How to: Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

How to: Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

Working remotely is one of the greatest things to come out of the past few years. Now, employees have the potential to be productive from the comfort of their own homes. For many employees, having remote options can increase individual productivity, build professional confidence, and enhance their sense of work-life balance.

However, there are some bumps in the road when it comes to building remote teams or maintaining a sense of community through virtual meetings. Many companies have been struggling when it comes to building genuine connections between teams in a remote setting. Remote team meetings can be awkward, but they don’t have to be. By planning ahead and implementing a few simple and fun exercises, your team members will be feeling comfortable in no time.

‍# 1 - Plan Ahead for Your Meetings

Whether your team members are in person or remote, all successful team meetings require a good amount of planning. This will ensure that you are making the most of your limited time together and help you to enter your meeting with a greater sense of confidence and conviction. When your team members notice that you have put thought and planning into this meeting, they will be more engaged in what you are saying and trust that you are leading them in the right direction.

Although planning is important for every team meeting, it is even more crucial to hosting a successful virtual team meeting. When you are preparing for your virtual meetings, consider what virtual tools you will need, such as video conferencing software, team chat rooms, and even collaborative online whiteboards. If you are introducing some new technology to your team during the meeting, it’s important to try some icebreakers to help them get familiar with it.

#2 - Check-In With Your Team Members

As your meeting begins, start by going around the virtual room and asking each person how they are doing today. This will help to break the ice at the beginning of a virtual meeting and allow you and your team members to get to know each other better. To make the most of this exercise, spark up a conversation by asking your team members additional questions about their responses.

You don’t just have to ask the same generic question each meeting. Spice it up a bit by asking your team members questions about what they are most looking forward to this weekend, or what their goals are for this meeting.

This may seem like a time-consuming activity, but building genuine connections is especially important for remote teams. While working with your team in an office setting, you have plenty of opportunities to check in with your colleagues and form meaningful, personal or professional bonds with them. These bonds help to build trust within teams and enhance collaboration among team members. While working in a remote setting, you will need to go out of your way when it comes to building deeper bonds within remote teams.

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#3 - Play a Mini-Game

Even the most in-sync remote teams will face the occasional virtual meeting where energy is low. When this happens, you can spice things up by implementing a fun activity to boost the energy levels of your team members as well as share a few laughs together to strengthen your bond.

One fun game that you and your team can play is called Name That Sound. Here each team member turns their webcams off and has a few minutes to find an object around the house with a distinct sound, such as a rubber ducky, for example. One by one, each individual will play the sound and the team members will guess what object is making the sound. This activity is a fun way to share some laughs with your colleagues and create meaningful team memories.

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#4 - Check out Tools Designed for Remote Teams

There are many tools out there, but we decided to create one great solution that can help promote a positive environment for remote teams. Unping is a platform that helps hybrid teams to re-create in-person interactions virtually. This online tool enables teams to work together in engaging hybrid environments. Unping provides a virtual office space for your team. Here you can feel the energy of working in the same room, see your colleagues, talk, laugh, and collaborate. This means less messaging and fewer meetings for your virtual team.

Save a spot! The waitlist sign-up is now open: https://unping.com