34 Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

Team Building Resources
Marketing Associate
Team Building Resources April 17, 2024 34 Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

As a remote team, we geek out over virtual team building. We’re always looking for ways to bring our team closer together.

But over the years, we’ve learned that online team building is much different than in-person team building.

So, we made this list of fun virtual team building activities for remote teams.

The goal is to help you skyrocket your company culture and employee engagement.

By the way, we recently deleted 20+ activities from this list, so you will only see the best.

Quick links: sortable list, activity instructions, expert tips, more resources, FAQ.

Virtual Team Building Activities: Sortable List

Click the blue links to read full activity descriptions.

Activity Fun ? Impact Effort ?
Online Office Games High High Low
tiny campfire High High Low
NATO Alphabet Medium High Medium
Spreadsheet Pixel Art Medium Medium Low
Online Team Building Bingo High Medium Low
Quarterly Christmas Medium High Medium
Photo Channel Medium Low Low
“Can You Hear Me Now?” Medium High Medium
Guess the Emoji Board Medium Low Low
Remote MTV Cribs Medium Medium Medium
Storytelling Workshops Medium High Medium
Pancakes vs Waffles Medium Medium Low
Werewolf High Medium Low
Typing Speed Race Medium Medium Low
Virtual Pub Crawl Medium Medium Low
Call of the Champions Medium Medium Low
Virtual Dance Party High Medium Low
Arm’s Reach Show & Tell Medium High Low
Exciting Sponge Medium Medium Low
Virtual Pub Trivia Medium Medium Medium
Never Have I Ever Medium Medium Low
Things Medium Medium Low
Spreadsheet Wars Medium Medium Medium
Flight of the Navigator Medium Medium Medium
DIY Craft Challenge Medium Medium Medium
Video Recaps Low High Medium
Donut Calls Medium High Medium
Icebreakers Medium High Low
Five Finger Showdown High High Low
Virtual Book Club Low Medium Medium
Coworking Low Medium Low
Team Dinner Low Medium Medium
Recipe Roundup Low Medium Medium
Virtual Trash Challenge Low Low Low

Instructions for all activities below.

34 Best Virtual Team Building Activities (Ranked)

The following is a short list of the best virtual team building activities for remote teams and employees. teambuilding.com, tiny campfire and Tea vs Coffee are run by the same folks as Museum Hack. Which means they are good ?

1. Online Office Games with teambuilding.com (Most Popular)

Facilitating team building online has unique challenges, and so you may want help. Our sister company, TeamBuilding, offers virtual team building activities as a service.

Examples of the available activities include Online Office Games, which is a series of virtual team building games/activities like typing-speed races, spreadsheet pixel-art and print-paper origami, and Murder in Ancient Egypt which is a murder mystery that uses “escape the room” mechanics to solve puzzles and challenges.

Learn more: virtual team building by teambuilding.com.

2. tiny campfire ?: 100% Virtual Campfire for Remote Teams

tiny campfire runs virtual campfires for remote teams. The experience includes haunted historic ghost stories, icebreakers, little competitions and even a real s’more making experience. It’s fun, wildly smart, and probably the best damn online camping experience in the world. No mosquito repellent needed.

tiny campfire activity photo

Before your event, tiny campfire sends your participants s’more ingredients and a tealight candle. This event creates unique shared memories, good vibes and strong virtual employee engagement.

Learn more: tiny campfire.

3. Learn the NATO Phonetic Alphabet (Skill Building)

Alfa, Tango, Foxtrot, is more than just a fun phrase that makes you feel more like a fighter pilot. It’s also representative of three code words of the NATO alphabet, and inspiration for one of the best remote team challenges you can do.

If you call anyone literally ever, then the NATO phonetic alphabet will help you have more clear and deliberate conversations. Instead of saying something like, “K as in Kyle” you can communicate in short-hand that is clear and readily understood.

For your team, you may not use the NATO alphabet together much. Still, the skill is fun to learn and when it does come up it will feel like a strong bonding element for your coworkers.

list of the NATO phonetic alphabet letters

The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet as follows:

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

Source: Wikipedia

BTW, I call this the “Top Gun Alphabet”, which is wrong but fun.

4. Spreadsheet Pixel Art (Free Template)

You are probably familiar with Google Sheets, but maybe not as a tool for remote team building.
If you are a nerd like me then you likely enjoy developing complicated spreadsheet formulas and graphs. If you are both a nerd and an artist, then you will love doing Spreadsheet Pixel Art.

spreadsheet pixel art template image

Spreadsheet Pixel Art is when you add a little code to automatically replace numbers with a color fill for that cell. You can then use these colors to “paint the numbers” and create pictures of nearly anything.

Pro tip: For virtual team bonding with a little competitive spirit we recommend introducing this activity as a competition.

Here is a free template: Spreadsheet Pixel Art.

5. Online Team Building Bingo (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)

Online Team Building Bingo is a fun and familiar game, which makes it a quick, easy and free way to get started with virtual team building.

Here is a template you can use:

online team building bingo template

You start with a bingo board that has a number of action items or accomplishments on it. For example, when you hear someone say “sorry, I was on mute!” you can mark that spot off on your board, and similar for “wearing pajama bottoms to a video meeting.”

6. Quarterly Christmas (Recommended)

Every December 26th, Carly starts counting down for Christmas. This countdown doesn’t have to be a long wait, and instead you can run Quarterly Christmas or Quarterly Care Package for your team.

Basically, once every few months you surprise your team members with a package in the mail. Quarterly Christmas is effective because getting a surprise package is like a little burst of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day.

List of ideas for quarterly christmas gifts

Examples of packages you can send include tech gadgets, coffee and tea samplers, chocolate and wine, and gift cards. If your remote workers have furry friends then you can send pet toys as well.

We recommend a budget of about $25 per person per quarter, plus shipping.

7. A Slack Channel To Post Cute Pictures of Pets (Quick & Easy)

This one is a company favorite.

We made a Slack channel called #pets-of-museum-hack where we post pictures of our pets making funny faces and doing hilarious things.

Here are some of our favorite pictures to date:

Our #pets channel on Slack

This channel is really simple and takes very little effort, but there’s a big payoff in the amount of team building and culture boosting it provides! Basically, this channel is a hit in the arena of quick and easy team building activities for telecommuters.

And here are more recommendations for fun Slack channels.

8. “Can You Hear Me Now?” (Team Favorite ?)

“Can You Hear Me Now?” is one of the best online team building games. You play this game in a virtual conference room, and nominate one person to be the speaker and the rest are artists. The speaker uses a random image generator to source a suitable image, and the goal is to describe that image in such a way that the artists can draw it successfully.

The one guideline is the speaker must only use geometric shapes. For example, you could say “draw a large circle and then three equidistant triangles” but not “write the letter E.” By limiting instructions, the speaker needs to exercise extremely accurate communication skills, and the artists need to listen and interpret. This game is a proxy for effective online communication, and is also just really fun.

9. Guess the Emoji Board ?

Up until a few years ago, emojis were a fun and quirky part of the internet that you weren’t quite sure if you should include in professional emails and messaging. Today, depending on your industry, it may be totally okay to send your colleagues emoji hearts, flames, cocktails and Christmas trees.

With more people using emojis more often, you now also have a fun new category: your most used emojis. You can snap a screenshot of your phone or desktop, and then upload the list for your remote team to see. Sharing which emojis you use and overuse can help create inside jokes. For example: why does Michael use the shrug so darn often?

emoji board game example

Here is how to play “Guess the Emoji Board”:

  1. Create a list of players and distribute this list to each player.
  2. Each person has up to five minutes to guess the five most used emojis by each person on the list.
  3. Reveal the answers and award points for accuracy, getting the emojis in the correct order and similar.

Prizes optional ?

Guess the Emoji Board is a quick game you can play virtually and will entertain your team for a quick amount of time. We recommend adding the game to an existing virtual meeting instead of making it the main event.

10. MTV Cribs: Remote Team Edition

Your remote team members might never meet face-to-face. However, colleagues can still open their homes to one another and participate in some MTV style fun.

Help Scout recently started an internal MTV Cribs-inspired video series, where team members show off their homes and personality in quick self-made videos similar to the classic ’90s show.

The activity makes for both an interesting look into the personal lives of your coworkers and is also a fun way to get to know your entire virtual team better.

11. Remote Storytelling Workshops & Training (With Experts)

Museum Hack tour guides are world class conveyors of stories and information. We’ve honed the craft leading thousands of renegade tours, and refined a framework for telling stories and training these skills. This system includes the Five Elements of a Hack, story shortening and more fun team activities.

Our guide training is 3+ months, and we’ve condensed the essentials down to two hours for your team. This training workshop will empower your staff to higher levels of productivity and performance, and is helpful in a wide variety of roles.

Learn more: Online Storytelling Workshops.

12. Pancakes vs Waffles (Quick & Easy)

Pancakes vs Waffles is a game where you make decisions collectively as a team. The name is indicative of the “either or” choice you are making.

For round one, your team has to decide on whether the world is going to keep pancakes or waffles, and the other is to be obliterated from existence. Anyone can advocate for a favorite choice, and ultimately you must have a vote of majority to make the decision.

After one option is eliminated, you add a new competitor. For example, the game may become Waffles vs Pumpkins, and then Waffles vs Puppies, and then Puppies vs Kittens, and then Kittens vs Romantic Relationships, and similar.

Typically the longer you play, the more intense the conversation gets and the more team members will share their values. The game mechanics are helpful for virtual team building because the initial conversation of Pancakes vs Waffles is low stakes, and it only gradually becomes more personal as you get to later stages.

13. Werewolf (Popular)

You may have played Werewolf at summer camp, in college or on a company retreat. Werewolf is a game of wits, deceit, and skilful manipulation as you seek to survive the night. The entire game is based on speaking, careful listening and voting, so you can run the experience in a virtual conference room like Zoom or Google Hangouts.

Here is a YouTube video on how to play Werewolf:

First, each player draws a card that indicates a role: werewolf, villager, medic or seer. For a remote game, you could use a random generation tool and send each person the role in a private message. Werewolves eat other players, villagers vote on who they think is a werewolf, medics can rescue a player from the jaws of near-death and seers can reveal a player’s status as wolf or not.

Once each one participant has a role, the game master announces that night has fallen, and everyone closes their eyes and does a pitter-patter drum roll for something fun to do and to mask other sounds.

The game master then calls the werewolves to wake-up, select one victim, then go back to sleep.

Next, the medic wakes up, points to a person to save and then sleeps again.

Finally, the seer points to one person to reveal whether they are a wolf or not, and the game master nods yes or no to confirm.

Then, the game master announces it is morning and reveals whether the wolves successfully ate a villager. Usually one villager dies in the night, with the exception of the occasional save by a medic.

The survivors debate who the werewolf is, and then vote to either eliminate someone or skip the round. Anyone that dies or is removed from the game becomes a silent ghost, and can no longer speak or otherwise participate in the game. Repeat this process until only villagers or wolves remain.

Werewolf is great for virtual team building because it fuels a lot of discussion. Your team will love it.

14. Typing Speed Race (Competitive)

Typing speed races are a free online team building activity that you can start right now. To begin, take a typing test using typingtest.com or similar. Then, post your results on your company message board or by email. The more competitive members of your team will reply with results quickly and others will follow.

You can then launch a larger scale challenge by hosting a typing speed relay, which is when you form squads and add up the cumulative scores to see which team wins.

Pro tip: make sure everyone is taking the same test! You can also give team members tips like “keep your fingers closer to the keys” or “if you miss a word, fix it quickly and then power through.”

Typing speed races are ostensibly a fun little challenge to get everyone playing online games together. It is also great skill building; typing speed is incredibly important for remote workers.

15. Virtual Pub Crawl

One way people get together in the real world is pub crawls, where you all go to a pub for a drink and then move on to the next one. You can do a fun virtual equivalent of pub crawls too.

Here is how:

  1. Join a virtual meeting or conference call with your team members.
  2. Everyone goes to an interesting website, and chats about the content over a drink.
  3. Every 15 minutes, move to a new website.

You can start with this cool web page that explores the depths of the ocean: The Deep Sea.

16. Call of the Champions (Instant Upgrade for Virtual Meetings)

One way to make virtual calls fun is to assign roles during meetings. If someone has a specific job to do, like cheerleader or shade thrower, then they will be more engaged.

Here are some roles you can assign:

Call of the champions role card

  • Cheerleader: Responsible for keeping spirits high during the meeting! This person will enthusiastically cheer on the speaker and other team members, and lead others to do the same.
  • Mover and Shaker: This role is like a virtual meeting traffic cop. When conversations get in the weeds or otherwise aren’t moving along, then this person’s job is to get everyone back on track.
  • Shade Thrower: Someone on your team is probably “that person.” Empower your champ by assigning the role of Shade Thrower, which is essentially permission to politely boo others. This role is mostly for games with an element of competition.
  • Photographer: Throughout your call, there will be opportunities for photos and snapshots of your team. Remote teams need photos too! Give someone the role of group photographer and they can snap a few shots to share by chat or email later.
  • Scribe: For some people, Scribe is the least fun role at the meeting, and for others it is the dream job. The scribe is in charge of taking notes.

We named this activity Call of the Champions as a fun way to recognize the heroic roles that participants play in making a virtual call fun.

17. Virtual Dance Party (Recommended)

One of the quickest and easiest virtual team building activities is the Virtual Dance Party. You can either host your virtual dance as a standalone event or add it as a quick one-minute session during a meeting.

Important: You don’t need to bust fancy moves, just turn on a song and move to the beat! Dancing can help cure awkward silences, keep energy high, and inject fun and team building into your team calls.

Some of our favorite songs for a quick dance break are:

  • Taylor Swift – Shake it Off
  • Rihanna – Work
  • Kenny Loggins – Footloose
  • Whitney Houston – I Wanna Dance with Somebody
  • The Beatles – Twist and Shout

Here is a virtual dance party playlist on Spotify.

18. Arm’s Reach Show & Tell (Simple & Fun)

One place to find inspiration for virtual team building ideas is grade school. Teachers are experts at engagement.

An example of a fun, school-inspired activity is Virtual Show & Tell. To facilitate this show and tell, you can set a 1 minute timer for participants to find “something within arms reach that is meaningful to you.” Each of your team members then has one minute to share about their object, including information like where they got it, and why they keep it.

19. Exciting Sponge

Exciting sponge is a quick and easy storytelling game. To play, each team member grabs a random object in arms length and creates a story about it, or can default to describing a generic sponge.

The goal is to exaggerate the truth about what makes that object amazing. For example, if someone picked up an alarm clock, they could say “this is a relic from the past and someday Indian Jones 2.0, AI edition, will travel back in time and snatch it up for a museum collection.”

The more absurd the better ?

20. Virtual Pub Trivia (Fun for Large Groups)

Your team can’t go to the pub together, but they can still do pub trivia and similar virtual happy hour games.

First, invite everyone to a call with a pint of their favorite brew; whether that beverage is tea, beer or wine. Then, a host organizes everyone into smaller teams and reads out questions. Participants must answer as a team, and each correct answer wins points. You can do themed trivia like Netflix shows, musical clues and science facts.

Here is a very long list of trivia questions.

21. Never Have I Ever: Rated E Edition

Many people play a version of Never Have I Ever in college, and it often descends into NSFW topics. Instead, play the remote work friendly version of this game. As the event organizer, you can write all the topics in advance or have team members submit topics that you filter for the group.

ideas for a game of never have I ever

Never Have I Ever is typically a knock-out game, which means you start with five fingers up and lose a point for each of the topics that you have in fact done. For example, if the prompt was “never have I ever eaten sushi”, then everyone that has eaten sushi would put a finger down.

22. Things (Classic)

Things is a game of talking and topics. Before the game starts, each of the participants adds topics to a common pool. The main guidelines is each topic must start with the word “things”. For example, “things my dog wishes he could eat for breakfast” or “things we want to do during our next video meeting.”

One person starts as the host, and reads off a single prompt. The other players then anonymously submit answers to the host, which you can do via private message. The host reads the answers out loud, and then you go in a circle giving each person a chance to guess who said what. You can have players accumulate points and win prizes, or ignore points all-together. For the next round, switch hosts and continue with the same game mechanics.

Here is a guide on how to play Things.

23. Spreadsheet Wars (Fun for Nerds ?)

Spreadsheet Wars is a tiny virtual hackathon, where participants can show off their skills in Google Sheets and similar programs.

To play Spreadsheet Wars, you choose a theme like “most advanced calculation” or “design a mini game”, and then the only parameter is that participants can only use the spreadsheet software to build a solution. If scrappy solutions are helpful for your organization then you could set a theme like, “cost reduction calculator” to help build useful tools.

Here are some more starter topics for Spreadsheet Wars:

  • Design a choose your own adventure story.
  • Create a beat-box harmony using sound scripts.
  • Compete to reproduce the best pixel art Mona Lisa.
  • Build a tool that someone would pay at least $5 to use.
  • Make a recipe generator.

Spreadsheets are powerful tools and most people have only scratched the surface of formulas and other features. By playing games like Spreadsheet Wars you can help upgrade these skills and have fun while doing it.

24. Flight of the Navigator (Nostalgic)

Flight of the Navigator is one of the better movies that came out of 1986, and today plays double duty in the realm of online team building games.

For this activity, start by watching the movie, which you can find on Amazon or Disney. Each time something “totally 80s” happens in the movie, like you spot a solid mullet or some rad headbands, take a drink. Your drink can be coffee, tea, water, or anything you like.

Flight of the Navigator isn’t really the point, so you could use other movies too. The goal is to have a common element that you can play some fun virtual games around.

25. DIY Craft Challenge (Build Together)

The DIY Craft Challenge is a 30 minute surprise activity you can play with your team. To play, each person has half an hour to build something from materials available at home.

For example, a guy in my grade 8 class combined an old school egg beater with a fork to make an ultimate spaghetti twirling machine. You could make pasta art, an epic pillow fort or doodle a poetic harmony.

The goal isn’t to build something museum-worthy; it is to spark creativity and give your team a fun way to interact together.

26. Make Video Recaps of In-Person Events (High Impact!)

With remote teams especially, it’s a good idea to provide your team with regular updates about the impact their work is having. This messaging doesn’t have to be for direct impact, as long as it is related and true.

You want to remind your team “Oh yeah, this is why I do this” as much as possible. Without these reminders, morale can drop and team members can become disillusioned. An easy way to keep morale high is to record videos of any in-person, company-related activities.

For example, a few of our team members recently hosted a booth at an industry trade show, and our founder, Nick Gray, recorded a three-minute video recap of the experience for the entire team.

These videos don’t have to be long or well-produced. Whether it’s a trade show recap, a post-call debrief with an important client, or just a Monday morning pep talk, videos are a quick and effective way to keep morale high and demonstrate to your team you want to keep them in the loop.

Bonus: Here is a great video from Help Scout that demonstrates how video can replace weekly meetings.

27. Donut Calls (? Essential)

Since remote coworkers don’t have opportunities to randomly chit-chat at the water cooler, you have to be a little more deliberate in creating these virtual team building opportunities instead.

That’s where Donut comes in!

Donut is a Slack extension that automatically pairs your colleagues up, and then they can plan a 30 minute video call together.

Donut calls are a fun way to connect remote workers

At Museum Hack, we have a soft rule that work should not be discussed during Donut calls, this is really just a chance for team members to get to know each other.

And since the Slack extension is automatic, this is a really lightweight way to incorporate team building into your remote company.

28. Icebreaker Questions (5 Minute Activity ?)

Icebreaker questions are simple prompts that allow you to get to know your peers better. For example, you can start a remote meeting by having each attendee share their name, role and what they like to eat for breakfast.

Icebreakers are easy to include in virtual meetings and virtual happy hours.

A few tips for running great icebreakers:

  • Start with “green level” easy icebreaker questions. Some of your team member will be nervous to share, and so you can start with simple questions like “dream vacation” or “cats vs dogs?”
  • Before any person shares an answer, announce who the next few people to share will be. This process helps create order and is especially important for online meetings where you don’t have as many visual cues.
  • Go first. You can be the first to share as an example to others. By starting, you give your team members a little longer to think about answers, and also model what a great answer can be.
  • Keep it short. We recommend no more than 30 seconds per person.

Here is an epic list of icebreaker questions and icebreakers for online team building to help you get started.

29. Five Finger Showdown (Great for Large Groups)

Five finger showdown is a gem on a list of virtual team building activities, and a perfect icebreaker for large groups. For this game, everyone on your virtual conference call holds up one hand with five fingers extended. Then, either the host alone, or team members taking turns list of specific and unsuaul life experiences. For example, you could say, “has visited a beach this year” or “speaks more than one language.”

Here are some more fun prompts:

  • Adopted a dog
  • Ate ice cream in the last 24 hours
  • Knows all the words to O Canada
  • Visited three countries
  • Knit something wearable
  • Made pizza from scratch
  • Can say thank you in at least five language

If a team member has the mentioned life experience then they can put one finger down. Either the player that puts all fingers down first wins, or if you want a twist then the last player with fingers remaining up wins instead.

30. Virtual Book Club

Kindle readers unite! A virtual book club is an opportunity to connect with like-minded people on your remote team. Like real world book clubs, the basic function is to organize members around reading the same material at a similar pace and to discuss thoughts and feelings about it.

We recommend you start with a novelette or even just an essay. The goal is for the material to be short enough that you can read the entire thing in one or two sessions. This duration is great for testing commitment to the book club and deciding whether you should do something larger and longer.

Then, when you are ready, check out this list of books.

31. Live Remote Coworking

Since your team is distributed around the world, it’s likely not possible for everyone to meet up at a coworking space. And while working from home has many perks, it’s not always easy to tap into the implicit motivation and social accountability that comes from working together in person with your team.

No need to worry! Remote coworking is a real thing, and it might help your team be more productive. To set up a session for your team, simply create a Slack channel called #coworking. The first person who’s online for the day can create a video call that’s open for anyone to join, with the understanding that the purpose of the channel and call is to get work done.

Note: If no one else is online or in the #coworking channel, you could always use a tool like Focusmate to find someone to work with.

32. Remote Team Dinner (Fun for Foodies)

One of the nice things about going into an office is the social outlet of being in rooms with other people. For example, you can say hi in the morning, have lunch together, or go for drinks or a meal after work.

For remote teams, even if you are oceans apart, day after day, you can still garner some of these social benefits. You may just have to work a little harder.

Have your team members prepare any meal, and then connect for a virtual call while you eat and chat. You can suggest ice breakers or games to keep the conversation going. Having low-key connection time like this is a good way to relax and bond without focusing too much on work or team building.

33. Recipe Roundup

In the last few months, sales of dumpling making ingredients in China have skyrocketed; people are cooking and eating at home more often. This love for cooking and eating is generally popular worldwide.

Invite your remote team to participate in a recipe roundup, which could have themes like “that one thing your grandma makes better than everyone else” and “rad cookie recipes.” Assemble the recipes in a Slack channel or a simple WordPress install, and if you like you can do a challenge where participants prepare the other recipes and post photos.

While these team activities are mostly meant to be fun, there is also a strong element of communication. When you prepare a recipe you need the foresight and clarity to know what the reader might have trouble following. Overcoming this challenge is a useful skill to build.

34. Virtual Trash Challenge (Productivity Booster)

You may have seen the trash challenge trending on Reddit or Twitter, but you probably have not seen the digital “work from home” version.

In real life, the challenge involves taking a picture of a trashy park, beach or other public place, then cleaning it up and taking an after-photo of the clean space and all the bags of garbage.

The online team version of trash challenge has the same mechanics. Take a before screenshot of your desktop, then delete all the files you no longer use and empty the trash. Finally, take a screenshot to show your progress and share it with your team.

The participant with the cleanest desktop wins sanity and productivity for the week.

A Few “Must Know” Virtual Team Building Tips to Try With Your Remote Team

Team building online isn’t quite the same as with a team at the office. With virtual team building, consider the following tips for maximum benefit. You may also want to consider how to 10x your team.

5 virtual team building tips

1. Include the Introverts

In an office setting, even the introverts may participate because of the sheer pressure of physical presence. With virtual teams, it is too easy to scroll off into the “cute pictures of cats” part of the internet and avoid meaningful participation.

To make sure everyone participates in your team activities, use mechanics like breakout rooms for small group dynamics during your virtual meetings, and icebreaker questions so everyone has a chance to share.

2. Follow the 2.5x Rule

Basically, do 2.5x as many virtual team building activities as you do local team building. For example, if you dedicated five minutes at the beginning of office meetings to icebreakers then your virtual meeting equivalent is 12.5 minutes. If you organized one company offsite each quarter, then you should organize at least two and maybe three virtual off-sites in that same time period.

3. Make Virtual Team Building Part of Every Meeting

In an office setting, you may be able to get away with just jumping into the business part of your meeting. With virtual meetings on Zoom, Webex and other platforms, we recommend including team building elements each time. You could play a quick game of Online Bingo, or do a mini scavenger hunt. Many of the activities on this page will help!

4. Send Packages in the Mail

Remember when we were little, and fun stuff sometimes came by mail? Now it’s mostly grocery junk-mail and bank statements. You can give your remote team members a boost of nostalgic dopamine by sending fun packages in the mail. For example, snack packs, tech gadgets, cute socks and other items.

5. Find Opportunities for Real World Meetings

We are a 100% remote team that also runs local experiences. Our team members in large cities sometimes have opportunities to meet and hangout, but for the entire team these opportunities are few and far between. When we have projects or big meetings, we sometimes fly team members in, and we also plan company retreats. For example, we did a company cruise of the Caribbean that was equal parts business planning and fun.

Here are some more tips for remote team building.

More Resources to Power-up Your Virtual Team Building

The following tools and resources will help promote successful virtual team building.

Virtual Meeting Software

You can use these software tools for video conferencing and telecommuting.

  • Zoom – Maybe the gold standard in video conferencing software, and our favorite for virtual team building because of the breakout rooms feature.
  • Microsoft Teams – Robust security settings.
  • Google Meet – Easy to access with just a URL.
  • Webex – Powerful platform with enterprise features.
  • Jitsi – Open source and secure.
  • Jami – Peer to peer technology and highly secure.
  • Lifesize – High quality video.
  • Skype – The original video conferencing platform, with the advantage of familiarity.
  • Talky – Very simple option.
  • Whereby – Works directly from your browser.

Learn more about conference call applications.

Tools for Teamwork and Collaboration

The following tools will allow your team to work together while working remotely.

  • Slack – Popular asynchronous messaging tool for teams.
  • Trello – Boards organized into columns and cards. Perfect for project management.
  • Google Docs – We rely heavily on Google Sheets for tracking team goals and progress.
  • Zoho Docs – Alternative to Google Docs.
  • Ziteboard – Virtual team whiteboard for real-time collaboration.

You can also look into how to use Instagram for team building.

Continued Reading

Here are additional resources to continue learning.

There is definitely a lot more on virtual team building out there too!

Next, check out this list of free online team building activities, these online offsite ideas, and these online games to play on Zoom with coworkers.

FAQ: Virtual Team Building

Here are some of the common questions we see about virtual team building.

What is virtual team building?

Virtual team building is the act of building stronger relationships between remote workers. Like team building in the real world, the virtual counterpart focuses on improving skills like communication and collaboration, while also promoting friendships and alignment. You can work with a third party on these efforts, or DIY by adding games and activities to your team calls.

Why is virtual team building important?

Remote work can be lonely, disengaged and unproductive; or the complete opposite. What makes virtual team building important is that it is the catalyst to the more positive outcome. Organizations that invest in virtual team building have work-forces that are more creative, communicative and productive; which is a huge competitive advantage.

What are the benefits of virtual team building?

The benefits of virtual team building include:

  1. Improved team collaboration.
  2. Better internal communication.
  3. Increased job satisfaction.
  4. Measurable increase in retention.
  5. Happy remote workers.
  6. Productive remote teams.
  7. Build team culture.
  8. Improve your company’s reputation.
  9. Give your people something to tell their honey bunches about.
  10. Improved relationships between managers and direct reports.

There are more benefits too!

What are virtual team building activities?

Virtual team building activities are games, challenges and exercises you can do with remote employees to help build stronger bonds. For example, Virtual Team Trivia is a fun exercise, and so is Online Team Building Bingo.

What are online team building games?

Online team building games are games that are specifically meant to boost employee engagement, morale and connection. You can play these games over video conference calls, video games, or even games you play via email, Slack and other platforms.

How do you make a virtual meeting fun?

One way to make a virtual meeting fun is to include elements like icebreaker questions and group photos. A rule of thumb is to make these activities quick and easy for remote workers to participate in; it’s not meant to be stressful or a skill challenge.

How do you build team morale remotely?

In addition to strong leadership, one of the most effective ways to build team morale remotely is to do games and activities together. For example, virtual trivia, online bingo and icebreaker questions are all popular options.

How do you engage a virtual team?

To engage a virtual team you can follow many of the same principles that apply to engagement at the office. For example, ask your people questions, do phone calls, and participate in team building activities. Another way to boost engagement for remote workers is to schedule calls between colleagues where the only rule is “no talk about work projects.” These calls help build relationships and friendships between coworkers, which leads to more engaged remote teams.

How do you bond with a remote team?

Spend QTT together, which stands for Quality Team Time. If all your remote colleagues do together is work projects, then that is all they are going to know they have in common. Instead, plan activities and conversations that allow team members to learn more about each other personally. When people learn they have common interests outside of work, like travel, pets, music and more, they form deeper bonds.

How do you make a team call fun?

One of the best ways to make a team call fun is to include breakout sessions. If the main call has 30 people on it then you can schedule breakout rooms with four or five people. The advantage of these smaller conversations is more people will have the opportunity to speak and share their ideas.

How do you make virtual meetings fun?

An easy way to make virtual meetings fun is to include icebreaker questions or games. For example, you could do a quick prompt like “which Disney character would you most like to be your BFF?” or play a quick round of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

What is the purpose of a virtual team?

The purpose of a virtual team is to accomplish a goal, virtual or otherwise. In some cases a virtual team will pursue a business purpose like profit generation, while other virtual teams may have a mission based or community purpose.

What is a virtual activity?

A virtual activity is any activity that you can do online as part of a team or otherwise. For example, virtual activities include Spreadsheet Wars, Werewolf and Dance Parties. Some virtual activities are nearly identical to real-world counterparts, while others are unique to the virtual format.

How do you create a team remotely?

One way to create a team remotely is to do fun and engaging activities together. By giving your remote workers time to connect with each other you create organic opportunities to build meaningful relationships.

written with 💖 by Jesse Sussman

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Comments & Reactions

  1. Gillian Babcock
    Gillian Babcock
    May 17, 2019 at 6:14 am

    My sister is planning a team building activity for her employees to relax and bond. It was explained here that they can do a variety of activities like making video recaps for everyone to enjoy. Moreover, it’s recommended to consult experts when planning fun building activities.

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 21, 2020 at 6:53 am

      Hi Gillian! Thanks for sharing. I assume your sister was planning virtual team building activities? How did it go?

      Reply
    • Megan McKeon
      Megan McKeon
      March 31, 2020 at 1:59 am

      Wow! So many options and ideas. One idea is a crossword puzzle that every employee turns in. Each clue is a description of someone’s job or a fun clue about the team you work for. Everyone has to start at the same time and whoever submits it first wins!

      Reply
      • Arthur Dunk
        Arthur Dunk
        April 12, 2020 at 2:26 pm

        I love all of the ideas.
        My idea for a team building event would be to have us all do a virtual karaoke session. We can each choose our songs.
        The unique thing about is that we would have to pick songs from different eras for fun and as a learning experience.

