October 1st, 9:41 am
Virtual teams can feel impersonal and secluded. But fun and engaging games can make them fun and joyous to work in. Whether you want to know your team members better, have some fun, improve team communications, or engage with each other, Microsoft Teams can help connect with the remote team in a more meaningful way.
Microsoft Teams is one of the most used platforms for workplace communication. But now, with its newly launched Breakout Rooms, Microsoft Teams has opened up greater levels of experience when playing team building games.
Here, we’ve put together some of the most engaging virtual team building games on Microsoft Teams.
The list includes:
Let’s dive into it!
If you’re looking for a perfectly engaging and collaborative game, virtual Bingo is a sure candidate. First, you want to distribute the game boards to all team members on Microsoft Teams. Then decide if the game will apply for a single meeting or spread over several meetings.
The game requires the members to mark a square when they spot a behavior and state the name of the person who performed it. If your teammates are up for this high-energy game, but with a twist, check out the Bingo Challenge Show.
One of the best and easiest ways to connect and engage with your team is by throwing a dance party. You can host this as a quick one-minute session during or in between long meetings. Just turn on a song and get the participants moving to the beat.
Don’t underestimate the impact a dance (and a good laugh from funny moves) can cure awkward silences, keep the energy high, and inject some fun and team building in your Microsoft Team calls.
A fun and familiar game to most, Trivia is a sure game to get started with for your virtual team building. Creating a quiz is easy with a platform such as Kahoot and works for any group size on Microsoft Teams. Once your quiz is created, all you need is to share the link with the participants.
The trivia game can be time-based where players need to be in the breakout rooms simultaneously to play, or it can be completed by a certain future date. Find out more about trivia games.
This team-problem solving game provides a good mix of challenge and fun and will fit any team, regardless of the size. It’s best for solving individual problems collaboratively and unlocking the answer after completion. These problems may be just about anything; think of riddles, logical, visual challenges, and more. Use the puzzle to have your team compete against each other and see who solves that tough problem first.
Few games match interactive magic shows in boosting a team’s creativity. Every team member will be amazed to participate in the playing of cards, numbers, colors, mind-reading, and see the impossible happen. They might even learn a trick or two to amaze their friends and family. Find some of the best magic shows.
War of the Wizards is perhaps one of the most unique games you’ll play in your team building. In a 90-minutes facilitated event, you get a fun experience of different games: RPG games, puzzles, escape rooms, storytelling, and word-building. While this game is wildly different, it’ll challenge your teammates to think smart, making it perfect for your remote team building.
Contrary to what the name suggests, this is a creative game that tests effective communication. Begin by nominating a speaker who will use a random image generator to source a suitable image. Your colleagues are to describe this image in a way that the rest of the teammates (called artists in the game) can draw the image successfully. The fun bit is, the speaker can only use geometric shapes.
Scavenger Hunt is a really fun activity and is also easy to organize. This game can act as a perfect ice breaker for calls. The plan is simple – to have everyone on the Microsoft Teams on a challenge to collect a list of various items in and around the house. The first colleague to be back with the item gains a point or wins.
To make it more interesting, aim for the players to search for something out of the ordinary—something they’re not likely to find in their kitchen or living room. Get creative and let people have fun scrambling for the items.
Find some of the best scavengers hunts.
You must already be conversant with this classic game that remains the same no matter the platform it’s played. The game challenges a player to act in the virtual meeting to which they must answer truthfully. If the person passes the challenge, they face a humored consequence. While it should focus on work-related actions, it’ll be more interesting if you mix the game challenge a bit. A challenge like sharing the most recent searches on Google can be an interesting truth or dare.
If you haven’t experimented with Werewolf for your team before, you’re missing out on a team building party game perfect for building closer relationships. As a social deduction game, Werewolf will be more fun if you play with the same team. It may take you a while to learn its rules, will require more coordination, teamwork, and knowledge of the character traits of the players. We recommend you jump right to it and start to play. As you do, you’ll learn about your teammate’s playstyle and their behavior.
Given the complexity of this one, it’s best to have the assistance of an experienced online game facilitator.
Talk of fun and interactive, this game should be top of mind. Virtual talent shows recognize team talent beyond the office performance. As a manager, it’s vital to recognize that your employees are talented individuals in other spheres of life. Some of them will wow you with their musical abilities, art, or even dance abilities.
In the same way that physical talent parties showcase these abilities, you can also provide an avenue for them to showcase their gifts. Even better, make it a competition and let you vote for the winner. Ready to go all-in on this one? You can find some top-rated talent shows.
Assuming your teammates love a drink, let them learn and become brewers for the day at the comfort of wherever they are. Host them for this 90-minute fun activity making a classic of their preferred cocktail. Of course, for this one, you need an expert brewer to give the live instruction. You want to also communicate the equipment and ingredients the team will need or have them shipped to them.
Check out some of the most incredible Happy Hours.
