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Digital Booster
How to Improve Team Cohesiveness Through Team Building
UPDATE: The session is cancelled ***
Your learning experience is very important to us!
Since the September and October 2022 DWT Digital Booster sessions were blurry for most participants, we have decided to:
- Cancel the November 16, 2022 session. Please find below a list of team building activities from which you can choose and download to help you organize a successful team building event!
Things to consider when organizing your event:
As the manager or organizer, it is best to choose an activity that best fits your team’s interest, culture and needs. DWT is providing below a list of activities as a reference for you to choose from or get inspired from.
Other things to consider “Before”, “During”, and “After” the event:
- Before the event: Ensure your session is inclusive and accessible. A best practice is to ask ahead of time and to check with the manager ahead of time if anyone requires accommodation. You can also check the following guide: Planning Inclusive and Accessible Events
- During the session: Advise participants if only unclassified information can be shared on the platform
- After the session: Delete information that will not be needed anymore.
Here are three online collaboration tools to enhance your team meetings and events
1. Audience interaction tools
Note: unclassified information only
Audience engagement tools, such as Mentimeter or Slido, engage your team with live polls, Q&A, quizzes and word clouds. ESDC has a free service to get a temporary Slido license with up to 1000 users that could be used for your team, town hall, hybrid events, external clients, engagement and much more. If you are not with ESDC, please contact your department to know if you can get a Slido license.
2. Conference Space
Note:
- Unclassified information only
- Log off VPN when using non-Microsoft Teams videoconferencing platforms
- In most cases, it is not suitable for participants with accommodation requirements
There are many space conference platforms that are better suited for holiday celebration and networking. Kumospace is a free online tool that’s great for networking or for hosting a virtual holiday event for up to 30 participants (not compatible with Safari browser).
3. Microsoft Teams with Breakout Rooms
Breakout rooms can only be set up on a Teams desktop application. However, participants can join from mobile and a web browser. There is a limit in Teams of 300 participants and 50 rooms for Breakout rooms. If you require a higher number, consider WebEx.
To find out how to use breakout rooms click on the Teams Help button then search Topics for “Breakout rooms”
Here are two breakout rooms’ activities to try:
A) Get to know your Team - DYK (did you know?)
Note: this is the most accessible activity we have found.
- This is a good way to get to know your team members better and it’s easy to use. Questions are asked in small group breakout rooms, then one of the most interesting thing discovered about each person is delivered back to the larger group. Questions are prepared and distributed at the beginning of the game. Share classified information only - up to Protected B.
B) Pitch Me
- A creative challenge. The event leader assembles a slide deck of interesting items, and participants are broken into breakout rooms to give their best sales pitches for the items. For example, how would you sell a carrot peeler, or a propeller beanie, or a corkscrew? The breakout room participants pitch their idea to a panel of ‘judges’ who vote on the best pitch using Slido.
Here are six team building activities to improve team cohesiveness
1. Jeopardy EN / Jeopardy FR
Who doesn’t love a fun game of Jeopardy? Engage in some healthy competition with your team by using this PowerPoint template to build your very own Jeopardy board. Fill the board with general trivia questions or make it more personal to your team by including clues (including images) like fun facts about your team members, work-related topics, or inside jokes you and your team have made!
2. Storyboard EN / Storyboard FR
Encourage creativity among your team by using these storyboard templates to build a story together. Insert your own photos into the template and work with your team to come up with the setting, action and dialogue for each scene. Leverage collaborative tools like OneDrive or Teams to work on the storyboard at the same time!
3. Sudoku EN / Sudoku FR
If your team enjoys Sudoku, here is one for you! Work together as a team to solve the provided Sudoku board or make it a game and break out into groups to see who can solve it the fastest.
4. Word Puzzle (English only)
Give your busy mind a rest by collaborating with your team to find the hidden words in this word search. If you want to turn the puzzle into a friendly competition, break out into smaller groups to see which team finds all the words first.
5. Pre-holiday Warm-up Event
We’ve all been working remotely for a while now, which means we likely all have similar experiences when it comes to technical difficulties, background noises and things people typically say during video calls. Keep track of the things you hear and see during your conference calls and cross them off on your Conference Call Bingo card. Take your cards back to your team and compare them to see who filled out the most boxes!
Easy and simple way to warm up your team: Conference Call Bingo EN / Conférence téléphonique Bingo FR
6. For the high achieving team: Goal Setting
Get to know your team by setting your career and personal goals together. This activity gives your team an opportunity to inspire one another while learning about each other. Goal setting together encourages your team to establish a healthy work-life balance by setting attainable goals in every aspect of their lives.
And there is more! Check out the other resources we found:
- FlexGC put together the Creating FUN Culture within your team! list to help you when planning team meetings, events, holiday party, a Fun Friday or any other themed team event.
- A list of entertaining team building activities and ice breakers on an online whiteboard (English only).