        Reply
      • Jo
        Jo
        April 24, 2020 at 9:42 am

        Hi. This sounds great. Can you send your sample?
        Jo

        Reply
    • Danny Carriazo
      Danny Carriazo
      March 31, 2020 at 3:36 pm

      Hello Gillian,

      I had the pleasure of hosting an online happy hour and it was awesome! It gave us an opportunity to relax and get to know each other with our guards down. At first, some of the team members were reserved but after a while, they all loosened up and came out of their shells. We shared jokes and stories about our day to day job functions.

      Reply
    • Cassie
      Cassie
      April 1, 2020 at 9:43 pm

      I absolutely love all of these remote team building ideas! Especially in a time like the present. We need human connection and kindness more than ever right now. Here is another remote team building idea…

      Here’s how it works: Every morning the leader will post a letter of the alphabet and you post a picture of something in your house that begins with that letter. Here’s the catch, the item can’t be repeated meaning if the letter is H only one person can post a ? hat picture after we go through the single alphabet I’ll post two letters and the item will need to have both letters in it.

      Reply
      • Christy Lotte
        Christy Lotte
        April 6, 2020 at 1:49 pm

        All the ideas are great.

        @Cassie, your idea could also work on a Zoom video conference. The host can call out a letter and everyone has to bring something back to the screen, again only one item per letter. Kinda like musical chairs. The last person to bring something is out for that round.

        Reply
        • Taylor McCloskey
          Taylor McCloskey
          April 8, 2020 at 12:58 pm

          These are all such great ways to get to know your team and also keep everyone happy and engaged in the activities. One idea I have that I think would be a fun way to get to know the “softer” side of your employees and coworkers is doing a baby picture guess. Having everyone submit a photo of them when they were younger and send it out to everyone in the office to then guess who’s who. I think this is a fun game and it may be challenging which makes it even more fun!

          Reply
    • Iia I Kelly
      Iia I Kelly
      April 1, 2020 at 10:20 pm

      Great article and tons of awesome ideas!!!! The MTV Cribs activity brings it home for me. This activity made me realize that I have only seem one or two of my co-workers homes, and it might be fun to see where they all live. And you can learn so much about people by seeing their “natural habitat”. Co-workers might also find out a lot of mutual hobbies or interest they have, like growing house plants or different collectible items, and even meet each other pets. All in all, I think this activity really gives people the creativity to give a fun 90’s style house tour, maybe will make some tidy up a little bit, but will definitely bring co-workers closer together.

      Reply
      • Marc
        Marc
        April 2, 2020 at 3:47 pm

        Lia, I agree with you 100%. There were several great ideas that Jesse listed however, the MTV Cribs activity is my fav. It’s fun unique way to get to get know your Team and what them makes them so unique and so special. A positive outcome from the exercise apart from some of the others is that it will raise the bar for each Team member and how they’ve chosen to outfit their home office spaces. It should be Big Win for everyone!

        Reply
    • Sandra Wallis
      Sandra Wallis
      April 9, 2020 at 2:49 am

      Something you could do is Social Media Bingo. You could go to different businesses social media pages(In the same industry cluster), and look through them for keywords commonly used in that industry. You can then allow people to design their own bingo cards with their desired words on them, and ask for a list the day before. A virtual leader can then take those words, shuffle them up and then call them out one by one until a bingo is called, and the winner can receive a random prize (candy, small gift card, etc.). It’s a good way to get a better look into your industry, and it’s fun too!

      Reply
  2. Jaque Jarowski
    Jaque Jarowski
    June 10, 2019 at 3:37 am

    Thanks for the tips! I find getting to know colleagues personally is one of most difficult aspects of working remotely

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 21, 2020 at 6:55 am

      100% agree, Jaque. And also a very important one. When people first start working remotely it can be lonely, so doing online team building games and similar is a way to help have a social outlet too.

      Reply
    • Harmony Neely
      Harmony Neely
      April 1, 2020 at 2:49 pm

      Definitely understand what you are saying. Sometimes it’s hard to get to know our coworkers even in an office environment. Yet, we are expected to rely on each other to get the job done. This is made extremely more difficult by working remotely. These suggestions give us the opportunity to look into each other’s lives and see each other as a whole person, instead of just another email. This helps us to lean on each other, be honest with each other, and not just get the job done, but get it done well/

      Reply
    • Michael Circle
      Michael Circle
      April 2, 2020 at 1:33 pm

      Most definitely! Trying to get to know someone without being face-to-face but with activities like the Donut Call, we can give each other a chance daily to get to know each other. In smaller offices, repeat calls can lead to more personal conversation. Before you know it, our ten-person virtual office is made entirely of good friends and strong coworkers.
      Even in larger groups, getting to know each other is vital and a few minutes a day spent talking to someone new can help us all understand why we do what we do and how important it is to work together.

      Reply
  3. Julia Kane
    Julia Kane
    June 25, 2019 at 5:31 pm

    OMG such a great article! We build a remote team now and I believe that in every team (especially a remote) every step should be built on trust. We try to develop it in our team recently using several team building games, and we will try some of your list for sure! Thank you for that! Also, I have to say that our communication and productivity has improved since we got to know each other better.

    Reply
  4. Nicole Barile
    Nicole Barile
    August 5, 2019 at 8:35 pm

    I read a lot about creating strong, virtual teams, and this is one of the best articles I’ve read!
    Thanks so much!

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 21, 2020 at 6:58 am

      Thanks Nicole! We update posts like this regularly, so recommend that folks bookmark it. On macs you can press “Command + D” to bookmark the list instantly.

      Reply
      • Polina
        Polina
        October 9, 2020 at 7:14 am

        on PC it is Ctrl+D . Thank you for the amazing article! Definitely will be using some of these great ideas!

        Reply
  5. Callum Palmer
    Callum Palmer
    October 26, 2019 at 4:21 pm

    I really like the ideas that you have listed here. There are some remote workers that would benefit from some of these things. I’ll have to mention it to my boss as I’m sure he’ll be on board with any of these that you have listed here.

    Reply
  6. Michael Alexis
    Michael Alexis
    March 21, 2020 at 6:56 am

    Hi Michael, thanks for your comment. I’m not sure what you are referring to ?

    Reply
  7. Michael Reiss
    Michael Reiss
    March 22, 2020 at 1:06 pm

    I love the idea of flashing back to the prime time of MTV. My fridge may not be filled with Cristal, but don’t get me wrong, this will be a team cribs to remember.

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 22, 2020 at 8:44 pm

      Aye, the late 90s were strong for MTV. Thanks, Michael!

      Reply
  8. Mickala Mock
    Mickala Mock
    March 22, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    I love the idea of a movie review. Like everyone agree to go to see the same movie and then talk about what people liked or disliked about the movie.

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 22, 2020 at 8:43 pm

      Hi Mickala — I like it. Sounds kind of like a book club but without the common drop-off of readers and attendance. Plus, would definitely work for remote teams.

      Reply
  9. Sonya Navarre
    Sonya Navarre
    March 22, 2020 at 7:42 pm

    Thank you so much for this innovative concept for teambuilding remotely. What a great way to feel like a part of the team in a more personable fashion. This is brilliant!

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 22, 2020 at 8:43 pm

      Thanks Sonya!

      Reply
  10. Ryan Sills
    Ryan Sills
    March 22, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    A team activity that I believe would be Wholesome and exciting would be a day where the team is involved in a Poker tournament where the winner is awarded with a prize of choice from a paid day off !! 2nd place gets a amazon gift card or a free meal from a restaurant of choice.
    3rd place- 7th place will be awarded with a paid week off
    Top 20 would be awarded with a paid catered lunch!

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 22, 2020 at 8:43 pm

      Hi Ryan, cool idea. Thanks for sharing the award framework too.

      Reply
    • Zyan R.
      Zyan R.
      April 1, 2020 at 8:29 pm

      A fun activity would be a cooking game, don’t worry it’s easy. Depends on how many people are playing the game. I’ll say 3 people, you pick 1 random thing to cook, than the rest have to pick 1 random thing to make a full meal. No one knows who picked what or what they have. So and example would be you picked chicken breast. Then the other person picked an apple then the other person picked a cabbage. So the group has to figure out what to make out of it.

      Reply
  11. Murry Holifield
    Murry Holifield
    March 23, 2020 at 2:35 am

    I believe a very fun and great idea would be cooking a simple lunch meal together. One person chooses an easy simple goto lunch they make, everyone goes out buys the ingredients and they cook it together and have lunch together.

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 23, 2020 at 6:38 am

      “Never Eat Alone”, Remote Edition.

      Reply
  12. Mokneka Green
    Mokneka Green
    March 23, 2020 at 11:23 am

    I think a great virtual team building idea would be flash mob dance contest. So there will be judges audience and dancers Each teams would pick a song and it will be levels of competition. At the end of each dance off a judge well critique the decision goes with the audience, audience choice. until it’s two teams remaining in the two teams will bottle and the one team that wins wins the whole dance contest. You would have first second and third place prizes. The prices could be team lunches gift certificates or PTO time.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:29 pm

      This is such a fun idea!

      Reply
  13. Mario Olivo
    Mario Olivo
    March 23, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    I believe in Embarrassment is the quickest way to break the ice and have plenty of talking topics that you may of never known about. Everyone has had an embarrassing moment in life so why not share it and let others know it’s okay to look back and laugh about them. You never know who else had dropped their coffee in their lap before a big interview??.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:30 pm

      Ha! Plenty of embarrassing moments for me to choose from if we did this!

      Reply
  14. Alaina Rutman
    Alaina Rutman
    March 23, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    This is such a fun list! As a pet owner, I especially love #10, A Slack Channel To Post Cute Pictures of Pets. What do you think of a remote Movement Minute? Put together a list of quick, simple exercises that people can do at their desks, have everyone pick an exercise, then do a video conference with everyone doing the top 3 exercises. It will get everyone moving and laughing for a quick moral boost!

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:30 pm

      Yes! I have five dogs, so I feel this! Movement Minute is a great idea to get the blood flowing!

      Reply
  15. Leilani
    Leilani
    March 23, 2020 at 4:00 pm

    I like Murry’s idea of cooking together. I think it would be fun to create a little rivalry a la the show Chopped: each person has to create a dish from four mystery ingredients. Everyone votes on best looking dish and imagined taste.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:31 pm

      What mystery ingredients do you have in mind? This sounds fun!

      Reply
      • Leilani
        Leilani
        March 24, 2020 at 8:56 pm

        If I don’t like my coworkers, maybe durian or natto. Haha! But maybe a combination like tahini/parsley/mushrooms/tomatoes.

        Reply
  16. Grace MacDonald
    Grace MacDonald
    March 23, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    I think a great example of a team building exercise would be to build something as a team based on a visual, but have that visual look different to every team member based on their view of it. It teaches teams to work together and listen to others instructions, things aren’t always how they seem at first.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:31 pm

      I love this!

      Reply
  17. Zuhaib Mohamed
    Zuhaib Mohamed
    March 23, 2020 at 5:30 pm

    Collaborative web-based games can increase company morale. Hosting tournaments or weekly games can bring people closer, and introduce a competitive atmosphere. An example of this would be an online version of the popular “Cards against Humanity”.

    Themed clubs seem to die after we graduate High-School; a very large company could connect employees by encouraging them to start clubs with coworkers based on similar interests, and to branch out by exploring new clubs.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:32 pm

      Clubs! I remember being in my elementary school knitting club and it was awesome. This is a great idea!

      Reply
  18. Aaron Rajan
    Aaron Rajan
    March 23, 2020 at 7:21 pm

    I think a fun icebreaker for a remote team would be to create a Guilty Pleasure Bracket. Each team member anonymously shares 2 or 3 of their guiltiest pleasures (maybe it’s never missing an episode of”The Bachelor” or being a secret Smash Mouth fan) and those results are compiled into a bracket. The guilty pleasures faces off elimination-style with each team member casting a vote and making a case for why a particular guilty pleasure is more or less cringe-worthy than another. The winner is revealed when there is only one guilty pleasure remaining and they can choose from a prize such as a pint of ice cream to eat in bed or a season 14 DVD of “Diners, Drive-ins and Drives” autographed by Guy Fieri himself!

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:33 pm

      “Hey now you’re an all-star..!” This is a great idea.

      Reply
  19. rob batchman
    rob batchman
    March 23, 2020 at 9:30 pm

    One idea I have used in the past to build remote teams is the Funniest Home Video submission. Team members take 3 minute video of themselves doing normal things around their house, that give other team members a glimpse into their lives. The videos can be funny, they can involve family members, they can involve hobbies, or anything they want. The requirement is that the video has to include one portion that would be unique to that individual, something that most people don’t do. For each weekly video meeting, someone gets to share their video. This is a great way to get team members to get to know each other better.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:33 pm

      Hey Rob – this is such a cool idea! I’m already considering adopting this with our remote team.

      Reply
  20. Mojisola Goodloe
    Mojisola Goodloe
    March 23, 2020 at 9:35 pm

    A virtual team building activity that would be fun as well as a great incentive for team members is a virtual version of “Who wants to be a millionaire”?
    In this version the prizes would range from $.50-$10 but more importantly time being the best prize such as leaving 15 minutes early or clock in 15 minutes after regular start time. The questions would center around current events, news etc. This virtual version will allow everyone to show off they’re knowledge while earning a little cash and time as well.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 24, 2020 at 6:34 pm

      Hey Mojisola – this is a cool idea. Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
      • Adja
        Adja
        April 10, 2020 at 2:06 pm

        A virtual team building activity that would be super cool and unique:

        Act out your favorite TikTok video! TikTok is such a popular platform because of our current situation right now. It’s a way to laugh and get everyone to lighten up a little. Of course we could add guidelines to follow to keep it professional.

        Reply
  21. Danielle
    Danielle
    March 23, 2020 at 9:37 pm

    Something I’ve noticed from team building exercises I’ve done in the past is that it’s always good to start any kind of meeting with recognition of members’ work. That way, people feel like their hard doesn’t go unnoticed. Aside from that, games are always a fun way to bring teams closer together whether it’s competitive or cooperative. A fun game idea I thought is similar to pictionary. One person has a picture in front of them while another member has to draw that same picture but only based off what the other person describes to them. They have 3 minutes let’s say. At the end, they reveal the drawing and the original picture to see how close they got.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:23 pm

      Hi Danielle! This is a great idea and we do this a lot on Slack with a channel we call you-are-awesome, which lets all team members recognize great work done by others!

      Reply
  22. Steve
    Steve
    March 24, 2020 at 10:10 am

    Something that we’ve used as a team building activity. Sit in a circle, so imagine a virtual circle. Work your way around the circle and we each talk about how many siblings we have and where we fall in age (youngest, oldest, middle) and talk about something specific from our childhood. Next time around we would talk about a little known individual fact about us that no one in the group knows about. This type of dialog works to create vulnerability amongst us and lead to a greater trust between us. We’ve also done talk about the person to the left of you and choose something positive about them to talk about. Next time around it could be something challenging about that person. This activity helps with self awareness and emotional intelligence.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:23 pm

      Hi Steve – We love the idea of creating vulnerability and trust in the team. This is a really great exercise.

      Reply
    • LilliAnn Champion
      LilliAnn Champion
      April 1, 2020 at 12:46 pm

      A fun exercise to play would be cake wars split into 2 teams and each team has the same ingredients but they have to make to different finished and edible cakes. When the time limit is reached both team try each cake and comment on the good outcomes. Them as a whole team reflect on what helped their team work smoothly together and how to apply that to everyday work life.

      Reply
  23. Dominick McCullough
    Dominick McCullough
    March 24, 2020 at 11:52 am

    Working from home, is always challenging. Especially since your refrigerator is just seconds away. The moderator starts and makes a sandwich, takes a picture and shares with the team. The next person picks one ingredient in the former sandwich and makes their sandwich and so forth. The team votes on the most creative, most bizarre and the most boring.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:24 pm

      Virtual sandwich competition – love it!!

      Reply
  24. Sharonda
    Sharonda
    March 24, 2020 at 12:50 pm

    Great post! I think team building activities is a awesome way to build lasting relationships and create a positive work environment. I like to generate games based on tv game shows like wheel of fortune, jeopardy and etc. These are also great ice breakers!

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:24 pm

      Hi Sharonda! We love icebreakers and think they belong in all virtual team building exercises! This is awesome.

      Reply
  25. Kathleen
    Kathleen
    March 24, 2020 at 1:44 pm

    Wonderful ideas! You could have a Slack channel dedicated to books, another to movies, pets, helpful work-from-home hints, bragging (kids, etc), favorite photos and so forth. When people start to see how much they have in common, they start to feel a connection to the rest of the team.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:25 pm

      Yes!! Finding commonalities (especially unexpected ones) important, especially when you don’t get to interact all the time face-to-face! Random, fun Slack channels are always a great idea.

      Reply
  26. Scott Jackson
    Scott Jackson
    March 24, 2020 at 1:51 pm

    I have played the “Coworker Fued” game before. It was awesome! It is a great way to adapt Family Feud and bring to your office. Trivia games always have tons of engagement and they add alittle bit of friendly competition to the mix. You can have prizes on the line for the winners. Also, the topics you ask about can vary from pop culture, to maybe facts about your company.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:25 pm

      Great idea to vary up the topics so the game always feels fresh!

      Reply
  27. Tyson Wong
    Tyson Wong
    March 24, 2020 at 2:03 pm

    I remember being apart of an ‘online productivity’ community where we got together on video to bang out a couple of Pomodoro Work Sesh’s. At the end of the hour we had a great time gabbing for a few minutes about what we were working on and shared some laughs during our “quiet / focused” time. For virtual / remote workers, it was almost like a coffee break to share some connection around the water jug 🙂

    Funny, how in these little moments we get to know one another to feel more connected and compassionate

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:26 pm

      Hi Tyson! Thanks for sharing – we love finding these little moments to bond as a team.

      Reply
  28. Channel Farrell
    Channel Farrell
    March 24, 2020 at 2:19 pm

    How about creating a Marco Polo group and on breaks record a short video of fun, excited, inspirational, and encouraging videos throughout the day.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:26 pm

      Great idea!!

      Reply
  29. Sheila Gazlay
    Sheila Gazlay
    March 24, 2020 at 3:17 pm

    What a great variety of team-building exercises. Personally, I would love to participate in The Great Guac Off.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:26 pm

      What could be better than team building and guac?! 🙂

      Reply
  30. peter
    peter
    March 24, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    A work at home scavenger hunt. Each employee is given a list of tasks to complete. Search for something on the internet. Crop an image of your boss standing in front of a tipped over port-o-potty. Figure out distances between point a and point b using google maps. The possibilities are endless and you could do it in teams of 4 over a conference call.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:27 pm

      Hey Peter – Thanks for this killer idea! Love the virtual aspects over a conference call rather than just running around the home office, too!

      Reply
    • Nic
      Nic
      March 31, 2020 at 11:51 am

      A great virtual team building activity would be to have each team member partner with another and create a short introduction video for each other as if they were creating a video for a friend trying to get them a job or date. They can bring up funny or unbelievable facts, highlights of accomplishments, and hobbies!

      Reply
  31. Sabrina
    Sabrina
    March 24, 2020 at 4:02 pm

    These team building activities are inspiring. Having worked in brick and mortar way too long, monotony sets in. You can only do so many potluck activities, right? (which I never could participate in because of my diet) Reading through the posts, activities such as a three minute video of me at home doing – well – me is so much fun. Working in a traditional setting would not allow team member to see my horses – hint, hint. Let’s use technology to bring us closer together. Well done.

    Reply
    • Carly Hill
      Carly Hill
      March 25, 2020 at 12:27 pm

      We’d love to see pictures of your horses! 🙂

      Reply
  32. Kaleigh Williams
    Kaleigh Williams
    March 24, 2020 at 4:13 pm

    I think a virtual movie night would be fun. You could poll the team on a few movie options and stream it to the team. Discussing the movie and opinions would be engaging for the team and the movie would add some fun and decompression time.

    Reply
  33. Diana Fitts
    Diana Fitts
    March 24, 2020 at 4:52 pm

    These ideas are so fun! It’s easy to stay stuck indoors when working remotely. As a runner, I love an excuse to get outdoors while also making it a social experience. It would be fun to start a running challenge with my running obsessed remote coworkers via Strava or Nike Run. There could be prizes for the runners with the highest mileage, most consistency, and more. If feasible, everyone could train together for the same race in a central location and use it as an excuse to get together in person.

    Reply
  34. Jess Fun
    Jess Fun
    March 24, 2020 at 4:52 pm

    I can see myself using Exciting Sponge with remote teams. My parents taught me that presentation is important so this team building activity falls in line with our way of thinking plus it is just FUN! #ExcitingSponge #pixel

    Reply
  35. MWC
    MWC
    March 24, 2020 at 6:36 pm

    I am really excited to try some of these. Working remote can be very hard on team engagement. #pixel

    Reply
  36. Phillip Pellecchia
    Phillip Pellecchia
    March 24, 2020 at 6:43 pm

    I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but has everyone noticed Dungeons & Dragons is totally cool now?! I currently run a game for my co-workers and it’s a really fun way to get to know your team. It can also really flex and expand each others’ creative and improve abilities!
    The best part is these days it’s now even easier to do this remotely! Depending on the size of the teams and the sheer level of limitless options, there are some really excellent ideas and methods that can work for just about any style of play. This also means that if you can imagine it there’s a pretty good chance it can be crafted to fit the campaign! No other game gives that type of freedom of expression with a solid community to back it up! There’s a reason why D&D is touted as “the worlds greatest role-playing game!”

    Reply
  37. Jason Alderson
    Jason Alderson
    March 24, 2020 at 6:48 pm

    Has anybody seen the show Survivor ? You know the one, where they drop people on a deserted island and they compete to stay the longest… Could we not adapt something of this sort to a virtual remote environment to further build team cohesiveness. i live right on a mountain, so i could just step out my front door with my laptop and be on location ! 🙂

    Reply
  38. Raquel
    Raquel
    March 24, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    I think the Icebreaker Questions is a perfect way to get to know your peers better and build up teamwork. The more you engage with your peers to know them better, the more easy and fun it will be to work together as a team!

    Reply
  39. Daniel
    Daniel
    March 24, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    These are all awesome ideas. Because there are so many amazing moments in the show The Office, it would be fun for a team to select any given episode to all watch and then discuss all of the “what not to do” moments as well as the praiseworthy moments. It would be a fun break for someone who works from home and can lead to some fun discussion as a team!

    Reply
  40. Tyler Davis
    Tyler Davis
    March 24, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    I love all these ideas!
    One activity I think would be a lot of fun is a costume contest!
    Everyone shows up to the video conference dressed in full costume. Maybe even throw in a theme!
    Then you can have everyone vote on best costume, and the top 3 get a prize.
    I imagine this being a strong ice-breaker and get-to-know-you activity as well!

    Reply
  41. Hassan
    Hassan
    March 24, 2020 at 10:37 pm

    A great team building activity would be a video conference call, using a service like zoom. In this call, each tram member would speak about themselves and their goals, and what they want to accomplish in the future. Team members could also speak on great ways to improve work conditions and how to more efficiently complete work and/or projects. All the above activities listed are great activities.

    Reply
  42. Ethan
    Ethan
    March 24, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    ? Heads Up! (the Ellen DeGeneres game) over video conferencing

    Reply
  43. ambria richards
    ambria richards
    March 24, 2020 at 11:29 pm

    I am so excited to have come across this.
    We are all about team building, and I love the idea of the tiny campfire.
    With that being said I would love to see you guys do something along the line of music. We all connect threw music differently. So you could have everyone pick out a song in their favorite genre. Once, everyone, has there song pick out have them submit them to one person who will be in charge of playing them. As the song plays have your coworkers try and guess whos song us who.

    Reply
  44. Jeff
    Jeff
    March 24, 2020 at 11:35 pm

    What brings a group together more intimately than being in the woods in the dark of the night sharing ghost stories around a campfire? Bringing back any childhood memories? Why not recapture the environment with a Tiny Campfire held remotely to alleviate the anxiety of our current affairs and help everyone come together with a little Kumbaya moment. Sometimes the smallest events in life become the most lasting memories. Let’s light the fire without burning down your work space.

    Reply
  45. Leonardo Hincapie
    Leonardo Hincapie
    March 25, 2020 at 12:02 am

    Charades, Speak Out, and Head’s Up! All awesome and hilarious games that can be adapted to almost any industry. You can act our products that you sell, services that you offer, or certain customer situations that may be inside office jokes. Thinking back on my time at a banking center, I can come up with so many ideas for these games that would entertain us for hours!

    Reply
  46. Phil Bailey
    Phil Bailey
    March 25, 2020 at 12:56 am

    First of all, thank you guys for bringing this amazing data to help remote workers feel more unified in their virtual spaces. I know what it’s like first hand to try and explore alternatives to keep myself and colleagues engaged in team-building and I’m absolutely passionate about it.

    My idea for virtual team-building is as follows:

    Do a workshop where your individual employees will create physical vision boards about their life’s biggest dreams or goals. They will present their work of art to the entire company via video conference and explain the pieces of their board. Learn what drives them be on the path they’re on and what it means to them. Another twist would be email the digital works and let the company vote who they think it might be. Once identified, the artist can explain more as they wish.

    This is a great way to get to know the ins and outs of your teammates. It’s a little vulnerable, sure, but as someone mentioned in the comments, good teams are built on the foundation of trust and I believe they are also built on humility. A strong team grows stronger by helping each other meet their goals and knowing that the next person is there to help them along the way.

    Reply
  47. Shoniece Miller
    Shoniece Miller
    March 25, 2020 at 7:59 am

    Hey i think that potlucks would be an amazing way to build a team 🙂

    Reply
  48. McKenzie
    McKenzie
    March 25, 2020 at 9:38 am

    My mind is blown by the spreadsheet pixel art. I am a school counselor and am excited to find a way to use this with my students. #pixel

    Reply
  49. Andrew G
    Andrew G
    March 25, 2020 at 10:36 am

    I think a themed online scavenger hunt would be a great team building activity!

    Reply
  50. Jennifer
    Jennifer
    March 25, 2020 at 11:39 am

    I would love to see something about movies and music. Music is a part of everyone’s lives and movies help us escape. If someone collected everyone’s favorite movie and song on the team and created a playlist of all the songs and a movie clip from each movie. Each team member would in turn guess who’s movie and song was their favorite.
    Not only do you have a variety of songs to listen to but you just may want to see a great movie you never thought of.

    Reply
  51. Sonya Johnson
    Sonya Johnson
    March 25, 2020 at 11:53 am

    So many remote positions have asynchronous schedules, so not everyone is working together all the time. One of the things I’ve found helpful in this environment is a dedicated chatroom, so anyone working at the same time has a place they can go to ask questions, get feedback, collaborate, and get to know their coworkers. There is very little “water cooler talk” in remote teams, so the chat environment has a simplicity in it’s structure, but also allows for that much needed interaction and collaboration on a daily basis.

    Reply
  52. Erin Ernest
    Erin Ernest
    March 25, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    Virtual Ice Bucket Challenge (Or something similar, prompting people to do something fun and/or silly to post to raise money for a cause that means a lot to the company/organization.)

    Reply
  53. Craig
    Craig
    March 25, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    What a great post! Thanks for putting this together.

    I’ve been running some engagement activities for my team over the last 10 days or so as we start our quest in to working fully remotely. I’ll certainly be using several of these ideas.

    Love the Spreadsheet Pixel Art #pixel

    Reply
  54. Fajr Major
    Fajr Major
    March 25, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    A fun team building activity would be to show your baby/childhood pictures. People would also share their earliest memory. This activity would show how people share common experiences.

    Reply
  55. Tiffany Latham
    Tiffany Latham
    March 25, 2020 at 1:48 pm

    A great team building activity would be for everyone in the group to receive a puzzle that turns into a comical question to break the ice. The first one to finish the puzzle has to read the question aloud and give everyone the chance to answer. The funniest answer gets a prize!

    Reply
  56. Jordan Barboza-Davis
    Jordan Barboza-Davis
    March 25, 2020 at 5:51 pm

    A great team building exercise would be for everyone to share their favorite song from an unknown genre or a genre that’s not mainstream. For example, Sean might share a harsh noise project or Pam could share some Icelandic jazz. You can’t have culture without music and art, so this would be a great way to show a hidden part of ourselves.

    Reply
  57. Linda Sevilla
    Linda Sevilla
    March 25, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    Ha! Love these ideas!
    Being that everyone is at home… let’s see what people have AT home!
    An idea for team building is ‘ FOUND AT HOME’. Teams divided, and a prompt of ‘ which team can show ketchup’ first, wins 10 points. ‘ Which team can show a marvel comic book’ etc. DISCLAIMER… WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INJURED PEOPLE!

    Reply
  58. Dan Pacholek
    Dan Pacholek
    March 25, 2020 at 9:00 pm

    An excellent and relaxing team-building exercise would be to host a virtual movie night.

    This can be done by streaming a movie through a video conference call and keep an instant messaging chat box open so team members can comment and make remarks during the movie. The movie can be chosen by allowing the team to vote based on a selection of 4 or 5 pre-selected movies.

    Experiences like this give remote employees something to bond over and joke about later on. Plus it forces team members to take a little downtime and relax.

    Reply
  59. Amber
    Amber
    March 26, 2020 at 11:51 am

    Homebound Happy Hour! You don’t even have to drink but everyone meets digitally with drinks (or water) and just decompresses to chat. No work talk, no negativity just a great time with a digital cheers! Work mates could even introduce one another to new drinks or a favorite wine.

    Reply
  60. Noma Mitchell
    Noma Mitchell
    March 26, 2020 at 12:43 pm

    I think another great idea could be playing the question game on video with team members. The game is asking questions back and forth for as long as possible, without answering any questions.

    Reply
  61. Cole Johnson
    Cole Johnson
    March 26, 2020 at 12:47 pm

    A great team building ice breaker would be if you dinner and a movie. You would start by starting the call in your kitchen and each person would show how they’re cooking up their favorite meal! I’m a spaghetti person and so I would show folks on how my Mom used to make this special spaghetti for me. I would include the recipe and items that I bought from the grocery store.

    For the movie I would select 5 choices and we would take a vote on it! Then we would sync the movie to the exact second in which it started and then if we so choose we could make comments on it or say something funny about it! (Comedies would be my go to!)

    Reply
  62. Cindy Ciccozzi
    Cindy Ciccozzi
    March 26, 2020 at 1:22 pm

    I really enjoyed this article! I think it would be helpful when working remotely to build morale by including elements like group photos so there is more of a connection with your peers. I think it would boost engagement and act as an ice breaker when people can talk about things outside of work that make them who they are and they would be better understood by their colleagues which enables them to collaborate effectively.

    Reply
  63. David Plush
    David Plush
    March 26, 2020 at 1:36 pm

    A fun virtual event would be to have an “Academy Night”. Everyone can dress in their “Hollywood best” and there will be a competition for who gets the most amount of winners correct. It would be a lot of fun!

    Reply
  64. Brianna
    Brianna
    March 26, 2020 at 1:48 pm

    With a remote team you can take the idea of story telling and use it to get to know your teammates more in depth. You can do the “secret Santa” method and choose a teammate for everyone but no one else knows who you got, possibly do this by emailing everyone before the meeting. You then choose an item from your home office or the area you work in that reminds you most of that teammate. You will then explain why you chose that item explaining how it reminds you of your teammate when you are on a video conference. Each teammate will then guess who you are talking about. This is a good way to not only get to know your teammates a little better but also uplift them and remind your teammates that they are great and everyone not only works together but builds a relationship with one another which is often times needed in a remote setting.

    Reply
  65. Antonio Sutton
    Antonio Sutton
    March 26, 2020 at 2:07 pm

    I like the idea of a virtual dance party. I’m a competitive person so something like a TikTok dance-off would be fun. Whoever can get the most likes for their TikTok video wins.

