Team building activities are a great way to ensure your team has good chemistry. This is even more so for remote teams who spend most of their time working alone in home offices or businesses with access to free Wi-Fi such as cafés.
If you manage a remote team, consider the benefits of team-building exercises. It’s a great way for teams to release stress and check in on each other’s well-being. Work is important, but so are rest and play.
What Are Virtual Team Building Exercises?
Team building exercises are activities designed to facilitate collaboration in a team. This, in turn, helps team members build confidence, communicate more effectively, and identify their roles within the team. Remote team-building activities help members learn the importance of teamwork and they can also learn leadership skills.
Virtual team-building exercises happen online at a time that caters to each member’s availability and time zone. Consider these benefits and schedule fun team-building activities for your remote team.
1. Shy Team Members Build More Confidence
A team can comprise various personalities. There’ll be outgoing, confident types, but there’ll also be members who are a little more withdrawn. Each member is important and team-building exercises allow everyone to show their best qualities. Activities like trivia allow each member to shine as they each get an equal turn to answer questions.
Shy members gain more confidence with every answer and from the support of their team members. You can start with some small ice breakers to get everyone more confident before jumping into the games. Shy team members will get more confident speaking in the team and identify what value they can bring to the team.
2. There Is An Increase In Productivity
By scheduling regular team-building activities for your virtual team, you’ll be able to increase productivity in the team. Each member will understand the temperaments of everyone and work better together. This means that productivity within the team will increase as everyone will know the role they play on the team. They’ll also be aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This will synergize work better as they can help each other achieve great work results.
3. Members With Leadership Qualities Get Identified
As mentioned, teams can consist of different personalities. Just as there are shy and withdrawn team members, some also find themselves naturally in leadership roles. A leader naturally takes charge because team members look to them for guidance.
Any team member can have a leadership moment during virtual team building exercises, which makes the team more effective in solving tasks together. This also helps each member become more confident in a leadership role, and they’ll be able to identify what strengths they bring to the group easily.
Murder mysteries are a great way to facilitate leadership qualities in team members. They will have to hear every team member’s deduction and decide the more plausible motive and who could likely be the murder suspect. It’s a fun activity that requires the team to work closely together.
4. Improves The Mental Well-Being Of The Team
A relaxed, stress-free team is more productive than a burnt-out stressed team. The same can be said for remote teams. This is especially so for remote teams because they hardly get a lot of face-to-face interaction with other team members during tasks. When they interact with team members, it’s usually about work tasks, so they don’t interact casually.
Remote virtual activities allow them to socialize naturally without talking about work.
5. Activities Build Trust Within The Team
Games and activities that build trust include trivia games, virtual board games, and online murder mysteries. Each team member’s role is important for the team to win. Make sure the prizes are worthwhile to stoke the air of competition.
During team building, remote team members get to play a variety of games and do exercises. Some of these games require members to work together to compete successfully. This means that members are put in a situation where they have to trust that each member does their best to achieve a common goal.
Conclusion
Virtual team-building exercises are a great way to check in with your remote team and can be a fun way to de-stress. Team members get to familiarize themselves with each other outside work and have fun. It’s a great way to encourage effective communication and make your virtual team more productive.
Remember to schedule virtual team-building events at a time zone that agrees with everyone, as remote team members can be situated anywhere in the world.