In today’s increasingly remote work environment, virtual team building activities have become essential for maintaining communication, collaboration, and morale. But let’s be honest, nobody wants to participate in lame or dull lame team building activities anyway. So, how can you engage your remote team members in a way that’s both fun and effective? Let us introduce you to 10 not lame virtual team building activities that will boost your team’s productivity and bonding!
Key takeaways
- Unlock the potential of remote teams and foster connection with our top 10 not lame virtual team building activities!
- Learn how to successfully overcome challenges in virtual team building by establishing communication protocols, utilizing collaboration tools, creating structure and guidelines.
- From escape rooms to murder mysteries – have fun while bonding and exploring the world of virtual team building!
Why virtual team building activities matter
Virtual team building activities have become a significant part of corporate practice due to the rise of remote work, challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, and the increasing reliance on virtual meetings. These online team building activities help remote teams stay connected, work together effectively, and stay motivated through engaging in a virtual team building activity.
These challenges support remote teams by enabling:
- Effective collaboration.
- Skillset identification and perfection.
- Solution finding.
- Common goal achievement.
In essence, the aim of remote team building activities is to equip remote employees with essential work competencies while providing an enjoyable experience and helping them gain a better understanding of their own company culture, role, and coworkers.
Top 10 not lame virtual team building activities
Are you set to explore the realm of engaging, fun, and effective virtual team building activities? Look no further! We’ve curated a list of the top 10 not lame virtual, team building events and activities that are sure to get your team having fun and bonding.
We’ll delve into the specifics of each activity.
Virtual escape rooms
Imagine being locked in a room with your team, racing against the clock to solve puzzles, decipher codes, and ultimately escape. Virtual escape rooms offer this thrilling experience online, fostering social elements, challenge problem-solving skills, and promoting teamwork.
Exciting virtual escape room scenarios include figuring out how to pull off an art heist and escape or breaking out of a jail cell. The best part? There are both free and paid options for virtual escape rooms, so you can have a thrilling experience without breaking the bank.
Ultimately, virtual escape rooms offer a thrilling platform for remote teams to unite, collaborate, and enhance problem-solving and communication skills, all while promoting social interaction and teamwork.
Online office games
Remember the good old days of playing games during office breaks? Online office games bring that fun spirit into the virtual world, offering a variety of fun games, and challenges to get your team motivated and collaborating. Your team can have a blast with fast-paced trivia, Go Get It lightning scavenger hunts, and the communication sharpening game “Can You Hear Me Now?”.
These two team leader games create a fun, relaxed environment for remote teams, fostering connection and relationship building amid enjoyable chats and cocktails. Some fun virtual team building games to try out include:
- Virtual trivia.
- Virtual pub crawls.
- Virtual book clubs.
- Virtual Werewolf.
- Quirky photo challenges.
One of these options could serve as a great virtual team building game for your remote teams.
DIY craft challenge
The DIY Craft Challenge is a fantastic opportunity to unleash your team’s creativity and build something extraordinary from the materials at hand – all in just 30 minutes. A collaborative craft project, where team members work on a single, physical project by mailing it to each other, can be an excellent way to get team members creativity foster teamwork and collaboration.
You can explore a range of thrilling DIY craft challenges, such as:
- Monthly DIY challenges organized by a group of DIY bloggers.
- Craft challenges on platforms like Pinterest.
- The inspiring ‘21 Crafts in 2021’ annual craft challenge.
- And many more.
This challenge presents an excellent platform for showcasing talents and passions while fostering creativity and teamwork among each team member.
Virtual murder mystery party
Unleash your inner detective and immerse yourself in a gripping virtual murder mystery party, virtual game where your remote team must collaborate to uncover clues and solve an exciting murder mystery.
These parties offer a highly engaging platform for remote teams to unite and collaborate on mystery solving, thus promoting critical thinking and collaboration.
The virtual murder mystery challenge is an exciting real-time online game where participants:
- Download an app
- Are divided into teams
- Are assigned roles
- Embark on a thrilling journey to find clues and solve the mystery.
Lightning scavenger hunt
Picture a fast-paced game where participants search for specific objects and show them off to the group. Welcome to the lightning scavenger hunt, an exciting virtual scavenger hunt that can be played online.
To ensure a productive meeting and a successful hunt, the organizer should prepare an inspiring list of items for the assignment beforehand.
You can find all sorts of exciting items during a lightning scavenger hunt, such as items from around the house, items from nature, items from the office, and items from the internet.
Virtual dance party
Who says remote teams can’t have a dance party? A virtual dance party is an awesome, high-energy activity that can instantly boost an entire team in morale. All you need are a few of your favorite tunes for the playlist and an extended playlist from The Bash to keep the party going.
These parties offer an exhilarating and enjoyable platform for remote teams to unite, express themselves, build relationships, engage in meaningful discussions during virtual team events, and experience team bonding.