    Reply
  66. Cody Anderson
    Cody Anderson
    March 26, 2020 at 2:16 pm

    Hello,

    I personally love the campfire activity and love that there are companies out there like this. I feel that it is more important than ever to stay positive and to stick together!

    As for a new idea, maybe something along the lines of a movie or tv show series week/month where groups of 5 or less would come together and discuss how the characters behave as a team and how they are contributing to his/her team individually. One could also have the chat room set up similar to facebook live so members stay focused on the task at hand and have fun at the same time!

    Reply
  67. Tanya Curtis
    Tanya Curtis
    March 26, 2020 at 3:14 pm

    What a great resource for those working remotely around the world. So many great ideas! A team building event idea I would consider would be filled with Comedy and laughter. Each individual would choose their favorite movie line or comedy skit, one would have to guess who it is or what movie was it.

    Reply
  68. Brian
    Brian
    March 26, 2020 at 3:38 pm

    These are some great ideas as in a virtual environment it can sometimes feel like you are on an island of one. Something that we did was play the opening of old TV shows to see who could get them first. This was a lot of fun and really had us all laughing.

    Reply
  69. Christa Blunt
    Christa Blunt
    March 26, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    One virtual team building exercise can involve an online scavenger hunt. For instance, clues can be given to the team that ushers them to a series of related objects, places, ideas, etc. Each item on the list can lead to introducing the project the team is going to work. The scavenger hunt can help initiate team members to a new project and brainstorm while having fun.

    Reply
  70. Scott Scott
    Scott Scott
    March 26, 2020 at 4:13 pm

    Great team building exercise would be to have everyone pick their favorite song and when that person gets a sale the monitor will display that persons name and play a portion of their song to celebrate with other co-workers!!!!

    Reply
  71. Kaitlyn Spencer
    Kaitlyn Spencer
    March 26, 2020 at 4:17 pm

    A team activity that I believe would be energizing and exciting would be where your team gets together on Zoom, divide into two teams and have a charades competition against one another. Each player would have to use a household object or food item to describe the word.

    Reply
  72. Lacey Karge
    Lacey Karge
    March 26, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    I think that a really cool way to get everyone involved in remote team building activities while providing opportunities for personal engagement would be to implement yearly, “Bring your pet/spouse/child to work days.” It would be a fun way for coworkers to get to know each other outside of everyday work. I think that it would brighten spirits as well as giving family members a chance to feel involved. Employers could present incentives for those who participate like, sending out doggy bag treats or movie ticket prizes or a nice bottle of wine for a date night.

    Reply
  73. Jaelyz Melendez
    Jaelyz Melendez
    March 26, 2020 at 5:04 pm

    Easter is coming up, so why not have a funny riddle me this egg hunt. Everyone should receive empty eggs, the ones used for egg hunts where you normally insert candy to), but instead of placing candy inside of it, some will be filled with a funny incomplete phrase or riddle, while the other eggs contain random words or phrases. The goal is that everyone receives x amount of eggs, whoever opens up a riddle or funny incomplete phrase needs to read it and the others will have to see what are inside their eggs and choose the funniest word/phrase to complete it. Who ever gets the most funny finishing phrases is the winner. Picture it as a sort of Cards Against Humanity, but with easter eggs in a sense. This helps steam off the stress of the week, plus, who doesn’t like to laugh? 🙂

    Reply
  74. Tessah Shaw
    Tessah Shaw
    March 26, 2020 at 5:37 pm

    I love the idea of Remote Team Bingo! Keeping an eye out for spaces to mark off keep things like meetings and calls exciting, fun and lighthearted. They’re silly topics that all remote employees can relate to and laugh about.

    Reply
  75. Hailey Grant
    Hailey Grant
    March 26, 2020 at 6:31 pm

    I love the idea of Donut Calls, I think it would be good to get your team back on track and bonded.

    Reply
  76. Eric Taylor
    Eric Taylor
    March 26, 2020 at 6:38 pm

    How about a game of remote “Trivia” utilizing popular topics such a movies and sports. I think this is a good way to find out about team members and build chemistry around topical interests they may enjoy.

    Reply
    • Kendal
      Kendal
      March 31, 2020 at 10:12 am

      Yes, this is a great way to build connections! Pub trivia is a fun activity to unwind and get to know your team better!

      Reply
  77. Sadie Badue
    Sadie Badue
    March 26, 2020 at 6:40 pm

    I love MTV Cribs: Remote Team Edition! It sounds like a blast, and I can’t wait to have my team try and show off the best parts of their homes! Bringing it back to the best decade, the 90s.

    Reply
  78. Ashley Britt
    Ashley Britt
    March 26, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    I love so many of these ideas, but the virtual campout is my favorite. I think it’s because camping is something you usually do outside of work with family and close friends. It’s imperative to have a work-life balance, but it’s also super important to get to know your team as your second family. So implementing any activities that make you feel connected on that level are ideal to me! Everyone loves receiving mail not knowing what exactly is in the package, so the fun begins as soon as that arrives! Having little friendly competitions and ice breakers that make you feel like you’re camping are a win-win!

    Reply
  79. Kim Kloote
    Kim Kloote
    March 26, 2020 at 7:04 pm

    A great way to bring teams closer together would be getting families involves in one of the team building activities. A lot of the time employees are at work more than they are with their own family, which when you become close with your team they end up becoming like a second family to you. You can invite the staff to have families in on team building activities to learn more about their household and home life. Unique and different questioners and activities to make the experience exciting and fun could be scavenger hunts, show and tell, etc.

    Reply
  80. Loudiely Colon
    Loudiely Colon
    March 26, 2020 at 7:04 pm

    There are so many fun and great ideas, not only in the article but also in these comments!

    I’m big into humor and music so I would definitely find a way to incorporate this into it.
    To start I would do this funky song “Shabooya Roll Call” so everyone can introduce themselves in a fun way also expressing their favorite thing to do or what sets them apart.

    After the icebreaker, I would do an Improv Classroom so everyone can learn how to think on their feet and deal with unprecedented situations, like having to work from home.

    Reply
  81. Bridget Carpenter
    Bridget Carpenter
    March 26, 2020 at 7:25 pm

    MUSIC! What a great remote team building activity! We all love music, so wouldn’t a name that song be a fun and entertaining way to get to know each other? One week before the team building activity teams are created by drawing a name out of a hat. After the teams are chosen the music lists are sent respectively to each team. Each team has exactly one week to put together their play list and then let the games begin! (They can contact each other via phone or email to put together their playlists.) Several rounds should be played and the losing team of each round “Sings” the last song. The winning team receives a soundtrack of all the songs on each playlist.

    Reply
  82. Gina
    Gina
    March 26, 2020 at 7:26 pm

    Great Ideas! Looking at how to build some “fun” and team bonding into a now very large remote team. Thanks for sharing. #pixel I’m looking forward to trying the pixel art option!

    Reply
  83. Nick
    Nick
    March 26, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    Hi team! Great article and super creative ideas 🙂 I come from an Italian family that migrated to the USA in 1912. We love food and created a cookbook from all of our family recipes. I would host a remote activity “Cook Off”! A team member would supply a favorite recipe and we would each make the dish while getting to know each other. What better team building than fellowship and food!

    Reply
  84. Joel
    Joel
    March 26, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    Just an idea for a virtual meeting activity,

    1. Put together teams
    2. Pick a song together
    3. Option 1 each person sings a part of the song, continuing where the person before them left off.
    4. Option 2 each person creates a dance move to a portion of a song and as group putting all the moves together to create a routine.

    Reply
  85. Shelby
    Shelby
    March 26, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    Holy crap I’m definitely bookmarking this page — so many virtual ways to experience people! It definitely is making me think of other ideas — Like virtual office mad libs using typical work scenarios as the plot but leaving the blank spaces for verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc for all co-workers to pitch in on. And at the end you have a really strange hypothetical work story that everybody can laugh about.

    Reply
  86. Scott Harding
    Scott Harding
    March 26, 2020 at 9:14 pm

    These are some extremely creative and fantastic ideas!

    When I worked virtually a few years ago, we had a virtual happy hour that turned into a game of virtual beer pong. We later came back to the idea and refined it for a training game where instead of drinking, you had to guess a question and lost your cup when you got it wrong. Lots of fun and it works well virtually with minimal set up.

    Reply
  87. Paul
    Paul
    March 26, 2020 at 9:24 pm

    Great ideas. I really do think that virtual karaoke would be a great way to bring people out of their shells. It can also tell you a lot about your team members! Thank you

    Reply
  88. Rashaun Stanley
    Rashaun Stanley
    March 26, 2020 at 10:07 pm

    Hypethetical question exercises enhance analytical thinking and can help you learn more about the team member than the question being asked. Try exercises that pull from the personality and unique differences of the team member.

    Reply
  89. Cassandra Lambert
    Cassandra Lambert
    March 26, 2020 at 11:05 pm

    Really love the Tea vs Coffee virtual tasting ceremony for remote teams. Ive attended quite a few Tea Parties that are in person but with this pandemic what an awesome and creative way to still get that engagement with others around tea and get to try different flavors and enjoy them with others remotely! Especially with your team!

    Reply
  90. Charisse Sullivan
    Charisse Sullivan
    March 26, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    I love quarterly Christmas. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
    Food and beverages pull folks together.
    Same as Singing Karaoke or Dancing.
    These are what brought my team together!

    Reply
  91. Matt Q
    Matt Q
    March 26, 2020 at 11:52 pm

    I feel like a great team building activity for people working remotely could be some type of video fitness challenge, whether it is a squat challenge, timed jumping jacks. Basically anything to get people up and moving for some time.

    Reply
  92. Marc Shackman
    Marc Shackman
    March 26, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    I like sound and voice games as it helps teams contribute a part of themselves individually and connect and blend it with the rest of the team players to create a unique piece of music as a whole! A very powerful and healthy process 🙂

    Reply
  93. Eilysha Sklar
    Eilysha Sklar
    March 27, 2020 at 12:05 am

    Who is this?
    This can be done in an email thread or on virtual meeting platform. Prior to the meeting, ask each staff member to send you a fact about themselves that others do not know about them yet. During the meeting, read them aloud to the group so the responses are kept anonymous. Have the team guess which fact belongs to which team member. They can either cast votes and discover if they got them right at the end or vote as they go along.

    Reply
  94. Fernando Garcia
    Fernando Garcia
    March 27, 2020 at 12:08 am

    A great team building activity would to build a dream board together. Working together we have a common goal, but we all go to work for our own goals outside of work. When we build a dream board together it allows me to see the goal of my team mate. Could be emotional goal, health goal, financial goal, anything.. and I feel inspired to help my team achieve that goal. So grab your old magazines a construction piece of paper and glue it!

    Reply
  95. Andrew Moffett
    Andrew Moffett
    March 27, 2020 at 1:47 am

    One possible idea for a virtual team building exercise could be creating a “video game” using one real team member as the character and the rest of the team as the people controlling where they go. You could use the character team member’s house as a level to hide clues or different puzzles in. The others have to figure out the puzzles and navigate each room to finish the game.

    Reply
  96. Suzanne Patterson
    Suzanne Patterson
    March 27, 2020 at 4:34 am

    Wow, there are some great ideas and since almost everyone is now working at home and some of us have teens or preteens who are probably still playing Roblox or Minecraft. I think it would be fun to have a house design challenge in Bloxburg to see who could build the best house or earn enough money in a 2 hour period (in Bloxburg you can “earn” Robux to buy furniture and build a house, if you can keep from getting distracted by going to dorito parties. I have only played a couple of times with my niece but it would be fun! There are 3-5 minute how to videos that could get you going with the basics of building a starter home. It’s mind blowing to see how easily some of these kids can build giant mansions in this pretend town.

    Reply
  97. Joshua Kastle
    Joshua Kastle
    March 27, 2020 at 9:15 am

    I think a great team-building idea would be a freeform creativity session for teams that include writers and animators, something that will help focus teams of creators and animators together so they can learn off of each other’s stylistic cues. Game ideas can include a form of pictionary that involves selling an idea based on a simple drawing or design, a game of telephone where each creator passes along an idea to an artist and the artist has to interpret what the end result could be. Ideas to get the creativity flowing could also be a version of mad-libs that would test verbage and story cohesion, especially if the end result flows as a story.

    Reply
  98. Amber M
    Amber M
    March 27, 2020 at 11:12 am

    I think a great idea for a team building activity for remote teams is a walk together. Everyone goes on a walk of a certain distance, at a certain time all together, once or twice a week. This could help to keep everyone active while working remotely. It could be to the park and back or just walking around your backyard.

    Reply
  99. Keith M
    Keith M
    March 27, 2020 at 11:24 am

    A great remote team building activity would be Digital Break Out rooms. We all know what a break out room is at this point, whether they are the in person locked rooms with puzzles for small groups or the games that you can download to your phone. There are a lot of great options for these to be altered for remote team building, through a shared screen and chat situation or even creating work space specific break out rooms via google sites.

    One example would be having one team member use a screen sharing program with chat function so all members can view the game style break out room and make suggestions of how to solve the given puzzle. Using google sites, or something similar you could post an image with a clue, hiding a link somewhere in the image to click for the next slide once the team solves the puzzle.

    Reply
  100. Brett Coleman
    Brett Coleman
    March 27, 2020 at 11:37 am

    Online team building bingo is an excellent template for team building. It is a fun, light hearted game that uses traditional bingo rules that are generally known by all. Things like a team member saying, “Sorry, I was on mute!” can result in covering one of the squares. This a great team building exercise for remote teams.

    Reply
  101. Heather
    Heather
    March 27, 2020 at 11:57 am

    A great team building exercise for competitive co-workers, such as myself, is virtual office Olympics. Small events such as logo design, typing, social engagement content, best coffee recipe, history facts about the office and staff, and most creative work attire. Forming teams or individual events create indescribable bonding experiences but allow co-workers to push each other in forms of creative engagement.

    Reply
  102. Danielle
    Danielle
    March 27, 2020 at 12:38 pm

    Because I have a competitive spirit, any team building exercise that I can come up with has to be a “competition.” I also think that it could incorporate the use of making memes. Memes have become an integral part of our society, so I think it would be interesting to see who can make the best meme! The topics could be workplace related, and it is something that each individual could do remotely. There are plenty of free apps that allow the making of memes. Memes are something that bring people together, and at the end of the day I think everyone would get a laugh out of it. It would be bringing the team together, all while having fun. People also respond to rewards, so everyone could vote for the best one and the winner could get a prize.

    Reply
  103. Elizabeth
    Elizabeth
    March 27, 2020 at 12:49 pm

    I think a wonderful virtual team building activity would be trivia. In my non-remote office environments, we’d often do trivia nights, which were super fun and a great way to learn fun facts about each other.

    Reply
  104. Julie
    Julie
    March 27, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    Sometimes there is “gossip” in the workplace and things get construed and possibly misinterpreted. I used to play “Telephone” with my kids and someone would whisper a sentence into the ear of the person sitting next to them. You are only allowed to say the sentence once, and then that person has to whisper what they thought they heard to the next person, and so on. At the end, it’s usually something completely different than what was originally said– and sometimes hilarious! Remote workers could have a line-up, and the first person could call the second. They would be allowed to make the statement only once and then hang up the phone. Second person would call third person and say what they think they heard, etc., on down the line. The last person could type the message to the group to see how far off it was from the original. Example: “I never want to leave the Bahamas” could easily turn into “I’m never getting out of my pajamas!”
    The better the original sentence, the better the end message!! It’s a good lesson in keeping company gossip to a minimum as well!!

    Reply
  105. Heather
    Heather
    March 27, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    An example of a team building activity with remote teams is Wakey Wine Wednesday. Each member of the team puts up the most wakey background behind them and brings their own wine for a wakey wine happy hour on a Wednesday. The goal of this team building is to socialize and get to know your team outside of work hours. Sometimes, learning from each other outside of work can spark a new idea for work!

    Reply
  106. Ty Washington
    Ty Washington
    March 27, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    I think that the online team building bingo is an excellent team building exercise. Why? Well, because there is no better way to learn about a group of people than by putting them in a competitive environment where success has nothing to do with skill – it’s all luck. Obviously, trash talking will ensue and comradery builds from that level of primal engagement. Who wouldn’t want to talk trash about how lucky they are or, about how unlucky someone else is in a virtual world where we are all titans of competitive bingo??!!

    Reply
  107. Jennifer Garcia
    Jennifer Garcia
    March 27, 2020 at 1:25 pm

    Hello! This page is a gold mine for great ideas. As many businesses are transitioning to online work, many who have never worked remotely are now finding themselves in online meetings. It’s essential for our wellness to engage, connect and have fun. I participated in a virtual dance party last night. Sharing photos of our lunch is one fun way to stay connected with coworkers. You can include recipes in a shared a document so that all staff could try making something and occasionally coordinate to make the same dessert or meal that you’ll all enjoy during an online lunch meeting.

    Reply
  108. Timothy McGarry
    Timothy McGarry
    March 27, 2020 at 2:21 pm

    I do believe one, unless I had accidentally skimmed past it, that wasn’t thought of was:

    While in a work at home environment, there is the showing of one’s home, which was there, but, what of what everyone eats? Sharing recipes, whether to be able to make them in large amounts for the sake of Tupperware, or otherwise, with quickly available foods. How one seasons, what little quirks someone may have during the part of their cooking, do they spin while removing eggs for the trash can or the disposal? It is a glorious opportunity that can easily be done with a phone or laptop for the call to share in something that can be fun for so many who enjoy cooking. For those who don’t, they can still share what is quick for them, what they like. This would make and create more connection with those of the call, while having some time away from work, and everyone needs a break.

    Reply
  109. Alanna
    Alanna
    March 27, 2020 at 3:13 pm

    Another fun team builder that could be played remotely is a take on Hearing Things. In this game, one person wears headphones that make loud, random noises while someone else reads a card to them and they have to try to read the other person’s lips. In a remote team building setting, each person writes one thing they appreciate about the team member to their right/left on the screen and mute themselves as they read. When it is time for that person to guess, the author mutes themselves and everyone else plays on the team their favorite song to create the “distracting” noise. After the person guesses correctly, it moves onto the next person. Simultaneously a fun activity with your team and a gratitude exercise!

    Reply
  110. Sarah Garnes
    Sarah Garnes
    March 27, 2020 at 3:17 pm

    QTT is essential for a strong and productive company. For example Ice Breaker questions for every virtual team meeting. IE: Their name and location and one thing they did after work the previous day.

    Reply
  111. Taylor Roberts
    Taylor Roberts
    March 27, 2020 at 3:25 pm

    An exciting remote team building exercise could consist of having a themed dress up relay race/workout. On Thursday, dress up in jazzercise/80’s gear and participate in a 30-60 minute workout session. To add a competitive aspect to this, you can create teams and a relay race. Whoever completes 15 push ups passes onto the next team member that has to complete 20 jumping jacks, so on and so forth until a team finishes first. Working from home can consist of sitting for long periods of time and this can help gear a healthy lifestyle/work style. This is an energetic, funny, and proactive way to interact with remote employees.

    Reply
  112. Kevin Krebs
    Kevin Krebs
    March 27, 2020 at 3:42 pm

    Nothing beats in person events, activities, and connections… however I love anything with trivia and a competition mixed with gamification. One of my favorite games is “Cards Against Humanity”… however I realize that it can easily get too person haha… so, maybe a version of a game such as that focused on co-workers, cleaner, but still hilariously fun and an added component of video recordings, maybe a truth or dare mixed in, winners for several different “best of” categories and team winners as well.

    Reply
  113. Sajeda Cupido
    Sajeda Cupido
    March 27, 2020 at 4:45 pm

    I love the idea of creating a slack channel to post cute pictures of pets. It provides employees with the opportunity to share something personal in their lives with the rest of their coworkers. Because of the casual nature of the activity, it also allows them to focus on something that means a lot to them if they’re someone who isn’t as interested in trivia or games.

    Reply
  114. David
    David
    March 27, 2020 at 5:15 pm

    These are all excellent team building activities! I think that a murder mystery would be very fun, and it would translate easily over video for a remote teams.

    Reply
  115. Karissa
    Karissa
    March 27, 2020 at 9:56 pm

    I love all these team building activities, I was thinking another good remote activity would be that we all can come up with games where we have to work together and listen to the description from others with out saying what the word is to help us complete the puzzle/game, using clues each other’s descriptions to figure out what the item is working together to complete.

    Reply
  116. Alex Sherman
    Alex Sherman
    March 28, 2020 at 12:51 am

    As with most teachers in this country, I am starting to teach digitally given the current COVID-19 crisis. I most likely won’t see my fellow teachers in person any time soon, so some of these area great to keep our minds and moral up and working! I especially like the Jeopardy idea, and that is translatable from co-workers to student virtual meet-ups. Thanks!

    Reply
  117. Samuel Harvell
    Samuel Harvell
    March 28, 2020 at 2:44 am

    Hi,

    These are amazing activities for team building, all of which provide an outlet for employees to have fun while also learning how to support and encourage one another. Given the increasing popularity of work-from-home opportunities, an activity I thought would keep employees actively engaged would be to identify their favorite movie of all time, their favorite line (s) from their favorite character in the movie, and act-out that line (s) exactly as the movie character (facial expression, mannerisms, etc.). Many of the movie scenes can be shown via You Tube during the virtual activity and a “virtual panel” can be assigned to determine which participant was “perfect” in expressing the movie character’s line (s).

    Reply
  118. Shelby
    Shelby
    March 28, 2020 at 8:46 am

    There are many strategy board games that pit the team against the board game to win. It would be awesome to have a remote game where the team can work together to defeat the game! My friends and I play tons of strategy board games, and it definitely creates a great environment for team building. By the way, I love the MTV Cribs idea!

    Reply
  119. Christian
    Christian
    March 28, 2020 at 9:50 am

    Like many people I’m a big music fan. You can do “Name That Tune” type competitions as team building events. You can either play segments of song and have folks guess the title, artists, etc. For even more involvement you can have people sing the song (or hum for the shy people in the virtual rooms).

    Reply
  120. JMG
    JMG
    March 28, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    Like many people working from home, morning routines can be the defining part of the day.
    A healty start to the day could make or break the day so we could potentially have a virtual morning stretch and breakfat club.
    Each candidate can offer thier quick (and fun) 10min stretch and breakfast plan to the day off with a bang!

    Reply
  121. Andrew Sayeedi
    Andrew Sayeedi
    March 28, 2020 at 1:40 pm

    I think one of the best team building activities you could do with virtual teams is a movie party. Now that the Coronavirus is shutting down most of the US, many people have to work from home. In light of this, Google and Netflix came out with a Google Chrome browser extension called Netflix Partyx which allows multiple people to chat with one another while watching movies or TV shows on Netflix. I think it could be extremely relaxing for a virtual team to be able to just laugh and comment about a hilarious movie like Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

    Reply
  122. Robert O Calder II
    Robert O Calder II
    March 28, 2020 at 2:15 pm

    While working remote, I find that I’m often listening to music in the background. It would be really nice to set up a Slack channel to see who else likes the same type of music that you’re listening to at the time and have them suggest something else like that and help to build that relationship and expand your musical tastes. I find at parties or dinner conversations, the topics usually tend to move to music and people have a strong connection with their tastes. It’s a great way to make new friends and strengthen bonds.

    Reply
  123. Janice
    Janice
    March 28, 2020 at 2:18 pm

    I love these events. With the changes in our world now, I see a huge opportunity to expand this to college students and beyond. Everyone is working at home. All schools have suddenly gone online without preparation! This is an opportunity to utilize this platform to students with Jeopardy, bingo, lunch and learn, and so many more! This could blow this business up and expand quickly and globally! You are ahead of the curve! Quick, flexible business strategies can open new doors for the business and help the world’s students during this challenging time!

    Reply
  124. Shayna
    Shayna
    March 28, 2020 at 3:04 pm

    I love all of these! I especially love the slack channel for pets. Staying home right now for work due to COVID-19 and my dogs are really enjoying me staying home. We have a group text going on right now, we are sending memes, pictures of our children/babies, and pets. It is something to brighten all our days and make this transition a little smoother.

    Reply
  125. Emily
    Emily
    March 28, 2020 at 3:39 pm

    My idea is cooking our favorite dish together, virtually! And sharing favorite foods and recipes. Food always brings people closer and makes people smile and feel good.

    Reply
  126. Megan Delcour
    Megan Delcour
    March 28, 2020 at 4:31 pm

    Who wouldn’t love a dance party?! In this unsettled season, we need uplifting events more than ever! Tiktok is skyrocketing in popularity, because, let’s face it- dancing is fun! Let everyone show his/her signature move! Dancing+laughing= pure joy!

    Reply
  127. Elizabeth Miles
    Elizabeth Miles
    March 28, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    I love these suggestions. What about a virtual cupcake war? Participants could get a care package containing pre-made cupcakes, along with the supplies needed for decorating, such as icing and piping bag, along with some additional fun supplies to help them get a little creative with their designs. There could be rounds: one for technique, one with a specific mystery theme, etc.

    Reply
  128. Shavon Santa
    Shavon Santa
    March 28, 2020 at 4:37 pm

    With so many schools, offices and businesses transitioning to online due to COVID-19, I believe that these team building activities are a necessity. These team building activities provide an outlet for co-workers to not only to have fun, bond and create new relationships but to also increase their knowledge, skills and better their communication! I love the tiny campfire team building activity! I love the idea of scary stories with real s’more making all in the comfort of my home in my favorite pajamas! I’ve watched way to many horror stories to do it in real life so this sounds like the perfect substitute and an absolute fun experience.

    Reply
    • Trecia Wright
      Trecia Wright
      April 10, 2020 at 10:05 pm

      I did a fun activity with one of my remote teams a few years ago that helped us really get to know what makes each other tick behind the scenes. We each shared something we collect or a craft we make and a story behind it. For example I collect bells. I shared a story about one I found in a little antique shop while traveling. I learned one of the women on the team makes jewelry for breast cancer patients. We definitely connected as a team on a deeper level. It made us more gracious and helpful to another. When life happened ,as it always does, we were happy to step in and pick up the slack. We all became real people with real lives to one another not just a voice on the other end.

      Reply
  129. Sue Ann Caruso
    Sue Ann Caruso
    March 28, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    Everyone of the events listed would be great fun… The one that stuck with me was “donating to a cause”. It would really be an ongoing bonding experience to collectively find a cause (possibly something along the lines of sponsoring a child from a poverty ridden country) and share the experience throughout the days/weeks/months. Not only would it feel good to help someone in need but it would create a warm and fuzzy feeling towards each other.

    Reply
  130. Jason
    Jason
    March 28, 2020 at 5:13 pm

    Wow!!! All these ideas are awesome. Having worked several years from home, I think of how much fun I would have had with co-workers playing any of these recommended games and being a singer I would love a Karaoke Contest 🙂 Given the excitement around Fantasy Football, what about having each employee join a free league separate from any leagues the team are in together? This way they can enjoy meeting together each Friday to recap how their week went (Who doesn’t like talking about how bad they beat their opponent) and help each other out choosing what players to start or bench for the next week, and who they should pick up that is hot and available.

    Reply
  131. zackery devers
    zackery devers
    March 28, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    One online team building exercise I believe would be helpful would be team board games. Depending on the population size of the contestant, you break into teams and all play a board game virtually to practice teamwork and communication. Board games bring out the real in people and if everyone sheds the nervous and shy aspects of their character, being able to show their true selves will bring everyone together in a positive way.

    Reply
  132. Bree M.
    Bree M.
    March 28, 2020 at 5:31 pm

    Such great ideas especially in these times right now. Another fun idea – anyone remember Win, Lose or Draw? You will be surprised to see some members have mad artistic abilities while others will at least provide some good laughs!

    Reply
  133. Adam Sanita
    Adam Sanita
    March 28, 2020 at 6:12 pm

    Team building is often only done in the beginning of a career during training, and it ends there. In order to run a successful business your employees need to get along, and enjoy their job to be as productive as possible. Lets face it if your miserable at work, its going to affect performance. Especially during this day in age with remote work becoming more necessary team building is even more important because you don’t even know your co workers in real life and need to create that bond.

    Reply
  134. Jonah Lipsky
    Jonah Lipsky
    March 28, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    These are amazing ideas for team building. The Virtual Dance party seems like it would be positive for any office culture…followed by the guac of course!

    Reply
  135. Stephanie White
    Stephanie White
    March 28, 2020 at 6:58 pm

    I feel team buildings for remote teams is an excellent motivator for staff members of an organization to engage with one another as internal communication is usually lacking. It is essential to find ways to build a stronger sense of trust with managers, team leads and co-workers in general not only to eliminate the sense of isolation and lack of sometimes motivation but to increase reliability and accountability which can easily be achieved by understanding that with the sense of remote isolation there is a whole organization with names and faces and separate personalities from various demographics contributing to the “the well Oiled Machine” activities like “Remote Storytelling Workshops” & Training enable various different departments within a remote organization to come together and contribute their talents and skill sets of team building, feedback on various ways to communicate and departmental training for various job functions or departments in a fun and entertaining low stress way through activity and play.

    Reply
  136. Josh Futcher
    Josh Futcher
    March 28, 2020 at 7:18 pm

    How about incorporating social media trends. Creating your own branded “Tik Tok Challenge” that encourages workers to learn a set choreographed move to a pre-arranged song and video record themselves doing it and uploading to Tik Tok. The best performances win set prizes. Offer bonus points for extra creativity to get the brain working in different ways to their usual duties. You could even incorporate a company hashtag to increase brand exposure at the same time!

    Reply
  137. Colden Brown
    Colden Brown
    March 28, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    Team Building activities are usually mundane and feel like they are FORCED upon the Team/Organization. I’ve always been about knowing your Team because that helps a lot. I would suggest a “Virtual Game Show”. Task each member to come up with 3 questions they think would be interesting to know about Someone. Then have the Event Organizer randomly send Team Members 3 questions to answer. And then ask the questions in the group format by randomly selecting Team Members, excluding those that answered the questions. So you’re giving them the answers and asking “Who Is This”? You’d be surprised how people will react. As far as what the winner gets hey that depends upon the company. Its an unobtrusive way to get to know your Team Mates.

    Reply
  138. Anissa Caiazza
    Anissa Caiazza
    March 28, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    #11 Cute pet pics?!?!?! I’m in!

    *It can be easy to fall into poor health habits when working remote/working from home. You’re like, it’s 2pm already? Dang…how did that happen and no wonder I’m starving! But you don’t have time to make a healthy meal AND log on to your next meeting on time. So…you grab the bag of salt and vinegar potato chips, put your mic on mute, and stress eat chips during the meeting. I’ve heard of people doing this. 😉 Kidding…those people are ME! Challenge your team to a month of Home Office Health. Get a point for every challenge met. Challenges can include morning meditation, setting a timer for every hour as a reminder to get up and hydrate, lunch walks, chair yoga, weekly meal/snack prep, etc. Not telling them upfront, but everyone gets a prize, depending on your team size and budget (hellofresh subscription, Whole Foods gift card, basket of healthy treats, fit bit, on-line fitness class registration fee, recipe cards, box of Larabars, etc.). In the end, everyone wins! Better health, better mood, increased productivity, increased job satisfaction!

    *Knowing that you matter and are valued can be especially hard to realize when you spend so much time in isolation. Yes, I understand that your dog values sitting on your comfy feet or that your cat appreciates the warmth of your laptop. But I’m talking about those you work with and for. Have each team member write a positive character trait or something they value about each of your teammates. 1-3 things is good per person and I like having these hand written. Remote manager collects all of your awesomeness (via snail mail) and gets crafty, compiling the hand-written traits and placing them in a frame to then be sent to each individual to hang in their office’s as daily reminders that they do matter! Feeling all the good feels yet?

