It leads well into talking about cultural and generational differences and the effects that has on how people work and communicate. It is also an opportunity for team members to learn more about each other. Have each team member bring one item from their desk to the exercise. Then, tell them that this item is going to be their new product, and that they must come up with a name, logo, slogan, and marketing plan for that object. Give them a set amount of time. This could be done individually, or in small groups if desired.
Discuss, as a group, which products were successfully sold and why. Purpose: For marketing and design teams, this exercise presents the challenge of seeing old things in a new light. When combined with groups working together to sell a common object, you introduce teamwork and crunch-time brainstorming.
It promotes creativity and problem solving, too. Come up with several scenarios in which a person would be chosen to do something. For example, it might be a new job hire, marriage, leading an organization, or commanding an army. Have each team member write their question down. When all scenarios have been covered, discuss the questions as a group and see what each team member thinks would be the perfect question.
Purpose: Team members quickly learn how each other thinks differently. The perfect question that each comes up with will reflect their motives and what they think matters the most. This is an excellent way to lead into a discussion on how team members determine who is capable and who they will follow or trust. Collect a variety of objects and put them in the center of a table.
The broader the variety, the better e. The goal is to collect items that, at first glance, have no apparent connection. Break the team into groups, giving each group a sheet of paper and pen. Make sure they have a clear view of all the objects.
Instruct them to classify the objects into four groups, writing down the groupings on their sheet of paper. They should not let the team groups hear what they are doing. When the time is up, have a spokesperson for each group reveal how they classified the objects, and why.
Reasons might vary, from the function of the object to how it looks, or the material it is made of. Purpose: This exercise promotes teamwork and creative thinking, but it also encourages your team to rethink how they view everyday objects.
They are forced to look for commonalities in otherwise unconnected objects. This leads to a discussion on how to work outside the box for solutions to problems that seem wholly unrelated. Bring in four objects or multiple sets of four objects of the same type e. Write up a conversational scenario for each set that outlines what the perfect item would be, in the order of preference.
While none of the four objects is an exact match, each have qualities that reflect that perfect list. Read this scenario to your team, and instruct them to order the objects from best fit to worst fit. When all object sets are done, have team members explain why they ordered the objects that way. Purpose: This exercise helps your team break down a scenario or problem and figure out which things are the best fit.
This dovetails directly into discussion on current projects or challenges facing the group, in which you can, as a group, write a scenario for an actual project you are working on and decide which solutions are the best fit.
Bring the team into the room, and divide evenly into groups of at least two. Tell them they have thirty minutes to come up with a group problem-solving challenge that would make use of: teamwork, creativity, communication. When the thirty minutes is complete, the team will choose from one of the problem-solving challenges and actually do the activity. A variation is to use all of the challenges over a period of time so that your team-building activities come directly from your team itself.
Purpose: This team building exercise puts leadership responsibilities back on your team, showing them that they have the potential to come up with solutions, too. It also gives your team a chance to challenge other team members in ways they might not otherwise find the opportunity to do so in regular workday activity. Bring your team in for what they think is just another staff meeting. Have a long document filled with mind-numbing but coherent jargon-filled speech that talks vaguely about sales and marketing goals.
Sprinkled in the document are sentences which say something else entirely. These sentences should contain instructions or information that they will be quizzed on after you are finished. Begin reading it to your team in monotone. The goal is to get them to tune you out. When you are finished, hand out paper to each team member. Then, ask them to write down what they thought you talked about. If your real sentences contained random information, quiz them on that. Discuss who heard what, and see who was able to actively listen.
It shows the importance of listening to verbal communication, but also non-verbal communication. They can discuss why they tuned you out, and what you could have done to keep them tuned in. Create a card deck that has images or words related to your company or brand.
It might be logos, products, photos of your team, and so on. Whatever route you go, keep the images related. For example, use all photos of your team, or all photos of your products. Divide up into teams and see which team can match the most pairs in the least amount of time. You might set additional rules, such as requiring the name of the person to be said aloud when the card is flipped over, or some other related bit of information connected to the image on the card.
Purpose: To learn the names, information, and visuals associated with your company. This is particularly effective if you have a lot of new team members and you want everyone to learn their name and something about them. Teams can get a point for matching up cards, but they can get two points if they choose to successfully debate and argue why the two cards the turned over are associated. If the majority of the room agrees with their reasoning, they receive the points. If not, they lose a point.
It also forces them to decide what is worth debating or not, as well as whether or not someone has provided a good argument. Place the name stickers in a container, and have each team member draw a name sticker out without being able to see the adjective. Have them stick the name tag on their shirt and wear it for a specific period of time, instructing them that all of their responses and interaction for that time must reflect the adjective on their name tag.
You can use this in several ways. Your team could wear them during a typical meeting or brainstorming session to show how good and bad attitudes affect outcomes.
They could wear them for a typical work day and then discuss how they felt. Or, you could have them wear a name tag half of the day, and switch with someone for the second half. If they switch name tags, they will see how behavior and action often defines feeling, and not the other way around. Give each team member a piece of paper. Have them draw a simple drawing on the paper, without talking to anyone else.
Each person then passes the paper to their right. Each team member looks at the drawing they now have, fold the paper in half, and write at the top what they think the picture is of. The paper is passed to the right again. Each person reads the description, folds the paper over to hide the words, and draws a picture of that.
This continues, where each pass alternates between determining what the picture was and drawing what was described. It is important that each turn only reveals the words or picture from the previous round. Separate sheets or pads of paper may be used if that is easier than one sheet of paper, but they should be passed together. Purpose: This activity tends to create a lot of laughter and is an excellent ice-breaker at parties or before long meetings where you want people to be comfortable with each other.
