Virtual team building activity
Virtual bingo
Bingo in a virtual setting can be just as fun as doing it in person. Lots of online virtual bingo cards have cropped up over the last few years, with fun boxes to tick, like family members walking in the background and dogs heard barking on the mic.Virtual bingo is a great virtual teambuilding activity that adds a light-hearted touch to your remote meetings.
Compliment train
This simple no-prep activity keeps the aim of positive reinforcement and maximizes a productive atmosphere. It is so simple it can be run during a virtual water cooler chat. Each person in the group simply chooses one other attendee, and then that person chooses someone who hasn’t been complimented yet and tells them something positive they’ve done.The effectiveness of this simple activity comes from the fact the complimenting is done at a peer-to-peer level, rather than from management.
Online werewolf
Werewolf is a great popular party game that can run perfectly well in a virtual setting. Zoom, Google Meet, or any platform will do. Make sure all cameras and microphones are on, as seeing each other’s reactions is half the fun!
Virtual gratitude wall
Utilize the power of digital whiteboards that allow you to save your groupwork, creating a mural of positivity through a virtual gratitude wall. This simple idea brings a stronger sense of unity in teams and solidifies team morale.Look for a digital whiteboard, or go a step further and get on a collaboration platform like Padlet, letting users add sticky notes and share videos. The emphasis is on positive reinforcement and morale-boosting through remembering what we’re grateful for. Try this one out to get a positive atmosphere flowing.
Something in common
‘Something In Common’ is a no-prep game that can be run on the spot in your next virtual get-together. Create some breakout rooms of 4 or 5 people, giving them a 3-minute timer. Set a task of finding the most unique fact they have in common. One point is awarded at the end to the team with the most interesting example. Tell them to emphasize uniqueness, as ‘we all use phones’ is a bit dull, while something like ‘we have all read a book by the same author’ sparks interest.
Where I'm from
‘Where I’m From’ is a fantastic no-prep game that enables team members to get to know each other better. With smaller teams, ask one person to begin by sharing three quirky facts about their hometown. For globally remote teams, home countries might work better. Everyone has the chance to guess the speaker’s hometown or country from the three guesses, with a point awarded to any correct guess. The results might surprise you, as you find out your favorite musician comes from a land far, far away.
Lights, camera, action!
Here’s a funky and active virtual corporate event that is great for the movie buffs out there. ‘Lights, camera, action!’ is a game where teams need to act out a chosen scene from a movie. Prepare cards with famous scenes beforehand, like Luke Skywalker’s parental discovery or Pulp Fiction’s mysterious briefcase, then award points when someone guesses correctly.You could even spice things up by hosting a mock Oscar award ceremony with awards after everyone’s finished. Cut!
Wikirace
The Wikirace is a simple game, loved by college students bored in class. In the chat, send one Wikipedia article hyperlink and call it ‘start page’, then another hyperlink titled ‘target page.’ The rules are that the player must get from the start page to the target page in a limited number of mouse clicks. It might be as random as going from ‘pizza’ to ‘Apollo 13.’Try it out in teams to have everyone strategizing frantically. Try making it even more difficult by decreasing the amount of allowed clicks between pages. There’s no going back once a new hyperlink is clicked. Share your screen and try this one out for a laugh in a virtual meeting.
Online (useless) talent show
Here’s a game that aims to draw out hidden talents among your teams. Ask each person in the next virtual meeting to showcase a talent they have. The only thing is, a lot of people might feel they have no hidden talents to show, so by calling it a ‘useless’ talent show, you might help reduce any pressure that is felt. Allow them to be as random and creative as they wish. Older talent videos from the 2000s had some creative gems, like the famous Daft Hands. Simplicity is key for a talent show, as well as an atmosphere of zero pressure, so give a (useless) talent show a shot in your next virtual happy hour.
Sneak it in
Here’s a fun word game to get some chuckles around the virtual meeting room. Lifted from the movie Super Troopers, ‘Sneak It In’ involves giving someone the secret task of sneaking a random word into their sentences. In the movie, ‘meow’ is used by the trooper, who needs to say it in his sentences without giving the game away to the listener. Create a private breakout room, then task someone with adding a word from a random noun generator online to their sentences. Watch the creative ways they can work it into their normal speech, until they’re caught out, then give the task to the next person.
Musical quiz
t can be hard to keep everyone engaged when managing virtual teams, so try this game using Spotify or Apple Music playlist with a musical quiz to get things lively. All you need to do is share your screen, with sound, and of course, hide the artist and song title. Begin a song and ask listeners to stick their guesses into the chat box, awarding a point to the first correct guess.You might want to narrow genres down to Pop music for more engagement, or you might have some real music aficionados in your teams. In that case, create a world music playlist and ask them to guess the country the song comes from! Get funky for your next virtual happy hour.
Baamboozle!
In this online game, everything is already set up for you. Baamboozle is a great website with thousands of topics ready to go, all you need is one host to screen-share. 2 to 4 teams can compete, with topics from videogame trivia to icebreaker games. Allocate more than 3 teams for a more tactical game, as 2 teams can decide to gang up on 1 unfortunate team. Remember to make use of the ‘power up’ function for point-stealing mischief and leader-swapping bonus cards.
