12 Interesting virtual team building activities among remote teams

You don’t have to be physically in the same location to engage in team-building activities. In fact, virtual team-building activities are highly indicated for remote teams. If you think that building strong relationships between team members working remotely is almost impossible, then you should reconsider. Actually, the surprising thing is that virtual teams can surpass in-person teams if they receive enough support, communication, and virtual team building. In fact, there are so many different and unique ways of engaging your team in team-building activities remotely.

Virtual team building activities for team bonding

Let’s walk through the 12 best and simplest virtual team-building activities to improve relationships among your remote team members.

1. Real-time online office games

Motivation from virtual team building activities.

‍Online office games are a series of spirited virtual team-building games and activities. Online office games consist of energetic, competitive games that have everything you need to boost camaraderie while working from home.

Here, we have a list of a few online-friendly competition games for you and your team to have the most fun!

Virtual werewolf

Werewolf is one of the greatest virtual team-building exercises for conference calls since it requires you to talk, listen carefully, and vote in order to survive the night.

How to play:

Players take on the roles of a werewolf, villager, medic, or seer to begin the game. Werewolves hunt, villagers vote werewolves off the island, medics can save a player, and seers can see into another player's soul to disclose their wolf status.The game master then announces that it is now night, and the participants close their eyes.

The game master instructs the werewolves to awaken and choose a victim, with the doctor pointing to one person to save and the seer pointing to one person to disclose. Finally, the game master declares that the sun is rising and discloses whether a villager became wolf-grub overnight.

Anyone who is eaten by the werewolves becomes a ghost and is unable to talk for the rest of the game. After debating who could be a werewolf, the survivors choose to either remove someone or skip the round. Repeat till there are just villagers or wolves left. Note: this game can be played online through an app where roles are automatically distributed, and there is no real need for a “game master”.

Two truths one lie

One of the most typical virtual team-building activities for work meetings is Two Truths and One Lie. The activity is ideal for conference calls because all you need is a stable WiFi connection and a little deception.

How to play:

Give each participant two minutes to prepare two truths and one lie. For example:

1. I can speak 4 languages.

2. I have visited every continent on earth.

3. I am allergic to seafood.

"Number 2 is obviously a lie; I haven’t visited every continent on earth.”

Have each person share three facts and try to figure out which one is false. For this game, you don't need to keep track of scores because the enjoyment is in learning about each other.

Scribble/ Team Pictionary

Experts have previously stated that creativity is a critical component of remote team success. As a result, we cannot stress enough the need of engaging in team-building activities that encourage innovation in order to get the most out of your own remote workforce.

How to play: This activity's directions are really straightforward. Create your own virtual area for doodling with a tool like Skribbl. Simply create a team online and begin playing right now.

Guess the emoji board

You can snap a screenshot of your most frequently used emojis and upload it for your team to see.

Here's how it's done:

1. Give each player a list of all the players.

2. Everyone gets five minutes to estimate which five emojis each individual on the list uses the most.

3. Reveal the answers and give points for "getting it in the top 5" and "getting it in the correct sequence."

4. If you want to make a virtual meeting more enjoyable or engage a virtual team in non-lame ways, a fast round of emoji ratings can help.

2. Virtual show & tell

Show & Tell is one of the most effective virtual team-building activities for developing public speaking and storytelling abilities. Having each member of your team share a personal story also helps to form genuine bonds.

3. Virtual team trivia

A guided trivia session designed exclusively for team development online is known as Virtual Team Trivia. Typically, a host will prepare and read questions in multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, or name-that-tune forms. The goal of virtual trivia is to improve remote teams' team development, entertainment, and engagement.

4. Fun photo channel

This one’s a fan favourite! Attention pet lovers, this one is for you. This channel is incredibly easy and requires very little work, yet it has a significant payout in terms of team development and culture enhancement! Post the best and funniest pictures of your pets in the photo channel and choose a name for it. E.g #pets-empire.

5. Virtual book club

Readers of the Kindle, unite! A virtual book club is a great way to meet people on your remote team who share your interests. The main function, similar to that of real-world book clubs, is to arrange members around reading the same material at the same time and discussing their ideas and feelings about it.

Starting with a novelette or simply an essay is a good place to start. The idea is to keep the content brief enough that you can read it all in one or two sittings. This time frame is ideal for determining if you should continue with the book club or go on to something bigger and longer.

6. Virtual team picnic

Going into an office provides a social outlet by allowing you to be in rooms with other individuals. For example, you may greet each other in the morning, have lunch, or meet for drinks or dinner after work.

Being thousands of miles away does not prevent you to have a virtual team picnic. Head to a virtual escape room, prepare any meal with your team, then connect for a virtual video call as you eat and talk. To keep the discussion flowing, you might propose icebreakers or games. This type of low-key connection time is a great way to unwind and interact without focusing too much on work.

7. Learning Circles

Expand your skills together with learning circles. Choose any topic ranging from programming to leadership styles to trends in recruiting practices and find colleagues who share similar interests. Then have regular gatherings through video calls to discuss and do fun compelling presentations. The best aspect about learning circles is that they can be extended beyond your immediate team to include people from throughout the enterprise.

8. Virtual team-building icebreakers

Icebreaker questions are easy prompts that help you learn more about your colleagues. For example, you may begin a remote conference by asking each participant to share their name, role, and favorite breakfast food. Icebreakers are simple to incorporate into virtual meetings and happy hours.

9. Virtual coffee breaks

Virtual coffee breaks are 15 to 30-minute sessions conducted one-on-one or in small groups during the workday. These breaks are intended to aid in the development of connections and a sense of community among employees.

10. Workstyle personality test

Job applications and onboarding frequently include personality tests. Personality assessments may also be used to form a remote team. Workstyle personality tests work just fine as well and are a great way to get to know the members of your team.

Instructions

1. Send your staff a personality test.

2. Request that everyone submit their results to you.

3. Make a team call to discuss the various personality types and how they fit into team dynamics.

11. Language class

This is an excellent activity for multinational teams that speak multiple different languages. It's a fantastic approach to learn something new while also appreciating the cultures of your coworkers.

Instructions:

One of your teammates will choose a word or phrase from their native language. They'll write it on the whiteboard and give the team three hints to assist them to figure out the translation.

With the assistance of the three clues, the team will guess what the phrase means, and whoever guesses first wins. This activity may be repeated weekly, with weekly mini-language classes.

12. Celebrating international holidays

Typically, team members come from many nations and are of various beliefs and cultures. This implies that (hopefully) your staff of remote workers will be able to enjoy a variety of holidays! It makes people feel important and understood.

Instructions

1. Collect everyone's significant holidays and put them on a calendar so everyone can see them.

2. Everyone should be alerted a few days ahead of time and urged to do something special on that particular day (e.g., have a drink or food relevant to that holiday).

3. Create a video conference with everyone after the holiday to get them to talk about what they did for the holiday and what they learned about each other's cultures.

Conclusion

Virtual team-building activities are the refreshing oasis of your work days. Good for mental reset, good for water cooler moments, and good for team bonding.  They are the escape room where friendships are born and professional relationships are nurtured.