The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Five Remote Games To Help With Team Building Remotely
As COVID-19 has sent many people home from work where they are now permanently remote, it is a wonder how to incorporate company culture into employee lives. At the office, it was easy enough to throw a themed party or establish bonding through leadership activities, but when working at home, things have changed. Teams, Slack, Skype, and Zoom now play as our primary forms of communication. And these tools are the most resourceful for incorporation company culture.
Whether the team of employees gets to know each other or the meeting is official with a presentation on establishing leadership values, there are plenty of ways to ensure the company culture requirement is satisfied. For most companies that are trying to establish and bring to light company goals, employees engagement is best done with a stomach that is not empty. Thus, a company with several employees could easily send everyone gift cards for food or even order lunch for everyone. A gift card to a local Subway, Papa Johns, or Jersey Mikes should suffice.
Games in the office are often established to help the bonding process and there are several games that can be done remotely to help your employees feel engaged while also getting to know their coworkers. These games include:
1. Two Truths and A Lie
Description: Everyone shares two facts and one lie about themselves.
Purpose: To learn new facts about your coworkers.
Goal: The person who guesses the most lies wins, with one point per correct guess.
2. Truth, Dare, or Pass
Description: Traditional truth or date, in which truth is to be asked a truth about oneself and it is revealed, and a dare is to do something [within reason] around the house.
Purpose: Truth establishes a fact about someone, while dare engages an employee to do something around their home.
Goal: Truth is one point, Dare is two points, and Pass is zero points.
3. Never Have I
Description: A statement is made about something that is assumed everyone has done.
Purpose: To understand the experience your coworkers have.
Goal: Points can be earned either way: the people who have done it earn a point, while the people who have never done it do not earn any points [or] vice versa.
4. Story Telling
Description: A story is created with each employee providing two sentences or a paragraph until the story is complete.
Purpose: Creative thinking to complete a common goal.
Goal: A collaborative effort among the team to come up with a story with each person contributing until the story is complete.
5. Monopoly or other board game
Description: This requires that at least one person have the actual game and will be the “executor” to make the moves on behalf of everyone.
Purpose: Good old fashion fun and board games, often requires at least an hour or more.
Goal: To have fun and win a traditional game.
A company can offer gift cards to the winners. There are tons more games that can be played remotely. Be creative!
Bringing corporate culture to everyone’s homes continues to help build bonds even while working remotely. It helps everyone to have fun while learning about each other. Working at home doesn’t have to have employees feeling as if they are alone. Everyone is collaborating on efforts to achieve common goals and is the perfect reminder that we are all human and a part of the larger organization.
