With many in-person connections and meetings at workplaces in a holding pattern, connecting with colleagues and the team building elements of work life have largely moved to a virtual experience. It’s still important to continue to work on building a supportive, collaborative culture for your staff.
Here are a few tips to help you with that.
1) Mundane to Memorable When creating a virtual team building session, add an element of sparkle…a differentiator if you will. That can be anything from a guest host, or a quick drop-in special guest, or a theme...like everyone comes with their favorite “work from home” food and talks about what and why...e.g. "I love macrons because they cheer me up, they're colorful and a delicious mid-afternoon treat!".
Whatever it might be when getting the team together for a virtual team building experience, put some thought into adding an extra element to make it more engaging and memorable.
The more senses involved in any activity, the easier it is for our brains to learn and retain. During a virtual event, provide attendees with some guidance around this so everyone can share a co-created experience.
2) Flow We work with clients in the areas of storytelling and the importance of being able to craft your story and tell that story.
Creating a story and flow applies to a team building experience as well, and is particularly important for all virtual team building sessions. It’s how the brain works…people want to go along on a journey that has a start, a middle and an end point. Build those in and take everyone along on a ride with that story. Take the time to actually build the story and the main points along the way (write this all out before, and follow).
3) Why are we doing this? Let everyone know the reason for the virtual meeting? Is it team building combined with presenting data...is it just team building…if so, what are some goals, etc. Make sure you respect everyone’s time and deliver on expectations.
4) Virtual Group Hug
Everyone, particularly at this time, with so many people spending a disproportionate amount of their time on their own, or away from colleagues, wants to feel they’re part of a team. That they belong. When designing your virtual team building experience, be sure to build in time for everyone to contribute and connect.
Breaking out into a series of smaller groups, as well as having everyone together as a larger group work well.
If you’d like more information on the corporate workshops we do in the Dallas-area,including our virtual team building options, get in touch with us - Alex at (Alex@improvtoimprove.org) or Kayce at (Kayce@improvtoimprove.org)
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