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Team Building

Organizing an effective team building event or an off-site can be challenging due to budget constraints, a distributed team, or simply due to the diverse opinions on what qualifies as a fun group activity. In many situations you may want to focus on collaborating on your team’s identity, responsibilities, or expectations, before thinking about exciting activities you could do to build stronger connections.

That said, I’ve found games especially effective at lightening the mood, building connection, and clarifying work topics in a more casual environment. Besides recommended reading resources, you will find a variety of games you can play virtually on this page.

Recommended Resources

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Atlassian Team Playbook: A collection of 35~ plays focused on typical work topics like becoming more agile, embracing remote work, or reaching a shared understanding. These will feel less like fun and more like work, but may be just the right thing for a part of your team building event or off-site. (overview: 3 min read / entire playbook: multiple hours)

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Nurturing Connections in Casual Gatherings: Allison McMillan shares a brilliant thought that sometimes a loosely prepared space may be better than a tightly planned schedule. It creates a room for surprises, but relies on upfront expectation setting to be productive. (5 min read)

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Having Fun and Boosting the Feedback Culture in Your Team: Dani Araujo shares a step-by-step account of how she organized a virtual feedback session, various resources and templates included. This is a rare gem filled to the brim with techniques on how to build a stronger feedback culture and remote team communication. (8 min read)