.
Managing remote teams can sometimes be tough for virtual team leaders – but it isn’t impossible! And with the right games and activities, you’ll have no difficulty getting everyone on the same page.
Want some more ways to improve the way you run your remote team? Read more here.
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