Business is adjusting to the pandemic after nearly a year of dealing with COVID-19 problems and is starting to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to handling their remote teams.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, New Zealand was sent into lockdown, along with several other countries. For seven weeks, all non-essential staff were forced to stay home. Many who can do their roles from home have done so. As stay at home has become the norm across the country, while participating in remote work, many businesses and their teams try to wrap their heads around the problem of maintaining their environment.
As a scrum master, I can’t stress enough the importance of team engaging in fun. When the Development Team, Scrum Master and The Product Owner are in the same location, it’s easier to build a relationship with your teammates. They can ask questions, chat, have lunch together, or go out for happy hours. But what do you do when your team is distributed across different locations? The solution is you have to do your team building virtually.
In this post, I am going to talk about the Virtual Team Building when the team is working from home.
What is a virtual team building?
Virtual team building is the process of turning each member of the scrum team into a cohesive team working together to achieve the sprint goal, all while the scrum team is distributed across different locations. Although the team is not physically present in the same location, each scrum team member is using the same tools for online communication. It is vital because when the scrum team member trusts each other and feels committed to the sprint goal, it is known to increase efficiency and performance.
Why team needs virtual team building?
You might be wondering, why we need virtual team building? As a scrum master, It’s important to ensure that you take steps to keep your team motivated and to get them to work with each other. Engaging in gaming activities brings out of all of us the inner competitive child. Virtual team building can help remote scrum team connect and share a few laughs, especially when working from home can often be lonely.
What are the benefits ff virtual team building?
This list highlights all of the main benefits of virtual team building collected by Shelby Neat and explained briefly in the Top 10 Benefits Of Virtual Team Building:
1. Boost Team Morale
2. Combat Loneliness
3. Increase Productivity
4. Versatility
5. Increase Collaboration
6. Increase Motivation
7. Encourage Creativity
8. Positive Reinforcement
9. Low Cost
10. Improve Communication In Difficult Times
How to do virtual team building?
There are lots of ways that you can help remote scrum team get more out of their jobs and feel more comfortable contributing to and collaborating during the sprint. You can find the best match of virtual team building activity from 57 Virtual Team Building Activities To Boost Remote Employee Morale In 2020 which has been done by Ashley Bell.
Reference:
- Top 10 Benefits Of Virtual Team Building by Shelby Neat
- 57 Virtual Team Building Activities To Boost Remote Employee Morale In 2020 by Ashley Bell
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