People miss the unplanned meetings and “serendipity”, working from home. How can you connect with your team, working remotely?
1.Make it a habit with your team to have at least one meeting a week about anything but work.
There are many activities you can organize online that don't cost money - but do cost time.
A time investment that has a direct impact on the team spirit.
When everyone works together remotely, it is important to plan these social activities in the agenda.
- Here are some fun activities you can try out with your team. Feel free to share the activities you have tried out as a team
- Buddy bingo: Every week, someone is randomly paired with another team member for digital coffee. You can also replace this with a real live contact moment: walking together, sports, theatre, a museum. Coronaproof of course 😀
- Who? Coffee? Now! If you feel like having a coffee conversation, you can call up colleagues in your team channel/slack channel or whatsapp group to catch up online.
- Coffeecorner channel: create a separate channel where everyone can share what they want. Work/life... everyone can share what he or she does here.
- “The door is open “moment : everybody can call in spontaneously to ask questions, tell something, give ideas
- Online quiz : https://kahoot.com/ is a fun app where you can quiz together remotely. Whether you choose ancient Rome or questions about nature. Something for everyone. Get to know your colleagues in a different way too.
- Daily check in: You can check in with your colleagues for 15 minutes every day. This check in moment can be task-oriented (what did you do yesterday, what are you going to do today, do you need help with something?) but also relationship-oriented, a kind of online campfire.
Examples of good check-in questions
-What are you looking forward to today?
-What will you do today to keep your energy online high?
-What are you proud of? What are you grateful for?
-What made you laugh this week?
With a good check in, you create personal and human interaction and “lighten” the campfire. Everyone can lead this check-in - not just the manager. Agree in advance who will lead the check In.
2. Organise online events that reinforce the organizational culture
- Inspiration sessions: Invite a speaker, organize an inspiration session. Invite colleagues to a presentation with a good external speaker or a colleague. Afterwards, go into online breakout rooms to discuss this further. Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex all offer this possibility.
- Book club: Share with colleagues which books you have read (work related, fiction or non-fiction) people who have read the same book will discuss this online.
- Wild idea session: Everyone is welcome to listen to each other's wild ideas, can complement each other's ideas.
- Healthy routines challenge: Challenge each other to get enough exercise, take short breaks. At Umango, we are going to save charity miles together as a team, we raise a certain amount of money that will go to a good cause.
- Family moment: reward employees with a mocktail or cocktail package, or a breakfast basket that they can share with family. As work and personal boundaries are increasingly blurred, it is also nice to spend quality time together and relax.
Source: Jitske Kramer: Work Has Left the Building
Source: Umango