And they know that informal team-building activities and team-building games are an appropriate way to improve team spirit and make employees more solid. When your team is working remotely and is located in different areas this activity is a great way to. Rules or concept: The classic word game is known and beloved all over the world. When you have a virtual team, you do not get those small coffee break chats in the office, so why not create a Slack channel specifically for that. It is a great way to recognize and appreciate your colleagues. At the end or beginning, “hug” your team, and it may be a bit silly, but it shows that you all are in this together and a community. Have them describe their appearance, superhero powers, and how they would make the world a better place. Objective: Building empathy and stronger team bonds. Player one will put their video chat microphone on to mute so everyone can only see their face. Let your team become brewers for the day in the comfort of their own home w/ Master the Brew’s Private Beer Making Experience. Our point is that there’s something about regularly meeting up with a group of people to discuss something that all of you enjoy. Here are 10 great team building games for remote workers that you can implement easily and immediately. However, the purpose is different. They can also fill in sections about their optimal working preferences and display how they work best. We suggest putting it on a group Google doc or a whiteboard to allow everyone to also visually see the list. You can organize one yourself, or use a creative service like The Go Game (which lists companies like Netflix, Facebook, and HBO among clients) or Stray Boots.Your team will feel nice and rejuvenated after some fresh air and fun challenges. Note: this only works when team members know what each other looks like, thus, we suggest using it with slightly better-formed teams! When taking the picture, encourage participants to leave their desk and working space as it is. Your group can get creative when interpreting this theme, and there is no right or wrong interpretation. The purpose of these games is to have fun, relax and do team building at work. Anyone who can’t think of an answer has to share an interesting fact about themselves. Use something like Skribbl to create your own virtual room for doodling. Once they have said them, everyone goes around and says which ones they think are the truths and what is the lie. Objective: To get new employees integrated and feeling involved, Best when used on new employees as an excellent ice breaker at the start. 15 virtual team building activities and games. But this exercise allows rallying your team up and show empathy and care. A year ago, it was difficult to imagine how many spheres and areas could be affected by a pandemic. This activity is the opportunity to give advice and to learn more about each other. It is an awesome way to involve your whole company and can make this activity a quarterly event. It's a great way to have off the script team building activity. 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. Start your meeting by telling everyone not to smile. Pro Tip: If you aren’t a drinker or don’t have time to have an after-hours happy hour, switch to a morning social event with coffee. It also allows for a good laugh, having your team come up with different themes to post weekly images to your dedicated Slack or chat channel. Toggl Plan has got you covered and improves managers and team members time management by giving easy access to everyone’s workload and avaibilty. Virtual team building games and interactions help remote workers feel included and connected to their team and the overall company culture. wherever they are. You will improve your understanding of the place and cultural environment where your team members work. Top 21 Most FUN Virtual Team Building Activities, 3. Have your team divide into smaller groups and ask them for 10 minutes to come up with a list of 10 things they have in common. Everyone loves superheroes or has thought about which superhero power they would want. Agree to watch the same movie during the week. Everyone is free to add what they would like and it’s a great background in learning how each of your colleagues works. They can share a fun recipe or a craft something that will be hands-on. That’s one of the most effective team-building activities you’ll find. “Read my lips” is a super easy and quick game to play with your team to relieve stress. Get the team to rank their favorite ones and discuss why they chose a certain song. Stay focusedon the tasks thathelp your businessgrow, Choosing the best models and approaches for team effectiveness is the issue that product managers and team leaders have been trying to figure out for a long time. Tools: Google Earth has pre-made virtual tours, such as this one that circumnavigates Iceland. For the professional goals if there are a few in common you can schedule a workshop to help your team build that skill. -- Varieties of faux greenery If only one person is barefoot or wearing socks, that person gets 3 points, and no-one else gets any points. Don’t forget to keep score and whoever shouts out an answer the quickest wins! Rules or concept: Another simple virtual team building game for remote workers is great for new