You might think that virtual teams don’t need bonding like “in-person” teams do. But you would be wrong. Even though there is no actual physical contact, work on a team is still hard. And the more effort you put into it, the more fulfilling it can be.
Here are the top 10 virtual team bonding activities that you can try:
- Sitting Together: Meet in person at least once a year. Book a conference room and actually sit around the table with everybody (or as many people who are local to you). Go around the table and talk about who you are, what skills you bring to the team, what interests you have outside of work, and how your life has changed since joining your team.
- Project Plan: Write your vision statement on an index card (or an entire business plan on one page). Or build a 3D model of your new office. Or write an entire user manual (not just a few pages). Make it something that everyone can understand and get excited about.
- Game Time: Play an actual game together at least once a year. If you are in different locations (or time zones), use Skype or another tool to connect, and then have some fun!
- Campfire Lit: Set up a time when you all meet in your pajamas, make some s’mores, turn off the lights and tell scary stories together (even if you are in different locations) over Skype, webinar or video conferencing.
- Dream Team: Have a competition where you all design a new product, website or service. The winner is the one who designs the best new idea.
- Watch: Watch a movie or TV show together that you all agree will be a bonding experience (for example, you can do a “Big Bang Theory” marathon).
- Dance: Get out of your chairs and dance to music together on video conference. Or go to YouTube and search for the top 10-line dances, pick one and try it!
- Stick Together: Each person takes a colored stick of some kind – pens, crayons or markers work great. Put up a flip chart and have each person draw something they like on their stick – music, movies, food etc. Then take turns going around the group describing each picture with one word only so that everybody has to guess what’s on your stick. It’s both harder and more fun than you think it will be!
- Book It: Choose a book to read together and have each person write a short summary of the key points, insights or ideas that they got from the book.
- Show and Tell: Bring an object with sentimental value to your team meeting and share why you brought it and/or how it reminded you of an event or experience. Or bring in a travel souvenir and tell everyone where you got it and how it reminds you of an experience or event. If possible, share some pictures as well so people can see what you are talking about.
- Use of technology: make a proper plan. By using different tools like canvas tcisd, Moz, Ashraf’s and SEMrush, they will be really helpful for completing your tasks and give fruitful results at the end of your project.
If you have any other virtual team bonding activities that we missed, please share your ideas in the comments section below so that everyone can benefit from them.