These days, home-working has become the standard instead of the exception. Teams all over the world are reinventing their way of working. It's important not to limit the interactions with your team to basic business meetings, but to also spend time on maintaining trust and collaboration in the group. These 3 exercises that can be done online will help you do just that.
EXERCISE 1 - Virtual Team bonding
Not being able to physically be with each other holds the risk of becoming disconnected from each other. Spending time on open communication with your team is now, more than ever, very important. This exercise facilitates people to open up about their fears, creating trust and empathy in the group. Being able to label or speak out your fears prevents that our fears hold sway over us.
Ask everyone in the team to write down his/her fears. This can be related to this new way of working remotely, an aspect about the job, but can also be something personal. By doing this exercise anonymously, you make it easier for everyone to open up. This is possible in apps like Padlet, Miro or others.
When everyone has finished, ask each person to pick one fear on the board and discuss with the team. It is important that you pick someone else's fear.
"How might the person who wrote down this fear be feeling?" "Can others relate to it?" "What impact could this have on the team?" "Is there anything the team can do to help?"
EXERCISE 2 - Let's get the creativity flowing
One thing that can easily be done online is a brainstorming workshop. There are many easy-to-use apps available that can help you facilitate. (For tips on how to facilitate online brainstorming meetings, read our do's and don'ts for facilitating online sessions).
As you might know, creativity is a muscle that can be trained. The fact that you're doing the workshop online shouldn't stop you from starting with an exercise that helps the team to stimulate their creative brain!
Prepare 4 online pictures with a random object
Give the team a challenge. They need to solve that challenge using those 4 objects from the pictures and organize them from least useful to most useful. - examples of a challenge: "How might you defend the earth against a godzilla attack?"; "How might we improve our customer experience?"
Let the team discuss for a few minutes on how to organize the 4 objects. When they've come to an agreement, let one of them share the story behind it.
Repeat for 3 other challenges. Keep the same objects.
EXERCISE 3 - Get fit at your desk !
An inevitable downside of remote meetings and workshops is the fact that you are seated the whole time. Energizers to get your heart rate up and get the team energized again are even more important than in offline sessions. This exercise will do the trick!
Explain to the group that you'll be doing a physical exercise to increase the energy.
Ask everyone to stand up behind their desk
Tell the group to count from 1 to 31, everyone saying one number at a time. If it's a multiple of three: say ping and clap. If it's a multiple of five, say pong and jump. Start over when mistakes are made. The person who made the error starts.
End when you reach 31 without making a mistake.
Do you want to know more about team exercises and building a safe team environment? Don't hesitate to contact us through our contact page!
If you're interested in tips on how to facilitate online meetings, check out our blogpost on the topic!