Team building during COVID-19? How?!

One of the biggest barrier for a team is to create an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable to speak their mind and work effectively. This will have a tremendous impact on the productivity of the team ¹.

Teambuilding is therefore an important aspect of every team that has recently been formed. But is this even possible in a remote setup? COVID-19 has forced many to ask themselves this question. In this blog post we will delve further into it.

Team-building

Although there are many ways to build an effective team. We can build them down to 5 steps in general ²:

• Step 1: Establish leadership -
  Establishing the right kind of leadership will make sure the team building process will go easier. With an authority figure that takes the responsibility of making sure that the team culture remains healthy.

• Step 2: Establish relationships with each of the team member - The next step is to make sure that there is an understanding between the leader and the rest of the team. It is important that the leader is aware of the likes and dislikes of each member, so that he can keep them motivated when needed.

• Step 3: Build relationships between your team - Then the relationship between the members should be formed, as this will improve the communication, cooperation and trust amongst the team.

• Step 4: Foster teamwork - Next step is to motivate the team members to work together and continue working. This is primarily done by encouraging more communication and social activities.

• Step 5: Set ground rules for the team - Finally the goals of the project and the values for the team have to be established.

Co-located setup

Although some steps will not be affected by a remote setup, others are. Building a relationship and keeping the team motivated tends be a lot easier when everyone is physically present. In a remote setup this becomes increasingly challenging. Whereas most teams have a little ping pong table or other fun activities to make sure that there is a healthy team relationship. For remote teams this day-to-day activities is simply not possible. As such we will cover some alternatives ³.⁴

Communication is still possible

It is always important to make sure that the communication amongst the team members is present. In another blog we covered extensively how this can be done in a remote setup. Aside from using these tools for the product-related work itself, it can also be used to build a healthy relationships. This can be done by having everyday conversations like sharing hobbies, fun facts etc.

Video games

A simple alternative over the games that require physical presence are games that don’t require physical presence. Video games are on the forefront of these. These games do not have to be best in the market or expensive, but can also be simple games that be found on the web browser and require team play. The biggest challenge here is knowing when to stop…

Take a personality test

Creating an online personality test will allow the team members to know more about each other through a simple yet effective way. With this the team will also gain the insight of each members likes and dislikes. Thus the leader will also know how to motivate his team when needed.

In-person meetups are important

Although it can not be done as frequently as usual. Having an in-person meeting with the rest of the team for social activities is still possible. These meetings can be done on a weekly/monthly basis and allow the members to learn more about each other.

Conclusion

As can be seen there are plenty of alternatives to build a team culture in a remote setup. Some that were mentioned: having everyday conversation through remote tools, video games as alternatives to day-to-day games, gaining more insight on each other through personality tests and in-person meetings on a monthly basis. These were only a few simple methods that are extremely effective for team-building, but there are way more out there. So coming back to our question, is it possible to build a healthy team culture during COVID-19, the answer is a sound yes.

1. Effects of Team Building and Goal Setting on Productivity: A Field Experiment, https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/256190 ↩

2. 5 Steps to Building an Effective Team. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/5-steps-to-building-an-effective-team_b_7132406. ↩

3. How to build culture in a remote team, https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/how-build-culture-remote-team/ ↩

4. Building Better Relationships as a Remote Team, https://www.friday.app/build-relationships-remote-team ↩