What is Virtual Team Building?
Virtual team building intends to bring remote teams together through communal activities. Teams come together to collaborate and bond as they would in an on-site environment.
Why is it important?
It’s no secret that team building has proven lasting effects on productivity in the workplace. While physical office buildings and in-person meetings might have disappeared in the last year, teams have not. Now more than ever, it is important to connect with our teams and build new ways of communicating in a remote world. This is where Virtual Team Building comes into play. An exciting new medium to build collaboration and connection in teams.
How to think about Virtual Team Building?
Virtual Team Building can be as small as asking fun, interactive questions to engage your team or as big as a shared experience to increase bonding. A recent article from Gallup demonstrates that the most important step in teamwork is establishing the outcome needed to improve. Are you looking for a refresh to start the new year? Inspiring transparency or growth in a new team? The first step to an engaging team building event starts with thinking about what your team really needs.
Teamraderie has found the way to make this step less taxing to you by dividing our experiences into themes based on deliverable outcomes. Whether you’re looking for an activity centered around growth or transparency, Teamraderie has an experience to fit every team’s needs. Do you want to show appreciation with a kit-centric experience featuring a bottle of wine or are you looking for an idea-centric experience led by an inspirational and professional speaker?
Follow along as we take you on a tour of the TEN Virtual Team Building experiences Teamraderie team members and customers can’t stop talking about!
(1) Virtual Team Building for Authenticity
- Rap with Oprah Winfrey’s Favorite Poet
- Type: Idea-Centric
- Why Authenticity? When team’s feel they are able to be their genuine selves, individuals are more willing to come forward with new ideas. Data from Google’s research explains that the feeling of trust, respect and acceptance in an organization determines a team’s success rate.
- How does rapping with your team generate authenticity? Rap artists identify and focus on core feelings – and turn them into relatable and rhythmic stories. What could your team learn about authentic communication with customers and colleagues by writing your own rap poems? Multi-platinum artist and National Poetry Champion IN-Q joins you live to perform and lead the team through writing their own poems of self-discovery. Leading your team to more genuine connections with each other.
(2) Virtual Team Building for Connection
- Organic Connection Through Organic Beer
- Type: Kit-Centric
- Why Connection? A recent Forbes article discusses the importance of belonging. When teams feel more connected and engaged, there is higher productivity. It’s simple: A more connected team is an overall better team!
- How does drinking beer as a team create connection? While indulging in 4 award-winning beers and pretzels, your team will connect through a shared experience. Through the story of Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery, your team will learn about how beer is a byproduct of a careful mix of ingredients – much like your team. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how the beer is brewed, and of course taste the delicious styles of beer, pretzels, and mustards.
(3) Virtual Team Building for Transparency
- ‘What If We All Wore Speedos at Work’?
- Type: Idea-Centric
- Why Transparency? This article from Glassdoor says it best: transparency isn’t about throwing caution to the wind or blurting out whatever comes to mind, it’s about understanding the benefit of honest, forthright communication in your organization. Transparency leads to a more vulnerable and open team.
- What do speedos and olympians have to do with transparency? Summer Sanders (a four-time Olympic medal winner in swimming) joins your team live and leads the team through her journey with swimming and being a part of an Olympic team. Summer leads the discussion on the importance of vulnerability for team performance. Your team will leave inspired by Summer’s journey and more open to transparency amongst each other.
(4) Virtual Team Building to Energize
- A Coffee Tasting Jumpstart for Your Team
- Type: Kit-Centric
- Why Energy? Energy and positivity in the workplace go hand in hand. According to Harvard Business Review, energy mapping, the idea that energy has a chain effect, can increase workplace performance.
- We all know the connection between coffee and energy, but can caffeine and team building go hand in hand to create real workplace energy? In this Teamraderie experience, you and your teammates receive an elegant kit containing three “drip kits”, three cups, and a package of granola. A coffee educator and barista will join to explain why coffee is grounded (no pun intended) in community and why it evokes such a sense of shared experience. Learn about coffee, taste three new flavors, develop your palate and energize for the day ahead.
(5) Virtual Team Building to Refresh
- A 2021 Team Refresh | Energy, Focus and Fun for Your Team
- Type: Idea-Centric
- Why Refresh? This year our worlds were turned upside down. While we have explored ways to work in the new normal of remote work. It is important to hit restart on 2021 and identify which habits are here to stay and which can be refreshed for better outcomes.
