I never knew how much I'd actually want to play some go fish with my pals until I couldn't. Guide to `Constructive Feedback in Remote Work, ‘Covid-19: Icebreaker Questions to ask in Meetings’ Ebook, The Ultimate List of One on One Meeting Questions Template, challenges when managing remote employees, helps with the productivity of remote teams, Why is employee development essential for organizational growth, 21 Best Virtual Team Building Games and Activities 2020, 6. You can always club this activity with having the camera on the laptop to create an environment nothing less than an actual workspace. They also mean that quite literally anyone with a phone can join it. When finished, do not forget to share the document with the rest of your office and have a good laugh and learn who could have been a novelist. Bringing laughter and security to the remote workplace can be challenging, especially when team members aren’t familiar with one another. Encourage everyone to share a funny story and order food from their favorite restaurant. Simply choose your ‘employee of the month’ every month (wow, who would’ve thought it was monthly!). Objective: To create a competitive but fun atmosphere. Pose the question, “What is the least and favorite part of working remotely?”. You can play several rounds of this and switch up who the main player is so each person has a turn to be guessing the correct answer. Split your teams into two teams (or more if your remote team is bigger) . Online Office Games … How to do it: Divide your team equally in smaller teams of 2-3 members and give them a list of random things to choose from if they were to be stranded on a desert island together. The night before a video conference call, get all remote team members to write down two facts and one lie about themselves. Have them describe their appearance, superhero powers, and how would they make the world a better place. teambuilding.com, tiny campfire and Tea vs Coffee are run by the same folks as Museum Hack. Objective: Provide a safe space to vent or have an outlet to discuss issues. Randomly during your work day pose the question “How is everyone feeling?” and have your team post their emotion using an emoji. More than anything, we hope this post has made you realize that just because your team are distributed over eight states, 12 countries, two continents, and seven-time zones, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a team and promote the same communication, trust and collaboration as normal teams. So why don’t you bring the concept to your next virtual team building event? Which means they are good 1. And, we’ll show which of the five key requirements (trust/connection, communication, working together, conflict resolution, and recognizing and relying on … Materials: Virtual conferencing application and some beer or whatever preferred alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage. When taking the picture, encourage participants to leave their desk and working space as it is. They only can use descriptive phrases and hints. Once the teams have created their “10 things in common” list, let each group share what they have come up with. How to do it: Ask one team member every week to prepare a playlist choosing songs that they like and adding a few keeping in mind other’s preferences. After 30 minutes, get everyone back onto the call to demonstrate what they have made. We have some fun virtual team building activities for you to keep your team connected and on the same path. This is a great opportunity to start a brainstorming session and have people interact in a dynamic and electric environment. It also is an awesome activity to start the New Year off right! So, similarly to the team building activity described above, we suggest sharing a joke of the week. Office games are a fun, lighthearted way to encourage workplace friendships, boost employee engagement and improve workplace culture. The worrying news is that, in remote teams, 65% of remote employees surveyed reported that they have never had a team building event or virtual event. Objective: To get everyone to know each other, Materials: Baby photos of each team member (emailed to you prior). One of our favorite activities at TINYpulse is playing simple work games like Werewolf or Eat Poop, You Cat. Send out your preferred speed typing test or use the one we recommended, Live Chat. It creates excitement and a sense of cohesion within your team. One way to remind your employees of your remote company’s real-world presence is to donate to a cause that matches your team’s values. Cards. Contact https://www.bfloral.com/floral-design/holidaywreathkits. Choose a team member to start the game, player 1 will begin the game looking at the picture chosen or the background of the video chat. Group all the ideas into topics, such as goals, achievables, office needs, and etc. This gives teams who do not normally work together the chance to collaborate on one project especially fun during the holidays. One person plays the role of the farmer and the other team members are the villagers. Not only does a fun committee bring together employees who may not typically work together, but it also shows the greater group that you’re serious about their happiness and well-being. The farmer has bought a dog, some rice and a chicken and he needs to get them across a river in order to get home. It is a great way to learn something new while embracing other team member’s cultures. Research has found that a key element of distributed teams is good communication. Likewise, people with friends at work are 7x more likely to be fully engaged. COVID-19: Icebreaker Questions to Ask in Meetings, Icebreaker Games for Remote Teams to Build Better Connect, Virtual Icebreakers to Onboard Remote Teams. This is a great activity to quickly check-in with your team and make sure everyone is feeling okay. The first player to get three in a row, and then the first to a full house, wins. And the best way to do so is through virtual team building activities and games. Assign a moderator and ask every team member to share an interesting piece of information about their life beforehand. Take a picture of them planking and post it to your company chat. This will not only make sure that they both understand what is expected from each other, but will also help build trust and allow managers to manage their remote team efficiently. Choose a person, let’s