Best Virtual Games for Remote Teams
In order for a team to function well they need to bond with each other.
While that doesn’t mean you have to hold virtual dance parties during video conference calls it does mean you need to do some form of team building online.
With that in mind, we’ve put together some activities for remote teams that you can use at any of your virtual events that will bring people closer together as they have a bit of fun.
Our Favorite Virtual Exercises For Virtual Teams
Ice Breakers
Ice breakers are classic virtual team-building activities and the simplest of online games to experiment with.
And we’ve got a bunch of awesome ice-breakers that you can get started with right away.
These exercises all work well for online team building over a video call or video conference and remote workers really enjoy them too.
Picture Of Your Life
This is a bit like a virtual show and tell for remote employees, you ask team members to take a picture of something they love to do or of something in their lives that is important to them.
Then when you get together as a remote team, each team member takes it, in turn, to explain to the other team members what it is and why it’s important.
This is one of our favorite online team games because it helps clearly show that our colleagues are real people and not slaves of the machine!
Two Truths And A Lie
You’ve probably played this one at parties but it translates well to virtual team-building with remote teams too.
It’s one of those games that really gets the team engaged Each one of your virtual remote team members needs to think of three things that they can say about themselves, 2 of which are true, one of which is not.
Then the rest of the team has to guess which is the lie.
Words With Friends
This one’s a classing in the era of online team building games, the entire team needs to download the app “Words with Friends” to make it work.
Then you can all play virtually using whatever app keeps your remote teams connected during the day.
Have play-offs and lots of fun with these online office games but make sure that everything is focused on building team spirit and that competitiveness doesn’t get out of hand.
Video Charades
This is a fun way to add a modern twist to one of the most classic team-building activities.
Use a random word generator to come up with your topics and then get the team to act out each of them during a video conference call.
It’ll make even the most boring virtual meeting fun.
Desk Photo Contest
This is one of our virtual office’s top activities for remote workers and it’s super simple to run as a virtual event in video chat.
All the co-workers need to do is take a picture of everything on their desk, arranged flat on it, and then with the image taken directly above.
The value of this online team-building game is not to make them top photographers but to generate some creative thinking to help people organize themselves while working remotely.
Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Want to see a virtual conference call erupt with life? Then try this fun game for size.
All you need is a list of everyday items and each person is sent to search for as many as possible in a short-ish time period and then report their progress at the next virtual meeting.
The Bucket List Challenge
Most virtual team building games are played for the giggles but this is one of our favorite virtual team building tools because it helps to build a support network.
Everyone brings along their bucket list and some of the time in virtual meetings is spent explaining them to the others in the team and getting their support in ticking off some of the items that year, by holding them accountable to do so!
Donut For Slack
A remote work team building activity that is now a hallowed part of our own company culture is this virtual game designed for one of our favorite remote work tools – Slack.
All you need is a donut, a cup of coffee, and time in your team meetings to just chat and have fun. Nothing to play online or collect the most points, just be sociable, it’s better than a team beer recipe and much less likely to get you sued.
Pet Posting Slack Channel
Of all the remote team building activities we’ve explored and the virtual teal building ideas that we’ve experimented with one game beast them all.
It’s the Pet Posting Slack Channel. Yes, all you need is a channel for people to post pics of their pets and let them get on with it.
It’s one of those team activities that requires literally no effort to get distributed teams to take part in – they love it and so do we.
Final Thoughts On Virtual Fun For Virtual Team Building
There are, of course, many other games you could play – you could have that virtual dance party, build online escape rooms, hold virtual trivia sessions, the sky’s the limit but these exercises should be enough to get you started and they don’t require a lot of effort or money to run and enjoy.