How to Collaborate Better in Virtual Games
Looking for some ideas to beat that next virtual game with your colleagues effectively?
Being game developers and online team building facilitators, we always look for ways to challenge teams to collaborate more during online games to improve team bonding and individual participation within a group and strengthen teamwork towards reaching a common goal.
So what are some of the best ways to collaborate as a team in a virtual setting?
Here is how your team can collaborate better in your next online team building activity!
Assign Roles
The key to effective collaboration in any team is having the right people in the right place so assign some basic roles within your team. The roles you need to complete a game effectively might differ per type of game but generally it is a good idea to assign a leader who delegates the tasks, a note taker, an information gatherer, and someone to share the game screen so everyone has a point of reference, other useful roles can be a time-keeper and a researcher.
Share Screen
For all our virtual activities we recommend one person in the team to share their screen with the rest so there’s one point of reference while everyone else in the team also has the game open on their own computer and the team as a whole can explore multiple parts of the game at the same time.
Determine the Objective
All to often teams get stuck or lost in the information given in a game without first figuring out what the actual objective is. In our Virtual Amazing Race for example we specifically mention what the challenge is but there’s always teams that read over it or get lost in the virtual scenes. Once you can define a problem or objective you will know much better what to look for within all the information given and to separate what you need and what you don’t need.
Delegate Tasks
With limited time at hand during these games and often multiple tasks to complete, it is important to split up the work so you can work on multiple tasks at the same time and complete the game faster. In our Virtual Amazing Race for example, the leader could assign one person to look around the 3D scenes while another person reads all the text, and a third person tries to complete the location challenge.
Specific Collaboration Tools
Some specific tools for collaboration that are useful in tackling virtual games are taking notes and screenshots and sharing them in the chat of the conference platform you’re using during the game like Zoom or Microsoft Teams or through a shared folder like Microsoft Sharepoint with OneDrive or Google Docs. You can also use external chats like Slack. Another useful tool is a whiteboard which is available in MS Teams or use one of the external apps like MIRO.
In our Virtual Escape rooms for example it is very useful to have the information gatherer take screenshots of all the information in the room and paste those screen shots in the chat, so everyone has them at hand at any time to solve the puzzles easier.
Final Advice
Some final advice is an obvious one but often neglected. As virtual team building facilitators, we always move between breakout rooms to see how teams are doing and help where needed and what we often see are teams that either don’t talk or talk so much and over each other that important information or even straight up solutions are missed, especially when teams are under time pressure. So, keep the communication going and keep listening to each other!
We hope this post will help you and your team on your next online team activity, good luck and have fun!
Our Virtual Team Building Activities
If you’re looking for a unique and exciting virtual activity to do online with your team, don’t look further, here’s our top four most popular activities: Virtual Amazing Race, Virtual Escape, Virtual Treasure Hunt and Murder Mystery Online, or if you’ve done them all already check out all our activities here.
Book a demo with Making Teams Singapore here.
FAQ
Here’s a list of the most commonly asked questions and answers about our virtual team building activities.
Here’s what our Singapore customers say
The response to our virtual sessions has been so good that we’ve had multiple referrals and recommendations by existing clients, for example Microsoft Singapore came back for three events so far and recommended us to the rest of their teams. Apple have become a repeat customer and PayPal requested three more events. Republic Poly, the Ministry of Defense and the Singapore Institute of Technology have all come back to do more activities with us.
“I always enjoy doing these Making Teams activities and I always
look forward to them – thank you!”Microsoft Singapore – Virtual Escape Room – Escape the Pyramid