Let’s face it, these unprecedented times have made us take a step into a whole new world where everyone is trying to change their way of living.
With the disruptive effects that “Covid-19” is causing to people, adapting to a new normal meant as “Social Distancing” can cause feelings of isolation and fear in the minds of people. At this time, it becomes essential for you to connect with your team emotionally and support each other in these difficult times.
While your team works remotely, this is the opportunity to build a meaningful relationship with your team as that will give them the strength to get through each day….
That’s exactly why we put together this list of Virtual Team Building Activities that can break the ice between your virtual meetings and these are meant for teams of any shapes or size.
An ice breaker for remote teams, Team TV Cribs allows people to break the bubble by showing their homes/workspaces to each other virtually. Each team member gets a chance to record a short video by showing off their home or any favourite part of their homes like any hidden talent they have, or anything which is really precious to them.
This can help in opening up everyone’s personalities in front of the team making them feel connected.
This game may be better suited for small teams, but it’s undoubtedly a good activity to get to know anyone personally.
If you are looking for a fun team-building activity where people can challenge their creativity and storytelling skills, then try playing Virtual Tell A Tale with your team members.
Here’s how it goes
Get the entire team together on a video call and one person can take the lead by selecting the order of participants. The first person starts with a line like “Once upon a time in Silk board” then the second person continues “there was a traffic jam”.
This way, each remote employee contributes until everyone has had a turn. It can be made sure that the story doesn’t become repetitive or goes off-topic.
What is the best part of this game?
These activities will improve your team’s collaboration and listening abilities leading to a clear communication structure.
This activity will make your team think out of the box and improve their planning skills by using their time wisely.
Here your team gets 20 minutes to hunt their homes for any item with the allocated alphabet to each person.
For example, the facilitator or host gives the alphabet ‘S’ to the team and the time starts. Teams then must find the items that start with the letter and send the pictures. The person who collects the highest number of items before time runs out wins.
Is your team adapting to the new normal of working remotely?
This activity is a good way to open up your team to each other. Also, there will be certain similarities between your team members which can be found out through this activity helping them feel relaxed and working better together.
Each member here gets 1 minute to talk about a unique and a strange thing about themselves. Unique could be an achievement (Ex. I ran a full marathon or did an Everest base camp trek) and strange could be a weird quality of that person ( Ex. I can eat 2 full biryanis in one go or I can sleep while standing in a moving bus).
This will help your teammates get to know each other on a personal level.
This is the safer version of the game you probably played in college with your group.
So, you don’t have to think before playing this game with your teammates.
This game starts with all participants raising their 5 fingers up. Teams take turns to say something they haven't done at the workplace, like "Never have I ever stolen another team member’s snacks" or "Never Have I ever dozed off during a meeting". Whoever has done this at work, closes a finger, and when all 5 fingers go down, that person is eliminated.
This will bond your team specifically for new teams or start-ups.
Virtual Icebreakers don’t always have to be complicated to be effective.
Take A Pic is a short but fun activity to implement for starting conversations in a team especially when your team has any introverts.
Here you can start by asking people in the group to share a picture of one unique item on their home desks and explain to the others as to why it's special. Each person will get 1-2 minutes to talk.
By sharing valuable possessions your team will open up to a strong bond and they will get a better insight about each other as an individual.
Has your team lost the bond or are there any conflicts due to which there is a lack of coordination between your teams?
This activity is here to solve that problem for you.
Blast From The Past makes your employees feel overwhelmed and nostalgic about how they started or any beautiful memories shared with their current team.
Team members are asked to go through their phone galleries and share their most favorite picture with the team. This helps bring back good old memories and relive great times you have had as a team.
This is a great way to learn your team’s interests outside of work.
This game requires a little bit of pre-meeting preps. Before going on the meeting or call, Mail the team asking them to share one fun fact with the facilitator that the team may not know about them. Once the call begins, start by telling people one of the facts and then ask them all to type in to guess the person who shared that fact about their life.
This is a hilarious game to develop trust between your team members.
The objective of this game is for the team to guess the object given to a single participant of the team before the game.
The facilitator selects the ‘blind artist’(participant) in random and shares an image of any object (Ex. A Teapot) The artist then must explain the shape to the team without letting out the name or the purpose of the object. (In the example of a Teapot, the artist can say, Draw a circle, an elephant trunk-like thing on the left and a reversed 'C" on the right and a cap on top). The team will have to draw the instructions given and guess the object correctly. Whoever guesses this first wins.
This is a good way for your team to collaborate and work together so that they can arrive on a solution. Your team’s problem-solving skills are surely gonna benefit through this one!
Hope this helps you and your team while you through each day of this crisis together!
To check out our virtual team building activities > here.