Virtual coffee breaks
Virtual coffee breaks are a great way to foster meaningful connections and create a sense of community among coworkers. They are usually one-on-one or small group sessions conducted for 15 to 30 minutes during the workday.
Games such as The Jukebox, where team members can contribute theme-fitting songs to a Spotify playlist, can enhance the atmosphere during virtual coffee breaks.
Virtual happy hours are also great for creating a fun atmosphere and can be a great way to break up the workday or end it on a high note with some team games and activities.
Personality tests
These tests offer valuable insights into personality traits, promoting self-understanding. For remote team members, personality tests can help foster a deeper understanding of each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and communication styles, ultimately leading to enhanced collaboration.
Some personality tests that can help you better understand yourself and your remote team members include:
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
- 16 Personalities.
- HEXACO Personality Test.
- Caliper Profile.
- and many more.
Personality tests can unlock the potential of remote teams, allowing for better understanding of each other’s communication styles, strengths, and weaknesses, and fostering collaboration.
Virtual team trivia
Put your knowledge to the test with virtual team trivia, an exciting facilitated trivia session designed to help build strong teams online. Virtual team trivia can be an online meetings played on popular conferencing platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams, and the team that answers the most questions correctly wins.
This trivia is an excellent platform for team fun, knowledge testing, and collaborative competition.
The Price is Almost Right
The Price is Almost Right is an exciting team-building experience. The host holds up objects and participants have to guess the correct prices. 1. Can you accurately guess the retail price within five cents without going over?
- If you can, then you will get 1 point for your team! You may not win the round if you guess over the retail price. However, your team members can still continue playing and have a chance at winning..
The Price is Almost Right offers a thrilling range of items, including:
- Groceries.
- Electronics.
- Clothing.
- Other household items.
Playing The Price is Almost Right can help foster friendly competition and teamwork, as well as strengthen trust and communication between team members.
Tips for successful virtual team building activity
Consider these tips for successful virtual team building exercise activities: Establish clear communication protocols, utilize collaboration tools, create structure and guidelines, and build relationships.
Incorporate social activities such as:
- Icebreaker questions.
- Virtual happy hours.
- The 8% Rule, which states that 8% of the meeting, or about five minutes for every hour, should include fun virtual games and activities.
Connect on a personal level with activities like Mister Rogers Calls, which are virtual team building activities that randomly assign conversation partners every two weeks and give you a chance to have a 30-minute video call to share hobbies and interests outside of work.
Overcoming challenges in virtual team building
Virtual team building organization may present virtual team building challenges such as attention span maintenance, remote relationship fostering, different time zone coordination, and technical hiccup handling. Remote virtual teams that can rise to these challenges by finding creative ways to stay connected across locations and time zones, engaging in activities that foster a sense of camaraderie, and proactively addressing loneliness and isolation.
These challenges can be addressed through:
- Clear communication protocol establishment.
- Collaboration tool utilization.
- Structure and guideline creation.
- Relationship building.
- Social activity incorporation.
- Personal level connection.
Summary
In conclusion, virtual team building activities are essential for remote teams to maintain communication, collaboration, and morale. By engaging in fun and effective virtual meetings fun activities such as virtual escape rooms, online office games, DIY craft challenges, virtual dance parties, and more, remote teams can overcome challenges and foster a strong sense of camaraderie. With the right tools, tips, and strategies, your remote team can thrive in the virtual world and enjoy a positive, connected, and productive work environment.
Frequently asked questions
What are good remote team building activities?
Try setting up virtual break rooms and company events, start friendly challenges, introduce ‘show and learn’ sessions, and encourage recognition. Additionally, activities such as writing bucket lists together virtual meeting fun together, creating collaborative team playlists, and connecting over global travels are great ideas to foster team spirit within remote teams.
What are some virtual activities?
Virtual activities such as karaoke, virtual scavenger hunts, improv sessions, and online games, office Olympics, employee wellness sessions, classic games, DIY crafts challenges, and mini campfires can help bring out your team’s creativity and sense of fun!
How do you make a virtual team meeting fun?
Make your virtual team meetings fun by incorporating virtual team building activities, teasing your wow factor, letting virtual meeting participants choose their topics, playing interactive games, keeping it short and on-task, utilizing interactive features, opening with icebreaker questions, keeping presentations crisp and colorful, introducing pets, creating polls, and boosting engagement with gamification.
What are good team bonding questions?
Good team bonding questions can be fun and entertaining such as, “If you could be any animal for a week, which would you choose to be and why?” and “Who’s your favorite superhero and why?”. After establishing connections, more serious questions like, “Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met?”, “What’s your guilty pleasure?”, and “Tell us about your worst hair day” can encourage deeper conversations.
How can virtual team building activities benefit remote teams?
Virtual and team building exercises and activities can help remote teams stay connected, foster collaboration, and enhance problem-solving skills, resulting in higher morale and better performance.