2020 definitely threw a number of challenges at us, some forcing many organisations into taking their team fully remote. With that, a handful has found that the flexibility that comes with remote work had an extremely positive effect on productivity and efficiency, eCreators being one of them. Harvard Business Review noted that using virtual teams can improve employee productivity; some organisations have seen gains of up to 43%.
But with this, it is critical to stay regularly connected with the team just as much as you were when in the office environment. In fact, 94% of workers surveyed said that mutual respect and connection were critical to their team’s success, and 19% said it’s the most important factor in their sense of well-being at work.
With a team in a traditional office setting, there are lots of in-person opportunities for team building activities. But when it comes to ice breakers for virtual teams, it’s not the same and we need to get extra creative. There are many ways to approach this via the use of online platforms & learning management systems. But first, let’s talk about the challenges.
Challenges
Working from home can get lonely at times. By losing the office environment we’ve lost those integral opportunities that form authentic and meaningful social bonds that build trust with colleagues. Without action, this could lead down a path of disengagement that can go hand-in-hand with poor performance.
Some things to take into consideration…
Real-time / allochronic: Is it possible to get everyone together at the same time or do you need to make it an ongoing scenario to accommodate different availabilities?
Pragmatic / just for fun: Is the activity intentionally unproductive, or does it need a dual purpose of building relationships and improving the way the team works in a tangible way?
One-hit wonder / on the regular: Is the activity ongoing on a daily or weekly basis, or is it something you’d do once?
Let’s use 2021 as an opportunity for a fresh start, with everyone up and about, why not kick things off with some virtual team building?
Benefits
Activities and games really do encourage relationship building, just because a team isn’t all in the same environment, maybe haven’t even met each other in person. Doesn’t mean they can’t have strong relationships with one another.
With a strong foundation, colleagues will have an easier time collaborating on projects if they feel they know each other on a deeper and more genuine level.
Working without your colleagues around you can get lonely, virtual team building can combat loneliness. Communication can be always flowing with the help of activities and games, helping engagement at work and increasing satisfaction.
Creating opportunities in activities for teams to cheer each other on in reaching individual and team-oriented goals increase motivation, which in turn improves productivity.
Ideas for online games and activities for virtual teams
Virtually, we can’t go with the good old ‘trust fall’ (ouch), let’s see what we can do instead that is friendly for us remote workers. We found some road-tested, team-approved activities from Atlassian and Weekdone that were rather good:
Collaborative music playlists
Timeframe: ongoing
Purpose: just for fun
Frequency: regularly
Who likes to share a song here and there with their work pals? Using Spotify (or another music streaming platform) create some collaborative playlists that anyone on the team can listen to and help curate. Try creating an upbeat, “get $#!t done” playlist, a soothing “de-stress” playlist, or any other theme that suits your team.
Create a chat and start curating the ultimate playlist with your team.
Set up learning challenges
Timeframe: Monthly / Quarterly
Purpose: Building community, learning advocate, healthy competition
Frequency: Quarterly
Who doesn’t like a little competitiveness in the workplace?
You can easily set up a scoreboard or ladder board for your learning management system right now to get people to involve in learning activities.
Did you know that 75% of the global workforce will consist of Millennials by the year 2025? Which means your organisation should be more equipped to train the generation that responds extraordinarily well to games and individual recognition.
To provide even better experiences, you can pair it with a reward system like Motrain. Their system allows the organisation to offer any real items or opportunities and tailor them to the interests of your audience.
Kahoot It!
Timeframe: Up to you! From 15 minutes to 1 hour.
Purpose: Building community, learning advocate, healthy competition
Frequency: Monthly, Quarterly
Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that makes it easy to create, share and play learning games or trivia quizzes in minutes. Perfect for unleashing the fun in classrooms & offices through an easy video chat platform.
At eCreators, we have created a few lunchtime fun with different teams, in different regions – it’s a perfect tool to use for rapport building. It can also be used for classroom or training purposes to break up, an otherwise, long period of meeting or lesson.
GIF battle
Timeframe: ongoing
Purpose: just for fun
Frequency: regularly
Create a chat called ‘.gif battle’ The game consists of four rounds, each with its own theme. Can use Giphy.com or Google Images to find a .gif that fits with the theme for that round and then send it in the chat. Once everyone has their .gifs in, everyone votes on the round’s best submission by ‘reacting’. At the end, the person who wins the most rounds will be crowned the Ultimate .Gif Battle Champion. Just think of the glory! Don’t be afraid to add a tiebreaker round if needed.
Gaming session
Timeframe: at the same time
Purpose: just for fun
Frequency: regularly
Startup a chat to gage people’s interest and get some feedback on some virtual group games that are out there and plan out a weekly or fortnightly schedule.
Online games like Among Us, Survive: Escape from Atlantis or Drawful, and lots created by Jackbox and Tabletopia are popular options; especially for remote teams. Get everyone’s input and then block off an hour at some point during the week for everyone who’s interested to get together and play as a group.
There are lots of ways remote teams can get to know one another and build stronger and more meaningful relationships.
Whether it’s spending time playing games together or learning about each other’s personality types, activities are bound to help the team get more out of their roles and feel more comfortable collaborating on projects together.
If you’re wondering what else you could bring to improve your online learning or virtual team-building experience, feel free to reach out to our experts for a chat!
