MORALE & TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT
FOR VICTIM SERVICES AGENCIES FUNDED BY THE NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF VICTIM SERVICES
Created by: Jennifer Amstutz, Alan Krieger & Nicole O’Connor TABLE OF CONTENTS
WHY A MORALE & TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT? 2
WORKING EFFECTIVELY WITH INDIVIDUALS UNDER STRESS 4
HOW TO USE THIS TOOLKIT 5
INCLUDE OTHERS IN THE PLANNING 8
TIPS FOR HOW TO RUN A VIRTUAL MEETING 10
CONCLUSION/WRAP-UP 13
TOOLKIT
ICEBREAKERS 15
ACTIVITIES 26
OTHER MORALE BUILDING IDEAS 49
CLOSINGS 50
ABOUT THE AUTHORS 53
APPENDIX
APPENDIX A: TTARP 55
APPENDIX B: TOOLS 56
APPENDIX C: ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 59
APPENDIX D: SURVEY RESULTS 67
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 1 WHY A MORALE & TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT?
Strong relationships and good morale improve team functioning and program effectiveness. In many agencies, though, the strain of the last 10 months has negatively impacted both relationships and morale.
Because of the current health crisis and its impact, victims and survivors are more stressed, cases are up, staff are dealing with personal crises, and absences are up. This has had a detrimental effect on morale, and on team and agency effectiveness.
And because a large proportion of employees are working from home, or working in split shifts, the opportunity to build relationships has been severely impacted. Many leaders and supervisors have made an effort to build communication within their own teams -- a study done in the months after the initial lockdown found that employees actually had increased their communication with close collaborators by 40%! You may have found that in your own teams. However, the opposite was true about communication with coworkers with whom employees did not work regularly. The same study found that there was a large decrease in communication with other colleagues. [1] And for the many staff who have come on board after March 2020, they may never have had an opportunity to connect, formally or informally, with coworkers that are not part of their immediate work area.
Casual work relationships are important. These relationships -- the ones that usually form in the staff break room and in the hallway -- help improve coordination, collaboration and creativity, thereby increasing organizational performance, innovation and service quality.
[1] HBR Article: “The Implications of Working Without an Office” Early research on how people are — and aren’t — adapting and how leaders can help. by Ethan Bernstein, Hayley Blunden ,Andrew Brodsky, Wonbin Sohn, and Ben Waber July 15, 2020
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 This toolkit was designed to provide you with activities and strategies to try to maintain and strengthen staff morale and connections during this time of remote work and increased stress. In these pages you will find ice breakers and closing activities that will provide an opportunity for you to help support your staff and for staff to support each other.
But you will also find a myriad of activities that are more casual, fun, team- building activities. Also included are tips for running virtual meetings and for providing support individually to staff who need it most. Even though those activities may not seem like they have a direct relationship on your work or your mission, they can have an important impact. These activities can:
1. Get employees excited about work 2. Encourage team members to express themselves 3. Provide concentrated practice collaborating and communicating 4. Show people they can rely on their coworkers 5. Help people unlock their creative and learning potential 6. Help make people more accepting and able to resolve conflicts 7. Help unite people and build emotional support 8. Help employees feel valued, supported and appreciated 9. Help new employees bond with the team
And ultimately, they give morale an infusion, keep motivation levels up, and lay the foundation for a healthy organizational culture. [2]
By taking extra steps to provide support to your staff you can help reduce stress, absences, and staff turnover. Creating opportunities to build strong personal staff relationships, both inside, and outside of immediate teams, will create better staff cohesion and effectiveness. In addition, an increased feeling of support, combined with strong relationships, will lead to improved morale, stronger motivation, and a more unified organization moving forward. 4 E G A P | E S I E R
[2] Adapted from “The Truth Behind Why Team Building Is Important in 2021”, by Ashley Bell, snacknation.com/glob/importance-of-team-building
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 WORKING EFFECTIVELLY WITH INDIVIDUALS UNDER STRESS
While leaders need to be mindful of their staff’s mental health, a supervisor’s job is NOT to act as a counselor or therapist with their staff. However, being a supportive listener can make a big impact without much extra work. Take time in your regular supervision to check in with each person, asking them how they are doing, how their home/family situation is, what their support network looks like and what self-care they are doing. This should generally take only a few minutes. For staff in crisis, it could take up your full session. In that case, you may want to set a clear boundary at the start, e.g. “Before we get started with supervision, let’s take a few minutes to check in. How are things going with you and your family?” Your goal here is to provide support, not necessarily solve their personal problems, so a short conversation can provide that support. If necessary, you may want to schedule slightly longer meetings with some staff.
If you have an EAP program, be sure all staff know about this, and talk with them individually to be sure they are open to using it. Take time to sort through any hesitation they may have. If you don’t have an EAP program, have a list of community resources you can share with staff who are in need of additional services.
Many agencies have reported increasing the frequency of supervisory sessions from every two weeks to weekly. You may wish to offer more frequent sessions to those who need or value it and leave others in the standard schedule.
With staff who are having difficulty coping with work and/or home stress, take a little time every few days to check in with them with a short phone call to let them know you are available and concerned. If your time and energy are limited, you can share that upfront: “I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.” Encourage them to reach out to their circle of family and friends every day with a phone or video call, whether they feel like talking or not. Ask them what they might do for increased self-care, and follow up to
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 encourage them to do that regularly. If they have a close friend among the staff, without violating confidentiality, encourage that friend to check in with them as well, especially on the weekends. Or encourage them to call their friend regularly.
Included in this toolkit are icebreakers and meeting closing activities that you can also use to start or close an individual supervision session to help shift the mood and help focus on the positive and on self-care.
Staff and leaders have been working under a great strain for nearly a year, and there are at least several months, if not more, still to go. We believe some additional attention to staff in need will pay dividends in terms of staff resilience, reduced absence and reduced turnover. We know it is difficult to invest even more in your staff after all you’ve been through, and we hope this tool kit provides ideas to make this easier for you. A little extra effort can pay great dividends. As consultants funded through the TTAR program, we are available to discuss this with you in individual coaching sessions offered at no cost to you or your agency. Feel free to reach out to us to schedule a meeting.
HOW TO USE THIS TOOLKIT
Your time and energy are limited - we get that! This tool kit is NOT designed to be one more thing to add to your day. During these unprecedented times, it is important to have meaningful interaction, build trust, share experiences and stay connected – even when working from home. It’s also important to prevent isolation and to encourage self-care for all of your team members, including yourself.
We have pulled together some tools and activities to help you do just that. We do want to note that it is important that ALL activities remain voluntary. People should be able to choose to pass or not attend with no repercussions.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 WHERE TO ADD IN THESE ACTIVITIES?
Some of these tools can be added into meetings you’re already having. We have lists of icebreakers and meeting closings that can help shift the mood of your team and help them focus on the positive and on self-care. You can also use them to start or close an individual supervision session as well. There are also short activities that can be done as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon break, and could help you bring your energy up, as well as provide support for your team. They can be added to a lunch break, or as a “night cap” at the end of the day, during the last hour of the day, or right after work. Everything that is scheduled on non-work time should be optional.
SHOULD LEADERS PARTICIPATE?
Since these activities are voluntary, it’s not required that senior management participate. However, by participating some of the time, you show support for your team and for the importance of self-care. In some cases, staff might feel more comfortable without senior managers present. In that case we strongly recommend that senior managers let everyone know that they are opting out to make it more comfortable for staff to share freely, and if people would like them to attend, they will. Otherwise not attending could send a negative message.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 6 SHOULD ALL STAFF PARTICIPATE IN SOMETHING?
