By Annie Urban
Are you still stuck working from home and wondering how you can build stronger relationships between colleagues? Are you worried that your teams won’t be as tight-knit as they would be if in person? Virtual team building is a great option—here are eight fun ideas you can try!
“Name That Emoji Song Title”
Allow each person three minutes for their turn.
Step 1: Start a group messaging chain.
Step 2: Call on each attendee to go, then put a timer on your phone for three minutes.
Step 3: Have each person look at their last played song on their app of choice or pick their favorite song. For up to three minutes, they give hints to the song’s title by using emojis only.
Step 4: Everyone takes turns guessing the song’s name until the timer runs out or someone has the correct answer.
Step 5: Reveal the song title if no one has guessed it at the end of the three minutes.
Virtual Happy Hour
There’s nothing better than being able to wind down at the end of a long week with a happy hour! It’s a great time to get to know one another, play games or do virtual icebreakers.
So this Friday at 4:00 pm put everyone on your team on a Zoom call; go around the group and ask them to share what they are drinking and their favorite cocktail ingredients. Encourage creative drinks!
Let’s Roam is an online video conferencing platform where you and your team can participate in interactive challenges. They offer various games—trivia, fact or fib, costume party, impersonations and many more fun ways to interact with your team! A fee is involved.
The Escape Game Remote Adventures
The Excape Game created Remote Adventures—virtual escape rooms to challenge, have fun and ultimately bring your team closer together! A fee is involved.
Water Cooler Trivia is an online platform for automated weekly trivia quizzes to test common knowledge and compete against each other. You decide the categories, difficulty, timing, region and scheduling of the quizzes. There is a fee involved, but some offer free trials.
Who says you have to be in-person to play cards?! This platform is a great way to do something as simple as playing a card game and bring back the sense of normalcy.
The Deserted Island Scenario
This is a great way to have your team share ideas and provide new perspectives.
Once everyone joins the meeting, it’s time to break the bad news – everyone will be stranded on a deserted island, and you can only bring along three items for enjoyment.
Give everyone five minutes to decide on their list, then go around and have everyone say their items and explain why. After everyone goes, give them another five minutes to determine whether they would like to swap any item out after hearing what and why their teammates chose what they did. This is a fun way for your team members to realize they can learn from hearing other perspectives.
Remote Scavenger Hunt
Most people assume a scavenger hunt involves some physical movement, but that is not always the case! This is a great way to have your team think subjectively.
How it works: Give a prompt, have players log/photograph their answers, and then share.
Prompt ideas:
– Find the item that makes you feel happiest
– Find a song that makes you feel nostalgic
– Find your favorite quote
You don’t have to be in-person to create better relationships with your team—give a few of the above a try and watch the rapport build!