Remote team building is difficult - 3 events that won't let your company fail

LowerShelf Games - 1.17.23

The importance of team building in an office setting is intangible, and in today’s corporate world 26% of U.S. employees work remotely and 16% of companies are fully remote.

That's over 40 Million people working remotely.

With that many remote workers, and co-workers in hybrid environments, adapting to this new normal is becoming more of a need than originally thought.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us a lot.

At the forefront; It has proved that companies can survive in virtual environments.

Coworkers learned how to use video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft teams and others. Despite dressing up the top half of your body, it could give the perception you were still “clocking in” for your everyday work routine.

Using platforms which sparked collaboration despite distance were also becoming a necessity, with Slack, Google Drive, Teams, and emailing at such a fast rate you may as well call it texting.

We all learned a lot. So much so that we see companies continuing to use remote work for their respective organizations/industries in logistics, sales, consulting, and others.

With that being said, virtual offices have also created some bad habits. They allow for a plethora of meetings, the ability to ignore messages and declare them as “unseen”, and truly reduce the organizational citizenship that comes with a typical office space.

Some companies are better at this than others, but when working with remote teams, it can be easy to forget you are working with other people.

Which we all get, right? It’s easy to just stay busy, and do your day-to-day without any question.

But in physical offices there are underlying interactions which take place. Those could be as simple as saying good morning to a coworker, sitting at the same table for lunch, or everyone’s favorite activity, complaining about the job they do.

So if you don’t have a physical office, or at least not one in which all members are using, how do you get those same connections, or at least attempt to mimic them?

Virtual Team Building is your company’s answer.

Team building can come in a variety of ways. And NO, they do not include work meetings, as those are surface level interactions and likely provide no thoughtful connection.

Some of our favorite virtual team building events include

• Game Events

• Informational Events

• Continual Project Events

Game Events

Unbiased... Game Events are our favorite team building events.

The reason why games were so important in all of our lives growing up is because of their ability to bring people together. It’s why camps use them, it’s why schools use them, and it’s even why your friends and family use them.

Games break barriers of vulnerability and comfort when properly executed.

That means creating games which offer even playing fields, multiple players providing input, and of course a fun structure!

There are number of ways to put on a game event

1. Hire LowerShelf

   1. We offer remote game events which promise real connections in intimate teams, smooth game flow, and prizes for winning teams!

2. Come up with your own games!

   1. You have creative people at your companies, go to them for ideas, or even to host an event!

3. Hire other companies who offer remote game events

   1. Book Elevant

   2. TeamBuilding.com

Games are fun, and we can promise your team members will thank you continuously for playing one or more with them.

Informational Events

Informational events can be a variety of things.

We see them as a way to learn about your coworkers. What do they like to do?What kind of person are they? How does their personality show when answering certain questions or contributing in conversations?

In an office setting you get to see these characteristics on display throughout the day. But in remote settings, you might see these coworkers once a week on a small tiled screen, or even less than that in some cases.

So your job as a company is to try and help coworkers, and yourselves, learn about the very people who share your company’s goal.

But how do you do that?

Some examples we have seen enjoyed can be done using

1. Personal Trivia Questions

• Have players make up their own questions beforehand

• Search trivia questions on Google

• Come up with trivia questions directly related to your company

• Use interactive softwares such as Kahoot

2. Intimate Discussions

• Use Breakout Rooms in virtual events so coworkers feel comfortable in smaller teams

• Discuss topics that generate real feelings or vulnerability such as

  • What was your favorite memory growing up as a child?

  • What is your greatest fear?

  • If you could do one thing on the weekend, what would it be?

3. Ridiculous Premises

• Use breakout rooms, or have everybody in the same screen at once

• Give a hilarious premise that sparks creativity

  • You're on a desert island with one famous singer, who do you take?

  • If you could move to the moon on a one way ticket, would you take it?

  • What would be your go-to super power, if you could only use it for a day?

All of these examples give coworkers the opportunity to not only learn about one another from conversations, but rather learn who these coworkers are as people.

Continual Project Event

Continual project events can do 2 things. They promote progressive teamwork and ultimately require a set of remote events throughout the work year.

Team projects are a necessity in any business and are typically used when you have multiple departments with varying expertise and perspective.

Take the same approach to building a virtual workplace.

Some ideas we have seen or recommend include:

1. Community Project

1. Have each team pick a community service organization

2. Work with them once a month

3. Have scheduled meetings as a team once a month

2. Game Contest

1. Create game events over a course of the year

2. Have each team participate, or play another team each month

3. Tally the points after each match and come up with a prize for the end of the contest

3. Office Challenge

1. Determine a challenge directly related to the company

2. Create teams and have them meet each month

3. Examples can be new initiatives at the company: ie. a new logo design, HR benefits, etc.

4. Come together with ideas and make sure they are listened to or acted on. These can create real feelings of empowerment and trust.

Continual projects are great because they have the ability to strengthen relationships with intimate groups of coworkers. That sheer repetition creates connection, which is ultimately the goal of any of these events.

Closing Words

Don’t be apathetic once you have a remote work environment. All of these employees, managers, coworkers, etc. are all people.

And as humans we need connection.

So if your company has the ability to function in a remote or hybrid world, don’t forget that.

Use remote game events, informational events, and continual project events to strengthen the bonds of your coworkers, and you will ultimately create a more productive work environment as well.

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Have you ever made a game? If so share it below in the comments or on our site!

About LowerShelf Games

LowerShelf Games is a free game sharing website that provides a one stop shop for family/party game lovers. The site is a showcase for the numerous games that exist in this world. It provides a single platform for people to not only share games with common items they would find around their house, but also standardized instructions on how to play them.