Team bonding is one of the most crucial aspects of remote working. Having your team get along with each other ensures everyone can collaborate smoothly and efficiently. They may not even know each other quite well, especially if the team is relatively new. Or If a new person joins the team, they are going to have to join a team that is already tight with one another.

Studies have clearly shown that team bonding has a significant positive impact on teams that find it challenging to work well together. Team bonding usually involves helping employees and management alike learn how to work together as a cohesive team. Companies all over are using all sorts of techniques and strategies to assist their employees with getting to know each other and learn to solve any issues, boost personal and collective productivity and work well together to achieve a common goal.

Team bonding also reduces the chances of isolation from occurring in your remote team. With more people working from home, your remote employees will inevitably feel isolated from the rest of the world. That experience should raise some alarming concerns because, according to a study conducted by Gallup, feeling of isolation among employees leads to a decrease in productivity by 21%.

Team bonding is all about fostering employee connectedness. Even if your team is entirely remote, your team can interact with each other and feel less isolated through virtual team building activities, which are known for increasing productivity.

That is why we are going to recommend the game “Would you rather” as the best choice for you to conduct these team bonding activities. This game has a way of ensuring your team manages to bond in the best possible manner. Plus, it is a very easy game to get involved in that doesn’t involve too much hassle from either end.

With all that said, let’s go over why “Would you rather” is one of the most effective team bonding games your remote team will ever experience.

What is Would you rather?

"Would you rather" be a classic game that can be played by anyone and can be silly or as serious as you make it? The questions you ask among each other can be pretty much anything that everyone would be comfortable with answering. To play the game, all you have to do is set up a video call, prepare some thought-provoking questions, and have people choose between them.

Once that is done, you can go around a virtual circle and give your answers and why each person decides to choose the one they did.

The idea behind this game is to learn new things about each other and find out how well everyone on the team knows each other. The game can be used as an icebreaker for online team building or just a warmup before the start of a meeting.

So why is it the most effective?

As we stated earlier, team bonding is a crucial part of any business out there. Playing this game allows everyone a chance to answer questions that offer everyone the opportunity to get to know each other better. It also proposes an opportunity for everyone to socialize and communicate with each other. The questions could even reveal similar interests among team members, which offers them a chance to bond over their similar interests.

These team members could spend their offline time speaking to each other about a movie, music, book, show, and so on. It is something that allows everyone to know more about each other and can lead towards some excellent communication afterward.

Plenty of team bonding activities let remote employees practice communication while also allowing them to socialize out of work. Thus, it stands to reason that the act of mingling itself would improve communication, a fact that is backed up in this study.

When it comes to socializing with a team member, employees are more likely to come up with shared references through conversations, whisk also learning the best ways to communicate with the rest of their team members. These insights are more likely to assist an employee the next time they need to convey information to a team member, even if that next time is during a critical meeting.

This is why you should consider using “Would you rather “ as one of your icebreaker games since it is an excellent way to increase social interaction among your remote team members.

Familiarity leads to better team performance.

The questions asked during these games are intended to offer the team to gain insight into their coworkers. Doing so allows them the chance to bond from the insight they gained from each other, especially if they have a similar shared interest. Familiarity can be bred by having people know more about each other, regardless of how small of a tidbit the information is. The closeness built from these team bonds will lead to some excellent results.

Harvard has a study that shows some fascinating information about working with familiar faces. Heart surgeons can perform better when they are working alongside a person they were familiar with than when working with a new person. Even if the surgeon has previously performed surgery in the same hospital, as long as they are surrounded by new colleagues, the doctor will not be able to perform at their best. The study shows us that being familiar with and understanding how your team works can improve performance gradually.

Now, you may be wondering how this exciting bit of information fits into team bondings?

By having your team bond with each other, they have the opportunity to become acquainted with each other, especially if the employees are new to the team or previously worked for another department. Cultivating these new employee relationships can improve your company’s performance over time.

Playing a round of “would you rather” can allow your team to familiarize themselves with each other over time by learning more information about each other and increasing the chances of them socializing outside of the work.  

Informal interaction

When your remote team is on the clock, they need to keep an air of professionalism throughout the working period. Throughout the day, whether it is during a meeting or even speaking about a task, the communication between team members is formal. Most people are not aware of this, but reserved communication can affect a team's performance.

Research conducted by MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory shows that conversations done outside of formal meetings are a significantly critical element that contributes to a team's success. If that is the case, then a game like “Would you rather” is an excellent way for your team to chat informally and may also lead to a boost in team performance.

Establish trust

The foundation for any lasting relationship, whether it be professional or personal, comes down to trust. For a professional setting, team members that know each other well enough will deliver on promises, support shared objectives, pitch in during challenging times and maintain clear communication.

However, according to some studies, 58% of people say they trust strangers far more than their boss. If a team member is struggling to trust even their boss, there is a good chance they don’t trust the people they work alongside with either. If your team can place their trust in each other, and they all return that trust to one another, the team bond is strengthened.

Playing a team bonding game like “would you rather” offers a chance for people to bond over the answers they give to the questions they answer. The hilarity and excitement that come from these answers will ease everyone and ensure they know more about each other over time.

Loyalty and dedication to the work

According to an article posted by the Harvard Business Review, certain studies have explored how soldiers develop close bonds because they believe in the purpose of the mission, rely on each other, and share the best and the worst as a team. As you can see, the camaraderie would become an invaluable thing to have transferred onto your remote work team.

Fortunately, one of the main ideas behind the purpose for “would you rather” is to develop a team bonding between your remote employees. When your team participates in this game, it causes group loyalty to strengthen and dedication to work results, which causes a boost in productivity and engaged remote employees.

What kind of question should you ask?

The questions you ask during a round of “would you rather” should be something fun but also tame enough for everyone to be comfortable to answer. The possibilities are endless when it comes to this game. You could offer questions with a theme behind them, such as superheroes, movies, music, trips, and so forth.

Here are some fun and interesting questions you can get started with:

• Would you rather always lose or never play?
• Would you rather have a constant supply of the best coffee in the world at your office or a constant supply of the best snacks in the world at your office?
• Would you rather see the future or change the past?
• Would you rather give up your computer forever or Tv forever?
• Would you rather be able to fly or able to breathe underwater?
• Would you rather work in Los Angeles or in New York City?
• Would you rather be able to stop time or fly?
  

Conclusion

By playing this game, everyone will learn the personalities and interests of their fellow team members. Some of them may even be surprised by their shared love for a particular movie or hobby. This game is simple to host and easy to set up, so don’t hesitate to use this regularly whenever you feel like increasing your team bonding.