Mark French, CEO of Team Activity Solutions
As many organisations settle down to hybrid working and staff members rarely meet in-person, the need to maintain and build team spirit by organising team building events increases. The demand for activities is growing, especially for ones that work well as hybrid events.
However, few event planners at present have experience of organising hybrid team-building events. After developing and running many such events in the last year, here is my advice on how to run them successfully – and how to avoid mistakes frequently made.
- Make sure those who are playing remotely have the same role as those in the room
By having every participant, in person or remotely, playing on devices that are all connected, every player has the same opportunity to answer the questions or contribute.
- Keep the action continuous
The players must be able to keep playing at their own pace unlike, for instance, a pub quiz, where there are gaps and pauses between questions and rounds and players disengage while waiting.
- Have teams of four – no more
The best and maximum number of players in a team is four. With that number all participants can be heard and have the opportunity to have their say.
- Make sure teams know how well they are doing against others
Continually updated live leader boards are vital to make the event as competitively engaging as possible.
- Keep the activity to less than an hour
Ninety minutes, the time often scheduled for hybrid online team building activities, is too long. Event planners are increasingly finding that the most successful events last more than 30 minutes but no more than an hour.
With hybrid online team building activities increasingly popular, by avoiding these common mistakes, organisers can maximise their success.
