Building culture remotely as our teams are decentralized from the normal work environment during COVID-19 is imperative. Today, I sat down with Sydney Harris who is a Senior Research Specialist here at Vanderbloemen and is also known as our “Culture Queen.” She collaborates with others on the Vanderbloemen Culture Team to infuse Vanderbloemen’s staff values into everything we do as a team.
Here are 9 virtual activities you can try with your team to build morale remotely:
Rules: Someone asks a question and the people who have done the activity mentioned, raise their hand and then share about their adventures.
Ask fun questions like, “Never have I ever gone skiing” or “Never have I ever visited Europe.”
Have one or two people who raised their hand share about their experience.
Tip: Ask questions that help you get to know each other's fun experiences that you may not have otherwise heard about.
Rules: Each person shares three statements about themselves. Two must be true and one must be a lie. The goal is for the team to determine which statement is false.
This game also helps you learn new facts about your teammates you didn’t know beforehand.
Rules: Each team member answers simple, witty prompts within a short time limit on their own device and votes for their favorite answer.
Tip: Create your own questions and phrases that are tailored to the inside jokes or funny memories with your team members.
You can purchase Quiplash for $5 for the Mac or PC download here.
Rules: Have team members log in to Zoom and assign them a breakout room. Then, have them work together to complete the brain teasers and riddles with their assigned team. After a designated amount of time, everyone comes back together to share the answers and responses with everyone.
This is a great way to do activities and have smaller groups or teams work together.
Rules: Choose your preferred platform on Google and have it generate a randomized card for your team.
You can also create your own card that’s directly related to your organization to make it more fun and personalized. Email the cards to everyone to mark virtually.
Tip: Explore the many free and fun BINGO options available to you on Google.
Rules: Split your team evenly and mute half of the team while the other team is guessing.
Rules: Incorporate company facts that your team members can use throughout the trivia game.
You can be as creative as you’d like and also incorporate challenging trivia questions for your team.
Rules: One player from each team connects as many words assigned to their team's board that is made up of random vocabulary. This challenges the players to connect words that have nothing to do with each other.
This is a strategy word game that is mentally stimulating, so it's a great team bonding game that you can also use to get to know each other and how you think.
Tip: Choose from a number of platforms on Google to create a room for your team and generate a board that you can share on your screen via Zoom.
Rules: Take turns drawing out a picture and show it to the team so the others can share their guesses.
There are a number of online platforms to pick from and many different ways you can do it.
While remote activities aren’t as seamless as in-person connection, they can still be a lot of fun and a great way to stay connected.