call them player one. It’s also good because it involves video conferencing, which is the next best thing to face-to-face communication. Add a little bit more motivation to the mix by picking out the best joke at the end of the month and sending the winner a prize! Assign an easy to do workout or food challenge every week for the entire team. It's a great way to have off the script team building activity. Employees like to feel that they are part of the company's plan and transparency is important when it comes to company goals and roadmaps. Send out your preferred personality test to your team. Why should you consider it: To encourage teamwork and creativity. Ask every team member to share a picture of them from their past of an incident or duration that holds importance for them. Send out a basic personal user manual template, you can do whatever you like but we suggest to add the following topics: Preferred Communication (slack, email, or calling) In fact, research into the benefits of friendships at work found that close workplace friendships boost employee satisfaction by 50%. You can test your team’s quick thinking skills while learning if they are good at geography. The other team members will be the villagers. The theme doesn’t have to be extravagant and can be as simple as wearing your favorite sports team jersey. Everyone has 1 to 1.5 minutes to guess what player one is saying, to make it a bit easier you can choose a topic or a theme. Create a list of items that you think most people will have in their homes or office work place (to make it extra fun, we suggest adding in some interesting and uncommon items). We love this team building activity because it is a quick and easy way to provide real insight into your employees and how their mind works. They can share a fun recipe or a craft something that will be hands-on. Examples of good questions are: Pepsi or coke? You don’t need any materials and it's bound to be a great addition to your weekly conference calls. Team building games not only add fun to an otherwise hectic workday, but it also helps bring the team closer that eventually helps with the productivity of remote teams. Get everyone to submit a traditional song from their country . Once your team sees that emoji they have to drink water too, the one who drinks the most cups/bottles wins. Now, virtual teams are an everyday reality that are here to stay. During your next meeting play one of the songs and see who can guess the artist and title first. They can be something as simple as they are proud of themselves or someone else for keeping on top of their email correspondence or for being nice about a matter outside of work. If your team isn't working remotely we have another great list of team building activities for more general purposes. Cheers, Hassan. Others have used games for virtual breaks with colleagues; you can find online versions of trivia and other games with a simple search. It is a great way to recognize and appreciate your colleagues. We love it because it’s fun and light-hearted, whilst still being professional. How to do it: Since every industry comes with its own set of problems, the goal here is to identify them and give the team a situation to know how they would deal with it. Gather classic tv show lines to share with your team. Make sure all the questions are work appropriate. Each event runs for 90 minutes and is hosted by a comedian over Zoom. In all honesty, the instructions are fairly simple - either provide apple watches or Fitbit’s for your team or use the ‘health apps’ provided on phones and set challenges. Why should you consider it: To help the team collaborate better through on-the-spot thinking. We suggest putting it on a group Google doc or a whiteboard to allow everyone to also visually see the list. To ensure all team members stay fit and take care of their health. When you work remotely it is hard to have weekly pub trivia nights where your team grabs a pint and participates at your local bars weekly trivia. Recalling the geography lessons everyone took during school days, the moderator would share a map of the city or state or country and ask team members, one by one, to point out a particular place. As team members share their bucket list, it will be an opportunity for other team members to find people with similar interests or goals that they can connect with. Do they like indie rock, pop classics or some funky tunes. Or, on your 18th when your mum would make you an embarrassing collage of all your childhood photos? You can do this on a weekly or bi-weekly basis by switching the theme up. It gives everyone a moment to focus on themselves and be mindful and aware of their thoughts. You don’t need a lot of materials and can just use the background of each team member's video call or share an image found on the internet. Create a Google Doc and start the story with “Once upon a time….” and be sure to add a main character while setting a holiday theme.. For example: Once upon a time a young girl named Julia started to adopt every puppy she saw before Christmas…. Ask every team member to write a bucket list or keep one ready before the activity. It will be a great exercise for team’s having internal communication problems and allows them to practice outside a work environment. How to do it: Recalling the geography lessons everyone took during school days, the moderator would share a map of the city or state or country and ask team members, one by one, to point out a particular place. Depending on your team’s interests it could just as easily be a movie club, a podcast club, or heck even a fight club!