The Best Virtual Team-Building Activity
Hello Everybody!
For better or for worse, COVID-19 has us all working-from-home now.
Even though I’m grateful I get to work from home, I’ll be the first to admit: it’s hard to work from home.
Without regular team building activities to keep us close, I get lonely and forget I’m actually on a team sometimes.
So Liya, is it even possible to have a meaningful, engaging, virtual team building activity?
WELL, DUH! That’s why you’re here.
Introducing Pandemic: The Best Online Team Building Activity, Ever.
No more lame two-truths and a lie, no lame kid pictures. I specially designed this game with many game show elements to keep everyone on their feet, laughing, and ready to WIN!
Inspired by the Wheel of Fortune, Pandemic is an online team building activity that engages and livens up your team culture.
For my team, I included a points system and a drinking component, but you can remove that if you’d like.
By the end of the game, you and your team members will leave with a better understanding of your organization and each other!
Pandemic: The Rules
Every player starts with 5 points
Each player spins in alphabetical order
The first person to 15 points wins. Negative points possible.
You can build your wheel however you like, add and remove whatever you want. I found the ideal number is 8-10 categories.
| Game Categories | Description | Winning Criteria | Losing Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Personal Facts | Go to the spreadsheet, who wrote this fact? | Two points | Optional: Drink, and someone else can steal the points |
| 2. Building a Storyline* | The player starts the story with one complete sentence and one incomplete sentence. Example below. | If a successful story is built, 1 point for everyone | The person who messes up the story loses a point and/or drinks. |
| 3. Two Truths and a Lie | The player makes up two truths and a lie | If the first guess is wrong = 1 point to player | If the first guess is right= -1 point |
| 4. Aliens have landed* | Everyone draws their organization in 5 icons | Most voted accurate, gets 3 points | Least accurate, loses a point, and/or drinks |
| 5. Modern Times* | Choose from the list below | N/A | N/A |
| 6. Questions* | Choose between professional and personal | N/A | N/A |
| 7. Categories | Pick one of 4 categories listed below | Listed Below | Listed Below |
| 8. Round of Kahoot!* | Play any Kahoot! Game you like | 3 Points | N/A |
| 9. Eye-Spy | Retrieve this item as fast as you can:
|
3 points | Lose a point, and/or drink. |
Pre-Meeting Actions
Collect three personal facts from each of your team members, put them all on an excel sheet and randomize them
Build your game wheel and punishment wheel on Wheel of Names, Wheel Decide, or any other online wheel spinner of your choice!
Tools Required:
It is strongly recommended to use Zoom desktop and show your face for this staff retreat, put all the attendees in gallery mode
Pen and paper
Optional: A beverage of your choice, could be alcoholic or not. Alcohol is encouraged.
Personnel Required:
One gamemaster who will be reading the prompts
One person to keep track of points
What our team punishment wheel looked like
Winner(s) and Loser(s)
Top two winners: Each gets a $10 virtual gift card at Starbucks, Lululemon, Fruit basket, your firstborn, the possibilities are endless
Bottom Two = Spins the wheel of punishment.
Some Examples of Mild-non-life-reputation-threatening Punishments:
A. Must sing zoom karaoke at the next IDS staff meeting, extra punishment: choose a partner to share this burden
B. Must only talk in third-person at the next staff meeting
C. Must purchase the person underneath your zoom pic a coffee drink, since everyone’s layout is different
D. Must donate $10 to the food bank
E. Must donate $10 to a BLM charity of the winner’s choice
Activity Agenda
(Feel free to copy and paste this directly into your email invite)
Duration: 1-1.5 hours
Intro
Everyone introduces their beverage/snack of choice and why they chose it OR share a weekend plan they’re excited for
Introduce The Wheel of Fun
Play Game
Complete the Personal Facts Game
Announce Winners and Losers
Losers spin the wheel of non-career-threatening-punishments
Concluding remarks
APPENDIX A – Games in Description
2. Building A Storyline
Everyone loves a good story, right?
Starting with the spinning player, start the story off with one opening sentence and another incomplete one. For example: “On Mark’s first day at his awesome new job, his car broke down. At first, he felt helpless, but then he…”
In alphabetical order, the next individual completes the previous line and adds another incomplete sentence
The goal is to develop a comprehensive story structure by the end of the game
The member who breaks the story, either loses a point or drinks
4. Aliens Have Landed
A bit of imagination can make any creative problem-solving activity more exciting!
You will need a pen and paper for this game
Here is the scenario: aliens have finally landed on Earth— but they don’t speak English. So, each team must pick five symbols or pictures to best describe the company!
Take note of any common themes or symbols. This game also helps everyone understand what employees feel about the company culture. It’s also pretty entertaining to see everyone’s drawing skills
5. Modern Times
These questions were developed as of July 6th, 2020, please tailor the questions according to your time period/country.