If you and your team can build in a wide range of options that people can join as they wish, then those needing and wanting this support will take advantage, and those with other means of support will not feel pressured to join. For some people these types of activities add stress instead of improving morale. Be sure no one on the staff pressures others to participate. A little encouragement is fine, but that can easily spill over to pressure which is not helpful. One concern with having events outside work hours is that some people have family obligations or second jobs that prevent them from participating. Other people just need quiet time at night and don’t want to participate. It’s important to communicate clearly that events outside work time (and even some on work time) are optional. COULDN’T THIS RESULT IN DIVIDING THE STAFF?
There is a legitimate concern that this could lead to a divide in the staff – those who participate in fun activities and those who don’t. Therefore, it’s important to have at least an occasional fun or non-work-related activity during work time where you strongly encourage staff to participate to maintain overall cohesion. Also, working some fun icebreakers or closing activities into your staff meetings gets everyone engaging on a light level as well.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Look through the activities in the toolkit and feel free to invent your own. Or challenge your staff to come up with activities they’d like to lead. Try to have at least one short team building or energizing activity in most staff meetings, use them as appropriate in one-on-one meetings, and try to offer at least one longer activity at least once a week during the workday or in the evenings. Having 2 or 3 activities for people to choose from would not be excessive if you have staff to lead them. Engage your staff in looking through the tool kit and choosing activities they would enjoy. If you or your staff come up with additional ideas, please share them with your colleagues on VAP Connect.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 7 BE SURE TO KEEP IN MIND:
Many of the activities only work, or work best, when people are on camera and not calling in. Many are done more easily on a computer than a smart phone. So, think about the technology your staff can access when planning these activities.
INCLUDE OTHERS IN THE PLANNING
Some leaders enjoy ice breakers and other team building activities. If this describes you, then spending your time to plan and take part in them will be a good investment – taking a short recharge break has been shown to help increase overall productivity.
IF NOT YOU, THEN WHO?
If you do not enjoy leading these activities, see if someone who likes this would be willing to take the lead. There are likely to be several staff members who enjoy this and would be happy to lead it. They will get as much benefit from leading it as from just participating. Your job as a leader is to try to see that positive energizers are available for your team. It is not necessarily your job to lead them.
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 8 At least one agency has created a “group fun” committee whose job it is to create the different ways they have devised to build communication and relationships. In order to have offerings that appeal to a diverse staff, the committee contains both introverts and extroverts, people who are new to the agency and people who have been there for a while. They offer activities that take place during the workday for those that have too many commitments outside of work-time to connect, and those after hours for people who don’t have time during the day or who would like more connections during evenings and weekends.
WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?
They can be as simple as at a pre-set time, dropping into an open Zoom room to chat with whoever is there. Or getting on an open conference call (for those with Zoom fatigue). Or it can be a leading quick game or more structured activity to get people’s energy up.
PRIZES:
The games are fun as they are, but giving prizes can add another level of engagement. Prizes can run from simple “blue ribbons” to silly trinkets to gift cards. In lieu of an in person gathering that would normally include a meal, you can pack small bags of treats and deliver to your staff. Or you can send e-gift cards by email.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 9 TIPS FOR HOW TO RUN A VIRTUAL MEETING
In our survey about the project, people asked for ideas about structuring virtual meetings to make them more engaging. Here are some suggestions:
USE AN AGENDA:
Just like with any meeting, have an agenda with time frames.
Track time carefully and let people know when it’s time to close out a discussion.
If you can’t finish an item in the time allotted:
Make it a homework assignment and ask people to either bring their thoughts to the next meeting or email them to one person to synthesize and summarize.
OR
If you can’t delay the discussion, then prepare in advance what you can eliminate if a key topic runs long.
Be sure each item on the agenda is relevant for the majority of participants. If not, set up a separate meeting for that.
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 10 KEEP THE DISCUSSION BALANCED:
In any group there are people who enjoy participating and are quick to comment and others who are more reserved or need more time to think things through before they speak. This nearly always leads to unbalanced discussions. One key role of the meeting leader is to bring as much balance as possible. Here are some suggestions:
Stay aware of who has and who hasn’t spoken on a topic. When the active member goes to speak again, ask them to hold their comments until others have spoken.
Set a limit of 2 or 3 comments per person on any topic. Ask them to self-monitor, but you need to monitor as well.
In a remote meeting, you can’t make eye contact with a quiet person to “invite” them to speak. So unless you know they would resent it, you can invite them more directly, “Joe we haven’t heard from you on this topic… what are your thoughts?”
And if that wouldn’t be received well, you can state, “There are a number of people we haven’t heard from yet and I’d like to hold the floor open to them now. So if you’ve already addressed this issue, please hold your comments for a few minutes…. Can any of the quieter folks let us know your thoughts on this topic?”… and then let the silence build for a full minute. It will seem like forever, but it’s only 60 seconds.
You can also chat privately to people to invite them to speak.
Having a co-facilitator can help manage this aspect of the meeting.
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 11 MAKE THE MEETING MORE PERSONAL:
Camera On: Try to be sure everyone has their video on. Some staff may not be comfortable with this for a variety of reasons – talk with them to see if there is a way to set up their space to make it more comfortable for them. If their concerns can't be accommodated, then having a camera on could be optional.
Breakout Groups: Break up a large meeting using breakout rooms.
Give people a topic to discuss and have them come back with some kind of report. Ask the groups to share their report, asking them to edit out anything another group has shared to limit repetition. Then open it for discussion.
If the group is very large, maybe just have 2-3 small groups report out and open it for additional comments and discussion at that point.
You can also share your screen with the whiteboard or a word document to serve as a flip chart and record key ideas from any brainstorming discussion.
Bring in a variety of voices: Ask different staff to lead/facilitate different agenda items. Help them prepare in advance so they can lead effectively.
Build in ways to connect: Start and/or end each meeting with a quick, fun, light- hearted sharing. (See our tips on icebreakers and closing activities)
Maximize the use of technology: Be sure the meeting leader is skilled in the meeting platform technology – to mute people, use break out rooms, use polls to move decision making, etc. It’s often advisable to have two leaders – one who manages the technology and watches the chat box, and the other who manages the agenda and discussion.
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 12 Close the meeting thoughtfully: At the end of each major discussion and/or decision, it’s important to take a moment and sum up what you see as the overall agreement, or the main opposing issues that were raised. It’s also important to talk about what next steps will happen, who will be responsible for them and what the timetable will be. We have some additional suggestions for closing a meeting in the “Closings” section.
Periodically Check-In: With a group that meets regularly, it can be very helpful to take time periodically to check in on how participants feel about the meeting and how it is run. From this discussion you can develop some guidelines to guide group discussions. Explicit guidelines can help groups stay on track and promote cohesion. There are a number of video conferencing platforms and other communication apps that can help with maintaining connections while working virtually. See Appendix B for more information.
CONCLUSION / WRAP UP
The activities contained in this toolkit are designed for casual morale, team and relationship building. If you find that you have issues within the team that require a more customized approach, we are available through September 2021 under the OVS Training and Technical Assistance Request Program (TTARP) to work directly with you or your team, at no cost to OVS-funded programs. You can find more information about TTARP in Appendix A or by visiting: https://ovs.ny.gov/TTARP.
Special thanks to those individuals who responded to our Winter Morale and Team Building Toolkit Survey and to those who provided insight into additional activities and ideas that have worked well for their team, including Elizabeth Cronin, Raini Baudendistel, Karel Amaranth, Cynthia Amodeo, Heather Campbell, Elizabeth Brownback, Remla Parthasarathy, Robin James and Kellyann Kostyal-Larrier.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 1 3 TOOLKIT
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 1 4 ICEBREAKERS
In this section, you will find short icebreakers to use at the beginning of any meeting. Typically, these will take about 15 to 20 minutes for a team of 8-10. If you have a large team, icebreakers that involve the whole group can take as long as an hour. For those teams, we recommend using breakout rooms and breaking the team into smaller groups. That way, each person will have an opportunity to share and connect, and you can preserve time. If you have the time, you can ask for a few people to share what they discussed in their breakout group.
