Have you ever rolled your eyes when asked to attend a team-building activity? There’s a reason for that: corporate team building has a reputation for being impractical time wasters. It doesn’t help that such activities, usually held offsite, take all day, and cause embarrassment instead of collaboration.

But in this period of quarantines and telecommuting, team building is slowly becoming a useful tool for employees working from home as they adjust to their new remote arrangement.

Here are a few team building ideas you can use to help your remote team acclimate to their virtual office environment and bond with coworkers during this challenging time.

Activity #1: Icebreakers

Icebreakers are defined as “a thing that serves to relieve inhibitions or tension between people”. In this case, they’re questions that’ll help you and your colleagues to get to know each other more without feeling embarrassed.

It’s important that you begin with surface-level questions to avoid making others feel uncomfortable. Here are a few ideas you can start with:

• What is the favorite thing you own and why?
• Who are the top 3 historical figures you want to meet and why?
• Pineapple on pizza: yea or nay? Why?

Aside from helping everyone feel more relaxed, icebreakers also help people:

• Think on their feet.
• Hone their intellectual muscle.
• Get over their fear of speaking spontaneously.

Activity #2: Movie night

Movie night happens when friends come over to watch films. But because of the coronavirus outbreak, your team needs to skip the part where everyone meets in person.

So how do you do this remotely? This’ll depend on the communications software your team uses. But as long as it comes with screen sharing, streaming Netflix or your DVD collection is possible.

Note that:

• GoToMeeting can share your screen, but only GoToWebinar can live-stream with audio.
• Zoom has a built-in option to share computer sound.
• If you’re using Skype, you still need to install Virtual Audio Cable and jump a few hoops first.

Activity #3: Virtual Happy Hour

Spice up your team’s video calls by hosting Virtual Happy Hour. Simply tell everyone to bring a drink of their choice (which ideally isn’t alcoholic during business hours).

During Virtual Happy Hour, members can take turns answering icebreaker questions (see activity 1) or playing drinking games like Never Have I Ever, where:

1. Participants take turns asking others about things they haven’t done.
2. Other participants who have done this thing respond by taking a drink.

While the activity is called Virtual Happy Hour, stick to wholesome questions to avoid embarrassing others – especially if the exercise is approved by a client.

Activity #4: Shared calendar

If you’ve looked at your members’ individual work calendars, they’re likely full of work-related to-dos and events. But what if you include personal events (e.g. hobbies, anniversaries, birthdays) as well?

In addition to informing everyone who is available or otherwise on certain dates, having a shared calendar will enable your members to send personal messages of congratulations or support.

If your team uses Google Calendar, it’s as simple as sharing your calendar with others. If your business uses Slack, you can install add-ons like Eventbot so your channels can use a shared calendar.

Activity #5: Remote work bingo

If you’ve ever played bingo (who hasn’t?), then you probably have an idea of how this game works. You’ll first need a bingo card created specifically for your remote assistants. Here’s a sample we made:

The rules are simple:

• Whenever you hear or experience one of the items mentioned in the bingo card, mark it off.
• The first person who marks off all items on their bingo card wins.

The best time to play Remote Work Bingo is during a session of Virtual Happy Hours.

Activity #6: Post Your Pets chat

We humans love pets – whether they’re dogs, cats or whatever other domestic animal. So it’s no surprise that a dedicated pet channel on your team’s online chat will almost certainly be a hit.

The concept is simple enough: you post photos of your pets in the chat, like when they do something cute, hilarious, or hilariously cute. You then wait momentarily before the comments and laughs come pouring in.

Using a Post Your Pets chat as a team-building tool is too easy.

Activity #7: Jeopardy

Jeopardy – the TV game show – has been around for decades, so there’s a really good chance you know how to play it. If not, here’s how it works:

1. Up to three contestants play. If there are more in your remote team, split them into a maximum of three groups.
2. Players pick a category and point value to answer.
3. The moderator clicks the chosen box to display and reads out the question.
4. Players must give the answer in the form of a question. The moderator may want to set a time limit for answering questions.
5. If the player or group is correct, award them the point value of the question.
6. Continue until all questions have been answered. The player or group with the most points wins.

For your convenience, visit JeopardyLabs to create or find Jeopardy games. You can then just share your screen with the team to play.

Activity #8: Coworker Feud

Remember Family Feud? It’s another classic game show where two groups (typically families) compete to name the most popular responses to survey questions. Since this article is about team building for remote teams, let’s rename the game to Coworker Feud.

Like Family Feud, Coworker Feud will need a host/moderator who will research the questions. This part is easy enough because there are various sources online.

Following the show’s rules, the game is ideally played via a video call. For the buzzer, you can have the two team representatives race who gets to first input a certain word in the chat. As with other games, the team with the most points wins.

Activity #9: 10 Common Things

Here’s a good team-building activity that lets your remote team get better acquainted:

• Divide everyone into small groups.
• Ask each group to come up with 10 things they have in common.
• For convenient collaboration, have each group use a shared document to finish their list quickly.

Your 10 common things can be as general as “we all put on pants one leg at a time” to something more specific like “we all studied at x in college”. You can also change the focus to business or leisure.

Whatever each team lists down, the activity will bring about discussion, creative thinking, and maybe some laughter. Allot some time for each group to finish, then have everyone share their list during a video call.

Activity #10: 101 Life Goals

At O2E Brands, founder and CEO Brian Scudamore encourages his team to share their list of 101 life goals with each other. It’s an effective way for people to know more about each other, their aspirations, and why they do what they do.

Because you’re doing this team-building activity remotely, each can create a shared document then give teammates access.

Conclusion

Conducting team-building activities for your remote team is a little more challenging than at a traditional office, but they’re important in developing rapport and team unity.

Having trust and cohesion in your team helps them be more efficient and productive. It makes them feel they belong, and this affects their morale as well – which is important during these difficult times.

Remember that while your team is remote, it doesn’t mean it’s disconnected.