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Virtual Team Building Ideas

During these uncertain times, we've had to take office work and culture from in person to online, including virtual team building activities. Thankfully for Zoom, Slack, Google Meets and Microsoft Teams, remote teams everywhere have been able to relieve the stress of virtual work and get to know each other better through various creative online activities.

What are the benefits of Virtual Team Building Exercises?

There are many benefits to virtual team building activities not only because they are fun, but also because they are not only able to connect people who work together from anywhere in the world - but working virtually on a remote team can often leave remote workers feeling the the effects of not being able to meet in person, like feeling isolated or unsupported or not connected to their team members or team leaders.

A virtual team building event can help remind people of the team around them in addition to mitigating some of the challenges of an online meeting, remote teams or distributed workforce. There are so many ways to engage with your coworkers online through a virtual event- like a virtual team building game and challenges and more. The goal is to boost morale, keep your culture intact and increase team effectiveness and engagement through relationship building and communication.

The first questions you should ask before planning your virtual activity or virtual meeting is choosing what type of event is right for your remote team through defining the goal of the meeting:

• Is this needed for a practical meeting to improve the way you work or a fun activity to play a virtual game and blow off steam or get to know one another?
• Is this a happy hour that repeats on a monthly basis, is this a quarterly team building activity or an event you only need to plan for once?
• Is everyone located in the same time zone or are attendees part of co-located teams? Can people participate independently or does each person need to do this together simultaneously, via a video conferencing tool or slack channel?

Once you've gone through the questions above, you can tailor your remote team building activities to your specific needs and start planning.

Below are the top suggestions to help create psychological safety and keep your entire team connected, engaged and excited - whether you need a productive session or social gathering!

Here are 15 Fun Virtual Team Building Activities Ideas:

1. Paint Night

Paint nights can now be completely virtual! Book your private party and get all of your supplies shipped to you and your teammates. All you have to do is pick out a painting you'd like to create from the gallery and when it comes time for your event, jump on the zoom link with your instructor. You can add drinks & snacks to the night as well as you paint from the comfort of your home. 

2. Remote Team Trivia

There are many virtual platforms you can use to play this fun online game and have a guided trivia session with an MC or you can put together your own custom trivia with fun facts about your company or your teammates. This online game can boost team morale through helping one another learn about their teammates on a deeper level. Make it a friendly competition with a prize for the winner!

3. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

For this type of event, you can have everyone on your team participate independently - which is great for distributed teams or teams in different time zones. You can give everyone a list of items to find in their own homes or neighborhoods or town around them. This healthy competition can be family friendly too - and can be a great way for coworkers with kids to feel engaged as well. 

4. Remote Team Bingo

Like Team Trivia - you can curate a Bingo board around team or company specific facts or use a generic board online. Add a prize for the Bingo winner! 

5. Wine or Beer Tasting

Do you have someone on your team who has great taste in wine or beer? Have them curate a list of folks for everyone to try together and you can even go as far as food pairings as well. If you want everyone to enjoy, you can find a professional sommelier to facilitate the tasting.

6. Cooking Class

Whether you have an amateur chef on your team lead the class with their favorite recipe or you use a company to plan this night and cook a dish from a diverse region of food - learn how to cook something together.

7. Group Fitness Class

Whether you want to do virtual yoga or do a HIIT class, you can find an Instructor to teach a fun class to your team. 

8. Icebreaker Questions

Virtual icebreaker lists exist all over the internet! You can find lists that focus on work or communication style or more on get to know you questions and are great for teams who have worked together for any length of time. You can always learn something new!

9. Virtual Escape Rooms

Book these through a third party company and have a facilitator lead your team on an engaging puzzle and put your minds to the test! This is a great way to see your teams critical thinking skills on display in a creative way minus the pressure of the day to day job.

10. Virtual Happy Hour

Keep your team connected monthly - whether its your direct team or you socialize with other teams who you work with. Add a recurring calendar invite to make sure happy hours don't fall by the wayside. If possible, give your team a budget to grab their favorite drink. You can even have someone lead a cocktail making class with their favorite recipe in a group happy hour!

11. Step Competition

Encourage your remote workers and entire team to get active! Have people form teams for this virtual activity and get stepping - the team with the most steps.

12. Virtual Team White Boarding

If you need a more practical meeting, use a collaboration platform like Trello where your team can brain storm on a project out loud together and visualize their ideas. 

13. Virtual Lunch Meeting

Have a meeting that needs to happen but want to make it more relaxed? Hold it over a zoom / google meets / teams lunch meeting where everyone can grab their favorite foods and listen in on the meeting.

14. Virtual Coffee Meeting

Another easy way to motivate folks to collaborate in a creative way is to hold a coffee meeting, you can get everyone a gift card to their local coffee shop so they are incentivized to come to the meeting. It could be perfect for an informative learning session or introduction to a new team.

15. Netflix Party

What could be easier than picking a show or movie everyone watches together and then discusses their thoughts over a slack channel or video meeting? You can have a guided watching session, with thought provoking questions (book club style) or catch up weekly on a new season of a favorite show.



Whether your team is hybrid, co-located, fully remote or starting to meet in person again - virtual team building activities taught us that we can continue to have fun virtual meetings and online team building games with the entire team while staying connected in meaningful , creative ways.

Conclusion

There are many ways to have a virtual team building event while still social distancing. But one of them stands out - virtual paint parties. At Canvas n Cup we had the following companies have fun while having a team building session.

Book your online team building activity with Canvas n Cup today!