Without a doubt, COVID-19 and related pandemic changed the way we live in every aspect. Now, due to confinement, sanitary measures and general lockdown, interaction in every field was and still is the most affected, with usual conferences, team meetings, shared meals in a public place, traveling and other sorts of gathering almost a thing of the past.

In the same way, the contingency changed another aspect of life quite deeply; the way we work. From carrying out tasks and being productive in an office with the presence of other team members and colleagues, to start working from home in front of a computer and a camera without having to go anywhere. We are talking about teleworking. Such change has brought plenty of challenges for managers, employers and business runners that know see their teams behind a screen and completely separated from one another.

With the intention of keeping good results and cohesiveness between teams, many business and organizations have started to apply team building strategies. Call it online team building if you will.

But, why currently with teleworking is even more important for companies to apply team building strategies? Let´s try to answer these complex question.

What is team building? General concept

Before addressing online team building and its influence in teleworking as a whole, it is important to clarify the traditional concept of team building. In details, such practice refers to the different set of strategies that help bringing together members of a team, in different aspects that make groups more cohesive and able to work properly as a unit, delivering better performance.

Like this, the goal and objectives of an organization; a business, company, public institution or any other can be achieved faster and better. In simple words, team building is all about improving relationships, bonding together and acknowledge the importance each member of the team has for such group and the business entirely.

This is done through strategies that bring out things in common team members have, taking into consideration their skills, idiosyncrasy and personality, at the same time shortcomings and improvements by applying active and passive tactics are approached. From honesty to integration, communication skills and cooperation, work quality, loyalty and engagement, there are strategies that boost these values with team building strategies, as well as more wide objectives like problem-solving, goal setting, role clarification and interpersonal relationship.

Team building and teleworking: Two approaches joined together

Online work or teleworking is the way in which business, companies and enterprises have faced the pandemic and contingency, in order to stay productive even in lockdown and with sanitary restrictions. However, this brought a new set of challenges for every manager, CEO and business runner out there, for sure. Now, team members and colleagues in general work remotely from home, in front of screens through the internet.

No real interaction, no sharing of the same space or even speak directly is possible. Of course, such huge change in the way people work and with such constrained features brought plenty of concerns in terms of cohesive teams. Currently, to keep people together and working properly in unified and consistent teams is the challenge most – economic and not economic – organization are facing. For this reason, many have turn their head towards team building, or online team building to call it more appropriately.

In details, online team building has the same concept and characteristic of traditional team building, but brought to the digital world. In essence, improving teams´ work and improving performance through good relationship, sharing and bonding activities is still there. Nonetheless, what changes is the execution and different strategies to be applied, which must be carried out remotely in front of a screen. The good news is, strategies respecting digital team building work exactly as intended and their traditional counterparts.

What to consider and importance of online team building

Keeping teams together and cohesive is the great challenge managers have today. But, how to achieve this when team members are not even in the same room anymore? This is where the importance of team building relies on.

Fortunately, many of the strategies and resources team building involves to improve performance by increasing relationship and bonding can be extrapolated to the digital world. Particularly, the active team building tactics are ideal, which are: games, online events, digital parties and more.

If teleworking is not somehow assisted and improved by online team building, there is a great risk it results in teams losing cohesiveness, general performance and productivity.

Actually, such outcome would be quite logical, since team members would not be working together in the same space as they once did, having consequences in the integration and cohesiveness of the team.

On another part, these are some considerations respecting online team building, such as:

• Stable platform of communication and internet connection: online team building a good and stable internet connection, since video and audio are necessary to carry out activities. Most common service are Zoom, Skype and similar.
• Presence of game master: the game master is the communication manager in the process of online team building, as a person who is ready to address any technical or other issue other team members may come up with.
• Strategy scheduling: for online team building to be successful, all team members must gather at the same time.

Perfect team building strategies respecting teleworking

Of course, those coffee breaks and off-schedule weekend activities like trips, birthdays or those chats in the halls are irreplaceable. However, keeping the team together and cohesive, as well as improving efficiency through values like integration, leadership, honesty, loyalty, teamwork, cooperation, solidarity and others is possible by carrying out team building focused on teleworking. Active digital team building tactics like games are perfect, since these are the ones actually performed by team members and the tools available - computer or smartphone, internet connection, camera and microphone – allow easily to carry them out.

Some active building activities like games, trivia and team assessment are:

• Ice breakers: a series of questions to ask at the start of every session will allow to break the ice easily and interact better. There are many options online with lists of fun, simple and interesting questions.
• Two truths and one lie: this a classic party game that is ideal for online team building sessions. One member of the team will tell three facts about themselves, which one of them is not true. It is the teams´ job to guess the false statement.
• Scavenger hunt: like the ones the majority play as kids. In this case, the virtual scavenger hunt starts with a list of objects team members must find and show on camera. Of course, there are other many activities to play, such as Donut for Slack, Pitch Me, Guess the Desk, Simon Says and virtually any online board game available.