A necessary (although, as we know from the previous sections) not sufficient condition for maintaining motivation and building commitment in a group is to create a situation in which the voice of each participant is heard (literally and figuratively) and each participant sees and is seen by the others. Creating such conditions requires appropriate action at the level of infrastructure (technical facilities, appropriate moderation by the co-facilitator) as well as at the level of activity management. It can be helpful here to develop – in oneself and in the individual participants – good habits that facilitate communication even for the most shy.
These good habits may include:
- supporting, for instance: if any of you has any technical difficulties please let us know
- acceptance, for instance: it is ok if something doesn’t work, all of us have issues with internet from time to time;
- appreciating differences: how do you think we can make this work for all of us?
- encouraging – giving space for everyone to have their say, using the formula: what do you think?
- listening – active listening – it is also useful (if possible) to use body language to show online participants that we are listening to what they are saying;
- trusting
- respecting
ACTIVITIES
Activity #1
Only the worst ideas
This exercise may be a good way to open meetings and encourage everyone to share their ideas. To start off the meeting, present a work project, or problem. Have people give only the worst, most ridiculous ideas for how to complete the project or solve the problem.
It gets everyone warmed up to think about the topic at hand. It’s a great way to open a brainstorming session because it encourages people to give their ideas since they can’t be worse than the ones you started with.
Activity #2
Say it without words.
Charades is a team -building activity that requires players to act out a prompt without speaking. The game’s objective is for team members to guess the phrase as quickly as possible. Charades promotes active thinking and observation skills, making it one of the best team building exercises for developers.
- To play this game, you will need a stopwatch, and a scoring sheet. The players will divide themselves into two groups. For example, teams A and B.
- Team A will then select a player from team B.
- The player will select a paper chit and act out the word written on the paper without speaking or indicating any object.
- The members of team B will need to guess what the word is within 60 seconds.
- These words or prompts should be tech related, such as software bugs, coding, and hard drives.
- If the team members get what the player is demonstrating, they get a point. If they get it wrong, the other team takes the point.
- The team with the highest score wins the game.
This game helps team members express themselves better and promotes non-verbal communication skills. The activity also encourages fast thinking and brings team members together.
To draw
Use the programme https://skribbl.io/ which is a free online multiplayer drawing and guessing pictionary game. A normal game consists of a few rounds, where every round a player has to draw their chosen word and others have to guess it to gain points! The person with the highest score at the end of the game will then be crowned as the winner.
A simple, fail-proof and versatile activity in which participants are asked to touch different colours or kinds of objects and bring them in front of the camera to show to all. People working from home offices might have easier access to certain objects, while those in person might have a bit more fun moving around and interacting with one another. This gives the facilitator plenty of opportunities to point out the differences between remote and in-person modes of participation in a light and playful way.