    Reply
  139. Louise Gomez
    Louise Gomez
    March 28, 2020 at 9:22 pm

    What creative ways to build teams and have fun! I really like the Tea VS. Coffee & Tiny Campfire!
    I believe a “Personality Matrix” event would not only be a great team building activity, but it would also show
    the strengths of different people.
    The 4 main Personality quadrants : Controller, Promoter, Supporter, Analyzer traits could be broken down.
    By asking different questions, and giving specific examples people could see which personality type they are.
    Then as the different people come together, they now create a TEAM.
    They get to team build, dance to a song, create their own theme, etc etc.
    The teams can present a variety of different strengths they possess .
    Not only is this team building.. But it is knowing the different strengths of the teams mates to be able to draw upon when needed in the future!

    Reply
  140. Franklyn
    Franklyn
    March 29, 2020 at 12:14 am

    Another fun team activity could be a remote-worker fashion show! Everyone can post photos of themselves in their favorite comfy outfit to wear while working from home plus bedhead. Bonus points if you can get a child or pet with a matching outfit.

    Reply
  141. Christine A Flores
    Christine A Flores
    March 29, 2020 at 12:19 am

    I believe a great virtual team building activity could be a team movie night. You could stream the movie through a video conference call and keep an instant messaging chat box open so team members can comment and make remarks during the movie. Experiences give remote employees something to bond over and joke about later on. Plus it forces team members to take a little downtime and relax.

    Reply
  142. Ray S
    Ray S
    March 29, 2020 at 9:59 am

    Monopoly can be played virtually, a game of spades for smaller groups or internet I spy games for larger groups or even Internet hide and seek. There are so many more ideas just need a little structure added and you’ve got yourself some innovative ideas.
    You could all bake a cake and post your pictures of creative designs or Waffle making. Cooking classes where everyone posts there favorite recipes and everyone votes on which one is the best. You can have scrap booking classes. If your looking for more fitness you could have fitness lead by different people for different aspects of it. You could play clue and have teams which are decided as a group. These are just a few ideas that I believe could be turned into fun activities to build a team of successful people.

    Reply
  143. Emmanuel Abrams
    Emmanuel Abrams
    March 29, 2020 at 11:11 am

    If your virtual remote team have webcams or if only a few of them do you guys could all cut on your webcams together in a group online call and play all sorts of things! You can play pictionary or charades where one team member has on his/her webcam to act our or draw something. While the other person on their team has to guess it out and if they get it correct they get a point! It’s a great bonding activity and an amazing way to get a good energy circling around the entire team! Entertainment and happiness within a work space will always prevail!

    Reply
  144. Phillip B.
    Phillip B.
    March 29, 2020 at 12:48 pm

    Music seems to be something that most people can relate to. Using music in the virtual environment would be relatively easy. Having a karaoke contest or a virtual music game show are a couple of options. Singing along with your favorite song or being the fastest to answer a music trivia question would be a great way to bring everyone together.

    Reply
  145. Miranda J.
    Miranda J.
    March 29, 2020 at 2:18 pm

    There are so many amazing ideas. I love how many of them get people talking about themselves. I feel like it is so hard to get to know other people while sitting on the other side of computer screens and I think my biggest fears about working from home is getting lonely because I really enjoy interacting with other people. This article has really shown me that it is possible to keep that human interaction. I am very musically centered as well, so the virtual musical environment seems like a great way to help people open up when they may otherwise be uncomfortable. I think the donuts or lunch date but each submitting songs for a playlist for background noise would help add a conversation topic if the conversation lulls.

    Reply
  146. Christine Patch
    Christine Patch
    March 30, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    These are all great ideas – while I am not tech savvy my group has asked me to look into a virtual traditional bingo game and I am not sure how to get it started/invite colleagues etc?

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 30, 2020 at 8:55 pm

      Hi Christine! If you right click the bingo board in the post you can save it and then distribute to your team. I recommend making it informal — have folks fill it out over the next week or so and see if anyone gets a bingo :- )

      Reply
  147. Hope Smith
    Hope Smith
    March 30, 2020 at 4:41 pm

    These are great suggestions! Can’t wait to try the pixel art! #pixel
    Thank you!

    Reply
  148. Michael Diaz
    Michael Diaz
    March 30, 2020 at 9:53 pm

    I love all these ideas, it was very hard for me to pick one. The one that stood out to me a bit more than the rest was The MTV Crib Style Team Builder. I think opening yourself up to your team mate can be a great way to create intimacy and trust within each other. It would be awesome to add a twist to it, where each person either misplaces something they would never own or makes their MTV Crib Edition a funny skit. Home is where the heart is and this team builder is a great way to bring a team together along all the other fun ones of course. Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
  149. Hannah Becker
    Hannah Becker
    March 30, 2020 at 11:12 pm

    I love the “Can You Hear Me Now?!” team building activity. As a remote worker we type and can follow scripts all day long. Doing an activity where we can be creative and use a different part of our brain is a great break from the usual. It also helps to see how our coworkers think and where our perceptions may be different. Understanding how to communicate ideas and directions effectively from a virtual distance is super important!

    Reply
  150. Brittany Walsh
    Brittany Walsh
    March 30, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    I loved all these ideas. Exciting sponge stood out to me the most. It is easy to explain when you want to sell the idea. It is a very fun and unique virtual team building experience. It can get very goofy which I LOVE. It’s always nice to lighten the mood and have a good laugh with others. I personally would love to do this activity myself. This activity shows personality and creativeness. This is a wonderful way to bring a team together and get ideas going. Thank you very much for these amazing ideas!

    Reply
  151. H P
    H P
    March 30, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    One great team building activity that can e done with remote teams and definitely an ice breaker is having everyone share a funny embarrassing moment. This gets everyone laughing and you get to know your coworkers better.

    Reply
  152. Craig
    Craig
    March 31, 2020 at 12:09 am

    The virtual campfire makes the best of both worlds. An escape but to bond with those you work with. I always think about the amazing campfire stories and jokes people can say around the campfire. This blends that fun with today’s technology at work. A wonderful way to roll up your sleeves and make a fire, then get to know your coworkers on a much better level.

    Reply
  153. Cmore
    Cmore
    March 31, 2020 at 12:25 am

    Excited to virtually team build. Always stay engaged. #pixel

    Reply
  154. Aces
    Aces
    March 31, 2020 at 1:23 am

    Help!
    I’m a teacher and would like to host a “team building” activity with all staff. But I’m not a “people person” like in the terms of being an extrovert. I would use a platform like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Bluejeans.

    I would like to host this week, next week, and the following. Time frame: 15-30 minutes.

    This Friday is my tentative start day.

    But I’m looking for easy and effective. Fun and talkative. I don’t want it to be boring or turn into a complaining session.

    This isn’t a mandatory event, so those who attend, I want them to want to come back the following weeks.

    What can I do to start?

    I love love love the ideas given so far!! Any advice on running virtual “fun” meetings please help!!

    Reply
    • Michael Alexis
      Michael Alexis
      March 31, 2020 at 7:17 am

      Hi Aces! If you use Zoom then one of the easiest ways to increase fun and engagement is to use the “breakout rooms” features. You create a prompt with an icebreaker question or another simple activity, and then assign attendees to the various rooms. The smaller group setting gives everyone a chance to talk and connect; which is something that will make the experience engaging and memorable for many of them. You can choose to go into a breakout room or hang out in the main room, so it is a good option for introverts too :- )

      Reply
  155. Nicholas Edmunds
    Nicholas Edmunds
    March 31, 2020 at 3:13 am

    The virtual campfire for remote teams is a fantastic idea for team building/bonding. It’s one that will bring us nostalgia as we try not to burn our marshmallows and ask each other “want s’more?” and “you’re killin’ me Smalls!” 🙂

    Reply
  156. Abrianna Bowen
    Abrianna Bowen
    March 31, 2020 at 4:16 am

    If you are looking to really get to know your team and create some team bonding, a perfect activity is the MTV Cribs: Remote Team edition activity. What better way to learn about your team’s interest other than the comfortable spaces of their home. It’s a fun corky way to get straight personal and honest with your co-workers.

    Reply
  157. Jake
    Jake
    March 31, 2020 at 9:08 am

    These are all super creative ideas! I think a good team building exercise would be an activity that I’ve heard called Love Letters, except you can do it over conference chat instead of sending a letter through the mail. You’re given a name and have to come up with 1 example of a good quality that person shows, whether it be at work or just a positive personality trait that person has. It would be great way for coworkers to show gratitude to one another and create a positive, meshed relationship virtually.

    Reply
  158. Noah
    Noah
    March 31, 2020 at 9:11 am

    I think a great way to team build would be to gather in a group/virtual space to play a game of Scattergories. Not only does it require everyone to think creatively and remember anything possible but it creates greater bonds with other co-workers. Since you have to go over all the answers it also can lead to learning something about your co-worker and figuring out why each co-worker answers differently. On top it expands your own knowledge about things you may have not known about before.

    Reply
  159. Brendan Resnikoff
    Brendan Resnikoff
    March 31, 2020 at 9:46 am

    I have found myself going down a lot of Wikipedia rabbit holes lately – starting on one Wikipedia page, then somehow finding myself on a completely different topic just after a few clicks on words that are highlighted blue throughout the articles.

    For a little spin on the remote team building exercise/ice breaker, I think it would be a lot of fun to have individuals highlight something unique/memorable about themselves and associate it with a Wikipedia page. Each individual would then find a different Wikipedia page that is no more that 3 “clicks” away, and send the URL to the participants. There would then be a race between the other participants to figure out which Wikipedia rabbit hole (which 3 clicks) were used to get to the unique/memorable Wikipedia page.

    For example, something unique about me is that I spent a majority of my childhood in Belgium, so I choose “Chocolate” as my unique/memorable Wikipedia page. I figure out that you can get from the French Fries Wikipedia page to the Chocolate Wikipedia page with only 3 clicks, and send the French Fries URL to all participants. First person to figure out how to get from one page to the other wins, and then it’s the next person’s turn to go.

    This would probably work best for small remote group ice breakers, but I think it could be a fun and innovative way to learn fun facts about everyone and get to know each other better!

    Reply
  160. Angelina Boyle
    Angelina Boyle
    March 31, 2020 at 10:25 am

    Hello!
    I find the blind drawing can be the perfect activity for team building. This activity encourages communication and contemplation, it makes people have to put their minds together to figure out a drawing. In doing so, people can gage who thinks like, who thinks quick, and who thinks outside the box. The activity can be helpful to see who should do specific roles on a team and who should work together directly. Also, I mean it’s a very fun activity. The show “How I Met Your Mother” shows a perfect example of this in a couple of their episodes.

    Reply
  161. CHINA JACKSON
    CHINA JACKSON
    March 31, 2020 at 10:52 am

    These activities is a great way to bond, be engaged and have fun. I can do the campfire activity with my team. I think this would be a great way to bond and learn things about each other.

    Reply
  162. Anastacia
    Anastacia
    March 31, 2020 at 11:08 am

    * TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITY SUGGESTION *

    Recently I was challenged to think of a team-building activity for virtual teams and/or remote workers. It can be challenging to get to know your coworkers from a remote location since there is a lack of face-to-face interaction. What better way to get to know some fun facts about your coworkers than Two Truths and a Lie… however, there’s a twist. Two Truths and a Lie and Chubby Bunny mashup!

    The night before a video conference, all remote team members should write down two true facts and one lie about themselves. Each team member reads all three and co-workers chime in one at a time and guess which fact is actually a lie! The team member with the their facts and lie waits until all co-workers have guessed to reveal which one of their facts was a lie. The co-workers that guess wrong must stuff their mouth with one marshmallow (the “bunny” in chubby bunny). All team members takes a turn stating their facts and whichever co-worker ends the game with the most marshmallows loses. This will be a fun way to get to know one another.

    If this sparked your interest, let me know your thoughts!

    Reply
  163. Jessica M.
    Jessica M.
    March 31, 2020 at 11:36 am

    Especially during this particularly challenging time, it’s important to reach out to your employees and check on their mental health and well-being while also ensuring they still feel that their work is valuable and they are an asset to the company.

    Why not host a meeting that is creative, educational and allows your employees to actually see each other? A Virtual Happy Hour allows your team members to bring a beverage of choice (alcohol is not mandated), see the faces of their colleagues and talk in real time to feel more connected. In addition to including quick online team building games like icebreakers, there is a naturally built in experience since everyone has already brought their own beverage to the Happy Hour. Employees can vote on what they believe is the most unique drink, best presentation and other categories. The employees who win get a prize and can do a demonstration of how to make that drink.

    This is a great way to be hands-on and get conversations going in a laid-back atmosphere.

    Reply
  164. Jake Larson
    Jake Larson
    March 31, 2020 at 11:44 am

    Remote karaoke team building one is great, Getting a team out if its comfort zone with a song or music they love really brings a work environment close and really connects people more then you think. Definitly doing this more!

    Reply
  165. Kalyca R Welch
    Kalyca R Welch
    March 31, 2020 at 11:46 am

    (Company’s Name) Got .GIFs: Who doesn’t love a good .gif? and America has made a lot of them!
    I think it would be fun to pick a topic(s), company-related or just for fun, and challenge employees to find the most relatable .gif! The person who comes up with the best relatable .gifs will win the challenge. This, again, is just for fun! A “brain-break”.

    Reply
  166. Jessica Kazyaka
    Jessica Kazyaka
    March 31, 2020 at 11:47 am

    TELEPHONE BAKING! 🙂

    I have a great idea for remote team building!
    Some people are great bakers, some people think they’re great bakers, and some people know they’re not great bakers! Either way baking is always entertaining. So why not throw an extra twist on it! We all know the game of telephone, how words and phrases can get lost and the final sentence is never how started, well this is kind of like that.. except with baking. Take a simple cake or cupcake recipe (whatever your favorite!), go into google translate, translate the entire recipe from english, to another language (any language!), then back to English, back to another language, and finally back to English! By the time you get the recipe back the words may have changed slightly from the original recipe. Now the challenge is to see who can make something decent out of a funny sounding recipe! 🙂

    Reply
  167. Ashley
    Ashley
    March 31, 2020 at 12:08 pm

    I love this article! There are so many great ideas, as well as in the comments. One idea that I have would be similar to many Facebook posts we have seen where you answer questions and encourage others to do the same. For a team building exercise this would like a private chat or site that the employees can all share on. There will be 20 questions and each person has to share their responses. The employees would be randomly assigned to groups (mixing up departments) and it would be a competition scavenger hunt. Each group would need to choose five people’s responses from other groups and come up with current real life pictures they already have to represent those answers. Obviously this would be adjusted based on number of employees and teams. The teams would be based on speed, creativity, and believability. Everyone would get to know each other, get their creativity and team work going, and of course everyone would still be rewarded because participation and team work is the way to win!

    Reply
  168. Andrea Perez-Acosta
    Andrea Perez-Acosta
    March 31, 2020 at 12:13 pm

    The virtual happy hour creates a sense of relaxation in the comfort of your home. During this pandemic, employers can allow this for their employees to relax with one another, and enjoy an adult beverage. Aside from the virtual happy hour, another team-building workshop would be a tiny campfire. I personally love the outdoors and find peace within fires. I have never personally thought of this idea and during this pandemic, it is a great way to keep morale and spirits lifted.

    Reply
  169. Mark Standrich
    Mark Standrich
    March 31, 2020 at 12:22 pm

    One of my all-time favorite team building activities has to be building a marshmallow and spaghetti tower. This team-building exercise really has a large on emphasis on the BUILDING part. I love this because it forces but also encourages the team to rely on one another for their specific strengths. One team member might be very good at the architecture, others on the appearance, others on time management. These aspects by themselves do not make a very good tower. However, when the aspects of this challenge are combined and the strengths are really keyed into as a team, you have the tools to make a truly amazing tower, that everyone in the team can be proud of, because it was made in fellowship.

    I really feel that this challenge in particular lets you see the difference between the I alone mentality and the Team mentality.

    As someone said to me a while back, ” if you want to go fast, go alone. BUT if you want to go far, go together. ”

    I think that really speaks waves to what a team can truly accomplish if they are allied together and take advantage of specific strengths.

    Reply
  170. Christopher Dickhute
    Christopher Dickhute
    March 31, 2020 at 12:22 pm

    I think that the Google sheets exercise is pretty cool! I would also recommend the team jeopardy. I like the amount of interactivity with gameshows.

    Reply
  171. Jessica
    Jessica
    March 31, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    All of these events sound super engaging yet I find myself gravitating towards 37.

    In today’s climate, we need to help in whatever way we can. Donating to causes helps a team grow together in the sense of knowing they are working towards a cause they all care for. I specifically think curating a sewing kit for making face masks would be essential. Partnering with local hospitals or medical care of the team’s choice would be amazing.

    Reply
  172. Hans Schaper
    Hans Schaper
    March 31, 2020 at 1:17 pm

    The best way to increase trust is through Vulnerability,

    When we realize that the people around us will not love us less because of an embarrassing or awkward fact about us, we automatically lower our guards and drop down any artificial facades we might have built up as a way to please or blend-in into our company,

    so a wonderful activity would be for the individuals in a team to anonymously submit random facts about them, and throughout a big enough pool of employees, there will be certain common awkward facts; those common, universal awkward facts are out into a bingo, and that’s how you get “Awkward Bingo,”

    This will not only make participants understand that they won’t be judged, but also, that many other people share those other problems, and thus, the feeling of knowing that others have gone throughout similar experiences in life will create mental peace for the employee not only while they work for a company, but for the rest of their life.

    Reply
  173. Sergio Corona
    Sergio Corona
    March 31, 2020 at 1:26 pm

    one great activity to break the monotony of working remotely and bringing everyone together for a healthy and fun competition could be a TBT but with a playlist of songs from 10 or 15 years ago. So you make a playlist of songs that were popular ten or more years ago. Play the songs through a video chatting platform and have people type in an “x” and send it or something like that to show who was first.

    Reply
  174. Kayla Sapp
    Kayla Sapp
    March 31, 2020 at 1:30 pm

    A virtual dance party is the perfect way to break the ice with your team. Joining calls from home tend to be awkward especially in the very beginning. We have created a way to increase your teams energy while reducing their nerves. We recommend playing an upbeat song such as Taylor Swift – Shake it Off or The Beatles – Twist and Shout. This dance party can be the bulk of the call, or can be a 3 minute addition in the beginning and/or end of your meeting. Either way, you and your team are bound to have a meeting like you never had before!
    Have fun and let loose!

    Reply
  175. Casey
    Casey
    March 31, 2020 at 1:41 pm

    Something like the Newlywed Game, but with employees! Pair people up with other people they work with directly, and see how much you know about someone just from working with them. Holding up the signs with answers would be an easy thing to do virtually. One person can keep score on a board that’s visible via Zoom! You can do topics like music, books, food, etc. and keep it to a minimum of a few categories for time. OR something like that but BINGO! One person facilitates and calls out Bingo squares and people play and mark theirs down as they go.

    Reply
  176. Nicholas
    Nicholas
    March 31, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    One idea I use is A meme war, we have so many memes that we don’t post so why not laugh at something funny and get comfortable looking at a screen .

    Reply
  177. Donn
    Donn
    March 31, 2020 at 1:50 pm

    I think a crucial part of team building comes from comfort and security with one another. Especially if this is built in an open space at first, you can develop relationships that will withstand difficult times either personally or professionally.

    Since this is the age of lists and check-offs, you could create a basic template for each team member with sections like “when I was a teenager” or “craziest dreams.” Each member could fill out fun details to ease into sharing with one another on a level playing field, since each team member would respond to the same questions.

    Reply
  178. Cindy
    Cindy
    March 31, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    Hello!

    I think a good activity could be a “It’s time for Jokes, dont laugh!”

    It can be in 2 teams and 1 mediator taking notes of the scores.

    They start 1 against 1 telling jokes, whoever laughs first, loses. The team that has laughed the most times loses.

    I think its a good time to have fun and laugh a lot!

    Reply
  179. Paul
    Paul
    March 31, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    Virtually “attend” a sports event. Everyone can Zoom while they watch a live baseball, football, etc. game. It’s especially fun if the remote teams are based in 2 different cities and teams representing those cities are playing each other.

    Reply
  180. Raymond Kohl
    Raymond Kohl
    March 31, 2020 at 2:42 pm

    A great remote team builder can be the “Family Feud” card game. Set your team into two groups and play a few rounds. It is exciting and gets them collaborating on the answers. I would usually use this at the end of a meeting so that the team would leave our meeting excited and ready to face the days challenges together.

    Reply
  181. Norah
    Norah
    March 31, 2020 at 2:48 pm

    I think a really fun virtual team building activity would be a virtual get together where everyone gets to share one embarrassing work story. We all have one and the funnier our stories, the better. There’s nothing quite like spending time laughing with people you work with. I think that’d be an excellent way to build a close relationship between teammates.

    Reply
  182. Tyler Galyon
    Tyler Galyon
    March 31, 2020 at 3:02 pm

    Such an amazing list of team building activities! During times of uncertainty it is more important than ever to remain close with our teams. One activity that I think would be valuable is for everyone on a team to share 1 thing they are grateful for personally and 1 example of something they are grateful for in their team dynamic. Regular gratitude practices have mad a profound effect on my life and it would be awesome to see the results from doing this regularly in a remote team setting.

    Reply
  183. Ran
    Ran
    March 31, 2020 at 3:11 pm

    Spreadsheet Pixel Art looks like a lot of fun to be able to do. To have a team or group complete with each other in making a work of art from something they would typically use for data sheets or graphs can really ease the stress and tension from the group.

    Reply
  184. Damian Regas
    Damian Regas
    March 31, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    Love it! Being an outdoor enthusiast, I am all over the idea of a virtual tiny campfire! In my experience, every time I have sat around a campfire with my friends, it has almost always brought us all closer together and truly set the environment for team thinking and discussion. It is a great way to blend the warmth of a makeshift camp fire and conversation, but virtually!

    Reply
  185. Jaime Wheeler
    Jaime Wheeler
    March 31, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    I love the Cribs idea!!! Personally, I think I like that one because it’s raw and real. I like blunt truth, facts, stats and imperfection. I think a visual polling system on the screen, like political almost but rated by your peers accessible to change throughout the topic of a meeting or exercise would be awesome to literally see the impact of your actions and speech in real time and creating a platform where people can deliver that message in real time.

    Reply
  186. Madeline Kortze
    Madeline Kortze
    March 31, 2020 at 3:47 pm

    These are great tips! I will have to keep them in mind when working with virtual teams. I’m a RA at a college and because of the current pandemic of COVID-19, I am trying to connect everyone virtually since we are all home for the rest of the semester. Another idea that I had in mind was a virtual “paint and sip”. This can be when everyone joins a Zoom meeting where they all try and follow a fun painting tutorial such as a Bob Ross tutorials while drinking their beverage of choice. This can be a fun staff bonding activity that would be good for new or older teams! I actually just did this with my residents and they loved it!

    Reply
  187. EJ Arcilla
    EJ Arcilla
    March 31, 2020 at 3:52 pm

    I love this team idea of having a tiny campfire. It is familiar, cozy, and a friendly atmosphere to get to know your team better. What’s a better way to get to know your friends and teammate than to cozy up next to a virtual tiny campfire?

    Reply
  188. Ruth Melina Alvez
    Ruth Melina Alvez
    March 31, 2020 at 3:55 pm

    One idea for a team building activity with a remote team is wine tasting. The empolyer can send a taster sample of their 2 or 3 favorite wines to team members. When the event takes place the teams should take turns describing the taste, smell and look of the wine as descriptively as possible. Wine can be replaced with cheese or chocolate or a piece of art. This activity should focus on creative and descriptive intuitive thinking and communication. There can be a panel of judges who decide on several awards for which team members were most creative or most entertaining or most helpful in their descriptions. Prizes can be a full sized bottle of wine or gift certificate.

    Reply
  189. lisa Singh
    lisa Singh
    March 31, 2020 at 3:57 pm

    I really like the campfire idea because it allows everyone to meet new people in a different way and it will help other companies that people work from all over the country and even outside of the US to come together and enjoy meeting everyone online and making new friends and new bonds and always be encouraging and erasure the company is doing everything they can to have the best workers.

    Reply
  190. Jennifer Ashby
    Jennifer Ashby
    March 31, 2020 at 4:06 pm

    There are so many great ideas in this article! I find that working remotely can be lonesome and bonding with your team is a huge part of a successful business. I think a great remote team building activity would be a virtual Happy Hour! If you think about it, usually after a shift what is the number one question asked to other employees? – “Hey, want to go grab a drink after work?” Having a virtual Happy Hour is a great way for a team to just kick back and relax, stress-free and bond over things work related, or non work related. Don’t drink? That’s okay! Mix yourself up a nice mocktail and enjoy the company of your co-workers!

    Reply
  191. Melissa
    Melissa
    March 31, 2020 at 4:09 pm

    I think it would be super fun to incorporate a scavenger hunt somewhere in the day’s work. You could use symbols, images, or certain lines of text depending on your projects. And then of course, some sort of goodie for the person who finds everything first.

    Reply
  192. Will N.
    Will N.
    March 31, 2020 at 4:14 pm

    Team building is so important. Especially in this technologically driven time, some of my favorites were 2 truths and a lie, and personal trivia, word associations, and rhyme chains.

    (My fiance said rhyme chains were not a thing so I’ll explain) Everyone gets in a circle, or takes a number, start with a list of words (could be work related or not). Start with person 1 and the first word, go around the circle/numbers giving each person 3 seconds to say a word. Take any longer or repeat a word and that person is out. Choose a new word. Keep this going until 1 person remains or 1 team remains.

    Any who. The idea of virtual really does take it to the next level and opens up so many business types sprawled across large areas to still have that connection. I personally adore the idea of pet picture sharing.

    Reply
  193. Katie
    Katie
    March 31, 2020 at 4:38 pm

    A really good idea for virtual team events is using Jackbox.tv. They have all sorts of games. You use your phone to participate. The game goes on the computer and you could stream it over Zoom or Webex. They have games like trivia and also games required to work together like a who done it game.

    Reply
  194. Micayla H
    Micayla H
    March 31, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    Virtual Cards Against Humanity would be fun! Create your own virtual business-directed cards to include customized phrases and responses.

    Reply
  195. Janet
    Janet
    March 31, 2020 at 5:07 pm

    I think a fun team building idea would be to give everyone 2 sticky notes. Each person write one surprising fact about themselves on each note. Then take the notes and place them on the wall, board, whichever you have available. Then, someone reads the note and everyone try to guess which fact goes with which person!

    Reply
  196. Christina
    Christina
    March 31, 2020 at 5:11 pm

    So many great ideas for working remotely! An activity that came to mind is somewhat similar to Things, but instead have the next comment start with the last letter of the word before. For example, “Describe Christina in one word” would be the topic. Person #1 comments “fun”. Person #2 has to have an answer that starts with “N” and says “nice”. Person #3 would choose an answer with the letter “E”, so “energetic”… and so one. (The host could even encourage positive comments only to really boost morale!)

    Reply
  197. Anika Fella
    Anika Fella
    March 31, 2020 at 5:14 pm

    What a great list of events! Working with a globally remote team, we often find it hard to connect on personal levels. Other options for remote games are:

    1. Who am I?
    The group (minus the active player) is provided with a name of a known person: celebrity, historical figure, coworker. The active person can ask questions regarding known facts (ex. Am I a female? Was I born in the 1900s? Did I give a really good speech at Gettysburg?) The person has a set number of questions to ask before guessing who they are. This is a great game for both individual and team play.

    2. What happened next?
    A person tells a story about an event that happened in their life leaving off the finale. Other players then try and guess what happened next. This is not only a fun way for people to get to know about you, but also for you to see what people think of you.

    3. Virtual games using a shipped VR headset. Some fun games to play as a group include: Jenga, Ping Pong, Trivia, Darts and painting.

    Reply
  198. Carly R
    Carly R
    March 31, 2020 at 5:19 pm

    One virtual team building activity that could be done can be a virtual happy hour! I know a lot of businesses have company happy hour to get employees out and socializing. Well when you are all virtual that isnt really an option to do in person. So what better way than to do it over the computer! Everyone can grab their favorite happy hour beverage and snacks and voila! Happy hour via virtual!

    Reply
  199. Rachel C.
    Rachel C.
    March 31, 2020 at 5:23 pm

    This seems like a really cool resource for all team building. I really like the Tiny Campfire Activity. That’s probably my favorite out of all of these activities! Can’t wait to do this with my team!

    Reply
  200. Jasmine McGrady
    Jasmine McGrady
    March 31, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    One way to build teams virtually is before every video meeting spend about 5 minutes seeing how everyone is doing and striking up small chit chat. Working remotely you don’t have the same benefits as working in an office getting to know your colleges. This would be a great way to get to know your coworkers.

    Reply
  201. valeria navarro
    valeria navarro
    March 31, 2020 at 5:31 pm

    I love all of these ideas and wish I could experience one of these! I believe a great way to bond and to do team building could be virtual comedic story telling of obnoxious story telling from one group of the video chat, and the second group of the video chat would have to guess the storyline by clues given by the creative group.

    Reply
  202. Nikita
    Nikita
    March 31, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    Hi Everyone! A virtual team building activity that I think would be great is pictionary and hot chocolate! Everyone could sit on the couch with delicious hot chocolate and then we could use Zoom and divide everyone into 2 teams and and get started! We would use a secret santa website but put in day-to-day items or popular movies or celebrity names and each person would receive a notification saying what they are responsible for drawing. They can draw on the computer and share the screen, leveling out the playing field since it’s difficult to draw on the computer! They would have about 60 seconds to draw and then everyone would guess! This is a great exercise to just relax, curled up on the couch with hot cocoa and some laughs!

    Reply
  203. kari
    kari
    March 31, 2020 at 5:36 pm

    All of activities seem really fun two really stood out Video moments and a Learn the NATO phonetic alphabet
    being a nerd code words are just really cool to me. Hmmm, also taking photos of your pets hopefully that’s one that will get slipped in anyways. A great team building activity that came to mind something that causes laughter I would think of a kinda Jeopardy only with comic books or cartoons something that brings everyone back to laugher and fun.

    Reply
  204. Luis
    Luis
    March 31, 2020 at 5:41 pm

    A good idea for team building that can work to break the ice and get to know your co-workers would be to make a list of generic list of funny, embarrassing, scary, wholesome stories and those who have a experience share the stories to others. I believe this activity can work for those who are shy to get to know others as well as encouraging co-workers to become more open to others.

    Reply
  205. Kalyn
    Kalyn
    March 31, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    LOVE all of fun and exciting team building activities. With everyone having to work from home, co-working is a great way for coworkers to stay connected and working efficiently as a team! Working from home can be a challenge, but the idea of having teammates be “in-sync” is fantastic!

    Reply
  206. Braxton
    Braxton
    March 31, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    A good team building exercise for a virtual team is roleplaying. It’s not just valid for sales team, but for marketing, retail, etc. it can provide not only good practice, but generate new ideas for responses to questions or issues some may have issues with. It could also provide a better response to an already existing, recurring question!

    Reply
  207. Katherine Kimball
    Katherine Kimball
    March 31, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    I absolutely love the option for remote Tai Chi. To add onto that idea, it could also be fun to incorporate a remote yin yoga class, that targets stress relief in the body. Sitting at a computer all day can create tension in the body and nervous system, so offering activities that pacify stress is a great way to blow off some daily steam and experience the benefits as a team.

    Reply
  208. Mary-Catherine
    Mary-Catherine
    March 31, 2020 at 6:50 pm

    These are awesome ways to have virtual fun with all of your colleagues! I think that an awesome activity would be virtual trivia. Learning about others that you work with can be so interesting. I think if you turned it into something like trivia, that would make for a fun and engaging time. People could put different facts about them on flashcards and read them aloud while everyone guesses. It can be made into a friendly competition, because everyone loves a little competition every now and then!

