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We probably don't need to tell you how important team building is. But how does team building work when your teams are working from home and you barely have time for elaborate games? Don't worry! In our article, we present 10 virtual team building games and activities that fit into any 15-minute break (and are free!).
Ready?
Then let's get started.
Let's start with a classic that is perfect for teams working from home. Simply organize a video conference and ask each participant to tell three truths and one lie about themselves (the lie should be realistic!). The other team members then have to guess which of the statements are true and which statement is a lie. A team game like this is a great way to get to know each other better in an entertaining way.
This game offers your remote team a fun competition: Use a free tool like 10FastFingers(opens in new tab) or Typing-Speed(opens in new tab) and let your employees compete against each other in a typing speed race! It's very simple: each team member types a single task using the tools and receives a result at the end. You can then share these results via Slack, email or another platform and compare your typing speeds with each other.
Pro tip: You can also divide your employees into teams and test their typing speed together like a relay race. At the end, simply add up the cumulative number of points to get the team's overall speed.
"Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are." We put this motto to the test in this game: all team members take a photo of the inside of their fridge and post the picture in a group chat. Now you have to guess together which fridge belongs to which team member. An entertaining game that gives an insight into the team members' personal spaces and is guaranteed to make you laugh!
You need a little preparation for this game. Before your next meeting, create a playlist of songs that were popular ten or more years ago. Or use a ready-made playlist (from Spotify, for example). Then play the songs during the meeting via your video chat and let participants guess the songs. Whoever knows the song quickly types an "x" into the chat and says their answer. If you want a little competition, you can award a point for correct answers and a minus point for wrong answers.
Divide your home office teams into groups. Each team now has the task of finding three things that all group members have in common. For example: None of us were born in Berlin, we all have a cat and we love pizza. Then it's on to the next round with the same teams - but this time there is a rule that places or physical similarities are not allowed as commonalities. In the round after next, you then remove pets and preferences. This makes the game more difficult from round to round. Which team can find the most similarities despite the restrictions?
Trivia is fun even when working from home! Test your team members' knowledge with a series of multiple choice or true/false questions. These questions can be company-specific (for example, who has worked in which department the longest) or focus on topics from the news, sports, movies, music, etc. You can design your own questions or use an online quiz (for example 50Plus(opens in new tab) or quiz show training(opens in new tab) camp).
Pro tip: This game can also be easily adapted as a program item for a virtual Christmas party by adapting the questions to Christmas(opens in new tab) movies and music, etc. We played a quiz ourselves at our 2021 Christmas event and had a lot of fun!
The 10-Finger-Strike game is a fun team-building game to help the individual team members get to know each other better. This is how it works:
The strategy behind the 10-finger strike? Tell a truth so unique that it doesn't apply to anyone else. Depending on the team size, you can also start the game with five or three fingers instead of ten. Then it's over faster.
This game is even suitable for a 5-minute break: write a maximum of 6 emojis in a chat area. Then one team member has to try to tell a short story using these emojis. Once that is done, the team member adds five more emojis to the story and the next team member tells the second part of the story and adds five more emojis again. You can continue until each team member has had a turn or until you run out of ideas.
IIn English-speaking countries, this game is known as "Can You Hear Me Now". It is ideal for virtual team building measures and is easy to implement:
After the drawing, the artist has to guess what they have drawn. If this is successful, both the person describing and the artist receive one point each. As a rule, three minutes per round is sufficient.
A virtual team building game for new or old teams: Before the meeting, ask your team members to tell you one to three facts about them that the team does not yet know about him or her. During your meeting or break, read these facts out loud one after the other and let your employees guess which fact belongs to which team member. The first fact should be the hardest. Can anyone guess the team member from one fact? If not, then name the second and finally the third fact.
These virtual team building games make it easy for you. You hardly need any preparation time, have no costs and can quickly and easily offer your team a fun break. Remember: sitting in front of your laptop in your home office can quickly become exhausting. Entertaining team building methods loosen up your meetings & events, strengthen team spirit and ensure that you can get back to work with renewed energy after the break. That's what we call a win-win-win situation!
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