What Leading Team Building Events Over Zoom Taught Me About Virtual Team Dynamics
By: Catherine Jue
Tags: Company Culture, Team Building, Zoom, Remote Working, Work From Home

Image courtesy of KnowTechie

With companies such as Twitter, Slack, Shopify, and Coinbase having announced indefinite Work From Home, there is an undeniable shift taking place in professional cultures as virtual water coolers become the new normal. Those that embrace this will be more successful in a post-COVID world. While quarantine-style living will (hopefully) not be forever, certain elements will persist into the future, redefining the way we think about our work, workspaces and colleagues.

We are already hearing about new modes of work. Some companies are going remote-first and expect to have central “hubs” in major cities, hot desks and breakout rooms for creativity and strategic planning. Some expect quarterly or semi-annual on-sites (the new off-site), where teams brainstorm together, re-energize and connect with one another, while others plan for flex work weeks.

But what of our work now, when we cannot meet in-person? How do we connect with our teammates, rally around our companies’ missions, feel valuable and valued beyond the transactional emails that attack our computer screens morning, afternoon, and night?

This year, we are reporting more burnout and fatigue than years past, the blue light of our computer screens sucking all moisture from our eyes. Slack banter has gone quiet, Zoom calls kept to the point so that they end in time for our next.

Though I no longer work in tech, these are questions that I have been thinking about for my tea company, Tekuno. After the initial lockdown, we adapted our in-person team building experience to run over Zoom. Each participant receives a box of teas shipped to their home, and we brew them together, discussing origins, flavor profiles, and preferences. Though we initially believed we could simply mirror our in-person experience in the virtual world, we discovered that a surprising amount of human connection gets lost over video. We have spent the past several months adapting our virtual tasting experience as a result.

Here are my top 3 learnings on how to foster meaningful, productive connections over Zoom:

Design conversations to use chat and video simultaneously.

In person, we connect over small gestures. Perhaps we notice the sticker on a colleague’s water bottle, which opens up a conversation over shared interests. What’s more, this conversation may just as well happen as a quick conversation before an All-Hands meeting as it does during a dedicated 1:1.

In a virtual setting, side conversations — conversations not deemed “on topic” — are impossible in a video conference. This is because video allows only one person to speak at a time. For a dynamic conversation, where on-topic conversation receives the most attention but off-topic / tangentially relevant conversations can happen too, chat emulates the in-person experience much better than video does.

We saw a huge improvement in engagement after we switched our primary tool to be Zoom’s chat box rather than asking participants to discuss out loud. Participants were able to +1, second another’s thought, and add to the discussion much faster than when one person was speaking at a time. Coupled with using video to see others’ facial reactions, building presentations to utilize both tools has been one of our best learnings to craft engaging virtual conversations. Chat even facilitates side conversations; one can simply “@” a colleague without disrupting the primary focus of the discussion.

Add structure to virtual water cooler talk.

Have you ever joined (or dreaded) a virtual happy hour, where the first five minutes was spent awkwardly sharing your day, while the rest of the group patiently listened to the details of your lunch? In-person, we are able to connect with others much faster and more deeply, not only because the dialogue is quicker but because we also have so much more context about the people around us.

In a virtual setting, we exist in a void with no context of the others “around” us. This is partly why it is so difficult for remote new hires to assimilate into a not-remote-first company. Because of this, we incorporated structured conversation starters into our team building experience. In pre-COVID days, it was easy for colleagues to know another’s preferences and habits; now, structured topics such as, “tell your partner about your best and worst experiences doing x” helps people open up and gives participants a framework to talk about interests outside the office.

Use tools that empower all styles of communication.

The adage that the loudest voice in the room runs the show is even more true over Zoom. As we iterated on our team building experience, we found that video does not facilitate inclusive, “yes-and” dialogue; rather, those that were most prepared or simply fastest to voice their opinion were those that were heard. Marrying synchronous conversation with asynchronous tools — chat, real-time polls, break out groups (best between 2–5 people when done over video), and allowing participants to engage in the topic via email/Slack after the meeting — enables more productive dialogues over the Internet.

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As we enter the last month of 2020, consider the work connections you have forged and grown this past year. How did it compare to your experiences pre-COVID? We are entering a new mode of work, but the desire for human connection, feeling valued, and empowering others remains as important as ever. Let us find new ways to connect and treat virtual connections as a first class citizen — even after the pandemic is over.