    Reply
  209. Vincent Bartolomeo
    Vincent Bartolomeo
    March 31, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    Tiny campfire is an adorably smart way to break the ice. Offering the tools needed to partake in a common activity everyone enjoys allows the team to better understand each other. In a business such as this, peer support is important and providing a mundane carefree activity such as roasting mini s’ mores aids in this significant team-building needed for a company to be uniform and collective.

    Reply
  210. Ryan Burt
    Ryan Burt
    March 31, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    I am applying for a job with your company and it sounds really fun, hard working, and fullfilling. It also seems quite unique. Pub Trivia for Virtual Teams seems to be the most interesting. I have sales experience and can’t wait to get started.

    Reply
  211. Jennifer Chevez
    Jennifer Chevez
    March 31, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    These are amazing ideas on team building and relationship strengthening. In today’s time, more and more people are learning 2nd languages. I think having a session where coworkers can learn from each others languages would not only build rapport with one another but also build a completely new skill from one another.

    Reply
  212. Celeste Brown
    Celeste Brown
    March 31, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    I really love everything about this remote team building stuff. I think there are so many fun things you could do with this. What about a costume contest (or PET COSTUME contest mwahaha), or even good ole’ charades!?

    Reply
  213. Nicole
    Nicole
    March 31, 2020 at 7:45 pm

    I’m sure we can come up with some Birthday Engaging activities. Everyone loves celebrating birthdays.

    Reply
  214. Lorena
    Lorena
    March 31, 2020 at 7:48 pm

    I love Virtual Scavenger hunts revolving around improving work environment where the winners get to pitched their idea to the team.

    Reply
  215. Brad
    Brad
    March 31, 2020 at 8:09 pm

    These are such excellent examples of how technology can bring people together in a time when we are being made to stay apart. I think another cool idea would be a team paint/color challenge in which every team member downloads and prints the same template, and colors it in the most off-the-wall way possible. No typical colors allowed! Its similar to Spreadsheet Pixel Art but more tangible for the employees that prefer to color physically rather than virtually like myself. Plus having a tangible piece of art makes it easier to share on a live video chat!

    Reply
  216. LaTonya
    LaTonya
    March 31, 2020 at 8:20 pm

    I love the Donut Calls. It gives every team member a chance to personally connect with each other 1 on 1. You never know just how much you may have in common with someone until you actually take the time to get to know them.

    Reply
  217. Andres
    Andres
    March 31, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    This is very interesting. How about a Happy Hour with some games included? I would start it off with Not everyone has to drink, however it is a way for some team members to “loosen up” a little and have some laughs in a totally different environment than the workplace. This can help improve relationships in the department and yield to better communication and results. As to the games, maybe some storytelling would work to break the ice, and then proceed to some drinking games that involve quick thinking and teamwork!

    Reply
  218. rajini
    rajini
    March 31, 2020 at 8:57 pm

    This is a wonderful idea. Remote workers also need some time off!. This is a great way to relax and have fun for some time and get back to work. Simply wonderful!

    Reply
  219. Chris H
    Chris H
    March 31, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    One of the best team building exercises I’ve ever experienced was playing 2 truths and a lie. Doing it virtually would be fun because you could say them and have all of your fellow teammates vote on which is truth and which is a lie. You may learn stuff about fellow employees you never would’ve guessed!

    I’ve also thought a “early close” scavenger hunt would be great where the it’s separated into teams. Those teams then complete the hunt and post their finds to the group chat and they have a designated time/place to meet and conversation when completed.

    Reply
  220. Tennille Richardson
    Tennille Richardson
    March 31, 2020 at 9:08 pm

    I would get input from each team member to get a feel for everyone’s interests and incorporate as many of the ideas into the activities over time. One of my favorites would be a customized virtual Charades or Taboo game. Also, get a list of the teams favorite songs and create a name that tune game using the songs.

    Reply
  221. Autumn
    Autumn
    March 31, 2020 at 9:32 pm

    I love the tiny campfire! Working remotely can make you feel unnoticed, but getting a gift in the mail is a great personal touch that makes one feel seen and valued. On top of that, there is something about a campfire that creates a feeling of nostalgia and connection. Lighting a “fire” and enjoying s’mores together, connects everyone as a team and the campfire setting provides the opportunity to tell stories, open up, and share ideas. As you mentioned, there is the added perk that no weather or bugs can get in the way! And the tiny size just makes it that much fun to bond over.

    Reply
  222. Savannah Porter
    Savannah Porter
    March 31, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    I have an idea! A virtual “Poetry Party” where each team member draws the name of a coworker, and writes a poem about them to be shared aloud virtually. A more topical variant of this idea, would be to write a poem detailing the daily struggles of living under quarantine. This can bring some humor to an otherwise challenging situation.

    Reply
  223. Adrian Frothingham
    Adrian Frothingham
    March 31, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    Reading all of these great ideas is inspiring. I love the scavenger idea! What if it was changed up a little more like a picture scavenger? Imagine if the employees could pick a fun location outdoors or keep it right there in the office if as a backup if it wasn’t weather permitting. Everyone has one if not two cell phones with a camera these days right? Team Builders could really take that fun and step it up a notch with trivia and gift bags right along with the event.

    Reply
  224. Damara Lewis
    Damara Lewis
    March 31, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    These are really awesome ideas. I think that doing like a scavenger hunt within your house (everyone’s individual house) is a really fun idea that makes you get off the couch and interact. Also, it might stir up some spring cleaning needs, especially if you are quarantined right now. I think another fun idea would be like a talent show almost. I think right now people have nothing to do and so they’ve had weeks to come up with weird things while isolating.

    Reply
  225. Baleigh
    Baleigh
    March 31, 2020 at 10:45 pm

    I absolutely love the idea of a “MTV Cribs: Remote Team Edition” idea. It is very important for those that work from home to get to know their co-workers. This truly shows people’s personalities.

    I would like to suggest doing something along the lines of “two truths and a lie.” This gives each member a fun opportunity to tell two fun things about themselves while others try to guess which of the three statements is a lie. While this isn’t as in-depth as a home tour, it’s still a small (but fun) way to get to know those you work with! Especially if you don’t get to physically see them at work every single day.

    Reply
  226. Andrea
    Andrea
    March 31, 2020 at 10:48 pm

    Remote Team Bingo seems like a great remote team building activity! Not only would this take the mind off of the normal checklist of day to day activities, it makes these calls and meetings both lighthearted and entertaining. The topics are shared between all employees and make for some friendly competition.

    Reply
  227. Syed
    Syed
    March 31, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    These are some very interesting ideas. One of my previous employers did a Happy hour style Yoga. They Hired a Yoga Instructor to do a live class where all employees including remote workers joined in. After a long week taking a relaxing beginner yoga class for 45 minutes followed by chit chat and other similar activities was a good way to relieve some stress and get to know the coworkers that you only email. I personally think after the team building activity. interaction between employees was more relaxed and productive. I have personally taken the Yoga class again. Maybe some Happy Hour Drinks following the Yoga class would help loosen up the employees.

    Reply
  228. Taylor Thurman
    Taylor Thurman
    March 31, 2020 at 11:10 pm

    One team-building idea that I have is to do a virtual “show and tell” via some kind of video chat. Each person picks one item that they love and they get to tell everyone about it. This is great because the individual can feel great about something they love and everyone else on the team gets to learn more about that person. This could also be great bonding for team members who realize they might have similar interests.

    Reply
  229. Tyler Muslija
    Tyler Muslija
    March 31, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    MTV Cribs is an excellent way to break the ice within a remote team, the most productive and efficient teams are the most interpersonal!

    Reply
  230. Iris James
    Iris James
    March 31, 2020 at 11:36 pm

    Everyone is looking for a dopamine rush in this stresssed out world.

    1st, Everyone takes a Deeeeeeep breath. Shoulder shrugs, stretches.

    2nd, each participant has 2 minutes to write 2 lines of a story, which the team leader sets the tone & subject of, then the story is read back by the moderator so everyone can laugh, make fun of their silly contributions.
    We laugh to break the ice and see where everyones jokes lie.

    Reply
  231. RYAN LANDRY
    RYAN LANDRY
    April 1, 2020 at 12:32 am

    These are cool, but they seem geared to keeping already happy employees happy. However, “Renegade Garden Collective”. Parring people with shared hobbies would make a team significantly closer.

    Reply
  232. Javier
    Javier
    April 1, 2020 at 12:38 am

    A good team-building exercise for a virtual team is creating a storyline to exercise creativity and listening skills.
    The leader will show the participants a picture/paint or a drawing and build from it a story, only adding the first paragraph then the next person will repeat what the first person says and build on top of that story and moves to the next person who has to repeat verbatim everything that has been said about the story and add on until one participant forget or the story goes too crazy.

    Reply
  233. Emily
    Emily
    April 1, 2020 at 1:13 am

    We need virtual team building now more than ever!
    To add a little fun to your meetings, pick a theme! Could be as simple as a color or as complex as cosplay–either way, it gets your team expressing themselves and getting to know each other.
    While we’re all forced to stay home and binge watch Netflix, another fun idea could be to do a “fan-ployee” session to discuss popular series. Watching Tiger King and having no one to talk to about it is nothing short of a tragedy.
    Another quarantine-themed ice breaker would be an adult show and tell: pick one of your favorite trinkets, oddities, pieces of art and tell your coworkers the story of how you came across it or why it’s important to you. This is a great way to get to know each other on a personal level.

    Reply
  234. Siehara Kennedy
    Siehara Kennedy
    April 1, 2020 at 1:19 am

    I absolutely love Bingo! Bingo on a cruise ship, bingo at a retirement home, bingo at work! I am filled with pure joy when I get to scream BINGO! Remote work bingo is a lot of fun and a great way to get to know your co-workers. Each week, a different coworker creates a bingo sheet. On Monday it is distributed to the crew, and on Friday they are all turned in. Who got a Bingo? How many Bingos did they get? Who wears pajamas to work, every single day? What do you win when you get the first BINGO? Bragging rights for the week. On a serious note, remote work bingo improves moral and does not take away from the goal at hand.

    Reply
  235. Jennifer Padilla
    Jennifer Padilla
    April 1, 2020 at 1:24 am

    I’m not sure if there would be anything better than some office karaoke? Especially if there were a theme that everyone had to dress up in costume for! Let the good times ROLL!!

    Reply
  236. Nance Campbell
    Nance Campbell
    April 1, 2020 at 1:27 am

    Karaoke for Remote Workers would be a great team builder as it would be fun and entertaining. I’m sure there would be a lot of laughing too and that always seems to bring people together.

    Reply
  237. Rayne
    Rayne
    April 1, 2020 at 1:31 am

    One interesting team building activity I think would be super productive and entertaining would be a Webcam Puppet Show, hosted by leadership. The story can revolve around the not-so-accurate history of how the company started, along with what goals the team plans to achieve in the future! The show would involve plot elements or key story items submitted prior by the team, and would be a wonderful opportunity to reminisce on the achievements the team has accomplished, as well as what is still left to achieve, give or take a few fantastical details.

    Reply
  238. Carmen Young
    Carmen Young
    April 1, 2020 at 1:33 am

    If I were doing a fun remote activity, I would do a game of ring around the laptop. This would consist of the people being on a group Skype. They would then all simply need to put a chair in between themselves and the laptop or PC. The administrator would start the music the workers would walk around the chair and when the music stops they would be required to hurry sit down and type TEAMBUILDING ROCKS!! to win. Its a fun quick way to do some exercise get your mind and blood pumping and reset your day for a short period of time.

    Reply
  239. Bridgette Jackson
    Bridgette Jackson
    April 1, 2020 at 2:26 am

    One of my all time favorite team building activities that I’ve done over the years is going around and stating one thing the person before you has done that has inspired you to be better. I love this because it makes everyone feel special. It’s a nice Ice breaker. My personal favorite of all of these is by far the Tiny Campfire as it give the impression of being out in nature which I love! Going around and telling Ghost Stories has always been one of my favorite family past times most of my first memories have to do with sitting around the campfire with my siblings and trying to scare each other into nightmares while eating a gooey chocolatey treat.

    Reply
  240. Jade
    Jade
    April 1, 2020 at 2:45 am

    Can try a where’s Waldo scavenger hunt.
    Each team makes 3 virtual collages where each one is harder than the other
    First team to find Waldo each time gets to choose a member on the other team to do any kind of dare

    Reply
    • Jade
      Jade
      April 1, 2020 at 2:52 am

      Another idea is a virtual silent library, as each task becomes more and more hilarious it’ll be harder to stay silent
      First team to break silence 3 times has to complete the ultimate doom challenge

      Reply
      • Charisse Landry
        Charisse Landry
        April 1, 2020 at 6:54 pm

        That is a great idea Jade!

        Reply
  241. Tim Palmer
    Tim Palmer
    April 1, 2020 at 3:07 am

    There is nothing better than toasting and having a Virtual Happy Hour. I would also add something to it and call it “HAPPY HOUR and MY READ” With this, you can all have a toast (alcohol or not), then you can all talk about a book that can make your job easier or it can help influence you to make changes that are related to your work and the people around you! A good book goes a long way, even with a nice sip of your favorite beverage!

    Reply
  242. Julianna Cox
    Julianna Cox
    April 1, 2020 at 4:37 am

    The High Five Circle is a great team-building activity for people to get to know each other more. The game starts with everybody standing in a circle. Somebody shouts out a phrase and anybody it applies to will run out to the middle of the circle and give everybody there a high five. For example, somebody can shout “I eat tofu”. Then everybody who eats tofu will run out to give each other high fives. The questions can also be funny and unique to the team’s situation.

    Reply
  243. Felipe Pacheco
    Felipe Pacheco
    April 1, 2020 at 5:32 am

    Really great ideas! The creativity is really contagious actually…

    I always think cooking is an amazing social activity that is engaging, requires some level of thinking and problem-solving, and is always a great bonding experience – whether that is over mistakes, or the glory of a perfectly formed brownie! I guess it’s sort of like ‘The Great Guac Off’ because I would suggest keeping it simple, but you could bake very easy cookies, or maybe something like a chocolate mousse! We would ship them the ingredients, and the only rule is that you can only move on when everyone has completed the next instruction. That way virtual/remote teams can make sure they cook together and get a chance to chat and bond through the experience. I call it… … Step-by-Chef!

    Reply
  244. Roberto
    Roberto
    April 1, 2020 at 8:37 am

    Perhaps a gaming tournament would be interesting, such as through a game console, something relating to a popular sport, or something the office could come to an agreement on

    Reply
  245. Michael
    Michael
    April 1, 2020 at 9:01 am

    As far as team building exercises I would recommend improv games like “yes and” or the question game in telephone format where everyone must respond in a question- this helps get the creative juices flowing and can build a camaraderie among coworkers through a positive shared experience.

    Reply
  246. Denisse Del Monte
    Denisse Del Monte
    April 1, 2020 at 10:26 am

    These aren’t just great ideas with which to increase remote team bonding. With the way that the world has been temporarily restructured these teambuilding activities could be useful to a lot of friend and family groups who can’t meet up physically due to the quarantine.

    My idea is something that I already do with my mom who’s in a different state and my sister who is living in a different country. What we do is basically have a jam sesh. Mind you, none of us have formal training. We were inspired when mom facetimed Lissy (18) and I to show us our younger siblings (2 and 4 year olds) jamming to pots and pans and toy pianos. Lissy then said “wait, let me get my guitar that I’ve never actually used” and now the whole family just jams out.

    I figured, a lot of people have pots and pans, children with music toys, or old, forgotten instruments. There might even be actual musicians in some cases. My point is, this could easily be an activity that people bond over, and it may inspire people to pick up a hobby.

    Reply
  247. Melissa Carpenter Carpenter
    Melissa Carpenter Carpenter
    April 1, 2020 at 10:38 am

    So many great ideas on here!

    What about an American ninja warrior competition. You could have the different teams make a 3-5 obstacle course in their living room. Then set a stopwatch to see who completes it the fastest, most creative and funniest. It would not only create a fun way to team build but also get some physical activity in.

    Reply
  248. Ivy
    Ivy
    April 1, 2020 at 10:49 am

    Another idea would be an online movie night! The way to do it would be sharing it from one screen, or everyone watches it on their screen. Everyone eats their favorite snacks. At the end everyone can talk about it! That way everyone has something to talk about. Hopefully, everyone can agree on the same movie!

    Reply
  249. MJ
    MJ
    April 1, 2020 at 11:03 am

    These are very creative ideas and approach to team building. Given the current economic situation, it’s more important now than ever to build team morale. Staying connect, while still having fun is a great approach for companies.

    Reply
  250. Colleen
    Colleen
    April 1, 2020 at 11:11 am

    Great Article!!! I think a “Clue” or Who-done it” virtual game would be fun….something involving the remote workers as the actual characters in the game… A sleuth of fun!

    Reply
  251. Stephen Wright
    Stephen Wright
    April 1, 2020 at 11:13 am

    Wow, what a comprehensive list! I’ve found that feeling connected is one of the most difficult things in being involved in a remote work environment and yet extremely important. An idea that I had is for all employees to post a “10 interesting facts” post to a message board, which would be great ice breakers and would really help people to get to know each other in a fun and effective way.

    Reply
  252. Chellan Brown
    Chellan Brown
    April 1, 2020 at 11:14 am

    All these activities sound pretty fun and interesting.

    If I had to pick an activity to do I would do a fun fact session and movie night.

    For the first, everyone has to come up with 5 interesting fun facts about themself that not a lot of people know. They tell 1 fun fact and from each fact they tell, a minimum of 2 people in the group have to ask a question regarding their fun fact told. Once a minimum of 2 questions have been asked about the 1 fun fact, the next person goes. Then we would go around to each person a total of 5 times until all fun facts have been said. oh, and by the end, everyone has to have asked at least 1 question.

    For the second, everyone would have to agree upon a movie as a team that they would all want to watch. Everyone has to figure out how they will be streaming said movie. As a team, do a countdown to start the movie and watch. And there WILL be popcorn.

    Reply
  253. Mayn
    Mayn
    April 1, 2020 at 11:44 am

    Thank you! We had a great time with bingo last week. Looking forward to the Pixel Challenge template!

    Reply
  254. Jaclyn Seal
    Jaclyn Seal
    April 1, 2020 at 11:48 am

    A good team building exercise to give introverts (Like myself-LOL) an equal chance to share some facts about themselves is the Truth or Lies activity. You basically sit everyone down in a big circle and have each person come up with 3 facts about themselves and one lie. The lie should be some-what realistic instead of not believable at all. Then go around the circle and have each person state the three facts and a lie in a random order, without revealing which is the lie. After someone shares, the others must guess which is the lie. This is a super fun way to get people to interact and a fun and humorous way 🙂

    Reply
  255. Jessie Fahay
    Jessie Fahay
    April 1, 2020 at 11:57 am

    Hi,

    One activity you all can do is share your favorite food to prepare.
    This gives an insight into everyone’s culture, creativity, and passion for food!

    Reply
  256. Zaria Manning
    Zaria Manning
    April 1, 2020 at 11:57 am

    A team building activity you can do with remote teams is The Deserted Island Scenario game.
    In this virtual team building game, team members are given the scenario that they are stranded on a deserted island with seven objects, but they can only choose three. Make these objects as obscure and strategic as possible so that members are challenged to really think and plan. Split the team into groups and allow them to collaborate on which items they want to choose. Once all collaborations have finished, get onto a team video chat and discuss the results.

    Reply
  257. Megan Schmit
    Megan Schmit
    April 1, 2020 at 12:05 pm

    What a great article for remote companies! Some really fun and creative ideas! A break the ice that could be silly and fun could “walk it out (remote version)”. Where each employee chooses their theme song or “walk out” song like in baseball. A fun way to introduce themselves to other coworkers!!

    Reply
  258. Erin Davis
    Erin Davis
    April 1, 2020 at 12:19 pm

    In a time that we are all working remotely, it’s so great that there are so many options to still stay connected with our coworkers (and friends). This is a great list. I would also suggest remote scavenger hunts and escape rooms from Escape Room Races. These are really fun and fully remote!

    Reply
  259. Athena Leon
    Athena Leon
    April 1, 2020 at 12:39 pm

    These are all great ideas and tips, thank you for sharing! Working in the corporate remote world, I have found that many of my colleagues, we pretty much lacked a social connection. As humans overall, we are social creatures with the need to connect with one another. I often thought a great key component to build on connection would be to break the ice and ask “icebreaker questions”, to find perhaps a commonality while on a video conferencing call. Example questions such as, “what is your greatest fear (it can be personal or work related)”, “what is the greatest challenge in your personal life that you overcame”, “put these morning routine items in order: coffee/tea, open laptop/smartphone, breakfast, meditate”. I could only imagine the connection it creates from that call.

    Reply
  260. Devin
    Devin
    April 1, 2020 at 12:43 pm

    Wow! I had no idea how many wonderful team building activities people would have! Especially Virtual ones!

    I am a true lover of all music and I would love to see a type of Throwback Thursday or Flashback Friday event on songs. You would have the “DJ” set up a list of songs to play throughout the event and each participant would listen and try to guess what the song was. This is engaging and interactive for everyone!

    Reply
  261. Steven Treto
    Steven Treto
    April 1, 2020 at 12:43 pm

    All of these activities sound like a lot of fun.

    The activity I’d like to do with teams the most would be Coworker Feud.

    One person, typically the host, does research on a variety of prompts. For example, you can aggregate numbers related to animals, human behavior, food preferences, and the solar system. An alternative is that you can send a survey out to your team members and their families, and then use the answers from these surveys as your data source.

    Then, on a virtual team call, you play the game following the same rules as the show. For example, a lead member of each team is the speaker and buzzer and can consult with their team on answers. The teams take turns guessing at the most common answers. In the end, the team with the most points wins.

    Nothing stirs up some good team competition like a Coworker Feud.

    Reply
  262. Taylor
    Taylor
    April 1, 2020 at 12:47 pm

    These are wonderful ideas!

    If I were to host a remote team building exercise it would be to host a two part dinner party. In the first part team members would share a recipe from their family or culture. Each recipe can only be chosen once so all recipes would have someone trying their hand at. In part two team members will send a finished product and review or the team can video conference the results and share a meal together as a team!

    Reply
  263. Laura
    Laura
    April 1, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    Wow! Who knew there were so many ways to engage teams in a remote setting. The MTV Cribs style game looks like a fun way to get to know your fellow staff members in a personal manner. I love hosting people in my home and this is a way to let people in without them being there physically. For all us 90’s babies that wanted to be on the show, now we can!

    Reply
  264. Bryan Maxwell
    Bryan Maxwell
    April 1, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    I like the idea of having an online team building talent show. Each person would briefly showcase their skills (Singing, dancing, acting, telling jokes, etc.) and the team would vote on their favorite. It would get everyone out of their comfort zone and also create a bond over shared silliness.

    Reply
  265. Alfred Millikan
    Alfred Millikan
    April 1, 2020 at 1:25 pm

    RECIPE ROUNDUP looks awesome! We are all becoming more adept in our OWN kitchens out of necessity these days. Having begun a specialty diet (KETO) I have found many wonderful food options and created several unique recipes myself. I would very much enjoy being involved with this type of activity (as well as many others on this list!

    Thanks!

    Reply
  266. Dylan Ashby
    Dylan Ashby
    April 1, 2020 at 1:25 pm

    “Truth or Truth”
    This is an game similar to “Truth Or Dare”. You simply change the Dare to Truth. The truths expressed are a truth you struggle with about yourself in relation to your job description or a truth that you feel hinders the overall job goal. When all the truths are expressed by everyone, we as a group find the solutions to the problems so we can accomplish our job goal.

    Reply
  267. Dawn
    Dawn
    April 1, 2020 at 1:28 pm

    These are all wonderful ideas and at the end of the week, have a virtual happy hour! Everyone can sample a wine or their choosing and review it. Then the following week they could rotate a different variety. Limit it to one hour of course so it doesn’t get too crazy!!!

    Reply
  268. Brooke Beckstrand
    Brooke Beckstrand
    April 1, 2020 at 1:52 pm

    I think a fun team building activity would be a field day. Think back to elementary school days. Where half the day is a water balloon fight, dunk tank, obstacle courses, challenges/games, food, talking to friends etc! To make it virtual you could set up a small obstacle course outside and film some different challenges and post them to the groups chat. Winner could receive a gift card for some summer activities.

    Reply
  269. (Gemini) Kelly Andrew
    (Gemini) Kelly Andrew
    April 1, 2020 at 2:59 pm

    Everyone enjoys game shows, so how bout a remote “jeopardy” or “family feud” type game where users buzz in and answer questions.

    Reply
  270. Amalia
    Amalia
    April 1, 2020 at 3:01 pm

    I think a great virtual team building activity would be for each participant to list a little-known fact about themselves. The list would then be compiled and members would have to guess which fact corresponds to which team member. This would help everyone get to know each other on a more personal level.

    Reply
  271. Andrew Wilson
    Andrew Wilson
    April 1, 2020 at 3:10 pm

    I love all these ideas! I think the one I am most fond of is using some kind of Scavenger Hunt but use it to make a point about the company or what you are teaching about. It could be like a 7 degrees of Kevin bacon but makeit linear with your theme and make it an online search. A good example would be that everyone starts on your company’s home page and using only links in the page they are on they can click through following predetermined clues(written in an email) and follow a scavenger path to fill in information. Then the first team with all the information found wins! This could be themed like finding words for parts of your companies mission statement in website names or could be just a short trivia based hunt where the different things they are looking for are to solve riddles and only if they follow the correct path will they get the answers.

    Reply
  272. Maheen Mansoor
    Maheen Mansoor
    April 1, 2020 at 3:29 pm

    An obstacle course would be really fun to get everyone to be competitive and have fun while doing it.

    Reply
  273. Brent McNiel
    Brent McNiel
    April 1, 2020 at 3:42 pm

    I think a fun idea would be to have a virtual sketch session where we break off into virtual teams. One designated neutral party is given an object that they must describe in detail to both teams (or their team lead) without giving away what the object is. and the teams job is to sketch the object based on what they hear. I think it lays the ground work for us to have more fruitful conversations about team outbput and expectations. Also I think it would be hilarious to see The different objects the teams come up with. There is no winning team. Everyone wins because they learned how to better to communicate with their team.

    Reply
  274. Christopher Rivero
    Christopher Rivero
    April 1, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    I think a good team building activity for a remote team would be showing baby pictures and having everyone guess who is who. I feel like that would be an ice breaker. After that we could play a game of trivia with any genre that the team chooses and do it in teams or we can play online games- have everyone download something like Jackbox Games.

    Reply
  275. Ben
    Ben
    April 1, 2020 at 3:57 pm

    Wow! So many creative ideas. Love it! How about a game I’m calling Top Meme Chef. One half of the group are judges, the others are chefs. The judges come up with a list of 3-5 different categories. Then the chefs have 5 minutes to go find or create a meme that fits as many categories as possible. The chefs take turns presenting their memes and how they qualify for ticking off on as many categories as they can. The judges individually score each meme from 1 to 3 in how strong they thought each category was met. Tally the numbers after everyone has shared their meme and crown the winner.

    Reply
  276. Danielle MacNeil
    Danielle MacNeil
    April 1, 2020 at 4:12 pm

    more than one example, I got carried away, I apologize..

    1. “Do you know who you work with”: a team building game that allows employees to learn more about their teammates. Having to guess and match the facts with an individual. This opens a door for opportunity to feel closer with your team on a more personal level, be comical, distract yourself from work and focus on people and their personalities/hobbies. Get more personal!

    2. “Office Charades” Can only be office/work related to narrow down choices. Virtually it can shuffle acting out ideas, or in persona can shuffle.

    3. “Beat Clap”: clapping is actually scientifically proven to increase positive health benefits such as heart health overall, mood, asthma, organ functioning, blood circulation, and functioning of immune system. We could make this an engaging activity by recording the best voted clapping beats. Each team has 10 minutes or so to choreograph the best clapping beats!

    4. ”Let’s ParTee” a golfing game!! Personally I’m a huge fan of golfing. We could do a simple putter game, or get really creative for those golf experts and create difficult courses using office items and supplies mainly.

    Reply
  277. Carol Terry
    Carol Terry
    April 1, 2020 at 4:16 pm

    I think one of the best ways to get to know a new team (perhaps as a new manager you inherited an existing team) and improve performance is to do a personality test (many are available) and have a discussion. For example, ask the new team to take a week and to listen to an Audible Book such as Mastering the Personality Type Theories which is offered in a two book bundle The Enneagram, and How to Analyze People. One of the ways to gain a greater understanding of the team is understanding the motivations and dynamics of each personality type. Understanding what makes each other “tick” is a great way to formulate meaningful trusting relationships. After the trust is established and people have a common language of understanding each other than regular fun events can take place on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis depending on the size of the team and how the team goals are quantified. I personally love the idea of a virtual team happy hour–one that could be hosted by a member of the teams on a revolving basis. Birthdays and major life events could be acknowledge and celebrated, pictures of one’s personal life could be shared… such as pets, kids, or hobbies. Or, each team member (as they host) could “teach” a hobby such as cooking or rock climbing by doing a short 5 minute video share and have a discussion afterwards… all over a cocktail or mocktail.

    Reply
  278. Taylor Adams
    Taylor Adams
    April 1, 2020 at 4:42 pm

    I think a really fun team building activity would be “Show and Tell.” I don’t know about you guys but Show and Tell was always my favorite day in school. Not only did you get to know your classmates better because you got to see things that really interested them and made them happy but you also got to introduce a different part of yourself to your classmates. I believe this is really important in the workplace because the more you are able to understand and see your coworkers in their own “zone” the more compatible you are while working together.

    Reply
  279. Veronica Sanchez
    Veronica Sanchez
    April 1, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    A fun teambuilding exercise for both virtual teams and in person would be a scavenger hunt. You can create multiple versions for finding out answers to questions about the company or employees even senior management or you can do it to where you have to find a certain person or room in the building. Each clue leading them to the ultimate prize, a gift card, swag bag, free paid day off, etc. This activity can be done individually, by teams, departments, or however you see fit for the company size and where the teams are located.

    Reply
  280. christina Lee Hughes
    christina Lee Hughes
    April 1, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    We could really use a pick me up with our employees working remotely. We can’t wait to try the remote campfire!

    Reply
  281. Stephanie McAllister
    Stephanie McAllister
    April 1, 2020 at 5:11 pm

    I love the idea of the Nato Alphabet or as mentioned give it a more creative name. Perhaps make a speed test out of with your team. I can’t tell you how many times in my experience where I’ve stumbled over the phone because I did not know all of the Nato Alphabet but only some of it.

    Reply
  282. Charisse Landry
    Charisse Landry
    April 1, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    One of the funniest team building remote things to do is play telephone or concentration. Make a list of two teams give each group a set of words or numbers. Works better if it’s at least two groups of 5-10 people.

    The first person would call a colleague say the set of words or set of numbers twice. Then this would continue til the last employee in your group is called ?.

    I would recommend a video Zoom meeting upon finishing and let the last colleague of each group state their response first then the original person will let them know if that’s right or not.

    No matter the setting I see so many people enjoy this game!

    Reply
  283. Tay-lyn O'grady
    Tay-lyn O'grady
    April 1, 2020 at 5:13 pm

    I think incorporating a murder mystery challenge virtually could be a great idea for a team bonding experience. You could use specific websites to create the clues from the text and have groups try to decipher the clues!

