Sharing corporate office space creates a camaraderie and familiarity many team members thrive on. The corporate office fosters an atmosphere of give-and-take that encourages team members to share thoughts and concepts and bounce ideas off each other. Fortunately, even with so many corporate team members working from home these days, technology has ways to share space across the physical and digital divide. Try recreating the corporate water cooler with these virtual team ideas.
Turn Every Team
Member Into A Tour Guide
Try having each team
member host a virtual tour of their atmosphere. Build the time right into the
schedule and give each person a few minutes to host their own MTV’s Cribs style
tour. Each person can show off their home office space, guide the team through
their home or co-working space, or, if technology allows, livestream in their
city and show the main tourist sights, secret spots, and hidden gems.
Virtual team members can use a live streaming service or social network – like Snapchat or Instagram – to host their independent tour with exciting results. This exercise is great for building empathy and giving each remote team member helpful context to understand their colleagues’ daily surroundings. This team challenge works for remote teams everywhere but can be particularly great for international teams.
Play Virtual Team-Based
Games
When your team
members are remote, it can be difficult to foster sharing. Virtual games can be
a simple way to do that – especially if you’re intentional about choosing team
games. Some popular games that are available online or can be adapted to be
played virtually include:
- Pictionary
- Charades
via video chat - Draw the
picture (a communication game where someone describes a picture, everyone draws
what they hear, and it leads to a good laugh when everyone shares their artwork)
One or both of these ideas can help your virtual team get a glimpse into each other’s
daily surroundings. Use them to your advantage to help team members feel physically
connected until they can be physically connected, again. When your team
is ready to connect, again, Grupo Events
is ready to help create a team building event in Mexico that really will be the talk
of the water cooler.