The drawings and interpretations tend to bring out discussion and jokes. Give each member of your team three cards with the same number on them so that every team member has a set of numbers different from every other player.
The goal is to accomplish the tasks in a set amount of time so that whoever is left will get a prize based on the total value of the tasks completed. And once a team member has used up all their cards, they are taken out of the game and out of the running for the prize. Ideally, there are more tasks and values than can be fulfilled by the cards your team possesses.
They must determine which tasks to do, and which cards to use up. Ultimately, not every task can be completed, and not everyone can be a winner.
The goal is to get the highest total task value for the best prize , and work together to achieve it knowing that in order to do so, some will miss out. Purpose: This rather painful game helps your team work together, understanding both strategy and self-sacrifice. Instruct them to write down, at the top of the sheet, a problem they have at work. Next, have them write below that, leaving a slight space, two things they think causes that problem again, not mentioning specific people but finding a way to focus on systems, ideology, or procedures that people use.
Draw a line from the two ideas up to the main problem, much like a family tree structure. Students return to their Team Game tables and report their scores. Team scores are compared and the winning team earns a reward. Students take an assessment. The scores for each Team e. A, B, C… are compiled and averaged. Published by Allyn and Bacon, Two Truths and One Lie is a fun virtual game to play with drinks. Here are more online drinking games that are work friendly.
A monthly Healthy Lifestyle Challenge is even more important during quarantine. You can track progress of your Healthy Lifestyle Challenge with this free tracking tool , which helps add an element of accountability. Really everyone wins, because everyone that participates gets a little healthier and has fun with the challenge. Your coworkers will love engaging in a Typing Speed Race. The race is a way to show off your lightning fingers, and also a great way to develop one of the most important remote work skills: typing quickly and accurately.
Your team members can participate in the typing test and post scores to Slack, email or other communication channels. You can also do a Typing Speed Relay, where you add up team totals. Try the 1-Minute challenge on typingtest. Here are more virtual minute-to-win-it activities. Here is a guide on how to play chubby bunny by Icebreaker Ideas.
This post has more fun workplace competitions for virtual teams. Murder in Ancient Egypt is one of three virtual murder mystery activities we run. The game uses mechanics of escape rooms, puzzles and problem solving to bring your people together in a race against the clock. Murder in Ancient Egypt is an exciting and challenging virtual team building event, and culminates in the big reveal: this was an actual murder mystery from history.
Your team will hear the story from an expert storyteller, and learn about what really happened. Learn more: Murder in Ancient Egypt. War of the Wizards is a simple storytelling game designed as a team building activity for conference calls. The background of this game is that a group of wizards have been at war since ages past, and at this point nobody quite remembers why.
War of the Wizards is a 90 minute virtual team building activity played on Zoom. Your event includes an expert host to guide the game through to a successful conclusion.
This community building activity is perfect for anyone that loves role playing games, storytelling, or is otherwise down to get a little nerdy. Learn more: War of the Wizards. Having each of your team members share something about their lives also builds meaningful connections.
We recommend the latter option, as it encourages quick and creative thinking. Here are more fun improv games that work for team building virtually. Personality tests are a common element of job applications and on-boarding. You can use personality tests for remote team building too. Here is a list of personality tests to try.
Not only does What Would You Do? Here is a list of would you rather questions to start with. One of the best ways to quickly build team morale is to throw spontaneous dance parties during video calls. We have a few recommendations for these virtual activities:. Here is a longer playlist from The Bash. Here is a list of virtual murder mystery games to try. Virtual Escape Rooms are popular online team building activities during quarantine because they include social elements, problem solving skills and teamwork.
For example, your team may have to figure out how to pull of an art heist and escape, or break out of a jail cell. The virtual activities are fun and interactive, and feel good when you win.
Here is a list of virtual escape rooms with both free and paid options. Ten quiet minutes during an otherwise busy day can be an effective way to bring your people together and build strong remote teams. You can achieve these results with a guided meditation session. Here is a 10 minute guided meditation on YouTube. You can snap a screenshot of your most frequently used emojis and upload it for your team to see.
If you are looking for ways to make a virtual meeting fun or engage a virtual team in ways that are not lame, then a quick round of emoji ranking can help. Each member of your team will likely fit into one of the above categories. However, one thing will secretly unify your people regardless of category: they love getting praise. Start a praise train where each person compliments each others work in succession and watch the employee engagement take off.
For example, you could praise someone on their work ethic, and that person could praise a colleague on a successful client call, and that person could praise someone for writing a great blog article and so on. Mister Rogers Calls are one of the best virtual team building activities during quarantine.
The name comes from the goal: to get to know your remote work neighbors. We have been doing Mister Rogers Calls for years, and follow a simple format. First, we use the Donut app to randomly assign conversation partners every two weeks. The call itself should be 30 minutes, over video, and avoid work topics.
Encourage your coworkers to talk about hobbies and interests outside of the job. For example, you can talk about how long you can keep a houseplant alive. This post has themes and topics for virtual coffee chats. Minesweeper is a virtual game you can play on online via Google.
Challenge your remote employees to a cutthroat round of the classic online game, and time your scores to see if you can beat each other and me. You can organize an epic Minesweeper tournament for your people and see who can race through the game quickest.
This online team building activity takes patience, precision and thoughtful risk taking; which are all good attributes to develop for remote teams. I recently finished a round in four seconds, unsuccessfully, so the bar is both high and pretty darn low. The Price is Almost Right is a game where the host of a virtual conference call holds up household objects and other attendees shout out prices.
The first person to guess within five cents of the actual retail price without going over gets 1 point for their team. If you guess over the retail price then you are out for that round, but your team members may continue. The Longest Word is a quick virtual activity you can do on video chats and conference calls. To play, arrange your people into teams and challenge them to spell a very long word.
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