Big Book of Virtual Teambuilding Games: Quick, Effective Activities to Build Communication, Trust and Collaboration from Anywhere!

by Mary Scannell, Michael Abrams, Mike Mulvihill

Get remote team members to interact as if they’re in the same room! Whether you’re videoconferencing with team members across the world or e-mailing a colleague sitting ten feet away, the truth is technology has permanently altered the way we communicate. The virtual workplace can facilitate quicker decision making and reduced overhead. But the lack of face-to-face interaction can also impede trust, innovation, and creativity among team members. The Big Book of Virtual Team-Building Games is packed with games and activities for developing productive virtual teams across all digital platforms, including e-mail, mobile devices, web-based conferencing tools, and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. The Big Book of Virtual Team-Building Games helps

Genres: Business

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 22, 2011

Reviews

[Mya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the way that they structured the collection of games based on the stages of team formation. And I think the grid in the front will be very helpful when picking games to play.

I think the games could be useful for colocated teams too, although face-to-face they could be tweaked to be a little less "boring".

Some of the games assume that people are interacting via telephone/conference call, and I feel wouldn't really work or be as impactful where a team is engaging using something like Zoom or Hangouts. I did get the feeling that the tech side has advanced since the book was published and some of the ideas can probably be done more cleverly/slickly now with the tools available.

I haven't really tried any of the games yet, so my opinion on how good/bad/useful they are can't really count yet. If I remember, I'll try come back and update this review once I've experimented a bit with some of them.

If you are experimenting with virtual teams, or even if you need some new ideas for helping team through the forming/storming/norming stages with activities, it's probably worth a read.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the games you'll ever need to keep virtual teams playing forever. Starts with the most simple (tell us the story behind your name) and gets into the more complex and involved, including adventure games and various kinds of group communication exercises.