Remote work has now become the new normal as a result of the pandemic. It appears to be here to remain for the time being. The disadvantage of this new transformation is that it may result in reduced team effectiveness, loneliness, lack of engagement, and team dispute.
“Coming together is a foundation, staying together is development, and working together is a success,” Henry Ford says. As a catalyst, remote team building can assist develop a more involved, innovative, collaborative, and productive team.
If your goal is to engage your teams with interesting virtual team activities, SlideUpLift has an amazing collection of PowerPoint templates to foster a healthy and enjoyable work culture!
This blog focuses on how to develop a coherent remote workplace using fun virtual team-building activities.
What is Virtual Team Building?
Virtual collaboration is the activity of bringing together distant teams to connect and collaborate. It allows colleagues to build confidence in one another and function as a cohesive one.
The success and productivity of a team are mostly determined by the patterns of communication and interaction among its members. Implement team-building activities in the workplace to make colleagues feel understood, appreciated, and involved.
Importance of Virtual Team Building
Employees who work from home might feel pleased and engaged by participating in virtual team building. Participating in team-building events enables your staff to improve their communication skills and reinvigorate their creativity, allowing them to perform better at work.
Team building exercises teach your staff problem-solving skills and prepare them to deal with a variety of working circumstances. The team develops the necessary working culture, which is built on trust.
5 Ways To Do Team Building Virtually
It is essential to form a team when working remotely. It consists of the following steps:
1. Advocate Flexibility and Versatility
Team building should not be forced. Encourage your workers’ different thoughts and values in the workplace. Autonomy and flexibility are essential for bringing individuals with opposing viewpoints together.
2. Encourage Good Communication
Planning and executing short, easy, entertaining, and creative activities to promote communication, inclusion, and cooperation are examples of virtual trust-building exercises. It promotes team bonding among team members.
Create an environment of open communication and openness between the team and its management. Using services like Slack and Zoom to organize 1:1 group sessions or social encounters may help employees feel appreciated.
3. Define Tasks and Roles Clearly
To assist your staff in completing the assignment, emphasize the nuances of task design and the roadmap. Ensure that the work process is simplified and clear, followed by frequent feedback.
4. Boost Your Employees’ Morale
Remote team-building activities promote innovation and enable participants to express their ideas. Motivate workers by recognizing their accomplishments.
5. Foster Teamwork
As Bang Gae once said, “teamwork makes the dream work” therefore, plan positive virtual team-building activities to improve organizational performance. By encouraging cooperation, you may achieve your objectives while also increasing productivity.
4 Enjoyable Virtual Team-building Activities
There are several methods for keeping your remote staff engaged and motivated. The following are several methods of presenting employee engagement initiatives, depending on the aims.
Some of these use games or use a gamification approach, yet they are still useful in a professional setting:
1. Icebreakers or Meeting Kickoffs
Building a Virtual Team Icebreakers are enjoyable games or questions designed to lighten the mood.
With easy-peasy, casual-going, or funny questions, a round of Icebreaker quizzes may clear the air. You may use an icebreaker generator to generate questions and maintain 30 seconds per participant for daily team participation.
To get the meeting started on the right foot, give attendees The ice cream float experience, a step-by-step 30-minute ice cream-making procedure.
Apply a no-smile rule to engage people in a fun environment. Tell the participants that they are not allowed to laugh or grin throughout this exercise and time how long they can go without doing so.
2. Activities That Foster Communication
Communication is an important component of team development, and these exercises will assist your staff in developing outstanding communication skills.
One such activity is a virtual Scavenger hunt, which is aimed to help people get to know one other better. It is necessary to divide huge groups into smaller ones and provide them with a list of items. The first person to locate all of the clues wins the game.
Personality assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Four Tendencies exam help promote communication and strengthen ties among coworkers.
A virtual activity known as When random, unconnected words or phrases are purposefully inserted into your presentation, the active listener determines who is the most active throughout the meeting.
Employees in pairs ask a separate question from a set of cards in Building Blocks, a remote team-building exercise.
A circle of gratitude is another team exercise that focuses on encouraging colleagues by having them sit in a circle and thank the person on their left.
3. Problem-Solving Activities That Involve Creative Thinking
By integrating virtual activities with problem-solving scenarios, you can guarantee that your remote teams run smoothly.
One example is the Trade puzzle, in which players must discover methods to barter and borrow a few jigsaw puzzle pieces from the opposing team’s participants.
Engage your team members with intriguing board games such as Survive: Escape from Atlantis, which demand problem-solving abilities. These are games that may be played for rewards at work as well.
Even Escape Room, a room-based game, has taken a virtual turn, requiring players to collaborate to solve puzzles and escape (preparing a presentation from an editable virtual escape room template in PowerPoint or Google Slides might be useful in this situation). Organize workplace dialogues and declare a Solution Day to allow employees to contribute their thoughts and innovative solutions to real-world problems.
4. Endorse Employee Bonding
Support connection development by arranging virtual cultural celebrations. Choose a cause and help the community by hosting a virtual charity event.
A virtual vacation to Barcelona will have your remote staff in fits of laughter and enhance their ties. Music is a great method to connect with your employees.
Virtual Karaoke sessions may add a new depth to your next team bonding activity. Online team-building activities like charades, quizzes, or bingo can help employees connect.
Wrapping It Up
In a word, create a pleasant and productive virtual environment where direct contact is encouraged to construct a stable and engaged remote workforce.
These suggestions can be used in conjunction with other virtual activities for various reasons and concepts, such as a virtual Christmas party, virtual graduation, or even a virtual ceremony. Incorporate these team-building activities ideas presentation into your virtual office to create an efficient, productive, and successful environment.