    Reply
  284. Brooke
    Brooke
    April 1, 2020 at 5:43 pm

    A team building activity that I have not had the pleasure of taking part in, but have been speaking with friends who are working remotely now more than ever, is a virtual happy hour. Zoom is a great resource to get everyone on the call and to make things a bit more fun, themes can be a great addition. For example, best costume. Having a winner can be a fun as well with a gift card as a reward.

    Reply
  285. Rosarita Lubag
    Rosarita Lubag
    April 1, 2020 at 5:44 pm

    A darts competition would be nice.

    Participants can compare scores. Highest scorer receives a prize, eg free coffee and donut.

    Reply
  286. Raquel P
    Raquel P
    April 1, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    One team building activity that inspires creativity and fun is madlibs, but as rap verses. Somebody comes up with a rap line that has a couple words and lines missing, then the opponent teams have to fill in those missing blanks to create a rap of their own. They then battle it out and whoever gets the most audible laughs win. This is a contemporary activity that is sure to stimulate a different kind of experience than other activities.

    Reply
  287. Dan Friedman
    Dan Friedman
    April 1, 2020 at 6:28 pm

    I think a fun team-building activity could also be lip-sync battles! It would be funny to watch your coworkers stumble through a lip-sync’d version of Britney Spears over a grainy webcam, or even funnier to watch them absolutely slay it.

    Reply
  288. Mara Merklin
    Mara Merklin
    April 1, 2020 at 7:06 pm

    Hello! I think a fun team building idea would be coffee with pups! First and foremost, who doesn’t love their dog? And who doesn’t love to boast about their dog! Set up a coffee with teammates, and video conference sitting with their dog and sharing answers to a few questions. For example; Why did you name your dog that? What is your dogs favorite activity. What do you love most about your dogs character traits. Etc. . .
    I would be all about anything having to do with my doggy!

    Reply
    • Charisse Landry
      Charisse Landry
      April 1, 2020 at 7:45 pm

      Great idea ?

      Reply
  289. Areli Gomez
    Areli Gomez
    April 1, 2020 at 7:14 pm

    I think another great team building activity is creating two teams or more and each person from each team mouths a word out and the people in that team have to try and guess it, also for each word theres a time limit, and once someone guesses it then they go to the next person in the same team and the process just keeps repeating until the team cant guess anymore words and so after that it would be the other teams turn to do the same.

    Reply
  290. Jacqueline Gonzalez
    Jacqueline Gonzalez
    April 1, 2020 at 7:45 pm

    One team building activity that can be done is doing Karaoke. Participants can choose what song they want to perform and can even dress up for the event. The other participants will score whoever is singing. Think of it like a virtual American Idol. This will be fun for everyone and make everyone come closer together.

    Reply
  291. Karenza James
    Karenza James
    April 1, 2020 at 8:35 pm

    I love team building activities, they’re a great way to learn more about each other or meet people you wouldn’t normally speak to during work. An awesome virtual activity is the Remote Lunch and Learn offered by teambuilding.com. You could choose just about anything for the whole team to learn. A great idea would be a virtual Paint and Tea, or coffee. It would be a fun way to learn who the Picasso’s are in your organization.

    Reply
  292. Daniel Marulli
    Daniel Marulli
    April 1, 2020 at 8:38 pm

    Take a current event and list the pros and cons of the events effects. Then, collectively find multiples pros to counter the event’s cons. So for example, if the event is working from home, a con may be staying indoors a lot. A pro to counter that con is that you spend more time with family.

    Reply
  293. Nicholas Blair
    Nicholas Blair
    April 1, 2020 at 8:41 pm

    The format of zoom displays the perfect opportunity to play your own game of Celebrity Squares, however with your peers. Of course the questions could range to whatever subject you choose, work related or trivia bound.

    Reply
  294. Dylan
    Dylan
    April 1, 2020 at 9:12 pm

    It’d be so cool to have a movie night or a book club of sorts. You learn so much about people based on what kinds of stories they prefer and genres they recommend. Bonus is that everyone takes turns and there can be a small amount of designated time each week/two weeks/month to be able to discuss the media and share some likes and dislikes.

    Reply
  295. De-Anna Lucky
    De-Anna Lucky
    April 1, 2020 at 9:43 pm

    I think Doughnut Talk Time would be a fun activity because who doesn’t love a good conversation with doughnuts. This activity will give the teams a chance to discuss work, have fun, and eat sweets.

    Reply
  296. Jaren
    Jaren
    April 1, 2020 at 9:54 pm

    One of the best remote team building exercising I find that is easy and fun to do is pictionary! It keeps people engaged and it’s always fun and funny to do.

    Reply
  297. Christopher Putnam
    Christopher Putnam
    April 1, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    I think a fun and easy remote activity would an ‘low budget’ office supply costume contest.
    Have everyone use what supplies they have around their home office to create a costume of their favorite character from a t.v. show or film and then have the group use video conferencing to rate and vote for a winner.
    Who can be the most accurate to the character while using the least amount of supplies would be a fun condition!

    Reply
  298. Chelsea
    Chelsea
    April 1, 2020 at 10:15 pm

    I think anyone at this point in time can bond over Tiger King on Netflix. Just bring up Joe Exotic or Carol Baskin and there is a conversation piece that can go on for hours…

    Reply
  299. Madeline Morris
    Madeline Morris
    April 1, 2020 at 10:44 pm

    So many great ideas in this post! One fun idea is to do a “Flat Stanley Project” in which team members receive an item in the mail (it could be a paper doll like Flat Stanley, or any fun item that can be mailed easily), take photos with the item in their remote workplace, and then send the item and photos to the next remote working. This is a great way for remote workers to connect with each other, giving them a sense of community, and learning a little bit about each other along the way!

    Reply
  300. Kristian Salavea
    Kristian Salavea
    April 2, 2020 at 12:16 am

    Tiny campfire has got the be the most adorable and interest peaking way to team building! Not only is it a great way to bring colleagues together via internet chat, but you had me at s’mores! The mini tea light is the icing on the cake. Bringing teams together has never been more accessible. And tasty.

    Reply
  301. London
    London
    April 2, 2020 at 12:39 am

    Negotiations role play, after all that is a huge role within this position why not practice it with a group. I’d say more, but I’d rather go further during an interview!

    Reply
  302. John Black
    John Black
    April 2, 2020 at 1:14 am

    I think a great team building activity would be two truths and a lie. This would help to let every member of the team to get to know each other more, as well as opening discussion to many possibilities!

    Reply
  303. Rey Alfraih
    Rey Alfraih
    April 2, 2020 at 1:18 am

    People really connect when they share the same interests. I think having a topic to talk about such as the last great book you read, a movie that scared you, or what you like to do to relax is a great way to help people connect. Give the team a topic that anyone could relate to and talk about. In order for someone to feel a deeper connection to someone else they have to know something personal about them. I think it would be nice to send a goody bag with this because people love to talk over sweets.

    Reply
  304. Brenda Orr
    Brenda Orr
    April 2, 2020 at 2:03 am

    An awesome team building activity for remote groups would be to have a movie trivia night in Jeopardy fashion!

    Reply
  305. Eugene Davis
    Eugene Davis
    April 2, 2020 at 2:56 am

    I think a great idea would be a online or video dance party or dance class or even an exercise class!!!

    Reply
  306. Jasmine
    Jasmine
    April 2, 2020 at 3:20 am

    Love this article and all the insight it has for team building especially at a time where social distancing is a must! I think another great remote bonding idea is to create fun presentations. Either in teams or as individuals, various topics can be covered. For example, the topic could be 2000’s pop music and a team can come forward to present why they believe Britney Spears was the top artist of the period. It’s a fun activity that also builds presentation skills!

    Reply
  307. Evy
    Evy
    April 2, 2020 at 8:56 am

    With so many people currently working from home while we fight this pandemic, this is a great place to be! Companies can not only help their newly remote employees learn how to work from home but also make them comfortable with doing so and give them a great experience. We could all use a nice distraction from the chaos, what better than playing spreadsheet pixel art with your coworkers?! Or having a tiny camp fire. Who doesn’t love s’mores?! Sign me up!

    Reply
  308. Jennifer
    Jennifer
    April 2, 2020 at 9:58 am

    I love the variety of all these team building activities. Have a successful team is key to any business. I really like the idea of Online Office Games since the Summer Olympics were delayed for a year.

    Reply
  309. Shenika
    Shenika
    April 2, 2020 at 10:10 am

    There are so many unique and fun games listed! An idea that might actually turn into a party is “Guess that song” or Guess that artist! One team can pick a genre from a list, and also chose sound clip or hint. If sound clip is chosen they listen to a 5 second clip of the song and they have 1 minute to come up with an answer. If hint is chosen, the other team gives a hint about the song and they have one minute to answer as well. First team to 15 wins!

    The teams create the genre lists, and songs together, that they want the other team to choose from. It can be a fun way to go over ideas, and also find out what music people listen too! You can play it as Guess that Artist, and name the artist or “Guess that Song”and name the song! 🙂

    Reply
  310. Jared
    Jared
    April 2, 2020 at 10:11 am

    One of my favorite team building activities has been “photo scavenger hunts.” This is something that could easily be brought to the virtual team building world. Everyone takes pictures now days with cameras permanently living in our pockets but not everyone knows how to be a photographer. Start by doing an introduction to photography type class focusing on the tools available in smartphones. After a basic tutorial in photography (rule of thirds, background, leading lines, etc…) everyone breaks to take photos in a scavenger hunt style around their home then returns to compare. At the end people vote on their favorite photos and a “team photographer” is officially declared.

    Reply
  311. Sean Hughes
    Sean Hughes
    April 2, 2020 at 11:01 am

    Team color therapy, everyone is given the same canvas and using whatever colors they see fit. After the coloring is done you have the choice to speak about what you’ve colored and why. Can be fun but also relieve and uncover some stress or depression for the introverted team member. Thereby strengthening the bonds within the team through laughter and heart.

    Reply
  312. Natarsha Whaley
    Natarsha Whaley
    April 2, 2020 at 11:08 am

    All are great ideas. Another great Virtual activity could be ugly T-shirt contest. Everyone participating will take a old T-shirt from the house and all of the items that they have to make an ugly T-shirt and we have a panel of five that will vote the winner.

    Reply
  313. TAMASHA WHITTINGTON
    TAMASHA WHITTINGTON
    April 2, 2020 at 11:21 am

    I think a good virtual game would be musical chairs! Each individual has their chair and there is a leader assigned to keep close watch. When the music stops, instead of searching for an open seat, it’s all about who sat down 1st! This would be not only competitive, but extremely hilarious to see you hurry to sit down before anyone else. A good fall never hurt anyone. Pun intended.

    Reply
  314. Pat
    Pat
    April 2, 2020 at 11:24 am

    Never have I ever learned more about someone than when I played never have I ever with someone! This was the best way to get to know someone in college, and the same holds true today. Luckily, this version is rated “E for Everyone” so you never have to worry about an embarrassing story, like that one time….

    Reply
  315. Anthony Faragalla
    Anthony Faragalla
    April 2, 2020 at 11:40 am

    This is a great post! I have an idea. We can give my workers a break and play remote Jeopardy. The winner will get a bonus incentive for a week or maybe just $100. This will be a great idea to keep the employees motivated and keep the culture fun and competitive!

    Reply
  316. Christine
    Christine
    April 2, 2020 at 11:48 am

    One virtual team building activity I have done is obscure Disney movie trivia. It inevitably involved singing “Let It Go” off-key and posting photos of Aladdin and Jasmine flying around on the magic carpet.

    Reply
  317. Theresa
    Theresa
    April 2, 2020 at 11:50 am

    Great timing! Thanks for sharing these.

    Reply
  318. Lisa Bautista
    Lisa Bautista
    April 2, 2020 at 11:52 am

    These are going to be fun! Has anyone tried a virtual murder mystery? Any specific recommendations?

    Reply
  319. Tim
    Tim
    April 2, 2020 at 11:55 am

    There are a lot of good ideas here for virtual team builders. Another idea that may strike some interest with those working remote or seated a long portion of the day could be a fitness team builder. I know that fitness is something that people are always interested in. This could get people on their feet and get blood flowing. It also helps people get out of their comfort zones and I love that.

    Reply
  320. Tim
    Tim
    April 2, 2020 at 11:58 am

    I think a fitness type virtual team builder would be a great idea. I would get people’s blood flowing and excited for what they are doing. Team builders in general tend to get employees excited because they feel like the company honestly cares about them and happy employees are what drive successful companies.

    Reply
  321. Adrienne Sobolak
    Adrienne Sobolak
    April 2, 2020 at 12:20 pm

    You are spot-on, Jesse! Team-building is essential for building trust, loyalty, and cooperation in an office environment. Team-building is especially important for skeletal staffs during these uncertain times. After a business is forced to RIF, the remaining co-workers struggle with fear (of losing their jobs), guilt (for retaining their jobs), and overwhelm (for being forced to take on tasks that a “whole team” was initially hired to perform.) At no time in America’s history has team-building been more important than it is now — and the safest way to engage in team-building activities is through remote means.

    Reply
  322. Allison
    Allison
    April 2, 2020 at 12:28 pm

    I love all of these ideas so much! I think the one that sticks out to me the most is Tea vs. Coffee. I think this is always a long debate amongst my friends and coworkers, and can create really fun discussions about what our preferences are, what we know about the benefits health wise, and ways that this showcases aspects of our personalities. I love the idea of expanding this too, creating other comparisons to pair together, like a wine happy hour that’s White vs. Red, or Something like a Salty Vs. Sweet snack time. Being able to push conversations forward using things we encounter in our every day lives can really impact the connections we can make!

    Reply
  323. Lara
    Lara
    April 2, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    I love so many of these ideas! In the remote working environment today it is so crucial to still connect to coworkers. I personally love the tea vs coffee team building activity. Coffee dates around offices and in general are a great bonding experience and to taste new flavors together is making a new memory that will be cherished between coworkers while working remote. I will gladly share this team building activity with remote teams.

    Reply
  324. Kristin Sabers
    Kristin Sabers
    April 2, 2020 at 12:36 pm

    A fun team building activity with remote workers would be telling a story! One person will start it off and you can use more than two words at once and take turns with everyone. Every individual would add onto the story and see where it takes you!

    Reply
  325. Alonza Mays
    Alonza Mays
    April 2, 2020 at 12:51 pm

    I think have a good old fashion shoot out would be fun! Have a team nerf battle. Team would have to work together to beat the other team. You could even throw in obstacle coarse. It is a fun game to get people to come together.

    Reply
  326. Summer Wade
    Summer Wade
    April 2, 2020 at 12:57 pm

    Show off your pets or favorite animal: Virtual Team Edition. Start an internal video series where team members can show off their pets or favorite animal and personality in quick, self-made videos. It’s a fun, behind-the-scenes look into the personal lives of colleagues and their favorite furry, feathered friends and gives some physical context to your virtual workspace. Bonus points for any pets dressed up in costumes!!!!

    Reply
  327. Courtney Poppell
    Courtney Poppell
    April 2, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    I would love the idea of playing a game with your team virtually. Wouldn’t it be fun to have an Office Game Night with Charades, Pictionary, or What Do You Meme? Some of our everyday household games can still be played online with teammates. Let the Games Begin!

    Reply
  328. Aric Komlance
    Aric Komlance
    April 2, 2020 at 1:08 pm

    When working remotely it is difficult to find an activity to actually be considered engaging, a good idea of one would be to have everyone take 1 minute to find something random in their houses anything then after that minute you have to make up a story on the spot of what is , where you got it and what it is used for. It can not be what is actually used for and or called. This enables creativity as well as humor, and we all know humor is a great way to get everyone enraged and in a good mood. Try it, you have to try things in times like these, what do you have to loose. My advise, don’t overthink it, try new things get away from the poems (which can be nice) find new avenues of motivation. Good luck .

    Reply
  329. Michael Sansonetti
    Michael Sansonetti
    April 2, 2020 at 1:11 pm

    I like the idea of Virtual Happy Hour! A happy hour consists of drinks of any kind, appetizers and snacks. Instead of a daily project or work. Spend an hour socializing as a team. Its very important to stay healthy in life especially when you are sitting at home working remote. I think a good topic during this happy hour would be about staying healthy! Prior to the happy hour maybe guide people into making a healthy snack. During the happy hour, everybody can present their healthy snack and why it is healthy to eat. Have a group discussion on how to stay healthy while working at home. Explain that is it always good to exercise 30 minutes to an hour a day for 6 days a week. that can consist of walking, running, or lifting weights. Its good to get up from your seat, walk around and stretch those body parts. I think this would be a very important happy hour session, its fun and educational and can build work skills up at the same time. learning about a healthy lifestyle is important for every individual and remote workers will feel better doing so.

    Reply
  330. Beggs Neland
    Beggs Neland
    April 2, 2020 at 1:17 pm

    I love all of these ideas…especially with the way we are moving these days into social distancing. I think one I would like to try is Werewolf. My friends and I have played this game while on a girls weekend and had such a great time playing. So many laughs and you find out so much about your friends or co workers. I think it would be fun to try via zoom!

    Reply
  331. Ana Rojas
    Ana Rojas
    April 2, 2020 at 1:37 pm

    I’d say that generally there are two kinds of teams: the ones that know each other pretty well, and the ones that don’t even know each other’s last names. For the teams that know one another well, the best kinds of team building activities are the ones that involve a who said/did what game. I find that this gets some good knee slappers and is still being talked about two days after the fact.
    For teams that don’t know each other that well friendly competitive games are the best. Starting the game with a personal preference to form the teams is great because it’ll instantly create a bond between the strangers. Superheroes or supervillains? Chardonnay or Champagne? Movies or books?

    Reply
  332. Alex
    Alex
    April 2, 2020 at 2:13 pm

    Team building activities for remote teams are is an amazing idea! I cant imagine for whom it could be more important! I love the thought of playing jeopardy. A great game that many are familiar with, and it can be created specifically with your team in mind, or you could use one of the many online options!

    Reply
  333. Nate
    Nate
    April 2, 2020 at 2:21 pm

    Have a team movie night, and make sure it’s a meaningful film, no matter the genre! Then have a discussion time afterwards where everyone shares their thoughts on what made the film memorable, or what things it could have done better!

    Reply
  334. Lawaun Modrich
    Lawaun Modrich
    April 2, 2020 at 2:39 pm

    Music is an essential part of my life, as it is with many people. My thought for a fun remote team-building activity would be to have a song-writing game.
    Think “Whose Line is it Anyway?” in group format.
    Divide your team into small groups. Have each group select a genre (country, rap, jazz, R & B, heavy metal, ‘70s soft rock) or an artist (a song in the style of Barry White, Barry Manilow, Metallica, Rihanna, Toby Mac), and THEN the facilitator announces a random topic for the song: training a cat, spring cleaning, driving through traffic, etc.
    Give the groups time to research their genres/artists, and then time to write the song in the style they’ve selected. Give each group time to present their song.
    Someone somewhere may have musical ability…or not. “Or not” will most likely provide more fun during the presentation!

    Reply
  335. Tiffany Wang
    Tiffany Wang
    April 2, 2020 at 2:51 pm

    Virtual meditation and yoga team exercises. Each team member would be required to partake in a guided meditation followed by a yoga practice. Not only is this activity good for relieving stress both mentally and physically, but it also gives each person a moment to focus on their breathing and take some time to recollect their thoughts. It brings everyone together spiritually towards a common goal, which in this case, would be teammate bonding. It can be followed by eating or drinking something that is health conscious so that everyone can go back to work refreshed and emotionally ready for the day.

    Reply
  336. Gerrod
    Gerrod
    April 2, 2020 at 2:55 pm

    WOW. Amazing ideas. These are all great team building ideas and I am looking forward to getting started. I believe my team will be very excited about these opportunities. They may be a little hesitant at first but once we get the ball rolling, I only see them as being beneficial.Better times are coming in this different world and we need to create a more positive work environment.

    Reply
  337. Peter J Feiveson
    Peter J Feiveson
    April 2, 2020 at 2:57 pm

    I have what I think is a creative idea. I”m thinking online yoga, though does already exist, but not yet by someone who them-self is inflexible! Though most video’s are very customer friendly for anyone who wants to learn, there’s nothing less intimidating than being taught by someone who knows many of the moves, but can’t yet do so in full swing! Not only would this be completely unintimidating but hilarious to watch.

    Reply
  338. Nari
    Nari
    April 2, 2020 at 3:00 pm

    A fun idea for a remote team building activity can be a cooking contest! Everyone has 30 minutes to cook a dish and the person with the most aesthetically pleasing dish wins! One condition is that you can’t vote for your own dish.

    Reply
  339. Maggie Hawkins
    Maggie Hawkins
    April 2, 2020 at 3:27 pm

    I think online workout sessions would be awesome! Especially if they are mid-day during the post-lunch slump! I think things like online board games and competitions would also be a great fit. A long running game of scrabble or monopoly online between teammates!

    Reply
  340. Shirley Velarde
    Shirley Velarde
    April 2, 2020 at 3:47 pm

    The idea of remote work bingo is so much fun for everyone in the office or at home to do. It will definitely have everyone engage into paying attention and to listen carefully along with the laughter of others. It is a simple way to laugh together and play together with simple silly things that the bingo board has as phrases, and once you hear someone call bingo, the player will have the feeling of being so close and almost winning.

    Reply
  341. Waseem Srouji
    Waseem Srouji
    April 2, 2020 at 3:57 pm

    I have heard of team building events but not remote team building. I think this is a great idea for companies and businesses to get everyone together that may not be able to due to location (being far from corporate office). This allows virtual team building activities that everyone can attend via virtual from the comfort of their home. With the current Covid-19 pandemic currently happening and many major areas under a shelter-in-place order, teambuiling can help bring everyone all together and build moral during these difficult times. I am quite impressed with all the different events/activities available and would definitely recommend this service to any and all employers looking for team building events and efforts. I love the “MTV cribs, Remote” activity and would definitely be interested in doing this if given the opportunity.

    Reply
  342. Brian Robles
    Brian Robles
    April 2, 2020 at 3:59 pm

    I had a fun idea I’m hoping to try with friends tomorrow. Here’s how it would go:
    No teams, and you can have a program or friend randomize the order that everyone goes. I’m thinking it would be fun to start the virtual chat with names in a hat or bowl and one by one the order is set. Whoever’s turn it is would name out something you can photograph then everyone searches through their phone to find it. The one who finds the photo in their photo library first wins. There’s a time limit too, ( decided by everyone) you have to hold your phone to the camera to show off the photo. I’m also thinking of having the game be something like cards against humanity where whoever’s turn it is or maybe everyone on chat decides the best photo.
    Whoever reaches a certain amount first wins. I think holding the phone to the camera is the best option so people don’t search for it on the web.

    Reply
  343. Gabrielle Kapusnik
    Gabrielle Kapusnik
    April 2, 2020 at 4:03 pm

    A cool remote game would be to share GIFs and see who can make the funniest story behind why the GIF was created. This is fun because it can make everyone laugh!

    Reply
  344. Brian Robles
    Brian Robles
    April 2, 2020 at 4:05 pm

    A fun game to try is a photo scavenger hunt within the photo library of your phone.
    Here’s how it would go: No teams, and you can have a program or friend randomize the order that everyone goes. It would be more fun to start the virtual chat with names in a hat or bowl and one by one as the names are being taken out the order is set. Whoever’s turn it is would name out something you can photograph, then everyone searches through their phone to find it. The one who finds it in their photo library first wins. There could be a time limit too, (decided by everyone) you have to hold your phone to the camera to show off the photo. I’m also thinking of having the game be something like cards against humanity where whoever’s turn it is or maybe everyone involved in the activity decides the best photo.
    Whoever reaches a certain amount first wins!

    Reply
  345. Devante
    Devante
    April 2, 2020 at 4:07 pm

    Remote team building is such a great idea! This gives co-workers a chance to bond and build the business further.

    Reply
  346. Kaelan Keller
    Kaelan Keller
    April 2, 2020 at 4:08 pm

    One team builder that can be done remotely is we create a fictional problem. This problem must be solved. It can be a riddle or even a challenge. One by one each person says a solution, and then the next person has to build on that solution, and still input their own ideas.

    This gives the challenge of each person having to work together, and at the end, there is a solution that is cohesive!

    Reply
  347. Kayla
    Kayla
    April 2, 2020 at 4:17 pm

    I think a really quirky team building would be “change game”

    Leave the room and change something small about yourself and then come back in. you can even close the screen and change something in the background. Anything you think ha a story or would be a good thing to start a conversation when they guess.

    It s great way to see how well people can pay attention and then see how the conversation can flow, learn more about the people you work with and take a little fun break well you are at it!

    Reply
  348. Anthony Phelps
    Anthony Phelps
    April 2, 2020 at 4:22 pm

    I enjoyed reading this article because it provided me with multiple ideas to help my diverse and far reaching team members with fun and interactive ways to build our working relationships while also making us feel connected. I found the “Guess the Icebreaker” game interesting easy to implement and fun to do. I look forward to trying this out with my team. I feel I can implement this today and incorporate it into our weekly online meetings or via email where it is sent out to our team and we guess who’s ice breaker answer it is.

    Reply
  349. Jason Kutz
    Jason Kutz
    April 2, 2020 at 4:28 pm

    Lunch and Learn is an excellent way for managers to help drive employee engagement while demonstrating that they are willing to invest in their employees. Plus everyone has fun while learning about something new. It really is an effective way to boost morale and improve creativity.

    Reply
  350. Dan Schelhorn
    Dan Schelhorn
    April 2, 2020 at 4:38 pm

    The tiny campfire would be such a fun idea. Everybody likes smores and this would be a great idea to do with remote team or a group of friends during the quarantine. I’d probably do a BYOB and try to tell some scary stories to complete the experience.

    Reply
  351. shekinah kiagiri
    shekinah kiagiri
    April 2, 2020 at 4:38 pm

    A fun activity would be coworker portraits especially if the team is very close. The team members would be randomly paired and they are meant to draw or paint each other and reveal the final results to the entire group. No winners or losers just creators!

    Reply
  352. Rebecca
    Rebecca
    April 2, 2020 at 4:44 pm

    I think a great idea for a team building activity with your remote team can be something called “5 Questions”. The team lead would start off with five questions they create about themselves for their team to learn. Later, the team lead will nominate one of their employees to do the same with 5 questions they pick for that person they chose. It repeats until the final employee and also has the each teammate insert a pic of themselves also, whether a selfie or family photo. This team building activity virtually allows everyone to get to know each other and create new friendships and bonds.

    Reply
  353. Yanim Castaneda
    Yanim Castaneda
    April 2, 2020 at 4:47 pm

    Wow! There are so many team building options to choose from. Who knew that virtual team building could be so easy and fun!? I think something like this is greatly needed during a time like this due to the coronavirus and so many companies working from remote. Once everyone is back in the office, I think the team would benefit form the Tiny Campfire team building activity. Who doesn’t love s’mores?? 🙂

    Reply
  354. Jessica Lynette Brown
    Jessica Lynette Brown
    April 2, 2020 at 4:52 pm

    It would be awesome to do a virtual teambuilding version of “chopped.” Hear me out: Everyone would get the same ingredients. But they would be prepackaged Ex: cheese wiz, doritos, an apple, and donut holes, ok now go! LOL, whoever wins with the most creative creation gets a giftcard to a restaurant.

    Reply
  355. Melissa Volk
    Melissa Volk
    April 2, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    Remote Online Office Games would be fun as well as give everyone the opportunity to get to know their team members.

    Reply
  356. Colleen
    Colleen
    April 2, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    These were all fantastic ideas! Truthfully, I’m partial to virtual museum tours because…. I fluffing love museums and history. Which kinda brings me to another idea. Oftentimes training can be so boring and technical that it’s hard to retain quickly. I propose a team exercise that adds some creativity to your training a la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Sometimes it’s easier to retain knowledge when there’s fun and humor involved. Team members would decide on a theme and work together to spice up their training materials, potentially even creating storyboards for later distribution.

    Reply
  357. Krista
    Krista
    April 2, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    Thank you for this, Jesse! So many great ideas to bring remote employees closer together and build camaraderie. In my previous experience working with a remote team it was difficult to get everyone together in-person, and these suggestions resolve that challenge. I really like the tiny campfire idea! It could selfishly be my love for s’mores and getting packages in the mail, but I think that is universally shared. One question with this game, have you ever heard of it turning into a fire hazard? That could definitely spark conversation amongst team members.
    Also, I wanted to ask, of these recommendations is there one that you would suggest for a long tenured team that is struggling to accept a new member? Again, thank you for all the wonderful suggestions, and I appreciate any feedback.

    Reply
  358. Anthony Phelps
    Anthony Phelps
    April 2, 2020 at 7:37 pm

    I enjoyed reading this article because it provided me with multiple ideas to help my diverse and far reaching team members with fun and interactive ways to build our working relationships while also making us feel connected. I found the “Guess the Icebreaker” game interesting easy to implement and fun to do. I look forward to trying this out with my team. I feel I can implement this today and incorporate it into our weekly online meetings or via email where it is sent out to our team and we guess who’s ice breaker answer it is.
    I feel the best way to implement this is to create a questionnaire that has basic information along with fun, almost outlandish questions on it and submit to everyone. Then everyone sends it back to the me (the supervisor) and I each week list off 2 or 3 peoples questions/answers and let everyone guess on who it is.
    I feel this gives us an opportunity to learn about our fellow teammates in a fun and relaxed way.

    Reply
  359. Luke Taplin
    Luke Taplin
    April 2, 2020 at 8:01 pm

    There are some excellent team building exercises and activities on here. I think the best way for teams to get close is through humor and competition. There are some many games that can be used that have a slight competitive edge to them which are easy to understand. One could be a game of ‘Categories’. An example could include: seven members on a group call – the first member selects a topic that relates to something about his/her life (lifestyle/daily routine/interests etc.) and the in a predetermined order, the rest of the team members on the call answer in sequential order and with a time limit of 5 seconds, whatever comes to their mind within the category.

    If my interest is cars, the category is car models. I will start with Ford, person two- Chevrolet, person three – Nissan… and keep going around the group until someone can’t think of one. The one who can’t think fast enough loses the round, and selects a new category.

    This game can help team members think quickly, learn new things about their team members interest, and have a laugh.

    Reply
  360. Zack
    Zack
    April 2, 2020 at 11:23 pm

    It would be great to have a virtual remote team meeting by playing “Remember that Dance Move”. A video plays with music showing a small series of three dance moves based on a particular genre of music. Once the three dance options have been shown to the team, a question is asked as to which genre of music this dance move originated in. Each person must execute the dance move and guess the correct song genre to gain a point. Whoever has the most points at the end of the round wins. A tie is broken by having a dance off to a randomized song. Best dancer wins. This is a great option as it promotes exercise and is a lot of fun. This exercise can be adapted for a small group setting or for several large teams.

    Reply
  361. Melissa Smith
    Melissa Smith
    April 2, 2020 at 11:41 pm

    Thank you for all these wonderful ideas! Can’t wait to try the pixel art! #pixel

    Reply
  362. Debbie Harmon
    Debbie Harmon
    April 3, 2020 at 1:27 am

    What an amazing, subtle way to engage everybody, even the soft spoken employees, with an Origami zoo! It’s a great way to learn a new skill. Discover who loves to follow directions, who loves to show others how to succeed and who loves to think outside the box!

    Reply
  363. Alyse
    Alyse
    April 3, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    Online Team Building Bingo sounds like so much fun and a great way to connect team members together. We can all relate to the Bingo items and can have a blast creating new ones that specifically relate to us. This team building game is a simple and easy way to break up our day and keep us smiling ?

    Reply
  364. Tracy L. Gibbs
    Tracy L. Gibbs
    April 3, 2020 at 3:27 pm

    All of the remote team building ways can be effective. All depends on the audience. I personally like the Remote Storytelling Workshops & Training. This gives your audience a way of expressing themselves in a way which is understood by others. Expression of self or an idea through a story seems to stick with people when creatively done.