10 Common Things
Divide the team into small groups (using breakout rooms if 1 available) and ask them to spend a few minutes coming up with 10 things they have in common. The ten common things can be business oriented or more personal. The list can be as simple as “we all like coffee” to something more specific like, “we were all born in New York.” Encourage them to dig deeper to find the commonalities if time allows. When they return to the main meeting room, have each group share their list with the team. This virtual team building exercise is a fun and unique way to start a brainstorming session and get your team excited to work together.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 1 5 Chair Up! TeamBuilding.com shares: Chair Up! is a positive position 2 interlude for video conference calls. The game is played over email, messenger or conference call, and is specifically meant to counter the doom and gloom that sometimes guides conversations. Whenever someone calls out “chair up!”, everyone must stand up and do something cheerful. For example, you could do yoga sun-salutations, clap your hands, laugh or have a small dance party.
Chair Up! is silly, fun, and an easy way to get started with online team building.
Source: https://teambuilding.com/blog/online-team- building-games
Compliments to... Rise shares this activity on the web: Have each staff member pay a compliment to a fellow staff member about their recent work to encourage each other and increase morale. To be sure each team member receives a compliment, you can go through the staff members alphabetically, having each member say something about the next person in line or just assign each staff 3 member a specific person to compliment.
Source: https://risepeople.com/blog/ice-breakers-for-remote- teams/
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 1 6 Draw Tell everyone to bring a pen/pencil and piece of paper to the next meeting; they can also opt to do this virtually on their 4 computer. Start by having them draw a random mark. Next, they’ll have to make a picture out of that line. Maybe your squiggly line is a dinosaur or maybe it’s a flower! You can make this a weekly activity by making it a short drawing session, completed with themes, color pages, or free-handed work!
An alternative to this is to have them start with their random mark (circle, line, etc) and then give them a specific item to draw. Some examples are:
Create a new superhero Create a new emoji Create a new animal
Emoji Check In A simple round table team check-in but this time instead of a one-word or emotion, you ask each staff member to pick an emoji that best describes how they are feeling right now. 5 Using a free emoji mood sheet, like the one found in Appendix B, share the sheet on your screen during your video conferencing meeting. Attendees can then annotate and circle the emoji that best fits how they are feeling.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 1 7 Favorite Color The Offsite Company shares this suggestion on the web: Ask everyone to write down their favorite color on a piece of paper or in the chat box. To make this uncomplicated, stick to the 6 basics (no Persian Pink – just pink). Each color will have a specific question assigned to it. For instance, green may be “What’s your biggest fear?” and blue “What’s your favorite memory?” (the facilitator or organizer will have to create those questions prior to the meeting). Everyone will take turns answering the question that corresponds with their favorite color; putting it on paper or in the chat box ensures they can’t opt for an easier question.
Source: https://www.theoffsiteco.com/news/2020/6/23/25- virtual-team-icebreakers-to-lighten-the-mood
Guess The Artist Miro.com shares the following activity: Before your next meeting, ask staff to create an image or find a picture they can use to tell a unique story or fact about their lives and 7 share that image with the facilitator of the meeting.
Then, at the beginning of the meeting, the facilitator can share each image (one at a time), while staff guesses as to whom the image belongs to. When a correct guess is made, that person can then share their story of the photo/image with the group.
Source: https://miro.com/guides/remote-work/team-building
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 1 8 Guess Who This is another take on a guessing exercise for the team. It works best for groups of 5-10 employees, but if you have a 8 larger group, you can modify this exercise by using breakout rooms so it doesn’t take as long to complete.
Before the meeting, use an open-ended survey (you can use a tool like Survey Monkey) or send an email asking your employees a light-hearted question.
Here are a few sample icebreaker questions to get you started:
“What is your greatest childhood accomplishment?” “What is the craziest hair color or style you’ve ever had?” “What career did you want when you were a child?” “What’s the best vacation you’ve had?” “If you had a pet puffin, what would you name it?” “If you could visit anywhere, where would you go?’ “What’s the last song you listened to?” “What was your first job?” “What was the last movie you saw?” “What was the last Google search you did?”
The facilitator of the exercise will gather and compile the results. Then during the meeting, the facilitator can share responses one-by-one while staff try to guess whose response it is. If you're stretched for time, you can use a poll to have staff guess instead of popcorn sharing. Sometimes, more than one of your employees may have the same response. That’s okay. Just group them together and let your employees know they get more guesses.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 1 9 Guided Meditation Ten quiet minutes during an otherwise busy day can be an effective way to bring your staff together and build strong 9 remote teams. You can achieve these results with a guided meditation session.
Find a meditation exercise online or contact an expert to guide the group (YouTube has a number of meditation exercises). During your video meeting, perform the mindfulness activities as instructed by the guide/video.
Life Story For this exercise, pair people into sets of two (ideally using breakout rooms) and set the clock for five minutes. Instruct 10 them to tell their partner their entire life story in that time. After the five minutes are up, when the group comes back together, the listener has to relay one new thing they learned about the individual or share the whole story if the group is small and there is time.
Victories Start each meeting out with “victories” that are not work related. Share good things that happen outside of work to 11 help connect team members. This could potentially drift into work related victories as well and that’s ok as it is still a positive outcome.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 0 Random Question
This is another exercise that encourages getting to know each other better. Set up a new tradition and ask your team one 12 random question each week or month. This can be done via email or can be done in virtual meetings. Publish your results the next day or share them in a meeting.
For example: What’s the most useless thing you have in your home? What would your superpower be if you had one? What’s one song or artist that you’re embarrassed to admit you like? Who’s the last artist/song you searched for? What’s your favorite website? What was your biggest fear growing up?
An alternative to this is to send staff members a fun question that is a personal choice: Does pineapple belong on a pizza? What’s the best 80s movie? Pepsi or Coke? Domino’s or Pizza Hut?
When you're creating your questions, just make sure to keep it fun and avoid political or divisive questions. Make sure you choose a question that is appropriate to the group. For new or larger groups and teams, you might want to choose a “low- risk” question. For smaller teams, especially those that have been working together for a while, you can choose a more personal question. You can also use a tool like a random question generator like the one found here: https://conversationstartersworld.com/random-question- generator/
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 1 Personal Facts Guessing Game To start this, have the facilitator/manager/team leader ask each team member to share a personal or fun fact about 13 themselves prior to the meeting. These facts will be compiled into a document that is shared with each individual on the team. Next to each fact will be an empty column where each employee will have to guess which team member the fact belongs to.
This fun activity can also take place live in a group video conference. The facilitator will have the sheet shared on their screen while employees try to guess the answers. If your team is small, you can also set this up as a poll where you list all the staff after each fact and let people select who they think it is.
Once all the guesses have been submitted, the facts will be revealed so that team members can see how well they guessed. Not only is this icebreaker game fun, but it’s a great way to develop successful team cohesion and camaraderie.
This can also be done over a number of meetings, where at each meeting you share three fun facts for people to guess and eventually get everyone’s facts out there.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 2 Riddle Icebreakers Engage your staff using a riddle or brain teaser at the start of a meeting. These can be done with groups of any size — whether they know each other or not. For larger groups, 14 consider using breakout rooms or small groups. The trick with riddle and brain teasers is they have to be challenging, but solvable. You can source riddles online. Some suggestions are Reader’s Digest (https://www.rd.com/list/challenging-riddles/) and Parade (https://parade.com/947956/parade/riddles/)
Strange Things This activity has staff members share the weirdest or strangest thing they own and/or most unusual or unexpected item on their desk. Some may have a hedgehog. Some may 15 share their first born’s lock of hair that was a result of their first haircut. The idea is that what they share is unique to them and let’s their team get a glimpse into their personal life.
