6 Fun Virtual Team Building Activities to try during WFH
In our current situation where most people spend most of their time working from home (WFH), it has affected the mental health of many, from a slight degree (a.k.a. cabin fever) to a more serious impact on mental health such as anxiety and depression. This has led to a dip in work productivity and remains a constant worry in many team leaders’ minds. To alleviate the issue, much effort has been set in place to combat loneliness, boost morale of the team and to properly manage their overall mental health and work effectiveness.
Since physical meetings are restricted under the new legislations, many companies have resorted to virtual team building activities to foster and maintain deeper bonds within the team at the same time, as a form of stress relief. Virtual team building activities are known to encourage effective communication, cohesiveness and build trust and rapport among teammates.
However, to organise and plan for a virtual team building session can sometime be challenging, especially when you try your hardest to meet your team’s expectation. So, here are 6 fun virtual team building activities to try with your team during WFH! The suggested activities are specially designed with minimal (think: fun and convenient) planning time that maximises team building effectiveness. Well, who says virtual team building sessions can’t be easy to plan, fun and enjoyable?
- Share a Photo
Have an embarrassing or special moment that was captured on camera? Reminisce these moments by sharing them with your colleagues through virtual meeting platforms and simply have a good laugh together! The photos can either be in soft or hard copy that can contain yourself, your family, your pets or even scenery. As the saying goes, “a picture speaks a thousand words”, so teammates are encouraged to share the events surrounding the picture!
This activity encourages and boosts interpersonal communications, and provides a safe environment for teammates to share their thoughts or past experiences. Through deep and thoughtful sharing, teammates are able to understand one another better which can translate to more open communications at work. Amongst fellow teammates, this would enhance positive working attitudes, work performance and experience. With open communications, misunderstandings and assumptions that steal joy from a pleasant working relationship will surely be done away with!
What’s more, the simplicity of this activity requires minimal organisation, with little or no preparation at all! You just need to book your team’s schedules, give them a heads up a day or two before the session for them to prepare their photos and sharings.
Requirements to Conduct Virtually
Logistics: An interesting photo
Preparation Time: –
Estimated Activity Duration: 5mins per person
No. of Pax: Any
Instructions: Each team member prepares a photo about themselves and gives a short sharing about the events leading to the photo (do not just describe the photo). A moderator should be present to guide the conversation along, and ask thought provoking questions (e.g. What might you do differently if you were back in that situation? Why do you think you and the others were smiling like that? etc.)
- Attend a Virtual Workshop!
Many would agree that hands-on workshops such as terrarium-making, candle-making, art jamming, and leather-making workshops is a great stress-reliever which can also be exciting and therapeutic. Not only that, they can enhance creativity, team building and even aid in focus at work. As the majority of the workforce constantly feel that they are in routine and obligatory work lifestyle, it will soon take a toll on their mental and physical health, accompanied with negative perspectives and attitudes. In some serious cases, this may eventually cause them to dislike their job! So, to break the vicious cycle of Monday blues and work in anticipation of weekends, boost your team’s morale by attending one of these creative corporate workshops!
Fortunately, our EPIC workshop is a one stop platform that provides all the fun team building workshops you definitely need. Plus, all these workshops can be conducted virtually, which is a great way for your virtual team building sessions! Just make an appointment with us and we will deliver your individualized DIY workshop kits of your preference right to your doorstep. The workshop will be conducted via virtual platforms with step-by-step guidance from our very own passionate and professional instructors!
Hit us up at: https://epicworkshops.com.sg/virtual-team-building-workshops-singapore/ for more details!
Requirements to Conduct Virtually
Logistics: DIY workshop kits can be ordered online through our EPIC webpage, and virtual meeting platform
Preparation Time: –
Estimated Activity Duration: 1hr – 1.5hrs per workshop
No. of Pax: up to 100 pax per session
Instructions: Make an appointment with us and get ready to have fun!
Tasked to plan for the next virtual team building activity but hit with blacked-out screens and muted mics? Awkward silences and feeling like it’s all a one-man show? Planning for virtual team building activities can sometimes be challenging and most of the time, hard for organisers to engage everyone at the same time. Such sessions have often ended up with the team being unable to give their full participation and much less, to incorporate the team bonding spirit. The next few suggestions will be filled with fun and easy games that will definitely bring light (and literally through their webcams) to your team!
- Codenames
Codenames is an undercover spy word game that stretches your vocabulary and ability for creative thinking. Besides, it puts your team’s camaraderie to the test and reveals how they think under pressure. However, if you ever find your language vocabulary inadequate, fear not! Because this activity will also evoke some “chemistry” among your teammates!
If you have a small team of 8 or less people, this activity is your definite to-go! This activity can be played online for free and through online virtual meeting platforms. All you have to do is to arrange a time with your team, sit back and enjoy the game!
