It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we all began dealing with a global pandemic. The Covid-19 lockdowns forced leaders to pivot and find novel, safer ways to conduct business and lead their remote teams. While digital technology has been a Godsend during this time, it certainly does leave a lot to be desired when it comes to human connection and engagement. The good news is, there are plenty of fun virtual team building activities you can use to engage your team, and I’m about to list some of them here.
5 Virtual Team Building Activities to Build Deeper Connections
Ideally, you and your entire team will all be on the same time zone and can do these activities live. But if your team is spread across several time zones, that’s okay, you can still have fun with these. You’ll simply want to record videos of the activities and then put them on a workspace channel where everyone can view them.
But again, ideally you and your team will be able to engage with one another in real time.
Getting your group on a video call is best. In fact, a study by Remote.co found that “87% of remote workers feel more connected through the use of video conferencing.”
So, if you can use video conferencing for these activities, you will have even better results!
1. Try Outback Team Building and Training Games
No, not the steakhouse. Outback is a company that offers a variety of team building activities for your remote group. These activities have been designed to boost morale, encourage collaboration and keep your team connected.
Their activities can accommodate groups as large as 1,000 remote employees and cost as little as $8 per person. And they have some really fun virtual team building activities, such as:
Clue Murder Mystery
A millionaire has been murdered. Can your team work together to crack the case?
Game Show Extravaganza
Go head-to-head in this fun game show competition. These trivia challenges will get your team’s brain cells buzzing.
Code Break
Want a clever way to get your virtual team to start solving more complex problems? Then Code Break is perfect. Solve online puzzles, riddles and virtual trivia.
Team Pursuit
Improve communication and facilitate team bonding with these fun online mental and mystery challenges.
You can view a list of Outback’s virtual activities here.
2. Virtual Escape Room
If you’ve ever gone to a physical Escape Room with friends or family, then you know what a blast it is trying to escape! Virtual Escape Rooms also offer fun and thrills and provide your team with a challenging and immersive adventure.
Played via Zoom, The Escape Game’s Remote Adventures hold up to 8 players and are guided by a host in the room with a live camera feed. Your team will direct your guide through the adventure while they receive clues on their digital dashboard. The entire mission is 60 minutes of absolute fun!
3. What’s in Your Home?
Think House Hunters. Each of your team members will open their homes up to one another and share their favorite spaces and favorite things. This is a great way to build bonds with each other and really get to know the people you work with. Since this activity can take some time, it’s best suited for smaller teams. If you like this idea but have a bigger team, consider having one team member show off their home at the beginning of each week’s meeting.
4. Desert Island Game
You may have played this fun ice breaker game back in college. The virtual team building activity works in a similar fashion. Your group members are given a scenario and told they have been stranded on a desert island with 7 objects… but they can only grab 3 of those objects
The more obscure you make these objects, the more fun and challenging the game will be for your team members. Some examples of obscure objects are a cantaloupe, a pillowcase, stapler, 100 feet of rope, etc.
Split your team into small groups of 3 or 4 people and have them collaborate with each other on which items they want to pick. This activity is great because it forces your team members to really view each other as teammates and inspires them to work together. It also illustrates how your team can work together toward a common goal, even though they aren’t in the same room.
5. Build a Storyline
No matter how old we get, everyone loves a good story. Building a storyline is a classic team building activity and one of the most popular.
Here’s what you do:
Gather your team to form a “virtual circle” on your video call, as if you were all sitting around a virtual campfire.
Have the first person begin a story with an opening sentence and a second sentence that is incomplete. As an example, “On the way to work on Tuesday morning, Sarah’s car got a flat tire. She wasn’t sure what to do when suddenly…”
The next person in the circle completes that sentence and adds another incomplete sentence. Allow each team member to complete the sentence from before while adding an incomplete sentence of their own.
Not only is this a super fun game, but it helps your team members work on their listening skills and gets their creative juices flowing.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of virtual team building activities out there, but in my experience, these are some of the best because they are fun and engaging and allow your team members to improve their skill set through collaboration. If you’ve been struggling to engage your remote teams, give one or all of these virtual team building activities a try!
LaQuita Cleare and Team CCA
