by Patrick Bailey

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a growing number of offices switched to remote work setups. And while these do help a company stay open, they decrease personal interaction critical for team building. Thankfully, these activities can enhance your virtual teamwork and make your business feel more integrated.

#1:Group Video Meditations

If you have a group video meeting at the beginning of each day, you may want to set aside 5-10 minutes for a virtual meditation. These meditations help calm your employees’ minds and bring you together by sharing a unique experience. Don’t make these meditations mandatory, as some people may not feel comfortable going through this type of experience.
Try to find somebody who can lead the meditation or seek a video that makes this process easier.

If you use videos, try to change the meditation focus each day to make it more useful. For example, there are meditations on teamwork that you can use to bring your employees together. Other meditation topics include confidence in business, spiritual cleansing, and more. Those in rehab or just out of rehab may find this meditation particularly useful for relaxation.

#2: Virtual Collaboration Games

Collaboration is a critical part of any business and is particularly essential in a virtual environment. Thankfully, there are many games that your office can play to enhance your team’s collaborative skills in a virtual environment. For example, you can focus on escape room games and use these to engage workers. These virtual games require your team to figure out clues and puzzles to escape a locked room scenario. However, you can also utilize other types of collaboration games, such as virtual role-playing. Role-playing is unique because it takes people outside of themselves and makes them work together to achieve goals outside of reality. For example, they may have to learn how to fight a dragon in an imaginary environment and use their imagination in unique and unexpected ways.

#3: Fun Virtual Vacations

Vacations will be a very tough situation to handle during Covid-19 and may create a risk of relapse for those in rehab. Thankfully, a virtual vacation – such as setting a specific location for Zoom meeting background pictures can help relax the mind and create a vacation atmosphere at home. And you can make this a team building experience by creating activities centered around your virtual location. For example, you can deliver food to each team member and have a virtual dinner, making the experience more enjoyable and as authentic as possible.

#4: Dance Party Competition

Dance parties are almost always a great way to break the ice and engage your team. And you can hold them on virtual video platforms to showcase the great, and not so excellent, skills of your team. Learning to laugh together in this way is critical to get through these tough times as a business. There are a few ways to host this event. First of all, you can do a random dance party throughout the day, one that lasts about 5-10 minutes. Or you can host a bigger event that features judges and prizes. The choice is yours to make, ask your employees which option is the most appealing to them.

#5: Online Talent Show

Everybody has a talent or something unique that they like to show off, which a high-quality virtual talent show can do for your whole team. Set up a Zoom meeting for the event and take volunteers. You probably won’t have to fight hard to get people to compete, just about everybody in your office is a superstar in the waiting and wants to show the world their stuff.
Try to integrate as many unique talents as possible into this experience to make it more enjoyable. Create reward tiers for each person who competes, giving at least a small prize to everybody.

#6: Book or Movie Clubs

Pop culture unites people by bridging the gaps between differences and creating a shared experience. For example, a popular book or movie tells stories and showcases themes that can entertain and educate many people. As a result, a virtual book or movie club is often a great way to make your team feel closer and more connected as individuals. Have each person in the club discuss an aspect they like and did not like about the book or movie. And then highlight essential lessons that each teach and discuss how to integrate them into a day-to-day experience. Doing so can expand the capabilities and interests of each person in the group.

Expanding Team Building Further

Team building exercises like these are great not only for the workplace but holistic addiction treatment as well. Try these routines or others like them to ensure that your office gets the best experience possible for building tighter personal connections.

Photo credit: Prem Babu Moktan via Unsplash