    Reply
  365. Michael Malabed
    Michael Malabed
    April 6, 2020 at 3:50 am

    These are all great ideas for companies with employees working remote. One of my favorites from the list is virtual karaoke as I love to sing and jam out with friends. An idea for a team building activity that can be done with remote teams could be remote escape room. The host (one who got everyone together) is in the escape room, and everyone else needs to direct the host and help him/her navigate out of the room by assisting the host on what to do next (find clues in areas, get past obstacle courses, and agreeing with fellow team members on the right steps to get through the exercise). This promotes team building because everyone needs to work together and agree together on what the host would have to do in order to escape the room. This type of activity promotes clear communication between all parties, team work, trust, and also helps everyone be more familiarized with each other’s personality. The toughest part about remote work is sometimes not the work itself, but being familiar and comfortable with the other people that one works with. I feel like this activity would really bring about team pride, especially when the host successfully navigates out of the escape room with the help of his/her team. How about everybody else? What’s a great virtual activity you think would be great to try?

    Reply
  366. tracy
    tracy
    April 6, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    #pixel
    I didn’t expect to find so many useful ideas.
    The pixel art one will keep my coworkers happy for quite a while.
    thank you.

    Reply
  367. DN
    DN
    April 6, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    Great info! New to this arena of engaging #pixel was one of my favorites – Thank you

    Reply
  368. Kenzie Critzer
    Kenzie Critzer
    April 6, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    I love these team-building activities, they are all super creative and exciting! I LOVE the tiny campfire activity, there is absolutely nothing better than gathering around a campfire for laughs, sharing stories, and making the best campfire treat ever: S’MORES! Who doesn’t love s’mores?
    As museum fanatic, I also LOVE the Virtual Museum Tour. This gave me an idea for another exercise that could build off of that! It’s called Modernized Masterpiece! After you take a lovely tour of the museums, choose a painting for them to re-create, for example, Salvador Dali’s “The Scream” or Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring”. Give your team 5 minutes; they must find items in their house/work-space to re-create famous Masterpieces. At the end of the 5 minutes, stop and see what sort of masterpieces they come up with! By the end, everyone will be laughing!

    Reply
  369. Laura Rusk
    Laura Rusk
    April 7, 2020 at 2:06 pm

    My remote team building idea would be a version of game night! A fun competition for groups of 3 or more for 1) Karaoke to Disney song!!!! the best performance wins. It is a great way to promote team collaboration and let your silly shine threw. 2) All Play Pictionary first team to to guess 5 right wins fun prizes!. Last but not least 3)whats need next quarter trivia!!! A great way to show the up coming hot new products, features, tools, education, ext. You will get an idea of who knows what about the company and whats new! I think any time you can make learning fun is a win for everyone.

    Reply
  370. Cathy
    Cathy
    April 7, 2020 at 2:33 pm

    Lots of great ideas! We’re not normally teleworking, but we do always have 2 offices so merging teams can be a challenge… Perhaps one day we can have a chat where people send in their favorite local… museum, hiking trail, brew pub, ethnic restaurant, … and then discuss. Folks who’ve been here awhile may learn a few things and the recent arrivals can get acclimated.
    #pixel (and I really want to learn how to do the coding!)

    Reply
  371. Christine Eltz
    Christine Eltz
    April 8, 2020 at 10:47 am

    My company is global and we are currently enjoying Friday online teambuilding activities, but this list will help take us to the next level! I absolutely LOVE the #pixel art (see what I did there? 😉 and my crew will enjoy trying out just about every one of these activities. Thanks for all the tips! #findaway

    Reply
  372. Shawna-Lynn
    Shawna-Lynn
    April 8, 2020 at 12:20 pm

    All of this looks like so much fun and enjoyable, which makes me really hope I can work with them. A few ideas that can be added to this already long list: Jackbox.tv games and Tier Lists Debates. Jackbox.tv is a game that only one person needs to buy and can host for six people to join in on a variety of different games like rapping, trivia, or fill-in-the-blanks. If there are more than six, people are allowed to join the audience and participate in the game as well. All it takes is one person to host the game, stream it, and have people join the game via jackbox.tv! As for the Tier Lists Debates, there’s a website called tiermaker.com where you can rate anything from TV shows, music, games, etc. People can debate on where on the list each thing goes (Ex: I think Avengers Endgame is an A tier movie while Spiderman: Far From Home is S tier, and Call of Duty Black Ops 4 is C tier while Perfect Dark N64 is D tier). I believe each could be accounted for as a team-building ice-breaker!

    Reply
  373. Christopher
    Christopher
    April 8, 2020 at 12:39 pm

    I believe a great thing to do with remote teams is to be in contact through social media, discuss business and sales to assist one another, as well as meeting up in remote areas. Games or activities from time to time would also be a great team building exercise!

    Reply
  374. Shianne K
    Shianne K
    April 8, 2020 at 12:51 pm

    I would love to see Virtual Reality engagement in the remote work environment! VR is fast becoming a new means of entertainment, soon to be a major source of education and definitely would have its place in the remote work setting!

    Reply
  375. Lynn Ostergaard
    Lynn Ostergaard
    April 8, 2020 at 12:56 pm

    Solving the virtual, remote team building challenges is in the beginning stages and I love so many of the ideas in this article. With all that is happening with Covid19 right now, I think a team building cooking class for an entire meal could be fun and interesting.

    Reply
  376. Lauren Lowe
    Lauren Lowe
    April 8, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    I think a team workout challenge would be a great way to work on team building! It not only will help promote a healthy life, but it will help people encourage each other and maybe get in a laugh or two watching their coworker in a different setting than just normal meetings. It can be fun some days and others it can be serious. For instance, you can get creative and do dress up days within those workout days and take team pictures through zoom. You can commit to a program and accomplish it for a week or a month it is the employers choice. You would be able to decide on a time and a program and zoom each other everyday to workout. You can also encourage each other when the workouts get hard and also share healthy meal recipes with your team members. Each person will have an accountability partner and the group that loses the most weight will win a prize!

    This activity not only promotes team building and relationships, but it also promotes a healthy lifestyle. Most people sit all day and this will be a great way to get people active and moving!

    Reply
  377. Austin
    Austin
    April 8, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    These are all great ideas that make me want to share my own! My remote team building idea would be a business themed bingo, where the “boxes” are words/phrases that are relevant in your business setting. The more complicated the word the better, synonyms for commonly used words would be bonus points. The goal of this idea is to both increase knowledge of terms that are used a lot in your field, as well as increase the teams communication skills and vocabulary of useful words. This should make it easier to communicate with clients in a refreshing non repetitive manner, as well as be a fun and lightly competitive game for the team to enjoy, you could even give out prizes to the top players!

    Reply
  378. Carl York
    Carl York
    April 8, 2020 at 1:55 pm

    All of these ideas are great. I thought of something while reading through, what about a remote form of heads up. Every one will get cards in the mail with fellow employees names on them that they can’t look at and can’t use till the chat is ready. Then using zoom or some kind of video conference you have to try and give each other clues to help them guess who they are, but can only use positive clues, no being rude or mean. Try and have everyone use positive examples of who the person is to help build each other up and strengthen bonds between each other.

    Reply
  379. Elron Savage
    Elron Savage
    April 8, 2020 at 3:13 pm

    There are so many different brilliant ideas here on this site, both from the site and from each and everyone of you all. I believe an idea that would be fun to do would be virtual Family Feud. Family Feud has been popular for a long time. Well, why not make it a game that can be played from anywhere in the virtual world? Still helps build the team concept, but also allows for a little fun competition, while giving each other a great laugh.

    Reply
  380. Kyle Sese
    Kyle Sese
    April 8, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    I’m a strong advocate for activities that focus on team-building for companies! I believe that there are many creative opportunities that will help achieve the abilities of immediate-thinking, collaboration, expanding the outlook from different perceptions.

    “Tea vs. Coffee” would be a great opportunity of seeing the outlooks from different perceptions. We know there are two types of people: 1) The people who enjoy tea & 2) The people who enjoy coffee. This is a great way for people to come together and see eye to eye on ways that influence each other on educating / appreciating one’s favored beverage. I love that there are opportunities for discussion. For example, the people who enjoy tea can educate the coffee lovers about facts and benefits of tea, (vice versa).

    An activity that would be enjoyable, yet informative would be a series of “Would You Rather…” Questions. Responses would be provided with explanations, as a way of understanding the perspective based off of the two options. “Would You Rather…” is an activity, where there are no right / wrong answers. It is an activity, where the participants could really think about problem-solving, open up about their personable-being, and a game that is essentially a game, but a response on their professional work ethic.

    Reply
  381. Amy
    Amy
    April 8, 2020 at 3:40 pm

    I think a really fun remote team building idea would be to host a murder mystery party. There would be a host that would set the scene and introduce all of the characters (members involved in team building activity). By adding a private chat option the players could converse among them selves as well as together on video chat while trying to figure out “Who Done It”. The host occasionally jumps in with new information and clues! I think it would be a great way to get everyone talking all while keeping their minds active and engaged. Who doesn’t want to be the first one to solve a Murder Mystery?!

    Reply
  382. Cathy W
    Cathy W
    April 8, 2020 at 3:58 pm

    When you are working with teams from other countries and cultures it can be a challenge to not only to get to know one another but to also understand each others cultures. One activity we did was each team member brought a favorite snack hidden on the plate with a cloth or napkin. Then we took turns revealing what it was and why we like it. With our India team we found out that one of the team members favorite was cheetos and it happened that one of our US team members matched with them. After that in meetings they would joke about cheesy fingers. We also learned about some new snacks and later sent samples from one team to the other so we could try them.

    Reply
  383. Christine Cardone
    Christine Cardone
    April 8, 2020 at 4:13 pm

    I would do a version of the Brady bunch song to be honest. I mean if the team is online and there are more than 3 boxes with people on there, I would take the opportunity to sing a song about the company and post it online. Not only would it go viral it would be funny and informative about the company. It would be free press and make people look it up. Like a type of tiktok or something like that. I know that the youth would like it. It would make everyone feel silly but it would be a great ice breaker for the co-workers and bosses. And who doesn’t like free press?

    Reply
  384. BriVi
    BriVi
    April 8, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    I enjoyed all of these team-building activities, they’re so creative and clever. An expansion version of an well-known often-used activity we participated in was “5 Favorite Films With Famous Lines”. Each participant would say their top 5 fave films and then one famous line from each film as close to the way the movies’ characters said them. So, if you said Casablanca as one of your movies, you might say, “Here’s looking at you kid.” like Bogart did. You’d might be surprised to know that we actually had someone who studied film and loved silent movies. I’m sure you can just imagine how humorously the “lines” were “spoken”! What a hoot!

    Reply
  385. Kelly Beyer
    Kelly Beyer
    April 8, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    There are many awesome ideas here!! But here a few more 🙂

    1. Think Fast
    – six members choose a category, any category
    – all members write down the six categories
    – one member chooses a random letter
    – all members have 60 seconds to come up with a word for each category that starts with the chosen letter
    – answers are shared at the end, the most correct responses win… with unique answers as a tie-breaker

    2. Tiktok Dance Challenge
    – a few tiktok (the app) dances are chosen
    – members choose which they want to try and learn
    – everyone tries to replicate one of the dances
    – everyone votes on the winner for each dance

    3. Trivia Chicken
    – trivia questions are selected in advance
    – members are divided into two teams then selected and asked a question
    – if they do not know the answer, they can bawk like a chicken
    – after bawking, they may say the name of another member
    – this member can answer or bawk the question to another teammate
    – after 3 bawks, the member must answer or default the question to the other team

    Reply
  386. Marisa
    Marisa
    April 8, 2020 at 4:41 pm

    I believe a fun game would be to play virtual charades and you can use any prop inside your home. There is no talking for the person acting out their role. The host will be a given a list of categories, which will be selected upon each round. Each prop used in the demonstration is an extra point for that team. Children and animals do not count as a prop either! 😉

    Reply
  387. Jessica Yocum
    Jessica Yocum
    April 8, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    Remote team building experiences are such a great idea. I love that teambuilding.com is so creative with their team building products. My favorite idea is the campfire experience. How cool would it be to receive a package in the mail containing a candle, marshmallows and chocolate? If I was on a team and my boss held an event like that, I’d feel that he/she was a lot of fun and really cared about their people. You always want to work harder for a boss that cares and with co workers you are able to build a great professional relationship with. I’m in love with this whole concept!

    Reply
  388. Jeffrey Avella
    Jeffrey Avella
    April 8, 2020 at 5:35 pm

    So many awesome ideas here – A great team building virtually can be to create a visual journey into the future of the organization, Each team member create a message board to showcase a new goal, change ,achievement or challenge within the organization. The goal is to have fun with a strategic outcome on the direction of the team within the organization.

    Reply
  389. Persis
    Persis
    April 8, 2020 at 5:53 pm

    I absolutely love the idea of having remote and virtual team building activities! I think it is a huge asset to a company to have a great management team, who recognizes that morale is such a huge factor in employee output and productivity. A happy workplace is a successful one! Remote working is no exception. It could seem lucky to some to be able to work from home, but the challenge of keeping your employees motivated and productive while they have access to the comforts of their home is definitely a situation. Given that many people also have access to their kitchens at home, I think a great idea for a team building experience would be what I call “Bake n’ shake.” In this we can have the team either come up with a recipe or a workout that they can share with the whole team. Both are things that could be done at home. The workout should be with little or no equipment and should be easy for anyone to do. The recipe should also have a beginner’s level of preparation and completion. No one should expect souffles. It would be like a segment on a morning show. I think it would be lots of fun to watch and participate!

    Reply
  390. Tracy McCartney
    Tracy McCartney
    April 8, 2020 at 6:27 pm

    An online scavenger hunt would be fun and an effective team building exercise. If done in teams of two this would help effect communication as well as help people get to know their co-workers. This would also help with attention to detail and focus. You can also make it timed – which would add an element of pressure to meet a deadline.

    Reply
  391. Samantha Catchot
    Samantha Catchot
    April 8, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    One activity that has been the most memorable for me as a team building and introductory activity was during my Leadership Jackson County class we did a personality profile the DISC and our facilitator used the results from that to group us into 5 groups and we did a day long Simulated Society game which was more fun than i could have imagined. It was not only a team building activity but also showed us some of the issues society is faced with that maybe we dont notice or take for granted.

    Reply
  392. Nicholas
    Nicholas
    April 8, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    My remote team building activity would be a work style pictionary. You gather your teams and have them take turns drawing work items that the others would have to guess, the first person to get 5 answers correct is the winner. So not only does it help bring people together, but it will help them learn the company products as well.

    Reply
  393. Colton
    Colton
    April 8, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    Corporate Janga,
    A team Janga game with questions assosiated to each block, when a team member picks the block they get to answer the question associated with the number. This is a great way to get to know your team on a deeper level, have fun and build team corporation.

    Reply
  394. Amanda
    Amanda
    April 8, 2020 at 8:20 pm

    These are all awesome ideas! Working as a team while working remotely definitely forces you to be creative in your ideas.

    An idea to add would be to do work with a partner to design an emoji that does not exist yet and then have a designated judge to pick the emoji that they would use. The winners get lunch

    Reply
  395. Will
    Will
    April 8, 2020 at 9:13 pm

    Hello,

    To get people feeling more open to discussion and communicating with each other more you must try the Pig Drawing Test. It is a fun activity that supposedly reveals certain personality traits. Each person takes about 5 minutes to draw a pig, whether realistic or cartoon-like. After five minutes you see that everyone has drawn their rendition of a pig.

    Now, as everyone examines their own drawing, the facilitator will read aloud the “ifs”:

    If your pig is drawn at the top of the paper…
    If your pig is drawn at the center of the paper…
    If your pig is drawn at the bottom of your paper…
    If your pig is facing left…
    If your pig is facing right…
    If your pig is facing forward…
    If all four legs are showing…
    If less than four legs are showing…
    If the tail is long…
    If the tail is short…
    If the ears are big…

    Each of these “ifs” supposed to say things about peoples’ personality traits. Whether it is accurate or not for the individual it is fun. There will be more accuracies than you think.

    Take care,

    Reply
  396. Mercedes
    Mercedes
    April 8, 2020 at 9:55 pm

    I think a virtual game of Guess Who,

    Two teams two separate chats one team voice. Everyone in the meeting is a game character that can be chosen. Each team chooses a character and the opposing team needs to guess who the chosen character is. This allows all team members to interact and get to know one another better.

    Reply
  397. Muhammad Fahim Vohra
    Muhammad Fahim Vohra
    April 8, 2020 at 10:52 pm

    A good team building represents a good communication among the team members.

    Reply
  398. Latifa Mohammed
    Latifa Mohammed
    April 8, 2020 at 11:01 pm

    One example of a good team building activity is playing Heads Up! Also, another good idea can be to have everyone work together and play murder mystery.

    Reply
  399. Tim
    Tim
    April 8, 2020 at 11:11 pm

    P4
    Everyone gets a chance to introduce their PET, their PLANT, their PARTNER, or their PANTRY

    In this activity each participant would introduce one of the above mentioned items. Think creatively! Not everyone has has all of the above, but should have at least one?! For Pantry, if you choose it, you can get creative, and show one food item that is quintessentially you…(hot sauce collection or spice collection, or maybe your favorite ice cream).

    Reply
  400. Karina Carroll
    Karina Carroll
    April 8, 2020 at 11:15 pm

    I think a fun team building game would be a snack off competition. Depending on the size of your team you can break them up into groups of 3-5 people. Everyone can pick one item food snacks to mix suck as popcorn, caramel drizzle, pretzels, etc. Once everyone picks a food item the team then works on a virtual bowl to mix/draw their choices all in one bowl and make it look appetizing. Everyone then votes on a teams bowl, and the winning team members will receive a enticing price like an extra half hour for lunch break or anything like that.

    Reply
  401. Kasey
    Kasey
    April 8, 2020 at 11:47 pm

    I love the idea of the recipe challenge. I am an Air Force “Brat” who was raised on the Canadian Border in North Dakota. I married an Army pilot who spent his whole life on the Florida Gulf Coast. We have a lot of “North Vs South” discussions about food. Everything from “hotdish” (A North Dakota word) to his “casserole”, we are always in hot debate not only about how items are pronounced “Pea-Khan” and “Pea-Can”, but how they are prepared. I would like to see the recipes of a team that may have a lot of different versions.

    We have lived all over the country. I can tell you that no one makes Chili the same way. I’d love to see a chili cookoff and have the recipes posted with the backstories of how they were developed (Grandma would grow the beans in her garden/ Grandpa insisted it needed a bottle of beer in it).

    Reply
  402. Sonya T
    Sonya T
    April 8, 2020 at 11:52 pm

    Now that we are in quarantine, team building activities such as these are the perfect way to stay connected with your co-workers and classmates. These ideas are so creative and thoughtful. I will definitely be suggesting these during my next zoom meeting.

    Reply
  403. Ben Stukenborg
    Ben Stukenborg
    April 8, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    I think a great team building activity would be to have a remote “happy hour”. Every company I have worked for we would always have happy hours at bars or restaurants and its a great way to meet your coworkers. Also maybe a water cup game, team vs. team.

    Reply
  404. Sonya T
    Sonya T
    April 8, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    Now that we are in quarantine, team building activities such as these are the perfect way to stay connected with your co-workers and classmates. These ideas are so creative and thoughtful. Another great team building activity is to play games, such as charades remotely. Its easy to do and definitely a crowd please.

    Reply
  405. Christian
    Christian
    April 9, 2020 at 12:02 am

    I would like to do a team building activity where we got broken into groups and got to make a science fair project with our team. Just like in school, we would use a tri-fold board and present our results!

    Reply
  406. Joy Hampton
    Joy Hampton
    April 9, 2020 at 12:57 am

    These sound great! I’ve been a dog trainer for many years, which has taught me that timely reinforcement is super important for motivation, training, and clear communication, whether you’re working with people or animals. One game that animal trainers play sometimes is a shaping game, which hones their timing and communication skills. It could be played over Zoom. One person is the Learner, and one person is the Teacher. The Teacher has an action that they have to teach the Learner to do, like “pat your head” or “spin in a circle”. The teacher cannot say anything other than, “yes”. The Learner only knows that they are supposed to try things, and when they do something right, the Teacher will say “yes”. The Teacher has to start by reinforcing little successes. For example, if the task is, “pat your head”, the Teacher will wait for the Learner to raise their hand a little, and then say “yes”. As the Learner realizes that it has something to do with moving their hand, they will start moving it more intentionally. Then, the Teacher can change the criteria to moving the hand close to the head. The Teacher keeps increasing the criteria closer and closer to the end goal, until the Learner eventually pats their head. Usually then the Teacher, and the audience erupt with an enthusiastic, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” which is very reinforcing. Then teams will switch up who is the Learner and who is the Teacher. Everyone should play each role at least once. When you’re the Teacher, you practice setting achievable goals, and you improve communication, timing, and empathy. When you’re the Learner, you practice being creative, and trying new things, and paying attention to successes. Best of all, it’s just a fun, silly game.

    Reply
  407. Chris Saunders
    Chris Saunders
    April 9, 2020 at 2:14 am

    One activity I’ve used is Reverse Strip Poker.
    You start out with all members writing on paper two truths and one lie about themselves. The first player begins by reading the three statements about themself, and the rest of the team votes one which statement is false. Player one announces the false statement – all members who guessed incorrectly must put on an extra item of clothing – a second sweater, extra socks, hat etc. The game continues with the losers of every round adding more and more clothing, ending up with multiple hats, jackets etc. In the end the player with most incorrect answers performs a mock karate fight on camera – whilst still wearing all extra layers.

    Reply
  408. Joy
    Joy
    April 9, 2020 at 2:35 am

    Wow, this was awesome! There are so many great ideas. Another fun team building activity that you could try would involve each team member’s cell phone photo gallery. One person could pick another person and say, “I spy something [insert color here]”, and then the selected person would have to find a photo in their gallery with that color in it. I think it would be a lot of fun because it combines a beloved child hood game and gives the team a fun look into each other’s lives. How entertaining would that be!

    Reply
  409. BH
    BH
    April 9, 2020 at 6:10 am

    Virtual Team Building Activity: Spot the Difference
    Partner up in groups of 2

    1. Face each other first, then turn around

    2. Once your back is turned to your partner change one thing about your physical appearance (ex. take off glasses, remove a piece of jewelry, add braid to hair, use props around you, get creative:)

    3. Turn back around in 10 seconds, analyze the difference on partner, what was it, was it noticeable at first sight?

    The goal of this activity is to be attentive, pay close attention to details, they can be big or small. Understanding the importance in details in the workplace.

    In order to accommodate this activity virtually, each person must be paired with a partner to only observe during the virtual activity. On a count to 3 each team member closes their eyes and will change one physical detail from the chest up within 10 seconds. Once the time is up open your eyes and identify the difference!

    Reply
  410. Nicole
    Nicole
    April 9, 2020 at 7:37 am

    I love all these ideas to connect with coworkers in time when we can’t physically be together! A virtual book club would be fun if you picked a book that was relevant to your industry. Each teammate comes up with a thought provoking question after reading the book to help facilitate the meeting.

    Reply
  411. Melissa
    Melissa
    April 9, 2020 at 8:49 am

    It would be great to a virtual BBQ! Bring your phone or laptop outside, sit at a table with a nice cold drink, and fire up the grill!

    Reply
  412. Mollie
    Mollie
    April 9, 2020 at 11:08 am

    “Don’t forget the Lyrics” – Split the team into two and you take turns in your team to sing popular songs and fill in the missing lyrics. Whichever team gets the most right wins!

    Reply
  413. Auburn
    Auburn
    April 9, 2020 at 11:39 am

    #Throwback Thursdays are still a thing right? How about creating a virtual team collage of BABY photos and everyone has to take a shot to guess who is who! Once someone guesses your photo you must share a brief description of the photo. I envision there will be lots of laughing and great memories to share. 🙂

    Reply
  414. Melissa
    Melissa
    April 9, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    Eat, drink and be merry. Prepare an appetizer or meal that is popular among “the locals” and pair it with the perfect adult beverage (i.e., what food and drink is your city known for). Share the history of the dish or anything exciting about the dish or how you were introduced to the dish or anything share-worthy to spark conversation, connect, learn, and have a merry time.

    Reply
  415. Emily
    Emily
    April 9, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    We did an office wide pixel art competition using your templates and people loved it! Would love to do it again – #pixel. A fun thing we’ve been doing is 30 minute live cooking demos with our catering team.

    Reply
  416. Shaliese
    Shaliese
    April 9, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    One great idea for virtual team building is conducting a scavenger hunt and customize your scavenger hunt around your industry, mission, values, and other themes. For example, a financial institute can conduct a scavenger hunt based on the banking history for that city.

    Reply
  417. Shaliese
    Shaliese
    April 9, 2020 at 1:33 pm

    Another great idea for virtual team building is hosting a virtual brand building skit dividing the teams to work together and creating an advertisement to market that company. The meetups can be conducted via Zoom, and the assignment will be distributed based on a particular product or service selected and each team will create a part of the skit to add to the other team’s portion of advertisement. After all parts are combined, the teams then assign roles to one another to perform their skits.

    Reply
  418. Brian
    Brian
    April 9, 2020 at 1:46 pm

    Virtual Office Olympics – You have a panel of three judges and then you form two to four teams with everyone else. The teams compete in a series of events – tongue twisters, mental math questions, karaoke, dancing, chess, rock-paper-scissors, etc. And the judges decide who wins.

    Reply
  419. Michael Dunn
    Michael Dunn
    April 9, 2020 at 1:46 pm

    Life maps! Life maps are a way for team members to get to know one another as individuals, each with their own story. Life maps are also an opportunity to reflect on your current situation and what you bring with you to the team.

    Reply
  420. Justin
    Justin
    April 9, 2020 at 2:13 pm

    I think a virtual talent show would be a fun team activity. Each team member picks a category of either a musical performance or a monologue from a movie. They will have 24 hours to prepare their performance so they are comfortable with performing. When show time arrives each team member gathers in front of the computer with a bowl of popcorn ready for the show. Each member will perform their piece after which the team votes for a winner. After the winner is chosen they get a $50 gift card as an incentive.

    Reply
  421. Queen
    Queen
    April 9, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    I think it will be great to have a visual holiday.. Bring your cakes and candles.. bring your laptop and a plate of nice Delicious food.. and enjoy a time with the team

    Reply
  422. Keelan
    Keelan
    April 9, 2020 at 3:23 pm

    Another great virtual team builder would be D&D. The game is simple, everything you need is pre-generated, and programs like discord, zoom, hangouts, etc. are just a handful of remote avenues to play. Teams need to work together and collaborate to achieve the goals set and overcome the challenges along the way. All the while, they get an opportunity to get out of themselves and implement ideas that they normally wouldn’t when they are restricted by their own personal walls. Leaders can effectively extract the most out of their teams by utilizing observation and personality coaching techniques. Psychology studies have even implemented this great old game to help those with social barriers.

    Reply
  423. Ben Baker
    Ben Baker
    April 9, 2020 at 3:29 pm

    With the state of the world right now, virtual team building couldn’t be more important! Workers are secluded and isolated from their colleagues. Although we have the tools to (thankfully) communicate, there is a big divide right now where human interaction has abruptly ended for the time being in many businesses. We need these important virtual team building opportunities more than ever!

    Reply
  424. rebecca
    rebecca
    April 9, 2020 at 3:57 pm

    When I was working in a corporate environment, we would always have pot lucks. It was an opportunity to share our favorite recipes. Sweets were always on the table. A fun virtual team building activity could include baking. Similar to the Netflix show “Nailed it”, the team could select a few Pinterest or online recipes and vote on which dish to create. Team members will preset their creations. The reveal is always the best part.

    Reply
  425. Jason Brown
    Jason Brown
    April 9, 2020 at 3:59 pm

    Gamer tags
    Since most everyone plays some kind of game online. You would go around the group and give out your favorite game, whether mobile, pc, or console, Give out your gamer tag in case anyone plays the same game and wants to add new people. Everyone takes a turn saying why they enjoy the game, what caught their eye about it, and what skills it might have taught them. Then you have a general discussion of the games. This way your team-members will get a chance to know a little more about each other while talking about something they enjoy

    Reply
  426. Tracey Fox
    Tracey Fox
    April 9, 2020 at 4:08 pm

    These ideas are all very creative and fun. Connecting with your team members during this time is important to make sure productivity is still happening. Everyone needs a night to destress from work and have fun with their coworkers. My personal favorite is pub virtual trivia.

    Reply
  427. Bridgette
    Bridgette
    April 9, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    I think that a great team building exercise is show your sports team affiliation and knowledge or a themed spirit week!

    Reply
  428. Tanner
    Tanner
    April 9, 2020 at 5:05 pm

    I think showing off your room could be a great way to help create closer relationships. Showing your room off is a very personal thing as your room is most likely the closest visual representation of someone’s personality possible so it helps give others insight into their coworkers life.

    Reply
  429. Anna
    Anna
    April 9, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    One of my favorite games is NEVER HAVE I EVER game, where team members learn more about character traits of the team.

    Reply
  430. Mishel Awan
    Mishel Awan
    April 9, 2020 at 5:29 pm

    I think a team building event that would be super awesome would be show one item in your room that you love the most and is unique to your personality! Or show your pets!

    Reply
  431. Cole
    Cole
    April 9, 2020 at 6:01 pm

    The Virtual Pantomime,
    With the Virtual Pantomime, you draw from a list of activities to pantomime out to the group. You will try to pantomime out the best work instructions you can give (no talking or notes allowed). After a period of time, you can add in text to help the group and finally if they still can t guess it you can talk. This is a great way to show how critical communication skills are while having a fun time doing it. It will also put all team members on an even playing field, this can help break potential intimidation factors if they exist. Finally, it will show your team that everyone is human and approachable in a work setting, making your team more productive.

    Reply
  432. Moises Roldan
    Moises Roldan
    April 9, 2020 at 6:01 pm

    The best Remote Activity that you could do with your team is have a brainstorming or Ice-Break in that way they will feel free and comfortable when they talk. For example post a random theme: “What do you think when I say…” a.innovation, b.challenge, c.customer, they will have the space to say what come to their mind quickly.

    Reply
  433. Deepti
    Deepti
    April 9, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    As a way for a team to bond, they can have zoom meeting and play pictionary while whoever is drawing can share their screen so all team members can view the picture to guess what he/she is drawing.

    Reply
  434. Padraic Gray
    Padraic Gray
    April 9, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    I feel team building is such a critical dynamic to increase productivity, especially for remote teams. It allows for each team member to feel like they are actually a part of a team, get to know their team members better, and open lines of communication by bringing down walls of collaboration barriers. In our current business environment of a growing demand for virtual teams in all industries, it is becoming more and more important.

    These are all great ideas for team building, and another I have that I think would be effective is Pitch Your Peeve. It will start out with a questionnaire sent out a week in advance asking for Pet Peeves and preferences in daily life. For example, do you call it Soda or Pop? Since toilet paper is like gold these days, do you have it coming down from the front or back? Cats or dogs? Beach or mountains? Junk food or healthy eating? Do you like snow? etc. Find out what preferences each team member has in life in a series of either-or questions. Make them lighthearted, and allow each one to chime in with their pet peeve and/or preference in discussion. It will give each team member to get to know each other a little bit while also learning some of their pet peeves. For a twist? After each team member chooses a side, e.g. soda or pop, they are assigned to a team of the OPPOSITE side for a lighthearted debate. The person that used to prefer the toilet paper in the front now has to pitch their team members on why its best from the back. This will allow for some out of the box thinking, some belly laughs, and a challenge to adopt a new perspective to see things from a new point of view. It will allow barriers of communication to be eliminated, an acceptance for opposing views with having to think of reasons for why it might be ok, and a level of humor that will rejuvenate the most stagnant team out there. Pitch Your Peeve can be revisited often in the future as well when new either-or preferences and Pet Peeves are brought to the table. There are countless ideas for content that can go into the questionnaire that are applicable to everyone’s daily life.

