Now that times are fast and digital, holding strong group cohesion and morale becomes more important. It can be an in-office team or a remote team, but it all goes into greater productivity and a better sense of job satisfaction when there is a feeling of oneness and cooperation. One of the most effective ways of achieving this is through outdoor team building games and virtual team engagement activities.
Importance of Outdoor Team Building Games
Outdoor team building games allow employees to become united in one environment that focuses on collaboration and communication. With participation in outdoor team building, team members would be able to interact with others in a loose, fun kind of atmosphere conducive to positive relationship building. Whether the obstacle course presents a difficult obstacle for you, a friendly game of tug-of-war, or a creative problem-solving challenge, outdoor games let people develop some of the most crucial skills: leadership, teamwork, and trust.
Advantages through Outdoor Team Games
Enhanced Communication: Team outdoor games in which teammates have to find solutions to their respective problems enhance both verbal and non-verbal communication.
Deeper Trust : the more physical game involvement, hence increasing the trusting level between these players towards themselves. When each can achieve such tasks with just minimal help of each other builds high confidence about each other and while dealing about each other.
Problem-Solving Skills: almost all outdoor team building games ask for complex tasks that force those participants to make their minds working and critically strive to come with the solution in mind.
Boosted Morale: Outdoor games on a particular day help bring a break from work routine for members of the team, giving time to relax, get bonded, and enjoy.
Popular Outdoor Team Building Games
Tug of War: an extremely classic outdoor game. This game involves total teamwork and requires physical strength when playing a tug-of-war against the opposite team that needs to pull them across a designated line.
Obstacle Courses: mental skills will be needed since teams must work together in order to navigate their way through several challenges placed in the playing area.
Treasure Hunts: it is a game of following a series of clues which lead them to hidden treasures. This kind of game also develops communication and collaboration, coupled with problem-solving skills.
Relay races- it’s competition plus a very interesting activity in developing team effort where members will run half the race with baton relay
Virtual team engagement activities for remote teams
Virtual team engagement activities can contribute vastly to strong relationships and team morale for remote teams or teams working in hybrid environments. Even if they are not working from a geographically close location to one another, virtual team-building activities can merge to make a single cohesive group.
Advantages of virtual team engagement activities
These are an activity that allows an over geographical gap. Virtual activities can attend from any part of the world. Virtual activities are thus, best adapted to distributed teams.
They are flexible and convenient as they can be scheduled at a convenient time for each other. Thus, it suits a busy schedule
In the virtual activities, everyone is automatically allowed participation. It crosses the physical liabilities or location. So, it goes to promoting an “inclusion.”
This will connect the members of the virtual team beyond work. In this way, the bonds of teams become strong.
Most Popular Virtual Team Engagement Activities
Virtual Trivia Games: Engage your team with fun and competition while testing knowledge on different topics.
Online Escape Rooms: A digital escape room where teams collaborate to solve puzzles and challenges. This encourages teamwork and critical thinking.
Virtual Coffee Break: Casual, virtual get-togethers where employees can discuss anything not work-related, thereby building personal bonds.
Virtual Pictionary: A game of creativity where team members will take turns to draw clues for others to guess. This activity helps in enhancing communication and creativity.
Mixing Outdoor Team Building Games and Virtual Engagement Activities
Diversified and exciting team building can be achieved through a combination of outdoor team building games and virtual team engagement activities. For instance, after playing outdoor team building games for a whole day, your team may join a virtual trivia session at the end. That balance makes sure that both in-person and remote team members enjoy meaningful engagement.
Selecting the Right Team Building Activities
Right team building activities, of course, will depend on the goals and dynamics of your team. The right outdoor games are suitable if your team loves engaging in a physical activity with some outdoor challenge. However, if your team is distributed throughout the cities, or even enjoying virtual, low-key engagement, then virtual engagement activities are apt for you.
Conclusion
Among other things, having outdoor team building games and virtual team engagement included in the experience of your teams will bring collaboration, create increased communication, and bring general morale into the fold as one of the best ways. Hybrid teams, whether located at the office or remote locations, will start to strengthen that relationship and will work towards getting a better place of work through it. By using in-person and virtual means, every single person on your team will be reached and appreciated no matter where they are geographically located.