When you’re working remotely, it’s easy to feel disconnected from your team. Research shows that remote employees feel more isolated than those who work in an office. Due to being dispersed and, in some cases, across different timezones, it can also be harder to achieve collaboration, a state of flow, and alignment.
One of the most powerful ways to forge connections remotely is through team-building activities. But you may be wondering:
- How do I run team-building activities remotely?
- How much effort will it take to prepare them?
- Do remote team-building activities really make a difference?
In this post, we suggest 6 remote team-building activities that will instantly bond your team. More importantly, this post will guide you on matching a specific activities with a scenario your team is facing.
Each of the activities below is specifically designed to help your team forge genuine connections, get to know one another more deeply, have some fun, and grow more united.
Activity 1: Sell It
When to use it:
Your team needs an energy boost and you want to spark creativity in your team members.
Effort to prepare:
Low
How to do it:
Get on a team call, and ask each person to grab one object in their room. Tell them not to show it to the other participants. (They won’t know what to do with it yet — and that’s okay!)
Ask each person to sell or “pitch” their object to the team in two minutes or less. Encourage creativity! They choose to set a price, or pretend that the object has unique qualities.
For example: “This mug instantly transforms its contents into a productivity elixir! You’ll be 10x more productive when you use it — and it’s only $12.99.”
The goal of this exercise is to encourage out-of-the box thinking, and have some fun along the way! Watch as jokes and laughs start to pile up.
Once everyone has shared, ask your team to vote on the product they’d buy. The winner is the best seller!
Why it works:
This activity encourages lateral (out-of-the-box) thinking. It also encourages everyone to have fun. When we work remotely, we’re less likely to have spontaneous moments of connection — we don’t get to see one another’s humor as much as when we’re in person. This activity encourages humor and joy in a low-stakes way.
Activity 2: Pictionary
When to use it:
You want a casual activity to share with your team that doesn’t take lots of brain power. Perfect for the end of the day!
Effort to prepare:
Low
How to do it:
Use a site like https://skribbl.io/ to create a private “team room”. The site will randomly assign one team member to begin drawing, while everyone else guesses what they’re making. Each drawer will be given a time limit before the game switches to the next person.
Why it works:
The nature of this game encourages your team to blurt out ideas. Sharing ideas (especially creative ones) [enhances learning](https://targetoffice.com/why-sharing-ideas-is-critical-in-the-office/#:~:text=Boost Creativity and Learning&text=By sharing ideas in a,the more likelihood of success.), boosts innovation and fosters collaboration. This is imperative for building trust and creating a foundation to work cohesively together.
Activity 3: Name That Song!
When to use it:
You want to lighten the team spirit and get everyone giggling.
Effort to prepare:
Low
How to do it:
Open a group chat using a platform like Slack or Teams. Make sure all your team members are included.
Next, tell everyone they’ll be creating song titles with just emojis. Each person will take turns while the others guess what song they’re creating. They can use their “last played” song, which is preferably a song that everyone knows.
Give them 2 minutes to create their title; then have everyone guess for 2 minutes. Whoever guesses first wins the round! (If no one guesses, the creator can reveal the song.)
The person who guesses the most rounds is the winner.
- Here are some examples:
- 🇺🇸🥧 - American Pie
- 🆙🏘👧 - Uptown Girl
- 🍉🍭 - Watermelon Sugar
- 🟤👁👧 - Brown Eyed Girl
Why it works:
The time pressure mixed with a lighthearted activity boosts everyone’s spirits. This game also implies that there are “no bad ideas” since people have to blurt out their guesses — this creates a positive team environment and encourages creativity.
Activity 4: Speed Dating
When to use it:
Your team is working on a collaborative project and could use more moments of genuine connection. You can also play this when you just want everyone to “let their hair” down and have some fun, or when you have new members join the team!
Effort to prepare:
Medium
How to do it:
Start by preparing a list of ice breakers or “getting to know you” questions, like the ones below. Feel free to make them your own.
