Have the listener respond by enthusiastically saying “And because of that” in response to what the speaker says. After a completed round, swap roles and go again so that everyone has the chance to think about future. The facilitator or the person leading the program randomly reads every story and group members guess who the writer is. This is a great way to get to know each other and find out new things, even if you’ve worked together for a long time. Start by explaining to the group that they will get to know each other through their keys. One by one, each person will present all the keys they have on their keychain and tell a few sentences about the area the key represents.
Facilitating remote sessions requires a different approach to time management than in-person meetings. Without the shared physical space and its natural cues, remote participants can easily become disengaged or lose track of the session’s flow. Deliberate transitions and structured time management are crucial for effective remote facilitation.
Here, we’ll explore the challenges of running remote meetings or virtual workshops you should consider when planning and delivering your online workshop. Working remotely on any project or task comes with its own challenges. Virtual teams all have a set of best practices they employ to make their working days more effective, whether that includes the use of collaborative tools or well-developed working processes. Simply put, a webinar is an instructional event that is delivered online. In a webinar, one or more speakers often deliver instructional material to their attendees and conduct discussions, polls, and participation over online software. Choosing the right webinar software for your needs begins with design.
The entire group can tackle the same one, or you can all try your hand at something different. You could even compile the shared recipes into a beautifully designed online flipbook and circulate it among your team — a fun, interactive way to document your culinary adventures together. For business, you can create an interactive question-and-answer presentation in minutes.
Virtual escape rooms translate the popular in-person experience into collaborative digital problem-solving. Teams work together to solve interconnected puzzles, requiring communication, creative thinking, and coordinated effort—exactly the skills remote teams need to strengthen. The spontaneous hallway conversations that naturally occur in offices don’t translate to remote work without intentional design.
Crafting successful interactive virtual experiences requires understanding the team dynamic and using it to plan games and activities that resonate with team members. From online murder mysteries to team movie nights, the possibilities are limitless. While planning is crucial, the real magic unfolds when leveraging the power of video conferencing platforms to animate these experiences. As technology changes, so will the best practices that empower remote teams.
Mental Health And Mindfulness Workshops
You might discover shared interests or new things that spark great conversations, much like the Best Google Doodles, which blend creativity and culture to spark joy and curiosity. Building a strong community within a remote team is key to staying connected and engaged. With virtual activities, you can bring your team closer together, even when working from different places. These fun and easy activities help improve communication, boost morale, and foster a sense of belonging.
If you are leading a design sprint or developing a roadmap, would an online whiteboard be an effective way of helping people collaborate in real-time? How will you plan your remote workshop and create an agenda for both you and your team to follow? Remember that any tool should be used in service of the group and the requirements of the process you have designed – if the tool helps that process and the group achieve success, use it. Check out our post on tools for online meetings and workshops for some examples of great tools you can use in your organization. The remote teams that thrive aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or fanciest virtual reality setups—they’re the ones that figured out how to make digital connections feel real.
Virtual Happy Hour provides a relaxed environment for team members to connect informally, share conversations, and build relationships outside of work-related interactions. In fact, Happy Hour is a strategic appreciation session disguised Easternhoneys price as a casual hangout and it’s one of TeamOut’s Best Gratitude Activities for the Office. It’s harder to keep everyone focused and engaged, particularly if you’re gathering big teams and are not sure what to bring to the table.
Virtual Wellness Check-ins
- Brainstorming sessions bring remote employees together to share ideas, solve problems, and innovate.
- For larger organizations, consider tournament-style play across departments with a championship round featuring winning teams from each division.
- Whether you choose DIY approaches, professional facilitation, or hybrid models, the critical factor is intentionality.
The Desert Island Game is a great, remote-friendly exercise for a team to work together and share opinions. Introduce the Helium Stick and ask participants to hold their index fingers out. Lay the stick on their fingers & before letting go, have everyone adjust their position so the stick is horizontal and everyone is touching it. The goal is to lower the stick to the ground in a way that no one lets go of it at any time.
You’ll learn how to set clear communication protocols and master the nuances of virtual body language. With this knowledge, you’ll have the tools to transform your online interactions and drive real results. Set up monthly themed days (e.g., wellness day, book club, or cooking classes) that align with team members’ interests.
So, if you want your remote team to smile more and do great work, start with friendship. Fun games, coffee talks, and shared hobbies can make a big difference. Building a community is the best way to make your team strong, happy, and ready for anything.
It’s important to remember that every team is made up of individuals and sometimes, conflicts or disagreements can arise. While its regular working practice to disagree, our responses to conflict and how we deal with them when they arise are in our control and can be improved. In this group game, players stand in a circle and perform a series of loud physical moves, passing from one person to the next. When a player hesitates or makes a mistake, he or she is eliminated and the game continues. This circle exercise is simple, but challenging and very effective for generating focus and alignment in a group.
What Are The Important Strategies For Building Virtual Teams?
For that reason, even for remote employees, you should always try to get the team together in person whenever possible. It’s likely that not everyone can make it to your remote workshop, particularly if your team is globally distributed and works across several time zones. Remember that getting people to the meeting or workshop is part of the preparation process. Be clear with this information and try to include local timezones for everyone.
The key lies in implementing intentional engagement strategies rather than hoping connection happens organically. To keep things exciting, use fitness apps or tools like Fitbit or Strava. These apps allow you to track progress, share achievements, and even cheer each other on. Plus, seeing your teammates hit their goals can inspire you to push harder. For example, challenge everyone to walk 10,000 steps a day or to complete a certain number of workouts each week. You could also have friendly competitions, like who can do the most push-ups in a minute.
You’ll also want to include visual elements like slides where possible and consider different ways of learning. Use breakout sessions, experiential games and quick polls to help engage your group and keep your agenda fresh. Feeling like a session was a waste of time can be massively deflating for both participant and facilitator. Avoid potential issues and ensure the meeting gets off on the right track by sharing your expectations and having the group set their intentions for your virtual event. Getting a read on how your group is feeling is important for any meeting.
By leveraging creativity and humor, exploring culture and entertainment, and celebrating milestones, we can transform ordinary online gatherings into memorable and engaging experiences. It ensures that all team members, regardless of their location, role, or personal circumstances, feel included and valued. From incorporating family members into virtual gatherings to hosting pet parties, these inclusive practices can foster a sense of community and belonging among remote teams. WeWork has implemented virtual happy hours, gratitude circles, and “listening circles” to encourage team bonding and emotional support.
And without being able to see people’s non-verbal signals well (even if you have web cameras), reading how people are doing and how engaged they are can be challenging. Conveniently, there is a lot of overlap in solutions to these two challenges. Managing both of these involves engaging your group frequently and in varied ways.
Teams race to find or create items based on prompts, submitting photos or videos as proof. Diverse activity types addressing social connection, wellness, and professional development simultaneously, implemented consistently rather than sporadically. While flexibility offers undeniable benefits, overall global engagement dropped from 23% to 21% in 2024—only the second decline in over a decade.