3 Online Tools to Energise Your Team
It's Tuesday, 25th of January 2022 - 680 days since the words ‘Work from home if you can’ left Boris Johnson’s mouth for the very first time. A lot has changed since then, specifically our attitudes towards this strange new type of work-life.
When remote working was first announced, it felt like a bit of a privilege. Ditching the daily smoggy commute for an early morning dog walk followed by a toasty coffee before logging onto Zoom at 9 AM to check in with the team never sounded so good. Whatever your role is, being able to complete your work in the comfort of your own home was something most of us had dreamed of prior to the pandemic.
As time went on though, this privilege began feeling like a disadvantage. The lack of social interaction began to affect communication, morale and for some, work output. We longed to return to the office to see our colleagues on something other than a 13 inch LCD screen.
Fast forward to 2022 though, and remote working is no longer a privilege nor a pain, it's the norm. But this doesn't mean that we don't still struggle sometimes - because we do. It can get lonely, and our relationships with our colleagues can break down - which certainly isn't surprising. I mean, how can you expect to maintain a relationship through Zoom meetings and emails?
Luckily for you, with new problems, come new solutions. By new solutions, I mean team-building exercises that can be completed in your respective humble abodes - that actually work. After nearly two years of trying out different programs, websites and apps I have selected my top three that I want to share with you. I use these tools in my training sessions to give teams a boost in the morning or just after lunch, and they're especially fun with my own team on a Friday morning.
Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that makes it easy for you to create, share and play learning games in minutes. The games are quizzes that are user-created and the free version can have anywhere up to 20 players. Once a quiz has been designed, Kahoot! then gives you an access code to share with your team in order for them to join the game.
This is a great way to engage your team, wherever they may be. Since its launch in 2013, Kahoot! has had over 2.4 billion players.
2. Wordle
Now, I would be incredibly surprised if you haven't heard of Wordle or seen the tetris-like blocks on your feed in the past couple of weeks. It has been a trending topic in the UK since its launch, and I can tell why… The game attracts millions of new users each week! For those of you who don't know what it is, Wordle is a word game. You have six tries to guess a five-letter word, there is one word a day and it is the same for everyone.
Since everyone has the same word, this can be another great team-building experience and is a great way to spice up a normal day at work. You could set prizes for the first member of the team to guess the word and allow team members to give each other clues based on their answers.
3. Menti
A good friend of mine introduced me to Menti actually before the pandemic. It lay dormant in my Trello board for quite a while before I finally found a use for it. It's revolutionised my training sessions, providing a space to collate feedback and ideas.
Menti is a great interactive presentation software that allows users to build interactive presentations that their audience can engage with no matter where they are. With Menti, you can add polls, quizzes, gifs and more to your presentation that can be used by your audience if they have Menti installed.
Due to the uptake in remote presentations, Menti has been one of my go-to’s. It adds a bit of excitement and steers away from the norm of the Zoom screen share.
A Bonus Tool
If you have my book, SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want, then another great tool you can use with your team is the SMASH IT! app! It allows you to work dynamically through tasks as a team and adds a whole new layer to morning stand-ups.
With these tools, you should be able to engage your team, wherever in the world they may be.
If you are interested in finding more ways to improve and engage your team, then you need to know where your gaps are. Take our ‘Senior Leaders Scorecard’ for a view of your team like never before. You will receive a 360 report on your team filled with implementable tips to action right away!
