What are the best virtual team building activities to encourage risk-taking?

1 Why risk-taking matters for virtual teams

Risk-taking is the ability to take actions that involve uncertainty, ambiguity, or potential failure, but also offer opportunities for learning, growth, or improvement. Virtual teams can especially benefit from risk-taking, as it can help them address the challenges of working across distances, time zones, and cultures. For instance, risk-taking can enable virtual teams to experiment with new ideas, tools, or processes that can boost productivity and quality; adapt to changing customer needs or market trends; learn from mistakes or feedback; and build trust among team members.

2 How to create a safe space for risk-taking

Before you introduce any virtual team building activities that encourage risk-taking, you need to create a safe space for your team to take risks. A safe psychological environment allows team members to express their opinions, ideas, or concerns without fear of judgment, criticism, or punishment. To achieve this, you must set clear and realistic expectations and goals for your team and communicate them frequently and transparently. Additionally, it's important to encourage open and honest communication and feedback among team members by providing multiple channels and modes for communication. Furthermore, recognize and reward those who take risks and share their learnings, successes, or failures with the rest of the team. At the same time, provide support and guidance to those who face challenges due to risk-taking. Finally, model risk-taking behavior yourself and share your own experiences, insights, or lessons with your team.

3 What are some virtual team building activities that encourage risk-taking

Creating a safe space for risk-taking is essential before introducing virtual team building activities that can help your team take more risks and have fun. Scavenger hunt, shark tank, and improv are some examples of activities that encourage risk-taking. For a scavenger hunt, you could ask your team to record a video of themselves singing a song related to your project or industry, find an object in their home or office that represents their biggest fear or challenge, do a random act of kindness, or learn a new skill or language. Shark tank involves pitching ideas for a new product, service, or solution that can solve a problem, meet a need, or create value for customers. Improv involves playing games or exercises like yes-and, freeze, and word association. Customize these activities to suit your team's preferences, needs, or objectives. Make sure your team enjoys the activities and feels more comfortable and confident to take risks in their work.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?