To boost your morale during these tough times, you need to develop a culture of using effective team building practices. The neuroscience of play can help you to improve your team’s social interactions despite being miles away from each other. It ensures you get to learn from your teammates and develop new skills to help you through your career. Here are some tips to start you off.
Begin meetings with random quizzes
Establishing an icebreaker to release tension each working day is vital in ensuring you kick start your day with good vibes. Take five minutes before meetings and let team leaders brainstorm on a few questions to their members. For example, they can ask them to suggest some great wildlife touring sites, etc.
Start a book club
Set a reading list based on suggestions of your team aimed at achieving your work goals. Ensure to keep the online book club open to any new individuals. Keep reminding them to read the books to ensure they’re updated on new knowledge. Create polls to determine the winner after specific periods.
Challenge your members to a game night
Opt for games that offer challenges where you have to work in teams to win. Make it as competitive as possible to guarantee everyone yearns for the night to show off their good team-skills. Try to reward the best teams for keeping others on toes.
Carry out online surveys
Try to understand each member of your group by carrying out online surveys. Base the surveys on self-awareness of these individuals to enable them to establish their identity. This helps a person identify weak points and try to improve on them. It also makes people aware of their strengths, which they can use in building others at work.
End the week with an open team session
This is an optional team-building activity that involves members getting free with each other and making jokes. It’s best carried out by the end of each working week to help team-members get relieved of the weekly working load. Create topics of discussions to start the sessions and ensure to try and get all team members to take part.
Organise a group webinar or a virtual workshop
The only chance you have to manage a virtual team is to use online platforms such as webinars and virtual workshops. These online seminars enable you to have real-time conversations with your workmates. You get to build personal relationships with them through dealing with working concerns. They also ensure you share out ideas on how to maintain healthy working lives in the comfort of your homes.
Hold coffee talks
The immediate change of the working system to embrace social distancing affects employees who love socializing. Holding face-time coffee talk’s enables you to have a feeling of social engagement with your team members. Connect with other groups outside your department to enhance friendly relationships with everyone. You may end up working towards creating a solution to a common issue both of you face.
Hold virtual competitions
Competitions help A-team understand its members better. You get to identify each other’s weaknesses, strengths, and interests. Use your smartphones to take photo challenges and cooking competitions. It’s key in identifying a person’s hidden talent while utilizing a short amount of time. Congratulate the winning members and let them share their tricks of perfection.
Hold virtual night outs
Let everyone have the good old feeling of a perfect night out by utilizing virtual internet sources. Watch the same online movie or series and chat about it in your groups. Go on a virtual safari to a zoo or a garden and explore these places together. This helps you build on your communication and collaboration.
Explore each other’s houses
Get a chance to know the structure and décor of your team member’s crib. Explore how these volunteers set out their couches and how they organize their rooms. It enables you to get insights on how to establish your house into a comfortable home-working space.
Conclusion
Managing a remote team is a tough job that requires the ultimate focus to ensure great productivity. Most workers used to socialize at workplaces but due to the pandemic, they’re forced to live separate working lives. Ensuring you use the available resources at your disposal helps you in building your team through these odds.
Author: Leon Collier – Freelancer
Photo credit: Rumman Amin on Unsplash
