How To Plan And Execute A Virtual Team Building Event

You’re starting to put a team together to help you get more done in a
day. You’ve hired a writer, a graphic designer, a tech person and someone
to help with customer service and various administrative tasks. In other
words, you’re putting the team together, but they’re not quite a true
team yet. They don’t know each other and don’t have any type of
relationship. That’s ok, you’re just starting out and some of that will
come with time.
But if you’re ready to speed things up and grow your team, I have just the
thing for you. Consider holding a virtual team building event. It’s a great
way to get everyone “together” and give them a chance to get to know
each other.
Why would you bother? Because of something called the “Water Cooler
Effect”. The idea is that by interacting around the water cooler you forge
social connections with your coworkers. That in turn results in higher job
satisfaction and increased productivity. In a physical office, this happens
around the water cooler, in the break room or as team members
congregate around each other’s desks.
It’s also the reason many big corporations hold special team building
events throughout the year. It works and it is surprisingly quick and easy
to recreate in a virtual environment. We can have the same conversations
we’d have in the break room via instant messages, email or even face-toface through Skype or Google Hangouts. But it takes a little initiative
from you – the business owner to get the ball rolling. The one thing that is
lacking in a virtual environment is the first step. We don’t randomly run
into each other in the break room.