Virtual Team Building Activities:
Meeting as a team virtually can be as powerful as an in-person meeting. If you communicate the purpose and vision when organizing the virtual team building activity, team members will learn, engage, and be entertained. Team building activities can provide communication while also reinforcing an organization’s goals.
During this time of remote working, team members may feel unsupported and isolated. A fun interactive virtual activity can make members feel more connected and motivated in their position. Let’s look at some ice breakers, virtual team building activities, and tools you can use to build a strong remote workforce.
Icebreaker Activities:
These icebreaker activities can happen at the start of a virtual meeting to create a quick connection with your co-workers. Coffee Talk!
Good/Bad Icebreaker
• Have your team members share their “good” moment of the day (a positive, happy, grateful experience) and also their “bad” (a challenge, a difficult moment of the day) These moments could be work or non-work related.
Topic of the Day Virtual Icebreaker
• Before your team meeting, send a current story for the team to read. Give each member a minute to share their thoughts and ideas about the topic. At the end of the meeting take 5 minutes to open it up to the group for discussion.
Snapshot Virtual Icebreaker
• Have team members take a picture and share it via email, or communication channel you use. ie: Slack
• Clean work area, messy work vehicle, family, pets, etc.
• Be sure to comment or ask questions about the picture.
The Deserted Island
• Uh oh, your team has been stranded on a deserted island. Let them know they can pick 3 items to bring with them. Give each member 1 minute to come up with their 3 items and why they brought them. Open the discussion up at the end to see if anyone would change their items based on what other team members brought. What will they bring?
“Getting to Know You” Icebreaker
• Before your next meeting, ask all your team members to answer 3 “about me” questions. (ie: Favorite food? Best movie ever? The person you admire the most?)
• During the meeting share the answers and have your team members try to match the answers with the correct member. If the results are interesting, have your team members explain.
Virtual Team Building Activities:
Spend a little more quality time with your team members. Try some of these free or paid activities below to keep your team members engaged and feeling supported.
Trivia:
Does your team love trivia? Setup up trivia on Houseparty – invite your team, choose a category, and test your knowledge. This activity takes about an hour, and with immediate feedback and results, it keeps the entire team engaged.
Virtual Happy Hour
Do you miss networking at the EM NARI monthly event? Or just miss meeting your co-workers after work for drinks?
• Login to Zoom or GoToMeeting, invite your co-workers to join you for a drink. Consider a smaller group of around 10-15 people.
• City Brew Tours’ offers a virtual beer and cheese pairing happy hour. They will take you through drink and food pairings during your virtual happy hour. They also offer a Live Homebrew experience, a 2-hour event that lets you become a brewer in the comfort of your own home.
Paid Virtual Team Builders:
Looking to support a local business?
Try TeamBonding for virtual and in-person company events. From Race Around the World to Casino Night, TeamBonding can offer you the virtual or in-person team building event that is right for your organization.
Scavenger Hunt:
Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt? With ScavengerHunt you can use a mobile app or browser and take photos with a real-time leaderboard. It’s perfect for team building with interaction, fun and some friendly competition.
Jackbox Games:
With Jackbox you pick a game or game pack, only one person needs to purchase the game. Choose a game, send the game code to your friends, and log onto any screen-sharing platform and start playing.
Tip: How to use with Zoom and other systems!
QuizBreaker Virtual Team Builder:
• When you invite a team member to QuizBreaker, they can answer up to 100 categorized questions. Using the icebreaker questions from your team, QuizBreaker then generates unique quizzes for your team members that can be sent out by email at a scheduled time. You can also activate a Leaderboard feature to step up the competition.
Let’s Roam Virtual Team Builders:
Let’s Roam challenges are made up of 5 rounds that include: Fact or Fib, Costume Party, Trivia, Impersonations, Riddle Me This, and more. To top it off, Let’s Roam has its own ingenious video conferencing platform that allows you to connect with anyone of your co-workers near or far.
The Offsite Co. Team Builder:
The Offsite Co. offers an all-inclusive virtual team-building experience. Every event is personalized based on your organization. They take care of it all – from game design to running the event.