Team building during Corona – There are a lot or people working from home due to the Corona virus. It seems that businesses are warming to the idea of this continuing even when the crisis ends. That of course depends on efficiency levels. Some workers are loving the flexibility working from home affords them for family reasons. Or, it might be that they don’t have to fight through the morning and evening rush hours. Others are missing the camaraderie and collective nature of being in the office. That is understandable too.
Here is an article written by Rory Brosnan, the founder of Culture Games. He is a team building expert and here are some of his top tips on team building during Corona times when many of us are working from home.
Being in the office frames the day to work and there are less distractions and some people need that. What happens to teams that see each other less and less in person? It might be too early to say yet. For sure, many HR departments are keen to foster a sense of togetherness between their team members.
Host Your Own Remote Team-Building Event: Seven Tips
By Rory Brosnan of www.culturegames.fun – Remote Team-Building Specialists
In 2018 I created a team-building format called Culture Games Amsterdam, which was a loving foray into all things Dutch, and it was aimed at international companies here in Amsterdam who had a mix of expat and Dutch staff.
An early client had to cancel the conference they booked us for and I ended up delivering the event remotely via Zoom. This was rather fortuitous for me as once the pandemic hit eighteen months later I actually had a skill that was needed, versus a business that was obsolete.
I’ve since expanded the offering beyond the original Dutch-themed one -there are now eight Culture Games formats available – and have been a busy boy. Today, I get to pose as an online guru and share my wisdom with you. I absolutely encourage everyone to create and host their own remote event, whether it’s a team building during corona for work or just having fun with friends.
Here are seven tips to make it masterful:
1: Keep It Simple
Be able to explain each step of your event in just a few short lines. There will always be someone who doesn’t understand regardless of how clear you’ve been. Repeating a simple instruction once is fine, repeating multiple instructions multiple times isn’t.
You might be tempted to use a third-party website to help you with a quiz or parlour game. Forget about them – you want to minimise the presence of technology not increase it.
2: Have Fun As The Host
If the host isn’t enjoying the experience neither is anyone else. This is a further reason to keep it simple, and don’t worry about doing everything perfectly. By all means plan on doing it perfectly, but in the actual event just focus on the fun.
3: Quizzes Work Great
If you don’t know what to do for an online event, do a quiz. Our events usually have three to four elements, but the quiz is usually the highlight. This surprised me at first as a quiz is rather basic, but they involve competition and discovery which are very compelling. On top of this, we ALWAYS call on one or two people after each question to justify their answer. This is where the real joy happens, as it allows for the greatest expression of personality amongst participants.
4: Experiment With Settings First
This is the least fun part of hosting a remote event. Zoom and Teams have a ton of technical settings in their dashboards and you need to be aware of them before the event. For instance, there will always be someone who leaves a meeting by accident. Zoom will then lock them out unless you’ve changed that setting. This is but one setting of many, and your event will be smoother and more fun if you’ve familiarised yourself with them first.
5: Have Fun With Features
On Zoom your name appears on the screen. We always get participants to change their name according to the theme of our event, and this is a powerful signal that we’re now here to play and not work. On both Zoom and Teams you can change your virtual background, and this is an easy to add colour to the event. These are simple features that are easy to have fun with.
6: Consider A Physical Activity
Don’t shoehorn it in, but if you have an opportunity to include a physical activity in the event it’s a nice counterpoint to an otherwise virtual experience. For instance, many of our formats feature an art game where people first and then collectively have to recreate a famous painting.
They do this with a pen and paper, and then everyone compares and votes on the best one.
7: Keep It Quick
The bard said it best, brevity is the soul of wit. This is especially true of remote experiences. You can go quite easily from having fun on Zoom to everyone just feeling a bit jaded. Better to leave ‘em wanting more than wishing they had less.
Thanks Rory, for these great insights into team building during Corona. We are sure they will be useful for many of the readers.
Are your teams working from home? Read more about the 8 corporate team building options and agile coaching on the Culture Games site
Or call Rory directly on 06 15 24 54 23