The Time Machine Share the following questions in the chat box or using screen share, and then ask people to share their answers. "If you were able to travel through time, either forward or 16 backward…”: 1. Where would you go? 2. If backward, to which time period? Why? 3. Would you just want to visit and come back, or would you stay?
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 3 Virtual In-Meeting Bingo If you are looking for a more competitive icebreaker, then virtual bingo may be the exercise you are looking for. By 17 doing bingo throughout your meeting, you can ensure your employees are paying attention and staying engaged. This will also help normalize the sometimes embarrassing things that happen and make employees feel more comfortable.
Create bingo cards ahead of time listing common situations that happen during virtual meetings. We have shared some bingo cards in Appendix C; you can also create your own at a site like https://myfreebingocards.com/bingo-card- generator.
Here are some virtual bingo ideas to get you started: Baby crying in the background Dog barking in the background Someone forgets to turn on mute Someone loses connection
You can also include things your staff can mark off right away: Someone is outside Someone is wearing a turtleneck Someone has photographs on their walls behind them
Before the meeting, send each staff member their bingo card and let them know you’ll be playing a game. When your meeting starts, ask your staff to have their bingo card ready. Explain that as the meeting goes on, they should mark off whenever a situation on their card happens. The first one to get five in a row types “BINGO” in the chat to win.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 4 Two Truths and a Lie Ask each staff member to share two truths and one lie about themselves. Other staff members then guess as to which one was the lie. It can be used just to help lighten 18 the meeting and enable staff members to get to know each other, or it can also be used as a game; where every staff member who guesses correctly gets points.
What is This Thing? Staff members prior to a meeting, take a picture of something zoomed-in. At the start of the meeting, the staff members can then take turns sharing their image while the 19 rest of the team then tries to guess what the object is based on the macro shot provided.
Zoom Background Challenge Before your next meeting, set a theme and ask your colleagues to pick a virtual background image that, for them, represents it 20 best. Encourage everyone to be creative as there are infinite possibilities: Favorite movie scenes, 80’s disco, memes, dream vacation places, you name it. You can expand this by asking everyone to give a short explanation of their choice, or just enjoy some laughs and go on with the meeting.
NOTE: not all computers are capable of having background images, so check with everyone’s technology before trying this.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 5 ACTIVITIES
These activities require more time and often more preparation than the icebreakers shared above. You might consider using these activities on their own or as part of a longer team building meeting. We have tried our best to give a time frame for these activities, as well as an effort rating for participants, but understand these could vary based on the size of your team.
Team building games for remote workers encourages communication, build out- of-the-box thinking, and creative problem solving. The more your staff interacts and creates ideas, the more at ease they will feel about their colleagues going forward and working together won’t seem so intimidating.
Aliens Time: 30 - 60 minutes Cost: Free 1 Efforts of Participants: Moderate Split your employees into groups of three or four. Tell everyone that aliens have landed on Earth and are interested in learning about your planet. But, the aliens don’t speak English so you need to explain things to them with symbols or pictures. The groups need to talk among themselves to come up with the five necessary images to explain one of the following (or choose your own): The flavor of peppermint ice cream The feel of petting a cat The sound of rain hitting a tin roof
One group member should upload the five images that best describe this and share with the rest of the team.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 6 Desert Island Scenario Time: 15-30minutes Cost: Free 2 Efforts of Participants: Moderate In this team building activity, staff are given a scenario where they’re stranded on a deserted island with seven objects — but they can only choose three. These objects can be as obscure or challenging as you would like them to be. The more challenging the objects are, the more the staff will be forced to think outside the box and use their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. You can do this virtual game individually or in small groups so they can collaborate on which items they want to pick.
Once everyone has chosen their three items, resume the meeting and have everyone share which items they picked and why. After each speaker has shared their objects and answered any questions about their selections, give everyone a chance to change any of their items based on what they heard from other staff. If anyone changed their list, ask them to share and explain why. Here is a list of seven objects, as an example:
a bundle of bananas a multi-tool a fishing net sunblock a 100 ft rope a waterproof bed sheet a large, strong bucket
You can find many other lists online if you search for desert island scenario lists.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 7 Lost at Sea Time: 25-40 minutes Cost: Free Efforts of Participants: Moderate
M3indtools.com shares: Give your team members a scenario where they're stranded at sea with just a handful of objects. They have to rank the objects in order of how useful they'd be in helping the group to survive. They should work individually first, and then as a team. Divide participants into their teams, and provide everyone with a ranking sheet.
Step 1: Ask team members to take 10 minutes on their own to rank the items in order of importance. They should do this in the second column of their sheet.
Step 2: Give the teams a further 10 minutes to confer and decide on their group rankings. Once agreed, they should list them in the third column of their sheets.
Step 3: Ask each group to compare their individual rankings with their collective ones, and consider why any scores differ.
Step 4: Now read out the "correct" order, collated by the experts at the U.S. Coast Guard. You can find that ranking in Appendix C of this toolkit. Participants should add these to the sheet.
Step 5: Have the teams consider why they made the choices they did, and evaluate their performance against the experts' choices.
Advice for the Facilitator
Ideally, teams will arrive at a consensus decision where everyone's opinion is heard. If discussions are dominated by a few people, draw the quieter people in so that everyone is involved. But explain why you're doing this, so that people learn from it.
Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/team-building-problem- solving.htm
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 8 Online Scavenger Hunt Time: 25-40 minutes Cost: Free 4 Efforts of Participants: Moderate This virtual game’s goal is to bring the team together around a common goal and have fun. This team building activity uses a variety of skills, strategic thinking, and problem-solving methods to find the hidden items. A facilitator will come up with a list of objects each virtual team will need to find in their homes (there are some lists online as suggestions). Have your team members turn off their cameras while searching for the items. The first person to return with the item, turn on their camera, and visibly show the item gets 10 points. Everyone else that finds the items and shows it on camera receives 3 points. Decide as a group how many rounds you’re playing, and the team with the most points wins the scavenger hunt.
An alternative to this process is to use breakout groups and have staff work as teams to find the items in the list. When they have found them all, have them return to the main room; the first team to return who can showcase all the items, wins.
Example items for your list: A baby photo Something tie-dye or rainbow-colored Something from your childhood days The biggest book you can find (longest page count wins!) Something that starts with the first letter of your name An item that’s older than you are The softest thing you own Something with buttons on it Something that floats A scented candle A shell Something that lights up
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 2 9 Virtual Collage Time: 30-60 minutes Cost: Free unless printing the collage Efforts of Participants: Moderate
U5se photo collages to highlight your staff and your organization. Have staff members send you photos, quotes and images that they want to include in the collage. Combine those images and quotes using a tool like Adobe Spark (free to use): https://spark.adobe.com/make/photo- collage-maker/. You can then share the collage with the team electronically or have them printed.
Recipe Exchange Time: Varies Cost: Free 6 Efforts of Participants: Moderate Shared from TINY Pulse: To host a recipe exchange, invite your staff to share a recipe that’s meaningful to them via email. Then assign a recipe to each team member and give them a week to test it out (or a timeframe that seems doable to your group). If you don’t want to assign a recipe, offer to have the staff choose, but just be sure that all recipes are chosen.
