Whether your office is hybrid or totally remote, team synergy is key. Even while social distancing, team building activities are one of the best ways to keep the momentum going. Online team building creates stronger connections throughout the team while making everyone feel as if they are a vital part of the organization.
Team-Building Benefits
Virtual workshops are effective, efficient, and can be a lot of fun when everyone participates. In fact, it would actually be an understatement to say that there are many benefits to team-building.
Connections
For those taking part in team-building activities social distancing, they generate a new level of depth and connection with co-workers that they wouldn’t have apart from virtual workshops. This assists in helping everyone feel closer to their co-workers and more comfortable in working on project deliverables.
Motivation
Employee motivation is increased and a strong company culture forms. As they go through the activities, the employees gain confidence in themselves and in the team’s ability to make things happen.
Productivity
This is a primary goal of team building and their activities. This helps policies, processes, and procedures go smoothly.
Collaboration
Effective team-building activities create better collaboration among the team. When they can master effective collaboration, trust is built, and each person is confident of one another’s abilities. This also helps in developing networks and relationships outside of the office that will help in the future.
Creativity
Innovation and creativity help the team reinforce different perspectives and embrace their diversity. In organizations that do this, employees can offer creative solutions and bounce ideas off one another to move the team forward.
Communication
Team building encourages improved communication between team members. Fun activities help them get to know one another, understand their differences, and create a culture where they can speak freely. The goal is to focus on what they have in common instead of harping on differences. This nurtures strengths and addresses weaknesses to improve motivation.
Positive Reinforcement
Team building is a good time to recognize employees for the work they are doing. This sends a message to everyone that they matter, and all contribute to the overall success of the organization.
Don’t Forget the Power of Food
Having a virtual workshop that includes team-building exercises and something fun like cooking is a great way to bring everyone together. The goal? Have a plan in mind. Infusing cooking into these sessions makes things a little more interesting and fun while getting the team on board. Here are a few suggestions for setting up your workshops:
- Be clear about what you want to achieve from the team building workshop
- Have an agenda. You still need some form of structure.
- Make sure everyone has access to online collaboration tools.
- Send out instructions and any information they may need a few days in advance of the session.
These online team-building exercises are winners at helping team members stay engaged while being remote:
Do You Really Know Your Team?
This is a very popular virtual ice breaker. A few days before the session, each employee would send the answers to three “about me” questions – favorite movie, what one thing they would bring to a deserted island, and their favorite food. Go around the call and see who can guess the team member based on the responses.
Cooking Fun
This is where Rockoly shines! Team-building cooking workshops provide everything you need to build cohesion and connection within your team. With ingredients delivered to all team members and a professional chef to guide everyone through the creation of a delicious meal through video conferencing, it’s the perfect remote retreat.
Five Finger Showdown
This is good for large groups. Everyone holds up five fingers. A team member or designated host says a unique or interesting life event like “has taken singing lessons” or “ate watermelon within the past two days.” For each thing the team member has done, a finger goes down. The first person to have no more fingers wins.
Storytelling Workshop
This is a unique way to foster creativity and help the team better understand your brand story. Getting a brand storyteller to come to speak to the group for a quick workshop can help the team build confidence in knowing how their roles help the company.
Spreadsheet Wars
This helps with critical thinking. Use Google Sheets or something similar that allows for collaboration. Break the team up into groups and have the groups design a solution to a theme using only the spreadsheet program.
Show and Learn Sessions
Many companies haven’t tapped into the abilities of their team members. This is an opportunity for the team to showcase what they can do. Each member hosts a session where they teach something they are an expert in. No one knows what the session will be about until it starts. This not only alerts management to the team member’s capabilities, but it stimulates curiosity from the other team members.
Messy Desk Photo Contest
Use Slack, Teams, or whatever application you use. This is a quick icebreaker just for fun. Take a picture of your desk in whatever condition it is in and post it to the group for a discussion. The winner takes all.
My User Manual
This requires Keynote or PowerPoint but is a cool way to understand each other’s personal work style. It takes about 60 minutes (or longer) to play. Set up a virtual workshop where everyone reviews the “user manuals” in real-time and then upload them where everyone can access them whenever they want. The questions in these user manuals are about personal workstyles, so answers to questions about chat or email? What time of day are they fully engrossed in work? Can someone video call on the fly?
Health Monitor
This team-building exercise is designed to examine how the team works together rather than what you are working on as a team. This can be done at least once a month and assesses how the team is doing in certain areas, such are you making effective decisions? Do you understand the dependencies around your tasks? This helps avoid the little problems from becoming big problems and keeps the team aware of the importance of working together.
Uncover Your Superpowers
Each team member prepares for the overall session by taking an online strength finder assessment. Some use Clifton Strengths. During the group workshop, everyone takes turns sharing their results. Each person gets to share their top three strengths, the lowest-ranked strength, and something that surprised them. This is a good way to reevaluate how team members contribute and should help in making better use of talent. This must be done after team-building activities that bring everyone closer together because this is a very personal activity but is positive and affirming.
Now imagine each one of these events with something extra like food! Starting the meeting with a quick tutorial on a quick snack that everyone can be involved in before they get to the other exercises gives everyone something to look forward to.
Working virtually doesn’t have to make things mundane. These team-building activities for social distancing will create a team environment where everyone understands each other, relies on each other to complete projects and has a comfort level that mirrors in-person communication.
Are you ready to take your team building to the next level? If so, Rockoly has you covered with the ultimate online cooking experience, tailored specifically for remote teams. Learn more here!
