5 Team Building Activities For Remote Teams

In my last blog, I explained how easy it is to manage remote teams, and in this blog, we will be exploring team-building activities, especially for remote teams. 

Without further ado, let’s dive into this rabbit hole.

As mentioned in earlier readings, you should prioritise fortifying your remote team’s belongingness. But it doesn’t just mean hiring talents or interacting with them; inclusion is a must. Including them in every possible team activity is certain to make the team feel valued and enthusiastic.

Now, I know it won’t be as easy as collaborating with an in-house team, but that’s something you can tackle. There are numerous team-building and interactive activities that could work wonders with remote teams.

I personally love building a team from the ground up and always try to make work fun and engaging. So, throughout my years of experience, I’ve been exposed to some of the best practices for remote teams:

1. Photography competition

Every photo has a story behind it; you can make this a way of building team connections. Organise a photography competition where your remote team members can take any picture of their liking and post it to share with everyone. Once the pictures are submitted, ask the members to vote and declare a winner. Setting a subtle reward will be more fruitful in this scenario.

This helps the team open up and share their favourite things and surroundings. Adding an acceptance speech video for the reward would make the competition more engaging. Let them be as dramatic as they want to; you just lay back and watch them like a proud leader.

2. Virtual team rooms

You can create a virtual team room or, say, a group chat where your chosen remote team members can communicate informally. I suggest you leave this group and give your team members a chance to talk among themselves freely. This can let some pressure off them and help them open up with each other.

3. 10 common things

This game is fairly simple. So, you make a small group and tell them to write 10 common things they have. 

It can be a birthday in the same month or having a younger sibling or name starting with the same letter. Just give them some time and tell them to write it down. 

After that, share it with the team and let them go through it. I personally like to do guessing games with this one. I share the 10 common things written by each group and tell every member to guess which team it belongs to. It is highly interactive and a fun way to know each other.

4. Celebrate together

There are tons of online team activities that you can conduct. But this one right here is a gem. It’s easy to conduct and impacts the most.

If there is a birthday in the office, then cakes, cards, and gifts are prepared to celebrate the special day. Or the Secret Santa we play yearly on Christmas to celebrate it. Well, you can celebrate birthdays, holidays or festivals together just like that.

For instance, if you have an in-house team in Australia and a remote team in Nepal, then your Australian team members can prepare a card wishing your Nepali team members a happy birthday. Or, if you have remote teams, they can send cards and special messages to each other on their birthday. 

5. Meet-up

Prepare a meet-up for the whole company. It can be a trip somewhere or a big dinner party where everyone can meet up and talk.

I advise a trip to each remote team members’ country or city and make them the tour guide. It’s more fun as the remote team member will start sharing his/her story or fun facts related to the place. 

It just really brings the whole team together. And everyone can experience where the member comes from, the lifestyle, culture, tradition, food, and much more.

Give these activities a try and comment below on your favourite team-building activity.