Building up a positive company culture has proven benefits for your team's well-being and productivity. We prefer to keep it simple rather than waste too much time trying the latest trending team-building events.
We've found that a consistent practice involving 5-minute team-building activities can have many benefits on remote teams like stronger teamwork, increased problem-solving ability, better communication skills, and a welcome break for the whole team. Team bonding initiatives can help to strengthen connections and build trust, making for a more connected work environment.
This article will discuss some quick team-building ideas that pair perfectly with Polly since team engagement is our top priority.
These quick group activities can work for small groups or large groups and easily take your meetings to the next level.
The concise time limit on these team-building games will bring a big sigh of relief for most teams. Now, more than ever, work-life balance is sacred to your team. Many employees would prefer 5-minute team-building activities over getting sucked into a seemingly never-ending game of charades with the executive leadership team at a weekend retreat.
With these fun team-building exercises, you'll see in real-time, with minimal effort required, what significant impact a little fun can have on your workday.
This Polly fan-favorite is much like would you rather but with broader parameters. Instead of picking between two options, the team member can enter a slightly controversial statement or opinion, and the rest of the group votes.
Hot Take topics are randomized within Polly and span pop culture, food preferences, and sports and entertainment. This game is meant to spark a bit of friendly debate and has no defined "right" answer.
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The questions span various topics, and these questions should focus on your teammates' quirks, habits, hobbies, and preferences.
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This game is popular in many different settings because there's an element of mystery involved. It’s one of our favorite 5-minute team-building activities for employee engagement since it helps everyone learn more about each other outside the work setting.
Team members share odd facts (that may seem like lies), which spurs on laughter and further conversation. It's a fun activity that creates memorable moments and a more vibrant team culture.
This virtual team-building activity would be well-suited to new teams just getting to know each other. You can run through everyone for smaller groups, and for a larger-sized meeting, cap it to a few people per meeting.
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It can also apply to a piece of art they might have hanging casually in the background during remote calls (for these purposes, LEGO is 💯 considered art).
This activity is best suited to teams who work closely together and meet often.
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It's a commonly asked question: "which three items would you take with you on a deserted island." It's interesting to hear from our coworkers on this one since it says a lot about their logic and reasoning.
It's easy to turn it into a game of guess who by matching the person with their must-have items.
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Like it sounds, this idea revolves around speed rounds of trivia questions that cover many topics. The aim is always to see who knows the most random facts. You'll want to make sure that you cover a few different topics to ensure it's an inclusive game and not only for, say, sports fans.
It's a great way to drum up good, healthy competition among new team members or even groups who have worked together for a long time. It perfectly suits most scenarios and is super easy to achieve with Polly.
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Incorporating play at work is an easy way to boost productivity by 20%, according to Forbes. Polly can help to curate special team bonding moments in just a few minutes, and that's a promise. We're big believers in building good habits, which extends to how you engage with your team outside of work-specific matters. Although a high level of team spirit can help translate to better communication during work too.
These 5-minute team-building activities are just a starting point. Try Polly and see all the ways that we support more robust team engagement by keeping communication between remote team members open, fun-loving, and most of all efficient. Since remote work is here to stay, we may as well enjoy it in every possible way.