Requirements to Conduct Virtually
Logistics: Virtual meeting platform
Preparation Time: –
Estimated Activity Duration: 15 mins per round
No. of Pax: 4-8 pax
Instructions:
Online game platform: https://codenames.game/
- Scavenger Hunt
What can be more fun than some good old and traditional treasure hunting? And yes, it is virtually possible! The “hunt” can range from the everyday activities of your teammates or to something funny and uniquely specific. This can be yet another fun avenue to share your teammates’ daily life and foster closer team building. Though more elaborate planning is required, it will be worthwhile!
Scavenger Hunt can be played as individual players or as a team that involves finding or doing a list of items within a time limit (can be hours to even days). Participants will take a picture of themselves completing a task on a list and submit them through online communication platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram. You can introduce mini competitions to see which photos are the funniest and an award ceremony to stimulate some element of competitive spirit and enthusiasm too!
Some examples for hunter’s list:
- Take a picture with the Singapore Merlion (literally and with your mask on)
- Take a picture of your home work desk with your favourite morning drink.
- Make a short video to make me laugh.
Tips for planning the Hunt:
- Some basic format that you can include in each list would be the activity, the location and the item.
- Also, remember to allocate reasonable time according to the list you are creating.
- If you are planning to have a daily scavenger hunt, try not to reveal the whole list at once but appoint a specific releasing time (e.g. 9am) to release each task and a closing submission time (e.g. 9pm). This can ignite some enthusiasm and suspense to the players.
- Try to have a theme in mind and provide criteria for judges to evaluate each submission.
Requirements to Conduct Virtually
Logistics: Online communication platform and a list of hunting items
Preparation Time: ~ 1 hr (discussion and planning of hunting list)
Estimated Activity Duration: Few hours to days
No. of Pax: any
Instructions: Create a hunting list of items (~10 items), allocate appropriate time for each item, form teams or as individual players, set up judging criteria for each submission and enjoy!
- Drawing Blind
Drawing blind is another easy and excellent activity for your virtual team building sessions, with minimal preparation time and planning. This activity unleashes and maximizes your creativity, artistic skills, and not to mention, surfaces out your team’s coordination and esprit de corps.
In artistic sense, this activity taps on the perspective technique in art, which is simply the creation of three-dimensional images onto two-dimensional space. This is a common technique used by many artists to communicate a message from a specific art point of view. Similar principles and concepts are applied in this very simple activity of Drawing Blind. In fact, participants are given the opportunity to portray and describe everyday objects creatively. What’s more interesting is that their own teammates are to decipher their descriptions into drawings. This promotes more cognizance towards the team and their perspectives, essentially building towards a more effective and successful team.
In convenience of WFH, it can also be conducted virtually. All you have to do is to prepare a list of everyday objects with a picture of them and you are good to go! Depending on the size of your team, this activity can be played in multiple groups setting.
Requirements to Conduct Virtually
Logistics: Virtual meeting platform, a list compilation of everyday objects (preferably in picture format), markers and paper (for each artist)
Preparation Time: ~ 30mins (planning and preparation of objects list)
Estimated Activity Duration: 15mins per round
No. of Pax: 5 pax per group
Instructions: Form into groups of 5. Within each group, choose a “blind artist” (role of blind artist will rotate to another player after every round) and the rest will be “inspirations”. An image of an object (e.g. fork, table, ironing board) is sent to all “inspiration” through their mobile phones. Each “inspiration” will have 30secs to describe the object without revealing what it is to the “blind artist”. The “blind artist” then has to interpret the description and draw it onto a piece of paper. The round ends when all “inspiration” has taken their turn to describe the object. At the end of the round, the “blind artist” has to showcase his masterpiece and guess what the object is. The group whose drawing is closest to the actual object wins.
- Psychiatrist
What is a fun activity without some elements of craftiness and deception? The last activity will definitely bring some “facepalms”, joy and laughter to your team.
In this activity, there will be one psychiatrist in the team while the rest are patients. The patient will have to decide on a common “symptom” and the psychiatrist has to figure out what it is by giving a diagnosis. The “symptom” is usually triggered by an “illness”. Example of a “symptom”: Whenever the psychiatrist asks a question (the “illness”), the patients have to scratch their own elbow (the “symptom”).
There’s nothing better than having a healthy and hearty laughter at your teammates trying to figure out what the “symptom” is, especially when you are doing it right in front of them!
Requirements to Conduct Virtually
Logistics: Virtual meeting platform
Preparation Time: –
Estimated Activity Duration: 10mins per round
No. of Pax: Any
Instructions: Choose a psychiatrist (the role will rotate to the next person after every round). The psychiatrist will leave the virtual meeting for the patients to discuss and decide what their “symptom” will be. After deciding, the psychiatrist comes back to figure out the “symptom” and give a proper diagnosis. The psychiatrist can do anything “medically” right (e.g. asking questions, making them do an action) to figure out what the “symptom” is.