When the week is over, host an informal virtual meeting and ask staff to share the history behind the recipe they shared and what they thought of the recipe they tried. This can continue to be an activity that you can do monthly, quarterly, etc based on interest.
Source: https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/44-virtual-icebreakers-and- team-building-activities
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 0 Box It Time: Varies Cost: Free Efforts of Participants: Moderate
A7lso from TINY Pulse: How many times did you order something online this month? If you’re like most people, it was probably more than once. With COVID-19 still a concern, more people are ordering online than ever before. That also means boxes are stacking up. Instead of letting those boxes go to waste, why not use them for remote team building? Create a competition using boxes to see who can create the best creation out of boxes. A car, a house—the sky's the limit.
If you can encourage your employees to get their kids and pets involved, even better.
Source: https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/44-virtual-icebreakers-and- team-building-activities
Words with Friends Time: Varies Cost: Free in the app store 8 Efforts of Participants: High Words with Friends is a mobile application game that can be played one-on-one with others you have designated as your friends. You can get the application from Google Play or the Apple App Store on your mobile device.
Similar to Scrabble, you have tiles in your “hand” that you are trying to use to spell a word off of your competitor’s word. You can read more about Words with Friends 2 here: https://www.zynga.com/games/words-with-friends-2/
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 1 Virtual Movies Time: Varies Cost: Free, depending on your streaming service or movie availability 9 Efforts of Participants: Low Gather staff members together to watch a movie virtually. The facilitator of the group can select the movie, or you can take turns. This can be once a week, once a month – whatever your group feels is appropriate. Staff members can watch it on their own and come back together in a virtual meeting to discuss or they can choose to watch it on a streaming service like Teleparty (Netflix) (https://www.netflixparty.com/), KAST (https://www.kastapp.co/index.html) or even a service like Amazon Party (https://www.amazon.com/adlp/watchparty) – if everyone has an Amazon Prime account.
Virtual Book Club Time: Varies Cost: Free (although the book purchases themselves will have a cost associated with them) 10 Efforts of Participants: Moderate Just like your typical in-person book club, this takes the book lover connection to a virtual level. Each month, pick a new book - from the same genre or mix it up. Ask members to make suggestions and vote on which genre and books to read. Let all the members know the title and give them a few weeks to read the book. Let them know if the book is available by ebook or from the local library.
At the end of the month (or whatever time frame feels appropriate), gather members together virtually to discuss the book and compare thoughts. This can be a one time-activity or ongoing.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 2 Pictionary Time: Varies Cost: Free 11 Efforts of Participants: High Like the classic in-person game, players must guess the keyword their teammate is drawing. On a virtual meeting using the platform of your choice, divide your staff into teams and then players of each team take turns drawing the keyword they are given while their teammates try to guess what their teammates are drawing. If your team is smaller, you can do this without having teams and just have everyone guess what the drawer is trying to depict. The guessing time is limited to one minute.
To draw online, you can use a whiteboard, such as offered in Zoom, or share your screen using a third party whiteboard or drawing tool (most Windows PCs have the Paint accessory you can use and share). Or, you can have individuals use their own pen and paper, but have their webcams pointed at it so others can guess while they are drawing.
For every correct guess that is made, the team gets 1 point. If you are playing individually, then the individual drawing and the person who guessed correctly each gets a point. You can continue to draw and guess during that one-minute time frame. You can also not use a timer and just have the round end when a correct guess is made. Play to a set number of points, or after all members have had a chance to draw. Or you could also just play without scoring and just have fun!
There are free online resources for generating words to draw – such as http://wordrawapp.com/online_generator.html or https://www.thegamegal.com/word-generator/.
If you don’t want to organize the Pictionary game on your own, there are also online Pictionary games available to play for free with others, such as https://www.drawasaurus.org/, where you can create a private room to play with your team.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 3 Charades Time: Varies Cost: Free 12 Efforts of Participants: High This is a lively activity that will for sure create some laughs. While on your virtual video conference, split your group into two teams and take turns acting out words or phrases for your teammates while they try to guess the chosen phrase.
On Zoom or Google Meets, you can spotlight the person acting out the charade for easier viewing. The team then has one minute to guess. Once their turn is up, the other team begins acting out their charade and guessing. Any correct guess yields a point and you can continue playing to the predetermined number of points (10, for example). Just be sure each member of each team has a chance to do the acting.
To generate your charades phrase, you can use an online tool such as https://www.thegamegal.com/word-generator/.
Theme Days Time: Varies Cost: Free Efforts of Participants: High
13Host theme days inside your organization – similar to school spirit days. You can specify the theme on a day you are meeting virtually via your video conferencing platform or just schedule a specific day and have your staff take a screenshot of their themed outfit. Let everyone suggest themes — like college t-shirt day, decade day, or favorite movie day — and choose the most popular ones to plan with your team. Encourage them to get creative with their themed outfit!
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 4 Weekly Virtual Game Seession Time: Varies Cost: Varies Efforts of Participants: High
14At the beginning of each week, send out a message to the team asking them to vote on their favorite group virtual game. There are plenty of free online games that are perfect for remote teams to play together. Get everyone’s input and block off time at some point during the week for everyone who’s interested to get together and play as a group.
Free game ideas: https://store.steampowered.com/genre/Free%20to%20Play/ https://www.9truths.com/ https://tabletopia.com/
Paid game ideas: https://www.jackboxgames.com/ ($29.99)
Puzzle Race Time: Varies Cost: Varies based on where puzzles are purchased Efforts of Participants: High
15Rise shares: A fun and unique idea is to send your employees a small puzzle to complete. This can be either a classic jigsaw, or something a bit more challenging, like a Lego set. The first person to complete it has to send in a picture of the completed puzzle to be declared the winner. A puzzle race may take a bit more time to set up, but is a fun alternative for creative teams.
Source: https://risepeople.com/blog/virtual-team-building-activities/
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 5 Virtual Lunch and Learn Time: Varies Cost: Free, unless you bring in a paid instructor 16 Efforts of Participants: High As an alternative to a happy hour, consider hosting a virtual team lunch, where everyone has lunch together over video chat. A lunch and learn is meant to be a digital lunch that has an educational aspect to it. The topics can cover anything from productivity tips to conflict resolution, or someone sharing a hobby or trip they have taken. These can be led by subject matter experts in your organization or by guest speakers.
You can also consider doing a virtual coffee break, which is the same concept as a virtual lunch, just in a shorter time frame (and with coffee or tea instead). Some virtual coffee break ideas include simple things like swapping recipes or introducing pets. Virtual coffee chats don’t need to be structured—they can be more casual.
Hosting events at different times (e.g. coffee break, lunchtime, or happy hour) gives those who work on different schedules or in different time zones more opportunities to take part.
Some examples of ideas:
Have a motivational speaker come in (via Zoom) Have someone lead a yoga session Have someone teach a skill Have someone teach self-care activities
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 6 Theme Nights Time: Varies Cost: Varies 17 Efforts of Participants: High Consider choosing a unique happy hour theme. This is something that can be discussed or voted on, which will get your staff involved and excited. Possible themes can include 80s night, funny hats, wacky hair, or holidays (e.g. Halloween costumes or ugly holiday sweaters).
You can also try a variety of different virtual happy hour games, such as online bingo or trivia. Just like with a regular happy hour, the priority for remote employees should be to have fun and connect with their coworkers.
Paint & Sip Time: Usually around 2 hours Cost: Can be free if using items already at home, or you can purchase kits to send to everyone, or everyone can purchase their own kit/spot individually to attend 18 Efforts of Participants: High These classes have become popular over the last few years, but you don’t need a class to take part. Participants can round up whatever paint and pinot they have on hand, choose a subject together, and have at it.
There are organizations that will provide these services remotely and will provide everything needed for the painting.