Most people love Musical Chairs, and they’re more likely to love this classic virtual version of the same. You want to change the rules a bit. Instead of eliminating the last one standing, eliminate the one still dancing when the music stops. To get started, play a classic Spotify playlist and stop at random times.
The Escape Room is fun but beyond that is how effective it is in achieving the common objective of tightening the cooperation between the members. While it requires more time (one hour or more) and more effort to set up, it is an excellent team building activity on Microsoft Teams. There are a variety of Escape Room games, you just have to pick right, and it will be worth it.
Check out some of the most incredible Escape Rooms.
If you have a new employee you want to introduce to the team, this one will work well, not to say that you can’t play it anytime to know your teammates better. Plus, it’s one you can easily play on Microsoft Teams. All you need is to have one teammate list three statements; two of which are true and one that’s a lie. The others will then guess which of the three is a lie. If they’re right, they get a point. The game goes around until all players have given their statements.
You can always get a facilitated Virtual Team Building Game starting at $17 per person
If you’re looking for a good laugh, you’ll love the online Pictionary. It’s a draw and guesses game that’s mostly familiar to most of your colleagues. So why not play it to evoke those early memories and create new ones with colleagues. Not only will it boost your team’s creativity and imagination, but it will also be fun and lively.
Not everything is boring when playing Virtual Board Games!.
Things Game is all about topics and talking. Each participant will add topics to the pool. The catch is, every topic has to begin with the word “things.” A good example is “things we want to do during our next retreat” or a personal one like “things my puppy wishes I’d know.”
The host will then read the prompt and have the other participants submit their answers. The host will then read the answers, and every participant will guess who said that. Change up the host for the next round, but keep the mechanics to keep things interesting.
Need more Games, check out our directory!
This game is a type of puzzle which challenges the players to tell the difference between two closely similar images. All you need is the images, photographs, or manipulated illustrations, and a team that’s ready to take up the challenge and pay close attention.
Find some of the best Improv Games.
Scattergories is one of the easiest games to play on Teams. Besides, it supports a large group since all your colleagues need is a piece of paper and an appetite to create words. To start with, choose a topic from which words can be drawn, a letter the words have to start with, and watch everyone begin to note related terms.
Perhaps one of the most effective games to play on Microsoft Teams. It encourages your team members to bring their ideas to life using basic symbols and short text. Talk of creativity and fun learning at the same time, this game is it. All you need for this one is paper, colorful and black markets, and you’re good to get started. Browse all you need to know about Visual Thinking.
Are you ready to make decisions collectively as a team and see where that leads you? Get started with waffles vs. pancakes. The fun with this one becomes better with each round. In this game, the teams are presented with a question; what should we keep in the world: waffles or pancakes?” They have to collectively vote on which one to keep. In the next round, they add a word to contend the winner. For instance, the new question becomes; “pancakes or puppies.” To make it even more personal, change pancakes and waffles to fit your company offerings.
This one is all favorite in getting your team members to think critically and solve a mystery. If it’s new to you, think of it as a role-playing game that challenges the team members to solve a mystery. The host starts the game by crafting a creative story that he narrates to the group. As they proceed with the happenings of the thriller, the players must identify who among them is the criminal. Generally, this game will fit a small group of 6 to 20. Read more about Murder Mysteries.
The Guess Who game has been one of the best games on Microsoft Team games. Together Mode feature has made the game better by displaying the participants (with their image) in a lecture-hall style. What makes this game extra fun and engaging is having the characters as your coworkers.
This virtual game is one of the all-best team building games on Microsoft Teams. It incorporates various elements of social deduction and puzzle-solving skills to encourage teamwork. The spy theme makes it fun and engaging to have all players participating.
No one in your team doesn’t know the classic and simple rock, paper, scissors. So why not go all-in on it and even make it fun by changing the reactions instead of hand gestures.
Quite clearly, as you can see, online team building is much different than in-person team building. The platform you use highly determines the experience and extent of fun you and your team will have in your virtual team building.
Microsoft Teams is one of the best platforms to host team building games. The platform offers an array of games to accomplish the primary purpose of team building games; ensuring all participants have fun together. That’s our actionable list of 25 games that your teammates will love on Microsoft Teams.
But other than the platform, you need a fun and experienced facilitator for your games. Without one, you risk the problem of spending too much time on an activity that your team will not love. Let our facilitators take care of everything for you to get the most out of Microsoft Teams games. We get the groundwork done for you; we set and run the show, you only need to invite the team and come with a playful spirit.
Hey, we're Onsite.fun. We're determined to help you organize and manage team building events that your team will love.
We're Joan & Jaume, co-founders of Onsite.fun. Two brothers that joined forces to make distributed teams more united than in-office. Onsite.fun is your one-stop shop to manage and organize team-building events company wide. We find the most remarkable activities online and wrap them on a suite of tools that make them easy and convinient to book for distributed teams.
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