teams. Shark Tank is an awesome activity to get your creative juices going and have a bit of competition with your company. Read More. You can easily tag, comment, and share tasks all through Notion. Remote teams are made up of many different cultures and nationalities, and that is why this team building activity works so well. Similarly, donating to a charity helps your team feel connected and personal - they are all working together to support the same cause. This exercise allows everyone to collaborate and create a future roadmap. Award the “best dressed” and have the winner choose the next theme! Bring everyone to a video conference and ask every participant to tell three truths and one lie about themselves. After all, you can also cover the bill for your team members to order food, if you have the budget. For example: did you work whilst being at school? This activity is designed to release everyone's competitive spirit and incorporate a bit of friendly competition into your team. Don't forget to relax and have fun, it's a party after all! Positive feedback is always a great way to improve employee engagement. But please be careful with the decision to participate in the challenge is up to each individual. The night before a video conference call, get all remote team members to write down two facts and one lie about themselves. A theme week is a great stress reliever and a great opportunity to laugh with your team. Online team building icebreakers and games can also facilitate connections among team members who otherwise may not speak that often. For example, one week the challenge could be ‘the best photo of a pet’ or the ‘nicest looking plant in their garden’. It’s a great way to celebrate your colleagues and their accomplishments! Pose the question “What you would do?”... For example: “What would you do if zombies roamed around the world?” The topic can be funny or work-related. Online Office Games (Facilitated) Sometimes, working with an event planner to run your activities can be a big win. 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. Set up a group chat with everyone who is playing, Each player take it in turns to say, “never have I ever…” (keep it PG, for example, “never have I ever been to Africa), Everyone who’s done it places an emoji of their choice, The game keeps going until the first person it out, Objective: To ask participants random questions in the hope they get to know each other better. Many remote teams face the risk of feeling strictly online teams and have no emotional connection or interaction. This gives a true representation of them. 3. Everyone needs to commit to the character and the storyline. Set up a live video call with all your employees to get everyone to give a quick walkthrough of their office and explain why it is set up like that and what helps them. As the “host” of the meeting, write a small speech or instructions to tell your team. This is good for brainstorming in remote teams as it gets them realizing they are similar. A simple but significant activity that sets the tone for an event and builds consensus on shared values. -- Wire cutters Each person needs to write 2 statements about themselves. Count up the points and the team with the most collected items is the winner! The group has the responsibility to uphold this code through their work environment. Don’t forget to tell them it’s just an exercise, so no one gets too stressed out. When everyone is on your Zoom call, issue the challenge of collecting a list of different items from around the house. The first one to smile or laugh loses. 101 Awesome Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Teams. Objective: To get everyone to know each other, Materials: Baby photos of each team member (emailed to you prior). There is no limit to ideas, and this is a great brainstorming activity. Although not an activity that involves working as a team directly, this activity will increase morale and trust, leading to positive team outcomes. To organize your own book club, make sure that participation is voluntary and that everyone agrees on what book to read. Aside from trivia, they also offer murder mystery and puzzle breaker facilitated team building events. -For 30 minutes, ask them to play conference-call trivia and learn about each other’s personalities and interests outside of work. We like it because it makes people feel special. Start it off by asking everybody to demonstrate where they’re born and then ask them where they’re currently located by pinning a picture of themselves onto the map. The instructions are really quite simple, pick a charity that aligns with your company values and beliefs. 