‘Welcome to my crib...‘
Who are we kidding? Everybody knows that working from home includes barking dogs, screaming children and make-shift offices. This activity is designed to discover the ‘working environment’ of your colleagues. Colleagues will take it in turns to give a short tour of their house, showing where they work, where they go for lunch, etc. This builds more human connections between employees.
Remote FM
Remote FM is a nice recurring theme for the remote office. Employees take it in turns to host the company radio. This can be done by creating a playlist in Spotify and sharing the link in the team chat.
Weekly updates
A simple yet effective way to encourage team bonding is by facilitating weekly ‘get-togethers’ online. These meetings can be really short and shouldn’t involve work-related topics. You can start by encouraging each employee to talk about two good things and one bad thing that happened that week.
‘Healthy together‘ challenge
For remote teams, staying fit and healthy can be a challenge. No longer do we need to walk or cycle to work, we just roll out of bed and place ourselves at our desks.Sometimes, a little healthy competition is enough to give people the incentive they need.
Online chess club
You might be surprised how many workforces enjoy a game of chess!Creating an online chess club is easy and free. Schedule regular games throughout the year and reward the winner with a small prize like a voucher or cash bonus - monetary rewards are a great incentive for driving online social interaction.
Treasure mountain
Treasure Mountain can be played with teams of 4-6 people, a team captain is chosen to enter the game and share his/her screen with the rest of their team. The teams then race against the clock, completing challenges and solving riddles in the pursuit of gold.
Among us
If you're a younger team with an appetite for video games, this might be worth a try!Among Us is an online game where an ‘imposter’ attempts to eliminate members of the ‘crew’ without being discovered.The game can only be played by a maximum of ten players, so you might want to consider putting together a league if you have a larger workforce.
Five minute book talks
Got a team that likes to read? Five Minute Book Talks is not only a great excuse to get the team together once a month, but it also develops their public speaking and presentation skills. Every week or month, choose a member of your team to give a small presentation on a book they recently read, including a brief synopsis, positive and negative points.
Mister rogers calls
This game is simple, yet so effective for online teams. This activity encourages employees to put time aside for getting to know one another.Using a randomiser, pair two employees together every week. The new pair must schedule a 20-30 minute call that week to try and get to know one another as well as possible.
The Wiki-relay race
Perhaps you got some practice at this game whilst procrastinating in school. The team will be divided into two teams. The two teams will be racing each other to land on the ‘destination topic’ fastest.
The rhyming game
This game is designed to get your team’s creative juices flowing and encourage them to think on the spot.The idea is really simple. Each person takes it in turns to make a sentence. Each sentence needs to rhyme with the previous one. For example, “John woke up and went to work” … “It was his last day so he gave a smirk...” And so on.
Forensic artists
Everybody likes to draw! This game is a fun opportunity for colleagues to relax and have some fun.
Typing speed race
You would be surprised how competitive colleagues become over a typing speed race. This game is a great way to kick off the fun. The best way to play the game is for the competitors to take turns completing a typing test and sharing their screen as they do so. This way, spectators can cheer them on as they type.
Show and tell
Show and Tell is a fun way to start the team building session. Before the meeting starts, ask each person to bring a mascot with them. At the beginning of the meeting, each team member will have a turn at introducing their mascot and explaining why they brought that item with them.
‘My perfect vacation Is…‘
This short game encourages everybody to listen and pay close attention to their partner. Split your team up into pairs and ask them to go away and explain their perfect vacation, imaging that time and money were no object. Then, each person needs to have a go at explaining their partner's dream holiday to the rest of the team.
Spelling bee
The spelling bee is a great opportunity for the more introverted members of your workforce to display some raw talent. A host will need to make a list of words, with increasing difficulty. Try adding in ‘bonus’ rounds where spellers will need to spell the word backwards.
Chubby bunny
Two players go head-to-head, adding, placing and holding marshmallows in their mouth one by one. After each marshmallow has been added, each player tries and say the phrase “chubby bunny,” as clearly as possible.Players keep adding a marshmallow until the judge declares a players “chubby bunny,” to be unintelligible.
Tree or Bob Ross?
This game is a bit random but great fun. Each player takes a turn thinking of a specific ‘thing’.The other players must then figure out what that ‘thing’ is by asking comparative questions like, “Is it more like… or…?” Traditionally, the first question is always, “Is it more like a tree, or Bob Ross?” Play continues with similar comparative questions until the guessing team has successfully identified the ‘thing’.
‘Ruined paradise’ game
If you want to kick off your virtual team building event with some light-hearted fun, try this!After splitting the group into two teams, each team will be assigned a role. A member of team 1 will start by describing ‘paradise’ in one sentence, using only positive descriptions. Then, a member of team 2 will attempt to ‘ruin paradise’ with a negative sentence.
Use these icebreakers on your next teambuilding retreat
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