If you and Justin Trudeau magically switched places tomorrow, what’s one thing you would do?
What’s one stigma you want to see removed in the next 10 years?
What’s one social cause you want to see improved in the next 5 years?
Biggest 2020 event that impacted you and why
What’s a public event you were looking forward to in 2020 that got canceled?
How do you think Canadians can be more inclusive?
What’s one thing you didn’t know about coronavirus that you learned recently?
What’s one thing you didn’t know about BLM that you learned recently?
What’s your favourite pandemic distraction?
What are some mental health tools have you been practicing?
What’s one thing you do for self-care?
Did you pick up a new COVID hobby?
6. Questions!
Get to know your fellow teammate a little better!
Personal
Do you want to stay the same age forever? If yes, what age would that be?
What is your favorite possession?
If you could grab one superpower, which one would you pick?
Are you a morning bird or a night owl?
What is your favourite season and why?
Do you prefer writing with pen and paper or digitally?
Do you prefer large group hangouts or smaller groups?
Would you prefer to go to the mountains or the beach?
If you could live anywhere on this planet without having to leave anyone or anything behind, where would you live?
What is the coolest vacation you have ever taken?
What’s your favorite food?
Which historical figure do you want to meet?
Recall the best day of your life. Why was it the best?
If you were lost on a deserted island and was only allowed to bring one object, what would it be?
Coffee or tea?
What’s one thing you’d tell your younger self?
Who’s one person from your past you’d lost contact with but would love to hunt down again?
What’s one quote or pick-me-up you say to yourself when things get tough?
Professional:
Who has been the most influential individual in your professional life thus far?
What is your biggest accomplishment within your academic or professional life that you are proud of?
What’s an underrated profession you think deserves more credit?
What’s one work tool you could not survive without?
What’s your favourite or least favourite part about networking?
Where do you see the future of work going towards?
What’s one thing you wish you’d stop getting emails about?
7. Categories
The player gets to choose between any of these four categories:
Most Likely To
Have a cousin with top-secret, inside COVID-19 information. Most voted takes a sip or does nothing
Cough in public to troll people, most voted takes a sip or does nothing
Change their background during a group video call, most voted takes a sip or does nothing
Be woefully unprepared for quarantine, take a sip
Ruin the moment with an awful dad joke, most voted takes a sip
Share their toilet paper, take a sip
Be the last one standing in a post-apocalyptic world, most voted takes a sip
If This, Then – No Points
If you answered an email in the morning and then went back to sleep, take a sip/finger down
If you desperately need to get your hair cut, nails did, or go to a gym, take two sips
If you’ve said coronavirus, social-distancing, pandemic, or Trump in the past week, take a sip
If you read an article about coronavirus today, take a sip or summarize your article
If you are fist-bumping or elbow bumping now instead of shaking hands, take 1 sip
If you watched an artist perform music on a live stream this week, take 1 sip
If you have under 2000 steps on your health app, take 3 sips
Dare or Drink – One point
Give a tour of your office space right now or take a sip
List 3 facts about COVID-19 in 30 seconds, if you can’t take a sip
List 3 facts about [your organization] in 30 seconds, if you can’t take a sip
Spill or drink: Have you kept 6 ft away from everyone you come in contact with? If yes, take a sip. Share the reason why
Share your screen right now, if not, take 2 sips
Take a sip for every show episode you’ve watched today
Take a sip for every canceled event you wanted to go to
Spill or drink: Have you had any suspicions that you might have corona? Do tell
Send someone working on the front line a positive message and thank them for their hard work
Do 5 push-ups or drink
Spill or drink: What’s the most expensive thing you’ve blown money on?
Categories – Loser loses a point, and/or takes a sip
Binge-worthy Netflix Shows
Unreliable sources for COVID-19 news
Hot dance moves in the past 5 decades. Bonus +1 if you dance it out
Past influenzas
World Leaders
Computer brands
Beer companies
Dog breeds
Climate Change Symptoms
World Leaders
Etc. Make some up!
Personal Facts
Each team members send 3 personal facts beforehand
Put those facts on a spreadsheet, and fill each cell black to match the text font
The player will have to guess which team member the fact belongs to, if guessed correctly = one point
If the player gets it wrong, it’s an opportunity to steal the point!
8. Kahoot!
I used a 7-day free trial to be able to play the game. As long as you use an email they haven’t seen before, you can use Kahoot! for free.
Conclusion
While this game does require some set-up time, it’s SO worth it at the end. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself going over the allotted time!
What I learned about my team members still stay with me today. In the midst of all this craziness, this virtual team activity was definitely a highlight of my work-from-home adventures.
I hope this inspired you to take action and put your own creative spin on it.
Until next time,
Happy spinning!