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. Everyone will discuss their daily tasks over a nice cup of coffee. We love this activity because it's super chilled and just gets everyone relaxed and communicating with some great stories. Have your teammates create a presentation using PowerPoint or props and have them present it in your next team meeting. Create various scenarios from a zombie apocalypse to a sinking ship and get every team member to rate the items’ usefulness in a particular scenario. The best part is to keep score to see who the ultimate Heads Up winner is! Each team member should find a coffee shop and connect with the team online. Good ole Skype and want many like to call the OG video conferencing platform. The game is a live, facilitated event that goes for 90 minutes and includes mechanics of RPG games, escape rooms, puzzle solving, storytelling and world building. Arrange a remote coffee meeting every morning. Have each player think of a famous person to describe and have your team guess who it is. This is a really fun activity that you organise quite quickly. Have the two teams meet separately and create an argument that they can debate on. This list includes: Zoom … HeyTaco! Ltd. 24 Raffles Place, #10-05 Clifford Centre, Singapore 048621. The person with the most correct guesses wins! The other team members will be the villagers. Pin this to your company Slack channel for everyone to see, and this can help build your quarterly goals for the next year. Split your teams into two teams (or more if your remote team is bigger) . A great thing about Jitisi Meet it does not encourage users to download any desktop or mobile app. The instructions are actually really quite simple. Here are some options for team retreats; If you're like us, you probably spent a lot of hours of Zoom these days. I did this last week and my photo of the beautiful harbour in my hometown of Sydney won :). Virtual team building is the process of engaging remote teams in an online format in order to deepen bonds within the team. These activities are also useful for teams that may already know one another but need a little energy boost. Rules or concept: The rules of this remote virtual team building game are quite simple: ask your distributed coworkers to take a picture of something important from their private life. You may also ask them to prepare and share a one-page slide or short presentation that will include a map of their favorite places in their place and relevant pictures. One of the best ways for a remote team to bond, even if they’re located thousands of miles away from each other, is to ask them fun ice breaker questions and have everyone guess each other's answers in a quiz. The downside is that the bigger the group using Webex, the more it costs. Can also work on some projects together and share ideas. You can assemble all recipes in a Slack channel or run a challenge where participants prepare the other recipes and post photos. Make sure you tell everyone to prepare a short description and explanation to why they chose that object for "Show and Tell". After 30 minutes, get everyone back onto the call to demonstrate what they have made. The first person to make it back to the webcam and prove that they've collected all the items wins! You can encourage them to connect via email. “Each tree planted sequesters an average of 84 kg carbon annually.” This is perfect to create team engagement while helping the environment! Gather classic tv show lines to share with your team. You can also set weekly goals that occur every week. Ask everyone to either draw out or find an image that expresses themselves before your next meeting. It helps people to feel valued and understood. This is a great opportunity to start a brainstorming session and have people interact in a dynamic and electric environment. There is no limit to ideas, and this is a great brainstorming activity. Rules or concept: All we know about subtle delays with lag in audio and video during video conferences, however, you can try to arrange a karaoke session with your remote team members. As the host you can be the moderator as well as the judge. Check out this awesome guide on how to create your company’s fantasy football team, here, Participants: 10 to 20 (More people can be added just a little more coordination is necessary), Duration: 1 day or 1 month depends on how long you would like to run the tournament. However, managing diversity in teams has been shown to form a greater team identity; which will reduce the negative impact of individual diversity. Continue to rotate players until everyone has had a turn. It can have various themes like “best cookies recipes” or “anything your grandmama makes better than everyone else”. Download the application and designate one person in your team to be the main player who is guessing the answers. The activities were well thought out and Vignesh ensured that the energy levels were sustained through out. All too often, we forget the contribution we make to our work and need a gentle reminder from ourselves or others that we are actually good at what we do. © 2017 - 2021 Hygger LLC. We looooove ice breaker questions, our own game, QuizBreaker, is full of them! The topics can be more work-related or themed; it really is up to you. These activities result in happier and more productive employees, more effective teams, and a stronger company. Choose any holiday to create a fun celebration to gather virtually. Do they like indie rock, pop classics, or some funky tunes. Create a word document with these photos in it. Time: 10-15 minutes. Have the teams discuss before the meeting, let them know they can only bring up to 4 items and nothing more. You can have this exercise continue weekly, having mini-language lessons each week. This is a great activity for global teams that are speaking several different languages across the company. Revealing Quiz. Have your team plank in different parts of their homes or cities. We've