Examples include: https://www.paintingwithatwist.com/ https://uncorkedcanvas.com/ https://thepotteryfactory.com/virtual-events/
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 7 Tour a Museum Time: Varies Cost: Free 19 Efforts of Participants: Low Many museums now offer a way to virtually visit their collections, and will offer scheduled virtual tours. Staff can go through these virtual tools together if one staff member joins the tour and then shares their screen. This gives the staff an opportunity to discuss what they are seeing and enjoy the museum as a group. Some examples of museums that offer virtual tours are: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, The Louvre, or Langley Research Center.
Video I-SPY Time: Varies Cost: Free 20 Efforts of Participants: Moderate This activity is best done with medium-sized teams using a video conferencing platform’s gallery mode (where you can see all the tiles of staff members’ videos together on one screen). Just like the “normal” I- SPY, this game relies on a good eye and the whole team being on video. Staff members take turns choosing something they spy in the grid of faces while everyone else tries to guess what it is. For example, someone could say: “I SPY something blue.” And everyone guesses what they are seeing blue in the grid of pictures. This one really takes face-to-face connection seriously!
An alternative to using the teams’ own virtual videos is to choose a complicated image and share it on screen for everyone to see and then take turns spying.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 8 Group Facial Via Zoom Time: 60 minutes Cost: Free 21 Efforts of Participants: Moderate Hold a Zoom group facial session. Each participant is provided a Mary Kay facial starter kit (provided for free by a Mary Kay rep) and someone knowledgeable leads the group through the facial process together. This provides a very light social gathering experience with an activity to focus around.
Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Time: These are each 30-45 minutes long, but there are others that don’t feature Covey that are shorter. Cost: Free 22 Efforts of Participants: High
Staff are invited to look at short videos on YouTube of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The agency can send out the link to staff and those that are interested can then participate. Feedback can be shared at staff meetings and informally via email or phone calls.
Here’s the link for Habit 1 on YouTube and if you search Stephen Covey Habit 2, etc., you can find others: https://youtube/xaTmv67WpRM
If you don’t have the book, here’s a nice summary of the 7 Habits: https://tinyurl.com/u0oxuldt
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 3 9 To Tell the Truth Time: 15 minutes to 2 hours Cost: Free 23 Efforts of Participants: Low Based on an old television show. Ask staff to give you interesting or odd ball experiences they’ve had in their lives that people at the agency don’t know. Choose one story and then choose 2 other people to serve as decoys. Tell the decoys the broad outline of the story, but no details. Give them a one sentence title or theme of the story.
Then have them come to a staff gathering and have them each share the sentence saying “I ….” Then the audience can ask them questions. Each question has to be directed to one of the 3, although it can be repeated. Go through 5-10 questions. The person whose story it is has to answer truthfully. The other 2 can answer as they wish but in a way that makes it seem that it is their story. After 5-10 minutes, ask the audience to vote on whose story it really is. Then the person can share a bit more about the story if they wish.
This can be done with one group as a warm-up to a staff meeting, or you can use the breakout rooms in Zoom to have several groups of 3 meet to get their basic story clear and then each group goes one by one, each taking about 10- 15 minutes to fill an hour or more.
Unstructured Zoom Sessions Time: Varies Cost: Free 24 Efforts of Participants: Low Host regular, unstructured Zoom sessions scheduled where people can just drop in and talk about anything they want to.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 0 Weekly Friday Email Time: 5-10 minutes Cost: Free Efforts of Participants: Low
25Ask staff to share each week pictures and/or notes about their family, pets, outside activities and/or other things happening outside work, books they are reading, movies or TV shows they are watching, podcasts they are listening to, recipes they want to share, fun activities they have done, upcoming birthdays. It can become an informal, weekly staff newsletter with very little effort. Whoever wants to contribute sends in their contributions and it’s incorporated into the email or as an attachment.
Clifton Strengths and StrengthFinders Time: 2-3 hours Cost: approximately $15 per person when purchased in bulk 26 Efforts of Participants: High This activity uses the Clifton Strengths Assessment as an opportunity to help employees uncover their individual strengths. You can provide all staff with a copy of the StrengthFinders 2.0 book which includes a link to the assessment. Staff who chose to, can take the assessment. You can then dedicate a staff meeting to a discussion of each person’s strengths. A follow up session could ask people to think about how their strengths and the strengths of others that are evident in day to day at work.
You can also include looking at how different staff’s strengths complement each other and how they can work together to make the most of their strengths. This type of event helps keep morale up and builds cohesiveness while also being professional development.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 1 Open Town Hall Meeting Time: 60 minutes Cost: Free 27 Efforts of Participants: Moderate Good for all-staff meetings and cross-department conversations. Topics should be thought provoking, and can run from current events to issues affecting the staff.
“What are our agency values and what do they mean to you?” “How can we support you better during the pandemic?” “What would be a key service we may want to add to our offerings?”
1. Determine the topic of your town hall meeting, and then create an invitation and agenda to send to send out.
2. Use a technology platform that allows for breakout rooms
3. Invite one or two people to speak to the topic – 10 or 15 minutes
4. Then, separate people into breakout rooms for discussion.
Make sure people are with people that they don’t usually work with to increase intra-department connections.
It might be helpful to keep leadership and/or supervisors out of the general breakout rooms to encourage open communication.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 2 Staff Led Activities Time: 60 minutes Cost: Free (although some activities may require ingredients, or require honorarium for non-staff experts) 28 Efforts of Participants: Low/Medium Organizations are full of staff members with specialized knowledge and interests. Invite staff to lead casual virtual activities to bring staff together and allow them to get to know each other in a different way. Successful activities have included: Binge-worthy TV Shows and Movies Books that changed your life Cocktail or cooking Demo (send ingredient list out beforehand so people can mix and cooking along if they want) Yoga
Quizbreaker Time: Varies - but minimum Cost: $2 - $3 per user 29 Efforts of Participants: Low Trivia/quiz delivered to your team’s inbox at a scheduled time that you establish. Create an account, invite the users you want to include in the team, customize the quizzes and set the timeframe to have the quizzes sent out.
https://www.quizbreaker.com/
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 3 Hidden Origami Time: 60 minutes Cost: Free 30 Efforts of Participants: Moderate Shared from Mindtools.com: Divide staff members into pairs and move each pair into a breakout room. Email one person from each pair a set of origami instructions, that can be found online at places like https://www.origami.me/diagrams/.
With the camera off, the person with the instructions should guide their partner (the receiver) through the steps to create an origami structure. The receiver can ask questions, request clarification, and offer feedback during the call. When each group has finished, participants can turn their cameras back on to see whether the receiver got the origami structure right.
Advice for the Facilitator
Check in with the groups during the meeting to see how they're progressing. When each group has finished, ask the partners to switch roles and repeat the exercise with a different design.
Once the second exercise has been done, bring everyone back into the main meeting and ask participants how accurate each structure was. How difficult was it to listen and follow verbal instructions? How good was the feedback provided? Have them share some thoughts on listening effectively and get them to think about what they will take away from the exercise.
Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/virtual-team- building-exercises.htm
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 4 Sell It Time: 15-30 minutes Cost: Free 31 Efforts of Participants: Moderate Another share from TINY Pulse: This icebreaker works well for groups of all sizes. Just be sure to break employees into small groups if you have more than 5 or 6 people for the sake of time.
At the start of your meeting, ask each staff member to grab any item on their desk, but don’t explain why. If they ask, let them know they will find out soon.
Once each staff member has an item in their hand, explain that they are now going to try to sell it to the other members. They can set the price and have one minute to deliver a sales pitch and one minute to answer questions.