- How can a fun game lead to a real refresh with your team? In this Teamraderie experience, Stanford University’s Kathryn Segovia joins you live and leads two interactive games. In “The Subtraction Game”, your team removes one “old” norm that held-back collaboration in 2020. In “The Strengths Game”, Dr. Segovia helps your team adopt one “new” norm to emphasize together. The two games were developed by Stanford University management expert Robert Sutton (“No Asshole Rule”, “Good Boss, Bad Boss”) in recognition that all teams — no matter how long they have been together — need to periodically revisit norms and habits.
(6) Virtual Team Building for Curiosity
- A Wine Tasting and Ode to Curiosity in Business
- Type: Kit-Centric
- Why Curiosity? Curious teams explore alternatives, onboard more easily, think creatively and trend toward less group conflict.
- What does wine tasting and curiosity have in common? Your team is sent two bottles of famed Chateau Montelena wine. You are joined by a wine educator and historian who tells the story of a man who purchased a crumbling 150 acre estate in Napa Valley — and four years later had the winery producing the #1 wine in the world. In this virtual team experience, learn the elements of a ‘culture of curiosity’ and discuss how to make them a part of your team – while tasting two of the world’s most famous wines.
(7) Virtual Team Building for Transformation
- Behind the Music – Teams and Risk-Taking Determine Success
- Type: Idea-Centric
- Why Transformation? Evolution is imperative for survival. Teams and companies alike must constantly transform and evolve in order to thrive and succeed in the 21st century.
- Does my team really have to dance in order to transform? The short answer: No, we won’t make you dance. The long answer: Transformation is a dance with lots of steps. Your team is joined by Matt Steffanina, one of the world’s leading choreographers and dancers. Matt guides your team in a lively discussion on business transformation through choreographed steps, reinvention and an end-state vision. By the end of this activity, your team leaves inspired to commit to transformation.
(8) Virtual Team Building for Balance
- Guacamole Tasting and How to Balance Comfort & Adventure
- Type: Kit-Centric
- Why Balance? While it’s easy to stay in your comfort zone, growth comes from leaps outside of this zone. Finding the balance of risk taking and comfort zones is necessary for individuals, teams, and company growth.
- How does Guacamole represent balance in my team? Chef Robbie Wilson joins your team live and leads your team on an engaging discussion through the balance of comfort and adventure in your team. Everyone loves guacamole and chips, but this pairing is different. How does this change impact the experience? Just as Comfort and Adventure are fundamental to great food, the same balance can be applied to work. Learn about your teammates, where they find comfort and how to work towards adventure.
(9) Virtual Team Building through Rituals
- Design a Team Ritual – A New Game to Improve ‘Virtual Work’
- Type: Idea-Centric
- Why Rituals? From sports teams to morning coffee, there is evidence all around us of rituals working toward higher performance outcomes. With the loss of physical workplace rituals in 2020, it’s important to build new rituals to achieve similar if not stronger outcomes in a remote world.
- Can playing a game with my team really improve our work? Stanford University’s Glenn Fajardo (and author of “Rituals for Virtual Work”) joins you live and leads a discussion on why humans find such importance in “ritual”. Glenn will lead your team in an interactive game where your team explores entirely new ways to communicate over Zoom. The game will serve as a discussion point and metaphor for how you need to communicate differently when you enter a new space, like virtual meetings. Glenn will help your team develop its own new rituals to thrive in virtual meetings in 2021.
(10) Virtual Team Building for Empathy
- Behind the Music – Teams and Risk-Taking Determine Success
- Type: Idea-Centric
- Why Empathy? This article from Forbes explores the importance of cultivating empathy in the workplace through common language and technology. Teams that feel true support are more likely to share ideas and work towards common goals.
- What does an EDM DJ know about empathy and teams? As it turns out, alot! DJ 3LAU (known for hit original tracks as well as remixes for Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Ariana Grande) joins your team live and leads an interactive conversation about music, creativity and how to form effective teams with eclectic people. Your team leaves the discussion with the knowledge of how understanding led to thriving partnerships for 3LAU and how to build your own empathy in your team.
