Your virtual meetings with your coworkers don’t have to be boring anymore, if that’s been your experience. There are several online activities that you and your colleagues can engage in and which can spice up your meetings.
Traditionally, it’s been thought that the only way you can do team-building activities is only when you’re gathered physically. However, this doesn’t prove to be true anymore. There’s a lot that you can do to boost the moods of your team before the start of your meetings. These could mean a variety of online games or even verbal engagement games.
This article illustrates six activities that you can do to make your virtual meetings more fun, as well as to help strengthen the bond between team members:
- Word Search Puzzles
This is one of the most engaging games that you can do in a virtual meeting. What you need to do is to identify several areas in which you can have a word puzzle. Various word puzzles can be downloaded from the Internet, and some of them are even printable. However, don’t start the game way too early; you can do it halfway through the meeting as a form of breather. For more clues and hints on puzzles you can try here.
Thus, from your puzzles, you could be having printable word searches based on movies, animals, names of people, names of world cities, and names of plants, among others. You may tell your team to search for a certain word and see who’s the first one to do it. On the one hand, you may also tell your colleagues to identify as many names as possible, and see who comes up with the most number of names.
- Yahtzee
Yahtzee is a great game not only to play in person, but also over Zoom online. You can play online multiplayer Yahtzee, where you can play against a colleague live as you roll digital dice and try to score combinations. You can discuss strategy with colleagues as well making the game a great interactive exercise.
- Bingo
It’s pretty simple to play bingo. Begin by giving game boards to your team members. Choose whether you want to play the game in one meeting or in a series of meetings. The moment they see a mentioned behavior during the meeting, your colleagues are meant to mark a square having the name of the offending coworker.
Make the squares random so that it would be challenging for anyone to win. This game needs concentration to be able to win more scores. Also, there are several types of Bingo that you and your team can try, thus, you have all the freedom in the word in terms of the concept or theme you want to go for each session.
- Trivia
Trivia games can give you and your team a sense of competition during any virtual meeting. For one, you can play Kahoot!, Here’s how you can go about it:
- Include the Kahoot! app to your group or channel.
- Log in to Kahoot!.
- Start the game.
- Give your colleagues the pin so that they can log in in case they don’t get the invitations.
Kahoot! has pre-made trivia games that you can choose from, or you may opt to create your own. You can present the game live or give a challenge. Your colleagues can compete simultaneously or you can allow them to answer the questions individually within a set time.
With Kahoot!, you can log in using a computer or using a mobile device.
- Online Office Games
These comprise of team games or sprinted challenges, such as fast-paced trivia, scavenger hunts, like ‘Go Get It,’ and not-forgetting-a-communication game, like ‘Can You Hear Me Now?’
If you love activities that are completely engaging, competitive, and energetic, online office games would be the right option for you and your remote team.
- Icebreaker Questions
You can begin a virtual meeting with icebreaker questions. Allocate each member of your team approximately 30 seconds to answer their questions. If you’re the one who’s leading the icebreaker game, you have to choose who goes next in the queue.
- Truth Or Dare
For instance, you can play Blackout Truth or Dare through Zoom. This is how to play the game:
- Let each participant switch on their camera.
- If you’re the one hosting the game, you need to state a truth or dare. For example, “show us the ceiling of your house,” or, “What is your age?”
- Give a choice to your participants to play or not to play. Those who want to be involved should have their cameras on throughout, while those who want to step out should switch off their cameras. You can use an online tool to generate the prompts.
Final Thoughts
Remote team-building requires a good selection of activities in order to avoid boredom. Note that your team members won’t love every single one of these activities. Thus, you need to try out several types to test the waters. Monitor the engagement of your team. Once you realize that they’re switching off, it’s time to introduce another game. However, if carried out effectively, these games will result in great fun for your team.
Caroline is doing her graduation in IT from the University of South California but keens to work as a freelance blogger. She loves to write on the latest information about IoT, technology, and business. She has innovative ideas and shares her experience with her readers.
