Keeping Remote Teams Engaged and Having Fun!
With the sudden transition to remote work, managers play an important role in modelling stellar communication and creating a collaborative and healthy culture. Some proven practices for managers are:
Insist on some face time with remote employees through Zoom, FaceTime, etc. Pick up the phone and have a conversation. It will build your connection and give you an opportunity to see how they are doing.
Be a great listener. Ask about workload and progress without micromanaging and err on the side of over-communicating.
Be very clear about expectations.
Be available quickly and throughout the work shift.
Team building and camaraderie are important. Use check -in time to ask about their personal life, families, and hobbies. Allow team meeting time for “water cooler” conversation. Design your team meetings to allow for discussion and brain storming.
More ideas for online team building are:
Open a meeting with one of the following check-in prompts.
What is something positive that has happened for you during COVID-19?
As you look out your window, tell us what you see.
What is it you plan to change after this experience of a pandemic?
What is a blessing that you appreciate?
What do you hope we will learn or take away from this COVID experience?
Share a bright spot in your week thus far.
What are the 2-3 things causing you the most stress during this pandemic? What are you doing, or can you do, to minimize this stress? This could be a good lead in exercise to reminding them of the mental health resources available to them.
Periodically remind the team of mental health resources offered by your company’s benefit plan.
Give them the phone number for the Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) if you have one.
For those who don’t have company provided benefits, Family Foundations is a free/reduced price behavioral health organization located at 40 E Adams, St. JX. It is staffed by experienced behavioral health counselors and financial wellness coaches. Services are provided by phone (904.396.4846) and Zoom.
Joy, Savor the Moment, and Self Awareness
Ask your team to note moments/events/people that give them joy in the time until your next team meeting. Then at the meeting ask each person to share a moment that gave them joy. If you have a large team, put them in small groups to discuss these questions:
Share one joyful moment with your group
Pay attention to how you are feeling as you share.
Gretchen Rubin has developed a 4 Tendencies online quiz. It describes how we respond to expectations: both outer expectations such as meeting work deadlines and inner expectations such as keeping a resolution. Ask each person to take the quiz before your next Zoom meeting and text you their dominant tendency. (Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, Rebel)
At the meeting, sort them into groups sharing the same tendency. Ask them to discuss what they agree with in their feedback and to plan how to introduce their tendency to the rest of the team. Invite each group to teach the others about their tendency. This will be fun insight into your team and will promote self- learning and small group discussion. Read her blog for How My “Four Tendencies” Personality Framework Shows Up in the Context of Social Distancing.
Invite each team member to introduce their pet at the end of a meeting.
Invite everyone to select a virtual background of a place they want to visit once the pandemic is over. At the next meeting, ask them to be prepared to share something about the place they want to visit. Another option is to choose a virtual background of a place they’ve been and tell the team about it. This is easy to do from pictures stored on a smart phone.
Invite everyone to snap a picture of a home project they have completed or organized and share with the team at the next meeting.
Have a dance party – play some upbeat music and invite everyone to dance for a few minutes!
And for those of you back in the office, or who never left the office, next month I’ll focus on activities you can do to promote team camaraderie in the workplace.
