Adapting to Working Virtually
It is hard to believe that it has been 3 months since COVID-19 was first declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. So much has changed in such a short amount of time, and businesses have had to adapt quickly with the majority of corporate employees now working remotely from the safety of their own homes.
Understandably when the announcement was first made, we had a number of our clients reach out to say their plans for team building events would now have to be put on hold until later in the year. Several weeks on, many teams have adapted to the new norm of working from home and are now looking for ways to stay connected to their peers… virtually!
See below for a couple of examples of how we’ve adapted our clients face-to-face team building plans to suit the new norm of virtual team building events.
Case Study 1
Who: Pharmaceutical company.
Goal: A team building activity for their quarterly catch up meeting. The client had originally booked in our Escape activity as they were after an indoor activity that met their key outcomes centred around friendly competition, teamwork and fun. Although the desired outcomes remained the same, with their team now working from home we were now looking at how these outcomes could be achieved with a virtual team building event.
Outcome: Working closely with the client, we discussed our suite of virtual team building events and together it was decided that our Solve the Crime Online activity would be the best fit.
Solve the Crime Online is a virtual Murder Mystery Party where your work from home team are the stars of the show. The activity is an adaptation of our very popular Murder Mystery event and is facilitated by our online detective. Although the group would no longer be working in teams as it is more of an individual event, the client was excited that everyone would be involved in a shared experience that’s both fun and entertaining.
Each team member plays the part of a character within the crime. Characters are emailed their role prior and then Zoom into the meeting dressed as their character ready to spread gossip, tell their characters story and ultimately work together to solve the crime online.
Feedback from the event was that our online detective was engaging, entertaining and pulled off a great team activity over the very challenging virtual video conference medium. Lots of positive feedback from the team who all enjoyed themselves!
Case Study 2
Who: A software and information technology services company.
Goal: Team building activity for their annual strategy meeting. The client had originally booked in our Corporate Drumming activity as their main conference theme was focused on stimulating creativity and getting everyone together for a shared creative experience. As the African drums we use for our corporate drumming activity are very large and heavy it just wasn’t feasible to deliver the Corporate Drumming activity to delegates in their homes.
Outcome: As an alternative to the Corporate Drumming event, we proposed our new virtual Drawing Workshop which has very similar outcomes of stimulating creativity, one team and a shared team experience.
In our virtual drawing workshop, teams come together online and learn all the tricks and skills required to draw a picture of your very own house. Home means many things to us: it’s family, it’s love, it’s where we grow, learn, eat and tell stories and lately it is where most of us are working too. All you need is to join along on Zoom, a pen, some paper and a photo of your house (tip: if you don’t have one, use Google Maps). The result will see each of your colleagues with a drawing of their house to share with the team. This is not a competition and there are no teams in the virtual drawing workshop team event. Instead, your employees are being brought together by the shared experience of creativity.
We now have a range of virtual team building events on offer that will be sure to bring some excitement, energy and team connectivity to your next virtual team meeting. If you would like to discuss or receive a quote for your team please don’t hesitate to get in touch – all virtual team events are up and running!