put together the ultimate list of the top 21 virtual team building activities for remote teams in 2021. Some of the best ways to get to know one another is through their TV Show taste and it is a great trivia game to play with your team. Each event runs for 60 - 90 minutes and is hosted by a comedian over Zoom. During your next video conference, let the debate begin! It is not too time-consuming and really gives your employees a moment of mindfulness. Have you always wanted to ask questions to your team but never had the opportunity to do so? This simple team building activity is a great way to break the ice and to help employees learn a lot about each other. They should arrange all items on a flat surface and take a picture from directly above. Let your team know several days before your next team meeting or next virtual team building event to prepare something to “Show and Tell”. A fun activity that will foster creative discussion and a platform to practice communication skills. Add a little bit more motivation to the mix (if cute animal photos aren’t enough) by picking out the best photo at the end of the month and sending the winner a framed print of their picture. This game is very similar to what was described above. Objective: To get participants to meet and put a face to the name, Materials: A meeting place (e.g., conference room, coffee shop, office block). We use cookies in order to give you the best possible experience on our website. They also allow only audio calls for those who have slower internet connection or are still getting ready for the workday. More and more organizations are moving towards building a team with remote workers scattered all over the globe. However, today we have what we have. 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. At the beginning of the next team meeting, choose 3 notes from the “cup” to announce to your team. Virtual team building is important because it brings team closer together and creates a culture of psychological safety, which is essential for a team to be high performing. Remember, that team building is a crucial part of any successful business. These virtual team building ideas and activities for Zoom are sure to get your team working better together while having a bit of much-needed fun. Sometimes the best team building activities allow people to discuss or vent about things that are troubling them in the work environment. They can be easily integrated into any online meeting and they will definitely improve team communication without extra pain. You can change the topic every week, so it’s an on-going game, and create multiple rounds for several different winners. Now it’s time to describe some of them in detail. It can be a good idea to invite your remote team to participate in a recipe roundup. Looking for a quick game to start your team meeting, “Category” is a great one to try. They should keep these items a secret from all other participants. Virtual Team Building Bingo. You can do all sorts of things suching as adding in 'themes', background music, challenges, etc. Once everyone has answered via emoji, you can then follow-up with each individual, spark an open conversation with your team or have an additional 1 to 1 meeting. You can organize team matches, grouping your colleagues together, and making them collaborate. A fun virtual team building virtual activity is called: “Office Chopped.” This activity is a virtual, team building spin-off of the Food Network TV show “Chopped.” Before the activity begins, each participant should choose one food item from their pantry or fridge. Here are our favorite virtual team building activities. We’ve all played, never have I ever, in small university halls as we fuel up for a big night out. Organizing regular virtual team building activities has been shown to: Working remotely makes it difficult to form personal connections with co-workers and employees, which is why many virtual team building activities are focused on getting people to share personal details about themselves and their lives. Post the meme to a designated Slack channel and have everyone vote for the best meme. It’s often hard to get to know each other in remote teams, so this allows people to find out a bit more about what each person is like. They have experienced security issues, so we suggest using a video app with more security features if you are discussing highly private information. Host your virtual dance as a standalone event or propose it as a quick session during a scheduled team call. That is why creating a “personal user manual” is great, it is effective to create work guidelines with your team. Virtual icebreakers are small online team-building activities that help remote teams to connect on a personal level and enjoy some fun social time together. Get everyone into a virtual call at a time that suits you and your team (make sure they are at home and not in a coffee shop). A year ago, it was difficult to imagine how many spheres and areas could be affected by a pandemic. It may be as simple as playing a game at the end of the workday. If more than one person is in slippers, those players get zero points, and everyone else gets 3 points. It is only accessed through your preferred web browser. For example, you as the organizer can participate and bond with your colleagues too.