- Ice Breakers
- What’s your dream vacation?
- What did you want to be as a kid?
- How did you discover our company?
- What job would you be terrible at?
- If you could master something overnight, what would it be?
- What gives you energy, and why?
Next, get on a call with your team members. Let them know you’ll be doing mini rounds of “speed dating” to get to know each other better.
Use Zoom break-out rooms to split everyone into pairs. Each pair will have 5 minutes to ask each other questions (they can select from the list or choose their own). We’ve suggested some below, but you can add your own.
Tell them to spend about 2.5 minutes per person (one person asks, and the other answers). After this time, they’ll switch.
When 5 minutes are up, have the break-out rooms automatically switch them to someone else so they can get to speak with as many people as possible!
As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to have everyone connect with 3-5 people.
After the rounds are over, gather everyone together. Ask each person to share a fun fact they learned about someone else!
If securing a dedicated chunk of time for team building is hard, try pairing people up for 5 minutes at the end of each weekly meeting; then switch partners every week.
Why it works:
This activity encourages sharing and vulnerability in a lighthearted way. The frequent switching of partners ensures that your team will have fun. Plus, they’ll learn new things about their colleagues that they likely wouldn’t learn at work!
Activity 5: Remote Scavenger Hunt
When to use it:
You want to help your team collaborate and act like a unit.
Effort to prepare:
Medium
How to do it:
Write out a list of items. You’ll use these for a remote scavenger hunt.
Make sure that some of the items are common (like scissors or kitchen utensils), while others are more obscure (like a blender or a plastic table).
Make sure there are at least 10 items on the list.
Next, divide your team into groups of three to five — you can use Zoom breakout rooms to do this. Give each team the list of items to find — and tell them to collect as many items as possible.
You can either set a timer to boost competition, or wait until one of the teams successfully finds everything. To verify if they have the items, ask them to hold the items to the camera in a mini presentation.
The game is over when the first team collects all the items. You can have the other teams present the items they found too.
Why it works:
Every team-building activity is a chance to strengthen collaboration. In this game, implicit roles will emerge — they may be different from the ones people act upon in their daily work. For instance, a quiet team member may be the first to find a scavenger hunt item!
This game helps team members get to know each other in new ways, and encourages bonding and natural leadership abilities.
Activity 6: How Well Do You Know Your Team?
When to use it:
Your team members are only just getting to know each other, or you need to build trust on your existing team.
Effort to prepare:
High
How to do it:
Schedule a team bonding call one or two weeks in advance.
In the meantime, send each of your team members 1-3 question prompts to answer. Ask them to send their responses directly to you. They should keep them a secret!
Compile the questions and answers into a slide deck. Don’t write down who they belong to.
Gather your team on a call. Show the slides one by one, and ask everyone to guess who the response belongs to. Ask everyone to write their guess in the shared chat box as soon as they have it. For each correct answer, give your team member(s) a point.
Whoever gets the most correct answers (or a streak of 5) wins!
Tips:
- If your team member submitted the answer shown on the screen, they can feel free to pretend they’re “guessing” someone else. This makes the game more fun!
- Appoint one person to count the points during the game. It can be difficult to facilitate and count points at the same time.
- Provide rewards for the winner(s) to boost motivation.
- Ask the same number of questions per team member, so everyone has a fair shot of getting to know each other.
- Here are some example questions to use:
- What’s your favorite childhood memory?
- What’s the biggest secret you’ve kept from your family?
- What was your first job?
- What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve done at work?
- What did you do on your first date?
- Who was the worst teacher you’ve ever had, and why?
Why it works:
Talking about topics that don’t normally come up at work boosts trust considerably. You’ll get to know your team members on a much deeper level and forge more enduring friendships.
Conclusion
When working remotely, it can be easy to skip spontaneous connections and moments of laughter. Use the 6 remote team-building activities in this article to facilitate connection and genuine bonding.
As a result, your team will forge deeper connections and function better as a unit.
