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Virtual team building brings teams together. Done remotely, when your colleagues’ emotional distance can turn into feelings of isolation, virtual team building can lift their spirits. In a collaborative environment online via an app like Zoom, virtual team building can help the entire company maintain good spirits, even in a time of work-from-home. It often feels just like you are in the office, yet online, and camaraderie and bonding can take place.
Virtual team building is important to keep up a reliable space where one can feel that they are not working alone but have a support system behind them. Virtual team building can be composed of several strategies and games which are carefully put together to bring more human interaction into work. It will help your team, and your colleagues connect and feel like they are part of a large community.
One study discovered that almost 90 per cent of remote colleagues feel more connected when using video conferencing apps like Zoom. For those who work in different time zones but want to feel in harmony with the rest of the team, recording videos when playing virtual games is one way to achieve closeness.
Here are some virtual team building activities that are sure to get the team going—together:
Guess the Emoji
In this game, all you have to do is to guess your colleagues’ favourite emojis or the ones they use most frequently for fun. Just send a list of players to the entire team and give everybody five minutes to guess each one’s favourite emojis. The winner of the game is the person with the highest amount of correctly guessed emojis.
Never Have I Ever: Rated E
You might have played this game in school and for sure included alcohol in the rules. Well, this e-version for virtual team building doesn’t use alcohol but can be just as fun. Lead with such topics as food, “Never have I eaten two candy bars in a row,” and watch curiosity get the better of people. All participants take turns one by one, and when you have done what is described, you are disqualified. The last person standing wins!
Virtual Book Club
This is one that is sure to stimulate heated discussions among colleagues. The more controversial the book, the better! Just keep it rated PG. One suggested reading is a biography of a historical figure. Various sides will start battling! Have a moderator ask questions to each person in the virtual meeting; go around the room for answers. Anybody can interject and disagree or agree with the person speaking at any time. It ends when the moderator has finished asking questions. Make sure to set a timer because this can go on forever!
Personal Business Guessing Game
This game is a great way to break the ice and know about a colleague outside their work environment. A moderator asks each team member to open up with some personal facts. These facts will be arranged into a document and each team member guesses who the fact belongs to. This game is a great way to develop camaraderie. An answer key will be given at the end to see how well each person guessed about their colleagues. This is a sure-fire way to achieve cohesion in a team—especially when everybody ends up LOL-ing.
There are many other virtual team building activities online that you can find, tailored to the number of players participating. Most are fun, and all are harmless. They’re a great way to keep the company going in times of work-from-home. Even better, there are events organising companies that now offer virtual team building activities. If you find it a bit tedious to prepare for your company’s events yourself, getting a consultation from event experts will surely make things easier.
