Maintaining your organization’s culture as you transition to a distributed workforce can be a daunting task. The most successful managers have an understanding and training in the communication and project management tools needed to lead optimal virtual teams. A part of their effectiveness lies in facilitating creative solutions for team bonding and connectedness. While some team social activities may seem frivolous, Gallup’s research proves the importance of connected teams to promote increased engagement and performance.
We’ve found that empathy, clarity, and trust are critical to the effectiveness of remote teams’ managers as they are the heartbeats and champions of positive company culture. Strong communication, both in efficiency and clarity, is the foundation of any successful team – especially in a distributed workforce. When looking for easy ways to keep your team’s culture connected (or to improve it!), consider fun and frequent interoffice activities, virtual team building programs, and distributed service projects.
Virtual Interoffice Fun
Much of what is at risk of being lost in the distributed workforce is the daily, random interactions among co-workers in the break room and at the water cooler. Managers and teams must be a little more intentional in the virtual environment to allow for the same casual conversations and opportunities to develop genuine bonds. A few ways we recommend doing this includes initiating:
- Scheduled Coffee Breaks: Coffee breaks and “water cooler talk” are typically unscheduled activities that informally bring teams together. In a distributed workforce, those types of interactions are still important but now need to be planned. Try to replicate the interactions you previously had. Schedule a time each day, or even each week, to simply have a coffee break with your co-workers to talk about their homes, lives, pets, etc. It doesn’t need to be long; even 10-15 minutes can go a long way in helping to facilitate positive community spirit.
- Fitness or Steps Tracking Club: Keeping each other accountable while trying to stay fit can be a great way to engage with co-workers while also promoting better overall wellness. An organizer can start a simple Excel sheet for people to track their steps and then meet once a week to discuss how they are doing. Team members can also share recipes, apps, and other ideas for healthy nutrition. Even better, consider turning some of your meetings into phone-based walking meetings. This will give your eyes a break from Zoom, and you get some extra steps throughout your day!
- Iron Chef {Insert Office Name}: For any foodies on your team, each week a different team member can take a turn choosing 3 ingredients that everyone needs to incorporate into their dishes. Then participants can take pictures, talk about the prep and/or families’ reactions, and share successes (and failures).
- Slack Pets Channel – If your organization is on Slack, simply start a Slack channel for your company (i.e., #companynamepets). Then encourage your co-workers to post cute or funny images of their pets. This helps facilitate some of the informal communications your team may have previously had talking in a break room while also enhancing your now virtual cultural dynamic.
Virtual Team Building Programs
In addition to the daily interactions via Zoom and coffee chats, consider ways for your team to strengthen their relationships and deepen their trust via the occasional virtual team-building activities. A few we found include:
- The Go Game: Offers customized team building games, virtual events and conferences, and virtual holiday parties. Games include scavenger hunts, spy games, and more.
- War of Wizards: This is perfect for your Dungeons & Dragons loving team members. Throughout the game, they will tell stories, solve puzzles, and complete challenges to earn magic items. It is facilitated by a game master over a secure video conference line. Each team must then collaborate on how to use these items to gather resources and cast spells in the war effort.
- Virtual CSI Team Building: The CSI television shows are wildly popular, so why not see if your team can solve a “crime?” While it is a bit more macabre than the other programs listed, the Virtual CSI Team Building event is a real team-building exercise. It emphasizes communications and collaboration and revolves around team members solving a double homicide in a 2-3-hour time frame.
- Quizbreaker: Engage your team with some friendly competition. You can schedule these fun icebreaker quizzes for your virtual team building.
- Tiny Campfire: One week before the event, they send each of your team members a tiny campfire kit. This kit includes a campfire-candle, wood matches, and s’more ingredients. The site promises that this “event is a virtual campfire, that includes historic ghost stories, icebreaker games, little competitions, and real s’more making. It’s all the fun of a real camp night, with no mosquito repellent required.” (Author’s note: I so want to do this. Receiving a package with s’more ingredients? Yes, please!)
Virtual Service Projects
Working towards a common cause is another great way to bond with peers and teammates. Help your company improve both your culture and community through virtual service projects. While joint community service projects can be a bit more difficult to coordinate virtually, DoSomething.org has some great ideas you may want to try with your team.
Summary
No matter whether you choose a program that is formal, informal, or a combination of the two, it is imperative that you make an effort to do SOMETHING to engage your team in a virtual environment. Relying on old employee engagement styles can have detrimental effects on your team’s morale, productivity, and overall culture. Being proactive and learning to engage with your team in a new virtual way will help everyone feel more connected in a physically disconnected world.
If you are looking for any further assistance managing your distributed workforce or formalizing the process of taking your workplace virtual, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly at info@achurchconsulting.com.