Tips for creative online teambuilding that will strengthen your team
Compulsory work from home makes it harder to build relationships among employees, develop a corporate culture and organize team events. Does this mean that companies should put teambuilding on hold? Not at all. It is an important tool for good managers, one that ensures the unity and productivity of the entire group of employees. But instead of classic teambuilding in one place, it is necessary to look for new activities that people can participate in at a distance.
Why is teambuilding important?
Teambuilding is an effective way to improve the general functioning of a group of employees, whether within
a single team or the entire company. It differs from job training by being much less formal and by involving each team member much more.
But not every teambuilding will have the same success rate, as a study on this topic has shown. For teambuilding to truly be beneficial you first need to do the following:
- Identify the team's real needs in advance and incorporate them into the planned activities. For some goals (improvement in specific tasks), choose classic work training, while more general requirements (improvement of communication and interpersonal relationships within a team) are more suited to teambuilding.
- Choose an activity that has a chance to improve the desired aspects of the team while also being fun. When engaging in teambuilding, it is necessary to keep in mind that employees see it as a leisure activity, so it should not involve anything too demanding.
- Explain the reasons for the team's activities and focus on the expected outcomes. But don't forget the previous point and don't make teambuilding a surprise test of abilities. The results should come naturally, especially with repeated teambuilding.
How to enliven any online teambuilding
What does the right teambuilding activity look like? The biggest mood killer (and obstacle to improving how the team works together) is boredom. No one will come away with important knowledge about themselves and others
if they are just waiting for the whole thing to be over.
Therefore, adhere to a few important principles to ensure that teambuilding doesn't fall short of the mark:
- Engage more senses. In virtual teambuilding, employees use at least their hearing and sight. But if you manage to involve, for example, taste or touch (think cooking together online) you are guaranteed to get the attention of each team member.
- Don't be afraid to gamify. People are naturally competitive and like to win. A simple points system or the promise of a prize will significantly increase the motivation of all those involved.
- Don't let things get out of control. Both live teambuilding and (especially) virtual teambuilding cannot exist without a good moderator. Identify a team member who will oversee the whole event and make sure it does not descend into chaos.
- Give everyone a chance to take an active part. The main goal of teambuilding is to improve the functioning of the whole team, not only its loudest or most extroverted members. Choose an activity where everyone gets a chance to express themselves in some way.
Examples of playful activities
There are many possibilities for virtual teambuilding.
These 10 tips will work for almost every workplace looking for a way to informally unite a large or small team of colleagues.
Online scavenger hunt
You don't need more than Zoom or Google Meets to do this. During a joint online meeting, give everyone a task that they must complete as quickly as possible at home. For example, giving everyone a simple list of common household items that they need to show on camera works great.
Virtual escape room
Virtual escape rooms have gained great popularity in the last few years in the Czech Republic and worldwide. Nowadays, there are not only live escapes, but you can also choose from a huge offer of virtual rooms where several people can participate
at once.
Showing off pets
and home
In combination with the other activities you can also tour each other's homes. We know from experience that showing your pets and sharing their adventures together is always a big hit.
Personality tests
Each person is unique and has a clearly defined place in the team. As part of teambuilding, all colleagues can take an online personality test (from those based on real psychology to somewhat quirkier ones) and compare the results with others.
Movie night
It will likely be a while before we can go to the cinema again. But
if you use simple software like Kast, you can easily watch a video together online with the whole team and then discuss it with everyone.
Customized quizzes
Create a quiz specially designed for the interests of your team in one of the inexhaustible number of online quizmakers.
The questions can cover everything from sports to company activities.
Joint art
Are there budding artists on your team who don't normally get the chance to express themselves? Then try creating a work of visual art together. Eventually you can even have it framed in the company's main office.
Simulated problems
This is teambuilding that starts to resemble training. Identify real and less real problems that your team will have to figure out together. What would happen if a group of accountants had to use only a calculator, pen and paper instead of sophisticated financial software?
Geography games
Travel during a pandemic is problematic, but fortunately we have Google maps, so we can at least travel virtually. Take a joint tour
of the hometown of each of your colleagues or maybe try Geoguessr in which you have to find your way around as quickly as possible in an unknown environment.
Discussion of
new offices
Online teambuilding is also a great opportunity
to discover how your employees currently relate to office life and what they expect from it when they return. Unsurprisingly, prolonged work from home has revealed the advantages of meeting with colleagues and of having an environment adapted for focused work. Feel free to start the discussion. We will help you turn the knowledge you have acquired into new offices.