In my last blog, I explained how easy it is to manage remote teams and in this blog, I will be talking about team-building activities for remote teams.
If you haven’t read that blog yet, then here’s the link to it:
The secret to effectively managing remote teams
Now, let’s get started with today’s topic.
As I mentioned in my last blog, you should make your remote team members feel like they are part of your team. It doesn’t matter where they are working from, you should always include them in every possible team activity. Now, I know it will never be exactly like having an in-house team but that’s certainly not a negative point. You can do various team-building activities for remote teams.
I personally love team-building activities, and I always try to make work fun for my team. So, I do know quite some of the best team-building activities for remote teams.
Here are some of my favorite team building activities for remote teams that you should also try:
1. Virtual team rooms
You can create a virtual team room or, say a group chat where your remote team members can communicate informally. I suggest you leave this group and give your team members a chance to talk among themselves freely.
2. Photography competition
In this team-building activity, your remote team members take pictures of their desk or pet or food or basically anything they like and share it to everyone. Once the submission is complete, you let each team member vote for one picture. The picture with the most votes is the winner of your competition. (Pssst! Don’t forget to reward the winner.)
This team activity is a great way to let everyone be comfortable and show their surroundings or favourite things. Also, in my company, it’s a rule that every winner of a photography competition has to prepare an acceptance speech video and share it. They can be as dramatic as they want with their speech.
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, you can share it with the team and let them read 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 it is of which team. It’s really fun. You should also try it.
4. Celebrate together
There are tons of online team activities that you can conduct. But this one right here is the gem. It’s easy to conduct and makes your remote teams feel closer and more engaged.
If there is a birthday in the office then a cake, 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 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 only send cards to each other on their birthday.
5. Meet-up
Prepare a meet-up for the whole company. This can be a trip somewhere or a big dinner party where everyone can meet up and just talk.
I personally suggest you prepare a trip to each remote team member’s country and make them the tour guide. It’s more fun as the remote team member will start sharing his/her story or fun fact related to the place.
It just really brings the whole team together. And everyone can see where the person comes from, what’s the lifestyle, culture, tradition, food, and so much more.
Hey! Give these activities a try and comment below on your favourite team-building activity.
Head of Marketing Department at Wolfmatrix. The go-to person for all marketing trends and know-how. Just the right guy that builds the company’s value, trust and authority.