After all pitches are made, employees will be allowed to use the poll to select one item they would “buy.” The person who gets the most employees to purchase their product “wins”.
Source: https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/44-virtual-icebreakers-and-team- building-activities
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 5 Let's Roam Time: Varies Cost: $30 - $50 per person Efforts of Participants: Moderate
32Let’s Roam offers digitally guided scavenger hunts outside in various cities across the country. City scavenger hunts allow participants to walk around the city, discovering new places and hidden secrets while earning points. These are ticket based activities, that range in price from $30 - $50 per person. A list of cities offered can be viewed here: https://www.letsroam.com/tours_and_adventures/New_York
Let’s Roam also offers virtual game nights as well with a monthly subscription (offering 4 game nights per month). The subscription is $19.99/month after a 7-day free trial. Using the Let’s Roam platform, the game nights are one of a kind and offer fun for all ages. 16 players can connect for each game and each game night is 60 to 90 minutes. You can see more about the virtual game nights here: https://www.letsroam.com/how_it_works/virtual_game_night.
The Escape Room Time: Varies Cost: Starting at $30/person 33 Efforts of Participants: High You may have heard about escape rooms previously – where a group of players work together to discover clues, solve problems and work toward an end goal of getting out of a room or group of rooms in a limited amount of time. These are now being offered virtually as well. The Escape Room is one such place that offers these events online; the themes vary and prices start at $30/person for a team of up to 8 players. They do offer events for larger groups, but will ultimately break any team up into a group of 8 players per game. You can find out more here: https://theescapegame.com/remote-adventures/
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 6 Virtual Murder Mystery Time: Varies Cost: Varies – around $30 – $40 for self-hosted games Efforts of Participants: High
34Virtual murder mysteries are a fun way to connect with others safely and enjoy others’ company while also thinking outside of the box by trying to solve a mystery. There are a number of online resources that offer virtual murder mystery games. These often are best for a specific number of people so be sure to pay attention to that during your planning. Once you have the game, choose a date, send out your invites and have a great time on game night.
Here are just a few places we found murder mystery options: https://www.red-herring-games.com/ https://www.mymysteryparty.com/ https://nightofmystery.com/ https://try.outbackteambuilding.com/virtual-clue-murder-mystery- team-building/ - hosted by the Outback Team and a pricier route ($30-$50 per person)
Water Cooler Trivia Time: Varies Cost: Monthly subscription by number of users ($10/month for up to 10 people; $25/month up to 25 users and $50/month for up to 50 users) or one-time trivia events starting at $250 35 Efforts of Participants: High Water Cooler Trivia (https://www.watercoolertrivia.com/product) offers a monthly subscription with quizzes that are sent out weekly that spark conversations, build connections and are fun. Trivia and scoring is all done by Water Cooler but quizzes can be customized. Water Cooler also offers one-time trivia events virtually as well (https://www.watercoolertrivia.com/events).
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 7 Virtual Team Game Night (Facilitated) Time: 60 minutes Cost: Starting at $299 per event 36 Efforts of Participants: High The Go Game offers virtual team building game events for teams of all sizes. These games take only 45-60 minutes and players will be guided through a variety of game types to keep the energy moving and provide an opportunity for everyone to shine with a host provided by Go Game.
Game types include: Buzz In Pub Trivia Giphy Challenge Pictionary Drawing Head-to-Head Social Games Lipdub Fun Fact Match Categories Live Polling and Voting Virtual Team Building
For more information: https://www.thegogame.com/team-building-from- snack-nation
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 8 OTHER MORALE BUILDING IDEAS
Pandemic Relief Fund
Under the U.S. tax code, organizations can create an employee relief fund to provide tax-free payments or assistance to employees that have been affected by the pandemic crisis free. These funds need to be administered by a 501(c)(3) organization, and can be funded with a contribution from the organization itself, or from donations. Staff can then apply for reimbursement for expenses that have resulted because of the pandemic. These could include: telecommuting expenses; home office supply costs; health expenses.
For more information about setting up a pandemic relief fund, including eligibility and record keeping requirements, can be found at https://news.bloomberglaw.com/employee-benefits/insight-using-employee- relief-funds-to-provide-tax-free-assistance and https://www.mossadams.com/articles/2020/04/disaster-relief-payments- employers-covid-19.
On Call Sabbatical
Because many VAP programs provide round the clock hotlines and services, staff members and supervisors often spend some or all of their weekends and evenings on call. One way that the Advocacy Center in Tompkins County has found to encourage self-care and improve morale is to offer on-call staff a two week “on-call sabbatical”. During those two weeks, the staff member on sabbatical is taken off the on-call rotation, and they can have the off hours during those two weeks uninterrupted.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 4 9 CLOSINGS
Using the last 5 or 10 minutes at the end of the meeting for a closing discussion allows the team to leave the meeting with a lasting impression or positive intention, and it is a good way to connect the discussions and work in the meeting to the next hours, days and weeks.
Closing activities can be used to: Check for understanding Firm up next steps and/or note commitments Celebrate accomplishments or progress Build support Energize the team
During COVID, closing activities can be especially important ways to maintain and build morale and strengthen team connections. See the section above on “icebreakers”. These can also be used as closing activities. Additional ideas are outlined over the next three pages.
In an in-person meeting, there are various ways that you can ask people to share ideas during closing activities. Virtually, most activities are most easily done by asking each person to share answers aloud, one by one, or by asking people to type their thoughts into the chat box. In large groups, using the chat box may be the most efficient way for everyone to share, but you can also consider asking for a few volunteers to share their thoughts aloud.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 0 CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:
In group meetings where you have provided new information, training, or have brought in a guest speaker, you can use closing activities and questions to determine what information has had the most impact and whether there is general understanding of what has been presented. You can ask people to share:
One thing that they have learned today and that they will take with them Something they heard that captured their attention Something new that they learned about someone else in the team/group Their understanding of the key message from today’s meeting - ask them to sum it up in 10 words or less and share in the chat.
FIRM UP NEXT STEPS AND/OR NOTE COMMITMENTS:
Asking people to firm up next steps at the end of the meeting helps transition things from “this was a good idea” to “this is something that I am going to do.” It creates a positive intention for each person in the group.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 0 PROMOTING SELF-CARE AND BUILDING TEAM SUPPORT
During this time of work from home and the pandemic, next steps or commitment statements can specifically relate to self-care and support, and can help reinforce that those things are important parts of the work that they do.
Ask people to share: One thing they will do in the next 24 hours to help them recharge One thing they will do in the next week to support their coworkers One thing they will do in the next (day/week) because of what was talked about during the meeting One habit they are working on strengthening Something they heard during the meeting that made them smile One thing that they appreciate about this meeting/group One thing that they like about working here
CELEBRATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Using time at the end (or beginning) of the meeting to recognize accomplishments can be an important motivator. This can be done by the team leader – by being specific about what was accomplished during the meeting or in the past week – but it can be equally impactful when everyone on the team shares something.
Ask people to share: A success they had with a client A success they had outside of work Something that happened in the last week that made them feel supported Something that is working well with the team that they would like to continue
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 1 BUILD SUPPORT
The final minutes of a meeting can also be a good time to let people ask for support or help that they might need in the coming days.
You can ask people to share: One thing that they would like help with from the team One way people can support them Something they think team members could do to connect over the next week Something someone did for them that they appreciate Something they are willing to offer to others
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 2 ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jennifer Amstutz, founder and principal of J.A. Strategies, LLC, has more than 25 years of experience in nonprofit management and training. Founded in 2006, J.A. Strategies provides consulting services in strategic and business planning, interim management, board and staff development, leadership coaching, and training and has worked with nonprofit, government and private sector organizations throughout the New York Capital Region and New York State. Jenny can be reached at [email protected].
