I’ve created this list of virtual team-building activities to help you bring your remote workers and colleagues together in a non-cringe way, which encourages improved communication, community, identity, and inclusion.
You may also enjoy GTQ’s Zoom games guide, which is aimed at everyone.
Virtual Team Building Activities For All
1. Rose and Thorn Icebreaker
The Rose and Thorn game serves as an opening icebreaker so people can get to know each other better.
Each person should get a minute to share their rose statement (anything that makes them feel happy or grateful) and their thorn (a challenge they are currently facing).
For example, a person may say that their rose is starting a new position at the firm or a place at college, and the thorn might be not getting to meet people face to face.
Or their rose might be getting a Peleton bike for Christmas, and the thorn is getting over the fear of starting classes!
As an employer or team leader, this team-building game will provide plenty of insights into people’s lives, especially things they may not usually share during meetings.
More examples for roses (grateful) – thorns (challenge):
- Latest iPhone – fear of breaking or losing it
- New haircut – styling it can be hard
- Training for a marathon – hitting that wall
- Instant Pot gift – how on fiery pressure steam ‘ell do you use it
There is also a ‘pruning’ follow-up. Team leaders or fellow members could offer support suggestions.
It’s also a nice way for members to connect with each other in the future…
Hey, Laura! How is the new veg patch coming along? Did you manage to fix your soil problem?
Share your rose and thorn icebreaker experiences below in the comments!
This icebreaker is sometimes called Peaks and Pits.
2. The Critical Thinking Game
This activity can be used as a lateral thinking exercise.
Ask people questions and have them make a difficult choice under pressure.
You can ask, “What are the 3 things you would bring to a deserted island, and why?”
Give each person only 2 minutes to think about their answers, then take turns discussing them.
You will be amazed by how differently people think and plan their lists.
Some answers might be humorous, while others could be very practical.
During this exciting game of getting to know your coworkers, people might instantly bond if they share the same items or thought process.
If you want more than an icebreaker, make it a bigger project by adding layers.
Give team members roles that match or don’t fit their CV skills and experiences.
Set the scene on a strategic island with specific resources like the TV show Lost or The Wilds.
Another challenge is to move the goalposts at specific times during the challenge.
Challenges may include:
- A storm has caused damage to progress so far
- $X humanitarian aid has been offered – how would the team divide it up?
- A friendly neighboring country has sent resources, but something has to go…
Add time limits and external pressures to put the heat on.
Ask groups to evaluate their performance as a team, including their academic goal and social (soft skill) goals.
This is straight out of the Cooperative Learning teaching toolkit, a phenomenal resource for trainers.
3. A Team-Building Activities For Travel Fans
Looking for something less college and more worldly?
Straight out of the travel guidebook, teams can visit Paris without leaving the comfort of their own home and learn more about Parisian culture!
This group conference call removes the pain of organizing, as the Parisian host does everything for you.
Select a date and get ready to learn about the city of Paris, French food, art, and celebrities!
Played over video call, the local host meets the team over video call and sets the humorous tone of the hour-long call.
They split larger groups into teams and use ‘rooms’ on Zoom, for example, for pre-set challenges.
Since it is expected smaller groups complete these tasks, it is the perfect onboarding virtual game for companies employing new team members.
They have worked with the likes of Airbnb, Chanel, and Netflix.
Games, Trivia, and Quizzes trialed this activity during the pandemic.
4. Virtual Open Mic Night
Since this activity may be a little daunting for shy and introverted people, you should always give everyone prior notice instead of surprising them at the last minute.
For this get-to-know-your-coworkers game, each person can showcase their talents and learn about each other’s skills.
Ask each participant to read a poem, write a joke, play their favorite instrument, or even narrate a story that interests them.
Spend about ten seconds between each performer to give them all a round of applause.
If some members do not want to perform live, they can also record their talent on Loom and send you the video to play during their turn.
All they need to do is sign up to Loom before the event and allow the software access to their computer’s webcam and microphone to record a short video.
5. Group Puzzle Challenge
This facilitated challenge by Loumee takes place over a video call.
The host walks you through ten mind-bending puzzles, forming the overall ‘master puzzle,’ for which teams are encouraged to use Google.
The group is split into competing teams set against the clock for additional pressure.
Teams usually complete the puzzle around the 40-minute mark.
Games, Trivia, and Quizzes played this game and found the challenges tough while keeping the group mood fun.
