As more people get vaccinated against COVID-19, more workplaces will reopen for in-house employees. Despite this, however, many team members may want to continue working remotely full-time or part-time.
This dichotomy creates a new challenge for some managers who are unused to split workforces to find ways to build camaraderie among team members whether they work onsite or remotely.
83% of Remote Employees Believe Working Off-Site Has Been a Success in 2020. Managers Need to Leverage This Win.
The success of your enterprise, whatever its mission or tasks, depends on the effectiveness of your team. In turn, team effectiveness depends largely on how well that team can work together to implement the vision you set out for them.
Team-building may well be more important than ever in this new blended work environment because some remote work environments can make workers feel isolated, undervalued, or underutilized. At the same time, keeping remote workers as happy as onsite employees is crucial to their success as team members.
Likewise, making sure in-house team members know what duties are being handled off-site and who to contact for communications regarding those aspects of the larger project empowers them to succeed.
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We’ve researched some team-building games that can help you build bonds between in-house and remote team members. Each technique was selected because it works well when some or all team members are participating via phone or videoconferencing.
Single Question Icebreakers: What’s Your Most Embarrassing Moment?
Pick one question of a personal (but not too personal) nature that allows team members to get to know each other better, and have each person answer one-by-one as an icebreaker.
Hearing each other answer the same question like: What is one thing no one here knows about you yet? allows team members to share in each other’s vulnerabilities and therefore build solidarity among themselves.
Story Circle: Once Upon a Time
One way to engage people’s creative nature while building teamwork and camaraderie is to write a story together. Here’s how it works:
- The team leader starts things off with a single opening sentence — such as one beginning, “Once upon a time…”
- Then, each team member in turn adds another sentence to the story, building upon the story elements the proceeding player or players have already contributed.
- Finally, at the last player’s turn, he or she can give the concluding sentence.
You can come up with some pretty wacky and hilarious stories this way, which is also great for team bonding through laughter.
Trivia Game Show Night: A Not-So-Trivial Pursuit
A manager serves as a game show host with team members as contestants in a live virtual trivia game. Choose a wide variety of topics — especially ones that are directly or tangentially related to your work — but they can also be unrelated or off-the-wall.
The point isn’t to grill employees about their work knowledge or even who gets how many right. However, the fun of a playful competition with zero stakes can help bond team members together.
Virtual Murder Mystery Party: Sherlock Is Working At “Holmes”
This game is perfect for virtual workers. A murder mystery party consists of riddles and puzzle-solving, part scavenger hunt and part information-gathering — all designed to be performed by a group.
You can find countless murder mystery games with scenarios, characters, and clues provided in all sorts of themes. You can choose a genre from vampires to Sherlock Holmes. Or, if you’re feeling creative, you can design a theme of your own.
Virtual Escape Rooms: Bonding While Breaking Out
Virtual escape rooms are similar to virtual murder mysteries in that the group works together to solve a puzzle with available clues. The difference between this game and the previous one is that instead of players taking on characters to determine who is the murderer among the group, players play themselves and determine how to get out of a locked room in which they are trapped together.
You can find many turnkey live-hosted virtual escape rooms that are ready when you schedule a session for your team.
Hobby Sharing: How Do You Pronounce “Doge,” Anyway?
Your team is used to sharing projects that forward the shared goals of your business, but what about the pet projects of the individual members of your team?
Be it a fondness for Dogecoin, playing banjo in a bluegrass band, or an obsession with 3D printing, everyone has something they look forward to enjoying in their off-work hours. Go through the group taking turns sharing a pet project of theirs, whether past, present, or future.
Teach the Group a Lesson: How to Make a California Roll
Create a series of sessions or kick off each weekly team meeting with one member teaching the group how to do something interesting. It can be anything from making sushi to folding origami to arranging flowers to a few key phrases in a new language.
This game allows each team member to practice leadership skills and be the focal point of the group. It also allows the entire group to experience the camaraderie of learning a new skill together.
Team Book Club: How to Win Friends and Influence People… Remotely
Starting a book club with your team members allows everyone to have a shared new experience and then discuss it. You can choose books that are directly related to elements of your work in a professional development capacity or choose books in entirely different genres to allow the team to share on something outside their working environment.
Nostalgia: Yes, I Actually Did Have a Mullet in College
Another way to build a bond among the members of a team is for each team member to get to know each others’ backgrounds. This exercise encourages team members to learn work or personal details about each other, specifically as they relate to things each team member remembers fondly.
Good nostalgic prompts can include:
- What was the best gift you ever got?
- What is your favorite childhood memory?
- What’s a funny story from your childhood?
- Who was your role model when you were growing up?
- What was the best live concert, show, or performance you ever saw?
You can even have the team members show photos from a treasured childhood photo album.
Summary: Happy Collaboration, Regardless of Geography
Regardless of the location makeup of your team, you can still create strong bonds and execute your business’s vision while having fun creating those bonds. It just takes a little imagination to ignite your team’s best work – together.