As 2020 drew to a close, the new year brought with it a hope for an end to the chaos and craziness that seems to have dominated our attention all year. The global pandemic has required everyone worldwide to change their day-to-day routine. Many heroes have been working tirelessly from the front lines in hospitals and testing stations, to the essential industries that have been pushing to keep our supply chain of food and necessary items open, all the way to the IT professionals aiming to transition our lives to a virtual existence to enable work and careers to move forward. This year, through all the difficult times, has brought with it the opportunity to develop, to come together, and to focus.
One such change that has been prominent in my own industry is that of the social distancing, and I do not limit this definition to the 1.5m between you and the next customer at the grocery store. Many of the office workers who have been able to transition to online office opportunities experienced a shocking shift as the simple act of asking a question to a colleague over a cup of coffee or in between meetings was replaced by the isolation of working remotely from home. These micro-interactions, however, are the backbone of a developing workplace. It’s where ideas are shared and developed. It’s where we connect with colleagues and build relationships, form trust, and ultimately contribute to a functioning team environment.
As a result, many companies have put effort into trying to replicate these informal gatherings to gain the benefits to their business and their teams. Virtual workouts, holiday baking lessons, and group dance tutorials are a few examples I have personally witnessed as the months have gone by. This goes to show the importance of the work environment within any place of business. Try some of the following activities this new year and see how the creative exchange and the bonding helps your own team thrive, especially in these hard times!
1. Scheduled simultaneous coffee breaks over Zoom
Plan a daily 15-minute break to meet up on whatever virtual platform you are using. Take this time to chat with your team and let the conversation flow by itself. This gives people the opportunity to catch up and feel connected, despite working alone from home. Further, it gives people the chance to double-check that small question they had that didn’t seem worth sending an email about, but ultimately would have gone wrong if it didn’t get answered in passing.
2. Friday Evening Cocktails/Mocktails
Mix your own drinks at home, or make pizzas together on camera! Similar to the planned coffee break, but less often and more complete of a meetup. Getting together at the end of a hard week or a difficult month is a chance to let your team blow off a bit of steam. Let them connect with each other; have a bit of fun, despite being locked down at home; and give them a chance to vent being heading into the weekend so that they can come back refreshed and ready to tackle the next challenges… If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that there are always plenty of challenges to be tackled!
3. Team Puzzle Challenge
Not interested in socializing over food? What about a team challenge? A company-wide virtual Olympics day, or a riddle challenge within your team, maybe a virtual board game activity. These all give your team the chance to problem-solve together in a low-stakes environment. This allows them to build their trust with one another and gives them the confidence and practice to work as a group that they might be missing since heading into home office. Not to mention, it also is a confidence boost to solve a puzzle that is challenging, but possible to overcome. This also helps bond your team, and the positivity from overcoming the challenge will translate into day-to-day challenges at work as well!
4. Lunchtime Presentations
While working at an international wholesaler a few years back, I was introduced to the concept of Brown Bag Lunch sessions, in which anyone interested could bring their lunch and attend a small presentation during the break focused on that team’s best practices, or a project being work upon in their department, among other topics. This practice was superb for networking within the company, and for drawing interdepartmental projects together that were previously not thought to be connected. This practice supported the idea of continuous learning, while ensuring that your company’s communication and interaction within is supported. Don’t lose these effects simply because your lunch is made at home! Switch to your virtual platform and keep it up!
5. Virtual Office Hours
I came across a brilliant web application the other day, www.gather.town , and I am very enthusiastic about the implications on virtual teams this has. Basically, you can enter a space with your team (for example, a replica of your physical office space) and you can move around the space, interacting with different people and different items as if you were in the office beside them! Physical distancing during the pandemic, without the actual distancing in a social sense.
You can sit at your virtual desk and work undisturbed, yet be ‘tapped on the shoulder’ by a passing colleague who might invite you to the virtual kitchen for a coffee and a chat. Your other colleague passes by close enough that their video connects to the conversation and they let you know in passing that a deadline has been pushed on your project.
Set up a virtual office for your team to come and go as they please, or treat it like your physical workspace and have some fixed hours for all to be ‘present’ and allow for some traditional workplace interaction, whichever you choose, it gives you and your team the chance to find some semblance of ‘normal’ and to make up on any lost creativity or motivation that you may have experienced in the past year.
These are just a few ideas of possible changes you might bring to your team this year. Maybe some of them are new to you, and maybe some of them have already been tried with success or failure. Feel free to leave a comment with your ideas and experiences!
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