6. How Well Do You Know Your Team?
If you are a team leader, this might be your favorite game for large groups to get to know everyone and discover random facts about them.
This can also be one of the best fun staff meeting ideas with the theme “About Me.”
You can ask each person what food they would eat for the rest of their lives, what their favorite holiday destination is, or even what movie they love and why.
The answers to these questions may also help you organize incentives for top employees in the future.
Alternatively, you can collect everyone’s responses (only keeping the players’ names to yourself) and encourage the whole team to guess who the displayed answer belongs to.
This also works with baby pictures. Want more of these quick trivia-style ideas?
Check out our quiz rounds guide here.
7. Virtual Show and Tell Icebreaker
When it comes to virtual team-building games, this is one of the most exciting choices.
Each attendee can have five minutes to present an item that means a lot to them and explain its uniqueness.
For example, someone can show the audience and discuss their favorite book and why they love it so much.
Or they can show off a souvenir they brought home from their most recent holiday abroad.
Examples may include:
- Instruments
- Jewelry
- Pets
- Art
These virtual challenges give team members the opportunity to open up in a safe space.
Team leaders need to create a community that ensures trust beforehand for these types of activities to work well.
However, the show-and-tell props give quieter members something to hide behind and a focus to talk about.
It can also curb the more outgoing members of the group from consuming all of the space, too.
Win-win.
8. Show and Tell Photography
This game is like the above-mentioned, but this time, everybody must take a single snapshot of something meaningful and discuss why they chose to photograph that specific subject.
Everyone can have five minutes each to use their smartphones and take a picture of their desk space, children, pets, favorite outfit, or anything they are fond of and want to share with the team.
After the game, you can have everyone send you their photos to create a digital collage that can be emailed to each participant as a memento.
Make sure to gush about everybody’s pictures equally and ask questions to let them know you are paying attention to all their creative ideas.
Otherwise, people may not feel motivated enough to participate in future virtual games.
9. Virtual Escape Room
For 60 minutes, players can collaborate to do an online escape room and solve a series of exciting puzzles.
Escape room games boost teamwork and communication skills because everyone is stuck in the same tricky scenario. To play the game correctly, they must bounce ideas and listen to each other.
Games, Trivia, and Quizzes tried to escape an art gallery heist while doing an escape room challenge.
10. Current Events Virtual Team Building
For this game, you will need to prepare a current news story for the team to read before starting.
Then, they will discuss their thoughts for 10 minutes each.
During these 10 minutes, no one else can disrupt the speaker despite having different opinions.
Every participant should have a fair go explaining their own individual thoughts, and then, at the end, you can set aside some time for a group debate.
The story you choose can be anything – Business, Politics, Global Events, Entertainment, etc.
Remember to have a moderator to mute everyone aside from the speaker, especially someone who can break up any arguments.
If you know the team well, a disruptive version of this activity can be used.
When the speaker discusses the topic, team members can raise their hands if they feel they are umming and ahhing too much or if a fact is incorrect.
The latter wouldn’t work with personal pieces.
11. Virtual Trivia on QuizBreaker
Everyone loves trivia because it is an excellent opportunity to exercise a person’s quick-thinking abilities and general knowledge.
For the best trivia virtual team-building games, you can use QuizBreaker.
This web app can curate up to 100 carefully researched questions about a chosen topic.
By inviting your participants to QuizBreaker, they can skip the questions they cannot answer.
This will save you a lot of time. Instead of researching the subject yourself and coming up with creative questions and answers, QuizBreaker does all the work for you.
You can also set up a challenge and a weekly leaderboard to celebrate the top trivia winners.
12. Virtual Scavenger Hunt with Scavify
Who does not love a thrilling scavenger hunt?
It is impossible to resist a day of fun while interacting with each other as players solve numerous challenges.
Your team will jump at the chance to take part in this activity.
Through Scavify’s mobile app, participants can shoot photos and videos, answer questions, scan QR codes, and even provide feedback without leaving their homes.
It is one of the best virtual team-building games for remote members.
Scavify generates all the challenges for teams to complete and monitors all your progress.
It is also one of the top-rated virtual team-building games for large groups and has been used by companies such as Cisco, Google, eBay, Exxon Mobil, and CVS Pharmacy.
Final Words
Engaging with employees through these games can help you better understand their strengths and weaknesses.
This will be beneficial when you need to delegate tasks to individuals in the long term.
What’s your recommended activity? Tell us in the comments below.