    Reply
  435. Ryan Williams
    Ryan Williams
    April 9, 2020 at 6:45 pm

    These are all awesome ideas. One idea that I had is some sort of “What’s in the fridge/kitchen” type of thing. This would be similar to the MTV Cribs idea but it would be more similar to what the Food Network has done amid the COVID 19 outbreak. They have segments that show their chefs favorite at home tool, ingredient, etc. So my idea would be a hybrid of the two. The employees would show whats in their fridge and pantry and maybe a favorite kitchen appliance. I think this would be a good team bonding exercise because what you eat says a lot about who you are and how you live your life. I have a group chat going with my family and we discuss what we are making for dinner every night, so this is a similar idea.

    Reply
  436. Sophie Brentlinger
    Sophie Brentlinger
    April 9, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    I’ve always thought that Family Feud is an entertaining show. To make it unique to the company, you could “survey” all of the employees and use their answers as part of the game! You could also have questions related to the job, for example: “what are the best parts about working remote” and have the top five answers be a part of the game.

    Reply
  437. Kasey Gore
    Kasey Gore
    April 9, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    This post has so many interesting and engaging ideas! I love the book club idea!

    Something I think that could teach you more about each other and share a good time would be a “something that sparked joy” conversation. Something like show-n-tell or what happened in your day. It’s something that my boyfriend and I do at the end of the day, and it helps us to share something we may not have thought to share without asking to reflect on it.

    For example:
    During the day I see a new bird at my bird feeder. In the moment, I’m very excited about it. It sparks joy. But as the day goes on I forget about it, and when asked “What did you do today?” like most people, I’d just spout off a list of actions I took, places I went, so on. But then at the end of the day if I’m asked “What’s something that sparked joy?” I think not of things I did, but things I saw or felt. I’m reminded of that new bird, I feel that excitement again, and I can share that with him.

    I think asking people to share by doing something along the lines of “What happened this day/week that sparked joy?” Or, “What’s something in/around your house that sparks joy?” Would give people an opportunity to let others know a little more about them and their interests, and give everyone happy experiences or things to bond over and talk about.

    Reply
  438. PRD
    PRD
    April 9, 2020 at 8:26 pm

    These are great virtual/remote team building ideas! I especially like the healthy habits (Yoga, Tai Chi and push up challenge) and would like to add a team building exercise (literally an exercise) routine with household items to use as “work-out equipment” (i.e. gallon of milk to use for bicep curls; heavy books or objects to place on your legs to do leg lifts; etc.) and would be a HIIT type work-out for only 10-30 minutes. Individual goals can be posted and keep each other accountable for their goals. For those with any physical limitations, work-out modifications can be made or do a crossword puzzle during the 10-30 minute work out to exercise the brain instead 🙂

    Another idea would be a “Minute-to-Win-It” challenge. Items to use can be regular office supplies such as pens, pencils, paper clips, paper, etc. or household items likes canned goods, utensils, or what ever you have around your office/house. Can be played as individuals or teams. There are endless types of challenges and you can brainstorm with the team what kinds of challenges to do the following weeks.

    Reply
  439. Sebastian Duncan
    Sebastian Duncan
    April 9, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    So many fun and engaging team activities on this list.

    Something that I think would definitely get the energy moving, get the creative juices flowing and take the edge off would be playing Pancakes vs Waffles. The possibilities are endless.

    It may start out as a silly debate about pancakes vs waffles but can take on a life of its own and spark incredibly interesting conversations about how the importance of things in society are weighed up against everything else.
    Imagine deciding on physical fitness vs impeccable fashion sense. What would you rather have?

    I’d be interested in hearing different opinions.

    Reply
  440. Jennifer Baxter
    Jennifer Baxter
    April 9, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    I totally want to figure out a way to include the Team Pixel Recreation Challenge into a Zoom meeting with my students. #pixel

    Reply
  441. matthew p Gantkowski
    matthew p Gantkowski
    April 9, 2020 at 11:16 pm

    Team building activity Idea alert!

    Virtual history story time. Everyone dresses up as a part of history and then we connect the times.

    Reply
  442. Jason Ritterbush
    Jason Ritterbush
    April 9, 2020 at 11:23 pm

    It’s so important for teams, especially remote, to find ways to build strong relationships characterized by trust, support, and a shared focus. It’s amazing to see so many people passionate about these things!

    An idea I have is to create personal mission statements and core values and then to share our 3 biggest goals in life and how those goals have been shaped by our values and mission in life. I love hearing what the people on my team are passionate about and what their big visions are. Knowing that my teammate is passionate about building things and one of their big goals is to have their own woodshop is awesome. It allows me to find things we have in common and helps with keeping top of mind “This is another person with dreams and a life”. It makes it easier to hold a conversation and to appreciate them.

    Reply
  443. lillian
    lillian
    April 10, 2020 at 12:00 am

    Remote charades / Pictionary, or an at home cooking class type of situation, with all the workers being sent a meal kit, and then they prepare it at home together.

    Reply
  444. JC
    JC
    April 10, 2020 at 12:25 am

    Such great ideas! I am so excited about the Spreadsheet Pixel Art. I facilitate some leadership workshops that are typically face-to-face but have transitioned to online format due to COVID-19. I am going to use this activity as our team-building activity and incorporate leadership strengths into it as well. Didn’t think we could replace the face-to-face activity in a meaningful way, but THIS WILL WORK! #pixel

    Reply
  445. Leila Harris
    Leila Harris
    April 10, 2020 at 12:32 am

    One team building activity I would use for a remote team would be Virtual Relay. This activity would involve a relay style event for everyone to compete in teams against their colleagues. Each team would designate a member for a different task and the next team member cannot begin their task without the other person completing theirs. An example could be Employee A draws a blueprint of an object that can be made from household items and Employee B must then create the model based on the other employee’s model. The team who completes the tasks set for each member first wins! This activity promotes excellent communication between members as well a collective buy-in of the final product from each member of each team.

    Reply
  446. Christine White
    Christine White
    April 10, 2020 at 1:52 am

    I love the Bingo idea and feel it can be expanded upon in many ways. Use it to target the business that the company is in – themes that will target the business and what they do, things they might hear a customer say in a given day or what they might say or learn? Can also do a game where you name something that people can find in their homes, everyone runs to find, last to bring back is eliminated (a la musical chairs). Didn’t read through all the posts, might have been posted by others but were way too many to read! Great ideas – personally, my favorite Is the Quarterly Christmas one. As a manager, I would have loved to have done that had I been given a budget to do so.

    Reply
  447. Jamaal
    Jamaal
    April 10, 2020 at 3:41 am

    A really good one I found that teams really enjoy is something along the lines of eye-spy through zoom. I believe that honing in on specific details will lead to the team to think more critically. The rules would be centered around the smallest detail, the guessing team gets three chances and the team who is “spying” must look across the zoom calls and find a small thing to pick. Teams will work together to solve small problems.

    Reply
  448. Sydney
    Sydney
    April 10, 2020 at 5:49 am

    Pancakes VS. Waffles is the best for remote work in my opinion. Not only would it be fun and funny, but you would also get to know your coworkers and employees better. You would learn things they value by what they pick or by what next item is eliminated. Working for a company is more fun if your coworkers aren’t just your coworkers, but they’re your friends!!

    Reply
  449. Danielle
    Danielle
    April 10, 2020 at 8:43 am

    Endless ideas on here! An activity that I think is a lot of fun for a virtual team is having an open google doc for everyone to drop into and write or draw anything they want. Team members can sign it with their name or leave it anonymous. It lets everyone get a better idea for what people are thinking about and is an easy place for people to share whatever is on their mind in an informal setting.

    Reply
  450. Memry Wilson
    Memry Wilson
    April 10, 2020 at 9:45 am

    I really think the virtual spread sheet coloring contest is really a fun creative idea to promote people on a team to use skills they use everyday and skills they haven’t used in years. This activity can be used to create company inclusion and increase positive company culture responses because it’s totally “out of the box.”

    Reply
  451. Elizabeth
    Elizabeth
    April 10, 2020 at 10:39 am

    There are some really great ideas here! It would be really cool if we could do something like those “castle defense” games. The first one that comes to mind for me is a Plants vs. Zombies style. You could have half the team be the offense and the other be defense. Both sides have to pick which zombies/plants they want to use. The offense would have to pick how many waves of attack, when to space the waves, which zombies to use when, etc. The defense would have to pick which plants they want to use, how to arrange them, how to place them the most strategically, etc. A little competition always helps motivate so I really like the idea of having offense/defense exercises!

    Reply
  452. Krista Peachey
    Krista Peachey
    April 10, 2020 at 11:44 am

    A virtual team building activity could be introducing your team to your pets! Everyone loves their pets, why not show them off?! This could create great discussion and maybe lead to new friendships based on pet interests.

    Reply
  453. Elizabeth Edelstein
    Elizabeth Edelstein
    April 10, 2020 at 11:44 am

    There are so many options available, it’s difficult to see how anyone could get left out. Another great game I like to play with my team, though, is a Guess Who? sort of game. What happens is the whole group is given a category (description, action, etc.) and each team member has to anonymously and secretly vote who they think is more like or related to that category. Whoever’s name is used the most for each category gets a point. It’s a fun game where you get to learn more about your teammates while also getting to learn how others think of you.

    Reply
  454. Neisha Cox
    Neisha Cox
    April 10, 2020 at 12:02 pm

    There were tons of great ideas for remote team building activities provided. I think it would also be super cool if another team building activity involving Instagram live was added to help promote remote workforce bonding. Supervisors could go live and have employees chime in on whatever workplace meeting topic they would like after a few icebreakers and contests that can be won by placing employees in teams and having them compete on anything you like. It could be something random and fun or perhaps workplace knowledge that you would like to help reinforce through this activity.

    Reply
  455. Adam Hensley
    Adam Hensley
    April 10, 2020 at 12:39 pm

    In these times especially- working remotely and isolated, staying in touch is more important than ever.

    Painting with a BIG Twist- Team follows along together in a painting tutorial (or other craft) over video calls with each other. Alcohol can be included or excluded.

    With everyone trying to talk at once, quieter team members can get lost in group video chats. This activity allows you to go one by one:
    Round Robin Mad Libs- A group leader or narrator picks out some Mad LIbs and fills in the answers with each team member offering one answer each, in round.

    Reply
  456. Jordane Trincado
    Jordane Trincado
    April 10, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    There are so many fantastic ideas for team building ideas ideas in this article it is hard to imagine they haven’t all been thought of already. I believe a daily online scavenger hunt could be a fun way to create friendly competition. The clues could even be framed as a riddle. The different interpretations and results colleges come up with would be interesting and go a long way in understanding different perspective while keeping everyone’s mind agile.

    Reply
  457. Dalton Van Houtan
    Dalton Van Houtan
    April 10, 2020 at 1:44 pm

    Dealing with all the misinformation and prejudices around the world, why not start up a Culture Club? People sign on to demonstrate how their family or heritage cooks that special dish, ways they celebrate the holidays, and those other special traditions not widely known!

    Reply
  458. Devin Alvarez
    Devin Alvarez
    April 10, 2020 at 2:25 pm

    An idea for a team building exercise is a Virtual Talent Show. You would be able to work in groups or individuals to create a short video of your talent. We could appoint some of the employees as judges and even have a host. This gives employees a chance to collaborate and learn new things about one another.

    Reply
  459. Danny
    Danny
    April 10, 2020 at 2:56 pm

    1. Have a brainstorming session!
    *Pick a wild idea & have people run with it. Look at modern problems and come up with solutions together!

    Reply
  460. Sebastian Santiago
    Sebastian Santiago
    April 10, 2020 at 3:10 pm

    Great idea’s here! Something I did as a manager that turned out to be way more fun than initially anticipated was running a game of “what’s the lyric”. This can be done remotely over a video call or in person. Essentially you just pause a popular song right before a popular part/ lyric and the participants have to fill in the lyrics. It always gets a good laugh! You get a point for correct answers and you can even provide bonus points for singing if you really want to turn it up!

    Reply
  461. Laura Dudley
    Laura Dudley
    April 10, 2020 at 3:36 pm

    I think these ideas are all amazing! I was also thinking of a themed office decorating party. Where each person decorates their at home office space based off a theme chosen that week or month and there’s a different judge each time so everyone gets the chance to participate. Whomever’s turn it is to judge gets to choose the next theme. The winner gets a prize or incentive. Best office wins! Another idea would be to choose a song you want to remake and everyone gets a verse that they get to change the words to. At the end you put it altogether and try and sing it with the new lyrics everyone singing their added part.

    Reply
  462. Autumn Mullins
    Autumn Mullins
    April 10, 2020 at 3:51 pm

    Wow, these are some great materials!
    I think a great teambuilding exercise would be for each team member to host a session where they would lead the group on an activity that they enjoy on their downtime or during working hours that helps them keep motivated throughout the day. Whether it be a refreshing meal for lunch, a yoga session or in my case – how to create art using old vinyl records! The possibilities can be endless and can vary on activity. If activities were to remain relevant to the workday – you could customize the activity to obtain resources for employees to use in order to learn new skills or master their current skills. You could even incorporate a scavenger hunt within the resources that would end in completing a project or puzzle!

    Reply
  463. Meredith Franczak
    Meredith Franczak
    April 10, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    Since everyone is remote, sometimes it is a challenge to pull yourself together for a day at the office. An Outfit of the Day event would allow participants to partake in/get awards for “Most Professional,” “Brightest,” “Best Dressed,” “Comfiest!” All HR appropriate award categories of course! 🙂

    Reply
  464. Athena
    Athena
    April 10, 2020 at 4:19 pm

    This list has a lot of cool ideas honestly. If I were to add one, then I would probably add the one sentence story. Depending one how many people are playing, one person comes up with a random sentence to begin the story and you write it down. You then move to the next person and they come up with their own random sentence to continue the story. You keep this going until everyone has added a sentence at least once and then you read it out loud to everyone to see what crazy twists everyone threw into it. Sometimes I start it off with a subject topic like a word or phrase to get people interested in what is going on. It’s such a fun and silly game that you usually do it a couple of times before everyone decides to stop since it gives you such a good laugh.

    Reply
  465. Carley
    Carley
    April 10, 2020 at 4:23 pm

    Love all the ideas and opportunities that are already in place to help build teams but I think a virtual game show like The Price is Right, Beat Shazam, or even Minute to Win it would be great additions as virtual team building activities. Countless fun for everyone and definitely some unforgettable memories as they work together to either beat a challenge (minute to win it) or discuss as a team what they think the answer is weather it’s a song, guessing a price or whatever it may be!

    Reply
  466. Anisa Ritchie
    Anisa Ritchie
    April 10, 2020 at 4:36 pm

    These are all great ideas for team building! My team and I love playing the Last Letter Game. Players agree on a category, like US Cities. So if one player says, “Austin” the next player has to come up with a word in that category based on the last letter of that word (ex. “New York City”). The goal is to see who can come up with the longest chain of words in a category successfully, and it’s fun to think on your feet and work as a team creatively.

    Reply
  467. Jose Rojas
    Jose Rojas
    April 10, 2020 at 5:37 pm

    There are some great ideas here. Especially in the comments. Here is something that I recently did with some friends using Discord:
    Microsoft Painting with Bob Ross
    Have you ever watched Bob Ross paint? Of course you have. Have you ever actually painted with him? Yeah, me neither. The paint is too much of a hassle, too much commitment, etc.
    Activity: Screenshare with your friends as you watch a video of Bob Ross painting and follow along using only a regular mouse and the original Microsoft paint. It will be ugly, distasteful, horrendous, and incredibly fun.

    Reply
  468. Sarah Cowan
    Sarah Cowan
    April 10, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    I think we have all experienced a video call when there is a loss of audio. One of my family members is extraordinarily good at reading lips, so once while FaceTiming her my audio went out, but she was still able to understand what I said because she was able to read my lips. My idea for a team building activity would be a game called Read My Lips! In this game, each person takes a turn muting their audio and then reads a sentence or phrase. Whoever can understand what they said gets a point (or any other way of keeping score). Points can be rewarded for partial understanding or a close guess. I think this would be a fun and interactive activity, and could actually be useful for the next time there is a glitch with the audio in a video conference!

    Reply
  469. Yaw M Opoku-Dakwa
    Yaw M Opoku-Dakwa
    April 10, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    Online pop culture bingo would be a fun activity!

    Reply
  470. Samara
    Samara
    April 10, 2020 at 7:47 pm

    30 day clean eating challenge. I’ve worked with companies who encourage their employees not only to pursue wealth, but also health. I have really enjoyed working with these types of companies because it shows they care about their employee’s personal growth as well as health. We would do a weigh-in at the beginning of the month and challenge ourselves to 30 days of clean eating. You can do group weekly check-in’s (remote) to see how everyone is doing (accountability). At the end of the month, everyone weighs themselves again. Before and after pictures as well. It is team-building because the people who are on your team are in it with you. You can vent about the tough moments and push each other to keep going. It is also competitive because there is a prize at the end for the people with the biggest transformation. In creased productivity in daily life can lead to increased productivity at work and this kind of challenge has always pushed me to start paying more attention to my eating habits and daily workouts.

    Reply
  471. Jose Martinez
    Jose Martinez
    April 10, 2020 at 8:23 pm

    With what’s going on in the world today a good team-building activity could be an in-home scavenger hunt. Where you make a list of items normally found in any residential home. I think it would be fun, interesting at the least.

    Reply
  472. Burgandy Malcom
    Burgandy Malcom
    April 11, 2020 at 12:27 am

    I think a great idea for a team building activity would be for the team to get together one night a week for lets say a month and it be hosted at a different place every week, whether that be the team members home or the park. My idea for this is for the team to share their favorite hobbies with each other, which in my case is painting. I am by no means good at it, but I enjoy it and it relaxes me. It gives the team time together to help them learn about each other and to just decompress.

    Reply
  473. Michael
    Michael
    April 11, 2020 at 12:36 am

    All these are a great idea. I think you can really get to know a person by seeing the last 10 websites they have visited. There should be a team building activity of showing each other the last websites we looked up. You got to catch them off guard and make sure they do not know about this game before hand.

    Reply
  474. Angel Santiago
    Angel Santiago
    April 11, 2020 at 12:54 am

    These are awesome virtual games to get a team together. I particularly like Improv myself. So that’s right Bob is cool where everyone can take a segment from a newscast and report on it. It does not even need to be on current news, heck you can report on COW Tipping sightings in Chicago Downtown. Another way to flip this is actually like playing “Who’s line is it anyway.” someone moderates and throws out random subjects, and the people/co-workers can act it out. The laughs would be great!

    Reply
  475. Taylor
    Taylor
    April 11, 2020 at 1:29 am

    A short icebreaker game that invites participants to impersonate a celebrity. (through song, speech, dialect, accent, famous speech, etc.) We make it so that it’s really for fun everyone! GOING BIG is a MUST to get the most out of this game! To properly prepare for this, the administrator researches the celebrities the participants admire. After that, the admin starts a video meeting with their team, and then people start impersonating their chosen celebrity and everyone has to guess who that person is impersonating. (eventually, as the game is played more and more people will start impersonating other, and more obscure celebrities) ONLY until someone guesses who the participant is impersonating can the next person go. There is an allotted 5-10 minutes for this game. Now the more impersonations are recognized the better for the team! For instance, if a team gets 10 names guessed then they get 10 points, vs. 5 names guessed, then they get 5 points. What are points you ask? Well at the end of each month points can be translated into a form of currency for an online voice coaching lesson to help them up their impersonations game! This game will be very effective for collaborative teams because it inserts very key and needed ingredients in the process – putting your ego aside, not taking yourself too seriously, and laughter!

    Reply
  476. scott palmieri
    scott palmieri
    April 11, 2020 at 1:34 am

    virtual tie-dye. Where everyone takes an old shirt etc. and wraps it in whatever design they want. Then they squirt it with the colors of their choice. Following the drying of the tee-shirts, we will have a second call to show off everyone’s design.

    Reply
  477. Michelle L'Esperance
    Michelle L'Esperance
    April 11, 2020 at 11:18 am

    Here is another idea!

    Where are you from? But really!

    Ask your team members to become “virtual tourist guides” of their own city, town or community in a quick two to five minutes presentation to the rest of the team. Let them choose their own angle. They can make it more or less personal or original, depending on their own personality.

    Give them time to think, prepare and research.

    Basically, what is their place famous for, or why do they live there, or what interesting thing has happened there before?

    These are some basic ideas to start them with:

    Anything interesting historically?
    Any famous landmarks?
    Any special food contest going on annually?
    Any fruits, veggies, trees, plants or animal endemic to your place? or any special variety?
    Geographically – anything interesting or special about the place?
    Is your town already famous touristically, if so, what for?
    Are there any funky, weird or odd museums to visit?
    Any old ghost stories, legends or famous saints performing miracles?
    Why did you choose to live there?
    How long has your family been part of this community?
    Any famous family or celebrity from there?

    Benefits: They will probably learn something new about their own community and the way they will present their place will tell a lot about them to their team members, without having to reveal too much personally if they are more introverted.

    Happy virtual visit!

    Reply
  478. Gabrielle Menser
    Gabrielle Menser
    April 11, 2020 at 11:53 am

    These are all so fantastic!

    Choosing team building activities can be tough in a regular setting because you don’t want something too cheesy or childish for your ice breakers, but also need to consider the culture, climate, and diverse personalities and preferences. Throw in team building remote workers and the task gets even more daunting!

    I loved the MTV Cribs idea. People working remotely have curated spaces to their personalities and preferences. It is a fun way to get to know a coworker and a fun way to show your coworkers who you are. People can also get ideas and hacks and setups to apply to their own workspace. It’s a WIN-WIN-WIN.

    Another cool idea along those lines could be “The World Is My Cubicle” where remote workers can share them doing their jobs in unconventional locations.

    Also a virtual wine and canvas would be so fun! Provided workers are of age and consume. They could take a quiz for an alcohol match and paint kit sent to them. Video call and discuss- best part about wine and canvas is even if it doesnt turn out as expected everyone has a blast!

    Reply
  479. Elsa Castaneda
    Elsa Castaneda
    April 11, 2020 at 4:46 pm

    A fun but simple game you can do for remote worker would be Bring Me. Usually it is played in an in person group environment to see who could bring whatever item was requested first to the speaker, but it’d be an interesting twist to play it virtually. With those that have the luxury of working from home it would be fun to see what people can bring forth from the items they have around them in their home. And whoever or whichever group has brought forth the most items “first” would win a prize.

    Reply
  480. Alex B.
    Alex B.
    April 11, 2020 at 6:38 pm

    5 Min. Marshmallow Challenge:
    The concept of this challenge is for groups of team members to work together on building a marshmallow tower. With the necessities being mailed to each employee consisting of: 1 marshmallow, 5 pieces of uncooked spaghetti noodles, 6” piece of duct tape, and 2 paper clips. Together over Zoom (or any other video chat software/program) each group must work together to build the structure that will hold the marshmallow the highest and stay there for a minimum of 10 seconds. They can use the materials in any way that will achieve this goal, to the point where whoever in the group has accomplished the highest structure will be the one chosen to represent the group to be compared to the other groups’ structures. There is also the option that they work on helping just one person build the structure by relaying and sharing ideas while one person focuses on building.

    (The most interesting fact about this challenge is that when it has been done in real life at huge events or conferences or at schools, the types of individuals that end up with the highest success rate are the engineers and kindergarteners. One has the knowledge, the other just keeps coming up with new ideas with out getting stuck on any previous one.)

    Reply
  481. Jonathan Martinez
    Jonathan Martinez
    April 11, 2020 at 8:01 pm

    One idea I would add is to have someone read a quote of the day. Everyone would have a reply where they say what it is they take from that quote. I would also play what am I humming where a team member would hum a song until someone guesses and whoever guessed the most correctly wins.

    Reply
  482. Juliann
    Juliann
    April 11, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    Another fun remote team-building activity could be a personality test. For example 16 personalities, has their 16 personalities placed in four categories and what you can do is get the four categories together in different chats and they can come up with a list of things they like, dislike, need to improve and things they are good at. Once done all groups will share their answers.

    Reply
  483. Carleen Millar
    Carleen Millar
    April 12, 2020 at 12:40 am

    I would think that the game where you would guess who the other person is. They would get a card in the mail and it would be covered up until they started the zoom and the would uncover it and show it to the team and then they would have to ask questions to help them guess who or what they are.

    Reply
  484. Baylea Liebig
    Baylea Liebig
    April 12, 2020 at 1:43 am

    A fun and simple game is something that my husband and I came up with years ago that we call “Three clicks to____” the way that the game is played is that the team has to go to Wikipedia.com and decide on a subject page that will be a goal: for example the Black Chinned Humming Bird ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-chinned_hummingbird). Your team mates would each start with a different Wikipedia subject on their screens to start and can only click 3 hyperlinks to try to get to the goal subject. It makes people think carefully about their decisions and how they choose to move forward. It’s always fun when someone does it well and it makes people want to try again and again.

    Reply
  485. Reba Roy
    Reba Roy
    April 12, 2020 at 2:33 am

    An interesting and creative project to do with remote teams would be to have everyone do a marbleizing craft. Everyone would receive a box filled with the necessary tools needed such as
    – choice of item ( mug, plate, mini canvas, coffee cup)
    – paints in either company colors or color palette of choice
    – small container to hold the paint and water
    Would not only bring everyone’s creativity to the forefront but everyone would have something specifically unique to them while still being uniform in colors. Showcasing how every individual is different and bring special talents to the table and if everyone is working together even with different outcomes a beautiful piece can be created.

    Reply
    • Phillip villegas
      Phillip villegas
      April 13, 2020 at 3:43 am

      I would say an easy simple one is play virtual heads up. Everyone downloads heads up on their phone and they can play it together. They would laugh enjoy trying to give clues to the person who is chosen to guess what the their team is trying to hint.

      Reply
  486. Souphaphone Phasavath
    Souphaphone Phasavath
    April 12, 2020 at 3:52 am

    If you are looking for a fun, quick and easy remote team building ideas try a fort building competition. Bring out the kid side in your team! Rules are you have 10 minutes to build your fort, you must be able to sit in your fort and do a 360 degree turn with it falling down.

    Reply
  487. Laurie Diggett
    Laurie Diggett
    April 12, 2020 at 10:32 am

    A great icebreaker and team-building exercise that I have used in remote and in-person situations is a game called Connection. One person starts by saying a fact about themselves. It can be something along the lines of “I have a cat” or “my favorite color is blue” or it can be elaborate like “i’ve ridden in a police car.” If someone has that fact in common with the speaking team member, they raise their hand and say “Connection,” then proceed to tell the rest of the group a fact about themselves and continue the cycle until everyone has “connected” to someone. You can do this virtually by having everyone who has made connections keep their hands raised, or by having them mute their mics after they have made their connections and presented their fact about themselves.

    Reply
  488. Kiara Luckie
    Kiara Luckie
    April 12, 2020 at 10:39 am

    All of these ideas are wonderful, another great idea for a team building exercise could be “Let’s Bring Sand To The Beach” in this game, everyone would pick 5 items only that they would get stuck on the beach with for 2 weeks and explain their theory as to why. There wouldn’t be any prizes but it is a way for a team to engage with one another and tell each other why they think the other person had a good idea of what to bring, kind of like being stuck on an island.

    Reply
  489. Brie C
    Brie C
    April 12, 2020 at 12:14 pm

    “Holiday Party Traditions”

    I think one of the best thing about working on a team is that everyone comes from different backgrounds and has different traditions to bring to the table. Tradition is a word that usually lends itself to holidays, and teams usually love a good reason to party – so why not have a twist on a holiday party where each team member can share something that their family has always done for a specific holiday – whether that be the winter holiday of their choice, Halloween, Easter, the Fourth of July…you name it.

    Thanks to webcams, they can do more than just talk about it. With a show and tell type twist, each team member can show off their family tradition and tell a funny or sweet story about a past holiday that incorporates this. They can bake a special treat to show their co-workers, show a special craft that they might do, show a prized egg that they always looked for in Easter egg hunts past…anything that they would find joy in sharing with their colleagues.

    This would be a terrific way to build a bond and get to know the background of a team of co-workers, as well as learn about something that makes each of them smile. It’s also a fun excuse to indulge in your own tradition and show it off, too!

    Reply
  490. Jocelyn
    Jocelyn
    April 12, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    A word is given then everyone else has 10 seconds to hold up a white board or put in the chat a song using the word along with the artist. If you have a song that matches the word you get a point, if you match with someone else you get two points, no song matches to the word equal no points.

    Reply
  491. Jennie
    Jennie
    April 12, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    These are all great ideas and very interesting. I think a fun virtual team building experience would be taking photos of yourself in your favorite outside places and sharing them with the team. Everyone comments on what they like best about the photos. This helps the team members get to know their team better.

    Reply
  492. Lori Rosen
    Lori Rosen
    April 12, 2020 at 4:19 pm

    I have a wonderfully relaxing team building activity called “Bloom”. Everyone starts out doing the Lovingkindness Meditation where you take a deep breath and picture yourself, you say as a group “May you be safe, may you be healthy, may you be loved, may you be at peace”. You do this 4 more times: while picturing someone you love, someone on your team, someone you are neutral about and someone you are angry with. After that you create a small succulent garden in a creative container you’ve found at home. Sometimes people make them in china cups, old boxes, glass bowls, picture frames and even and old shoe! Everyone posts pics of their new garden and finally we do something called “Haiku U”. Haiku is a simple, yet profound poetry form made of 3 lines. The first line has 5 syllables, the second has 7 and the third has 5. Traditionally it was about nature or the seasons but participants are encouraged to make it modern, funny, work, family or pet related. Once they are shared, they can be compiled into a document for the team, you can even make a mini poetry book for the team or springboard off the activity to form a Haiku club for team members who would like to explore the form further. It’s a super chill way to bond, laugh and create a living thing that will remind you of great times with your team every time you water your new succulent garden!

    Reply
  493. Brandon Foster
    Brandon Foster
    April 12, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    Online team Bingo is a great way to keep everyone engaged and ware of what’s going on. It could also could serve as a great team building experience for people to get to know one another and share their backgrounds.

    Reply
  494. Aldanie
    Aldanie
    April 12, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    Wow! I enjoyed reading the wealth of ideas found in this article and the comments. Here’s another idea:

    A Skill Show and Teach: once a week, encourage a teammate to “Show and Teach” one of their talents as the team follows along. Skills that come to mind include juggling with socks, how to do the basic samba step, or how to make an origami frog.

    This is an engaging way for your team to develop leadership and communication skills, while they bond getting to know more about each other on a personal level. From a leadership perspective, this would be a good opportunity to identify those who may be your next team leaders.

    Reply
  495. Angelo Battle
    Angelo Battle
    April 12, 2020 at 9:51 pm

    I really believe that the Online Storytelling workshop would be awesome for our team, considering the fact we are phone based sales organization, and capturing the clients attention quickly is much need skill thats invaluable.

    Reply
  496. Melissa Perez
    Melissa Perez
    April 12, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    I love the recipe roundup idea. I always learn new recipes by word of mouth and by simply asking. I am always looking forward to cooking new things and adding on to my custom recipe book. I would love to exchange recipes that consists of sweets such as cakes, cookies etc.

    Reply
  497. Taryn