…or maybe not a fight club, because, y’know that first rule and all…. Have the teams discuss before the meeting, let them know they can only bring up to 4 items and nothing more. It is a fun, surprising way to get to know one another and creates a casual atmosphere. Ask every member to keep adding to the story with something that makes sense. I personally work from home and find that exercising as a break helps me feel energised, productive and focused. Have each player think of a famous person to describe and have your team guess who it is. These team building activities are short, simple, and require no preparation from you. There is no limit to ideas and this is a great brainstorming activity. Virtual scavenger huntsare more difficult to find that team spirit with. Not all team building activities need to be serious or skill-oriented, sometimes you just need a good laugh to release the stress. Amidst the hustle-bustle of deadlines and growing a business, it is common to see friction between managers and their team members. If not, modify the idea until Be sure that player one does not mute the rest of the people in the video conference so he/she can still hear the others in the meeting. Objective: To get employees feeling values and wanted and to boost self-esteem. Make sure your team is drinking similar sized cups/bottles so no one has an advantage over the team. The host\judge will decide on the winner and the winning team gets a small prize for the losing team. A theme week is a great stress reliever and a great opportunity to laugh with your team. But please be careful with the decision to participate in the challenge is up to each individual. Cats or dogs? Objective: Team bonding and getting to know each other. How to do it: Ask every team member to share a picture of them from their past of an incident or duration that holds importance for them. Once everyone is done they do not have to share it to keep it personal and private. Another great team building activity that encourages team members to get to know each other, communicate better and to become better listeners. The topics can be more work-related or themed; it really is up to you. The first player begins to describe the famous person and they cannot spell out the name. This also often leads to miscommunication and lack of synchronization amidst team members; a few common, Team building games not only add fun to an otherwise hectic workday, but it also helps bring the team closer that eventually, To help the team collaborate better through on-the-spot thinking. The other players will yell out clues for the main player. The first participants begin by describing as many of their words as possible to everyone else, without saying the actual world. Difficulty: Easy if you get a pro to facilitate it! Everyone takes turns guessing whose favorite song is whose. Post the meme to a designated Slack channel and have everyone vote for the best meme. This activity is similar to the show MTV Cribs, just a G-rated work edition. Not everyone needs to participate, but encourage people to write something about their teammates. Typically, team members can be based in different countries or have different religions and cultures. -- Varieties of faux greenery This exercise focuses on feelings, tasks and other personal or professional issues. From 2008 to 2014, the number of employees who said they couldn’t concentrate at their desk in an office increased by 16%, and the number of employees who couldn’t access quiet places to do focused work when working in an office went up by 13%. Icebreaker Activities For Remote Teams Icebreakers for remote teams are activities you can do at the start of a virtual meeting to create quick, personal connections with your co-workers. Play once a week or bi-weekly before or at the end of your team meeting. Your team can get creative when interpreting this theme and there is no right or wrong interpretation. Post this question in a Slack channel, or whichever other forms of communication you use. While at it, do not forget to measure these engagement activities to improvise and get better results. Ask one team member every week to prepare a playlist choosing songs that they like and adding a few keeping in mind other’s preferences. Objective: To get everyone bonding and sharing facts about themselves. The best way to get to know someone is to know who they would have at a fancy dinner party. And they can help take the place of that water cooler or coffee convo that usually happens between co workers. The instructions are very simple, take some time to arrange one on one meetings with each of your team members. Most people who work from home have the dilemma to either be barefoot or wearing their house slippers. During the activity, pick one player and ask everyone else, one at a time to share the emojis that person uses the most. It is a great activity to see how your team would act in difficult situations and practices critical thinking. Scavenger hunts allow team members to collaborate with one another, while also letting them delegate tasks and utilize each other’s strengths and skills. The instructions for this activity are really very simple. How to do it: Amidst the hustle-bustle of deadlines and growing a business, it is common to see friction between managers and their team members. To take short breaks during a workday to have a small talk with the team. Virtual team building activities have now become important to bring your remote employees together. Share a list of emojis with every team member beforehand. Have your team plank in different parts of their homes or cities. At the start of every week, create a new challenge or theme for the joke. Not everyone is a hugger and some workplaces are more comfortable with a handshake environment. Anyone who can’t think of an answer has to share an interesting fact about themselves. For example, who can do the most steps a week or minutes exercised? Working from home or remotely? We also love it because it’s super simple and super fun! During your meeting, they will share with the group what they chose and why. Objective: To get participants realizing what they have in common, This is good for brainstorming in remote teams as it gets them realizing they are similar. By keeping the camera on for a shorter or longer duration, team members not only get a chance to be present at the same time, but it also helps to indulge in smaller conversations during work – just like one would do at the workplace. Then, get everyone else to try and guess who’s desk is who’s. Objective: Being able to see if certain personality types work well together, Materials: We recommend using these personality test, [16 Personalities] (https://www.123test.com/personality-test/ ) or 123 Test. Connecting is a fun way to feel “normal,” but it’s also a fun time to PLAY SOME GAMES, too! Once everyone creates their own user manual, be sure to share it with your team and have it accessible for everyone to look over. Each person needs to write between 200 to 300 words that will help create a character arch and move the plot along. Why should you consider it: A fun activity that everyone can easily be a part of. 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