When most of us hear the words 'remote team building', being spoken on yet another dreaded team zoom call, it's not uncommon for there to be a few looks of dissatisfaction floating around. If you are or have been a skeptic of virtual team bonding activities, or commonly associate the following feelings đ©,đ€š,đ€,đŽ,  with the company virtual happy hour or online skills-building night, you'll want to stick around for this one. I'm sure we'd all agree that whether we like it or not, using tech to connect is our core medium of collaboration right now, at least for those in fully distributed or hybrid teams. And, if we have any hope of strengthening and building bonds between our teams, we're going to have to find a way to get it right virtually.
If you want to jump ahead, go straight to the framework for virtual team building.
For remote team building to be successful, it needs to consider the needs of the entire team. A team-building exercise may be incredibly engaging for some, while for others, it could fall horribly short. Companies who taking a step back to first figure out the problem they are trying to solve with their team building activities, before identifying which ones to implement, will have better success. Where many get it wrong is when it comes to assessing their employees needs. What often happens is that companies assume their employees are struggling with one aspect of something, when in fact, they actually may be struggling with something else. What does this have to do with team building?
Before deciding which remote team building activities to move forward with, you need to get to know more of what your employees really need. Then, and only then, you'll start to hone in on the right remote team building solution to solve the issues your team faces whether it be related to morale, productivity, the connection between teams, or another.
Team building refers to the process of improving social relationships and defining roles within a group of individuals; this is often done through different types of activities so the group can learn how to function better as a team. On the other hand, virtual team bonding is about bringing team members closer and building trust amongst them in order to facilitate smoother and more effective communication.
Both team building and team bonding are important, and while team building may provide a more comprehensive view on factors affecting team performance, team bonding focuses on the level of comfort and positive energy within the team. As you can see they are complementary to one another and emphasis should be equally placed on both.
As much as team bonding may sound like a subset of team building, the objectives of bonding the remote team are often pursued using methods different from those of team building exercises. Team bonding should largely involve fun and practical activities that donât necessarily focus on rating an employeeâs technical skills regarding their work. For example, an âabout meâ game speaks more to how much one team member knows about another rather than how fast they are at making large calculations in their head.
Before veering off course, let's reel back in. When we're speaking about a framework for virtual team building, we're talking about the framework to actually bring your remote team together for the purpose of strengthening the team as a whole. There are a number of areas to address when it comes to team building and it is important to approach them in a step-by-step manner.
With that said, keep in mind that team building isnât a one-time effort, therefore youâll have to carry out several iterations of these steps as you uncover new weaknesses within the team that require reinforcing. Think of it as self-development. Do you really expect that after one team building activity, everything will flow smoothly for months and years to come? As new members join the team, the company takes on different projects, or when any obstacle arises, there is a new opportunity to dive deeper into team building and whilst doing so, strengthening the bonds and capabilities of your team as a whole.
Let's dive into the framework đ
If youâre wondering how to bring remote teams together, you need to first figure out whatâs pushing them apart. These causes usually vary in nature and include:
Firstly, itâs crucial to understand that there are two kinds of activities when looking at team building from the perspective of purpose;
Diagnostic - These ones are about discovering a problem/weakness within the team. As an example, Atlassian uses 'Health Monitor' as a way to "diagnose" the team's weaknesses.
Remedial - These are activities that are prescribed as a solution to a problem that has already been discovered.
Identifying problems and selecting activities may sometimes run concurrently. After establishing the purpose of the activity, you will need to pay attention to other characteristics such as:
Activities like âMy User Manualâ are more geared towards sharing personal work preferences (ie. email over phone, or morning meetings over evening meetings) with new team members.
The same goes for something like âLearning Circlesâ which involves creating small groups with an assortment of team members and others in the organization at large that youâd like to learn from.
A manager should separate goals into two types, those that are specific to the recommended activity such as a game score, and those that are related to performance and team health such as how many lunch breaks the team had together or how quickly they compiled a report.
To measure the success of any activity, a survey is valuable to conduct amongst team members. With the right survey, you can gather opinions and later compare them with qualitative data on performance after the activity. A simple survey can be created with free software like Typeform.
This data helps you understand team membersâ views on the activities and the extent to which they find them helpful in achieving team goals, a correlation that may be harder to ascertain entirely on paper without these conversations.
Now that you're clear on the framework for remote team building, let's hop over to team bonding. From virtual team icebreakers to one-on-one check-ins, thereâs a variety of activities that employers & employees can engage in to support their fellow team members. When offering social support, it is important to bring human engagement to the forefront, regardless of whether you're bonding online or in-person.
Opt for activities that involve some kind of conversation, verbal compliments, and any other elements like involving facial expressions and body language. One of the major goals of these activities is to build trust within a team so they can become more comfortable relying on each other. Logistically speaking, you'll need to Identify the software, web platforms, and other tools needed to aid communication while team bonding. Follow this up with some activities like:
There's no mystery in the benefits of running digital team building activities, but it doesn't hurt to have a reminder ;) In case you're not convinced of the benefits, here are some of the most important ones...
Running remote team building events virtually may not be ideal, but then again, not running them at all could lead to worse outcomes for your team. The key to strengthening your remote team greatly depends on building and nurturing the bonds between them. Creating a cohesive group that complements each other's weaknesses ultimately strengths and created unity within the team as a whole. If that's not a good enough reason to invest in team building, then it could be the right time to reflect on what your company would like without your team. A unified team isn't only good for building bonds, but it's good for business!
Written by: Gerald Ainomugisha - a freelance Content Solutions Provider (CSP) offering both content and copy writing services for businesses of all kinds, with particular focus on management, marketing and technology.