Alan Krieger, founder of Krieger Solutions, LLC is a former Executive Director of a statewide non-profit and former supervisor for a NYS agency. Founded in 1992, Krieger Solutions provides consulting in evaluation, needs assessment, team building, strategic planning and leadership. Krieger Solutions also provides training to public and non-profit agencies in a wide range of leadership and people skills. Alan can be reached at [email protected].
Nicole O’Connor is a Project Coordinator consultant for both J.A. Strategies, LLC and Krieger Solutions, LLC, along with other clients. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from University at Phoenix and has over 20 years of experience in customer service and project management. She offers project management, virtual assistance and bookkeeping services to small businesses throughout New York state. Nicole can be reached at [email protected].
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 3 APPENDIX
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 4 APPENDIX A: TTARP
The New York State Office of Victim Services (OVS) Training & Technical Assistance Request Program is a customized, no-cost training and technical assistance pairing service for OVS-funded programs. By drawing on the expertise of training professionals, OVS matches specialized consultants with OVS-funded programs to deliver a wide-range of custom-tailored organizational leadership and communication services.
Eligible Victim Assistance Programs (VAPs) can select a service or training topic from a catalogue and submit a formal training or technical assistance request online. Requests will be considered on a first come, first served basis, with the selection process streamlined for swift review and response. VAPs will then work directly with Jennifer Amstutz or Alan Krieger, OVS consultants, to determine appropriate training needs, delivery methods and schedule. Jennifer and Alan will help facilitate this process throughout the completion of each approved request.
All training and technical assistance request approvals are contingent upon the availability of state and federal funding. Additional Training and Technical Assistance Request Program information can be found on the TTAR webpage, including program standard operating procedures, consultant biographies and the full catalogue of services available.
Feel free to contact Jenny or Alan directly to discuss current issues and potential projects before you complete a submission form. You can schedule a call with them by using this calendar link: https://calendly.com/ovs-ttarp/ttar- outreach-and-information-appointment. Questions about the submission process or eligibility can be directed to [email protected] with “Question about TTARP" in the email subject line. Other VAP training opportunities are also updated routinely on the VAP Training Center Webpage and on VAP Connect.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 5 APPENDIX B: TOOLS
VIDEO CONFERENCING PLATFORMS
Zoom - www.zoom.us
Zoom offers an online meeting and video conferencing platform. The Zoom platform includes breakout rooms, which enables you to divide your staff into smaller groups that are either random or preset by you. You can easily download and install the Zoom app, which is available on both Mac and PC, as well as most mobile platforms. You can also join a meeting by going to Zoom.us and “Join a meeting”, but you need to have the app installed for maximum functionality.
A free plan is available that offers unlimited one-on-one meetings, but for any meetings with multiple participants (up to 100 participants), the meeting is limited to 40 minutes. If you want to host 2-100 participants in a meeting for longer than 40 minutes, a paid plan would need to be purchased at $14.99/month or $149.90/year. Larger sized teams and enterprise plans are also available if more than 100 participants need to be hosted.
Zoom includes a chat function, and meetings can be recorded. The paid plan allows for polls as well.
Microsoft Teams - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group- chat-software
Microsoft offers its own version of a virtual team collaboration tool, Microsoft Teams. Teams offers the ability to chat with those also in your “team”, along with group chat and video conferencing. Teams can range from 2 to 10,000 and can be all over the world. Additionally, Teams gives you the ability to make phone calls with others who are using Teams and also the ability to share and edit files in real time with other team users.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 6 Teams is free to use, but can only be used with those who are also using Teams and are a part of your team group within the program.
Google Meet - https://meet.google.com/
Google Meet is a free web conferencing and meeting application offered by Google. You can join a Google Meet online or through a mobile app, but to attend a Google Meet, you must have a Google email address and account. While Google Meet is free to use, to have more advanced features like breakout rooms, you will need a Google G-Suite solution for business or enterprise, which comes with a cost. Additionally, to host over 100 participants, you will also need an advanced plan, which starts at $6.00/month.
APPLICATIONS
While doing our research, we also came across some applications that might be worth considering for keeping your team connected. These tools enable collaboration easily and provide the team with different streams of communication.
Team Connection/Chat Tools:
Slack – https://slack.com
Slack is a collaboration tool for teams that functions like a message board. You can create different channels for different teams or projects that team members can subscribe to and partake in. For example, one channel could be “outreach” and messages in that channel are related specific to that while another could be “water cooler”, which is a channel for those conversations you would typically have at the water cooler in the office. It offers different pricing options based on features you may want to include but does have a free option available.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 7 Freedcamp - https://freedcamp.com/
Freedcamp is actually a project management tool, but enables team collaboration similar to Slack. In addition to being able to manage projects and tasks within this application, you can also collaborate and message with other team members in a discussion board setting. Freedcamp offers different levels of pricing, including a free version that would cover the unlimited use of the discussion boards.
Microsoft Teams - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group- chat-software
We mentioned TEAMs above for video conferencing, but TEAMs is also a great team collaboration tool. Chat with others on your team in real time while in the application; make calls to other team members within the application and collaborate with others on various Microsoft documents while in the application.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/
We all know Facebook as a social media tool, but it can also be used as a tool to connect your team. One agency created a private Facebook page and then invited all of it’s staff to the page. Here staff started sharing silly memes, but it has expanded to be a way to stay connected overall.
Ziteboard - https://ziteboard.com/
Ziteboard is an online, free whiteboard that can be used for collaboration and activities noted throughout the toolkit.
Witeboard - https://witeboard.com/
Witeboard is also an online, free whiteboard that can be used for collaboration and activities noted throughout the toolkit.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 5 8 APPENDIX C: ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
In the following 7 pages, you will find examples and additional resources as noted throughout the toolkit. There is an emoji mood sheet for icebreaker #5, Emoji Check-in on page 17, examples of bingo cards to use in Virtual In- Meeting Bingo noted in icebreaker #17 on page 24, and the ranking sheet and U.S. Coast Guard answers for activity #3, Lost at Sea, on page 28.
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 59 WHICH EMOJI BEST DESCRIBES YOU TODAY?
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 60 Bingo Card ID 001 Virtual Meeting BINGO
Someone I think (Unintelligible I'm sorry can't figure (Dog words that - you cut out how to barking) there's cuts in and out mute a lag out) there
Can you No - I'm sorry (Sound of email that Someone's someone it's still screen - I was typing, to freezes possibly with everyone? loading on mute a hammer) " Sorry - I Are Sorry - was having FREE (Child connection you go talking/yelling) issues there? SPACE ahead
Can Hi - can You are Sorry everyone (Baby see my you hear still I'm late screen? crying) me? sharing ...
Can we Can (Loud Someone I'll have to take this everyone painful asks a get back go on echo I question to you offline? mute? feedback) at the end myfreebingocards.com
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 61 Bingo Card ID 002 Virtual Meeting BINGO
1 1 Someone Can 1 11 have to No - 1 Someone s can t figure everyone screen get back it's still out how to freezes see my to you loading mute screen?
Can you Someone Sorry - I Are (Unintelligible email that asks a was having words that to you question connection cuts in and everyone? there? at the end issues out)
Can we (Loud Sorry FREE painful (Child take this echo I talking/yelling) I'm late offline? SPACE feedback)
Hi - can (Sound of Sorry - someone (Dog (Baby you hear typing, go me? possibly with barking) crying) a hammer) ahead
I think I'm sorry Can Sorry I'm sorry - you cut everyone didn't catch - I was there's go on that, can a lag out there mute? you repeat? on mute myfreebingocards.com
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 62 Bingo Card ID 003 Virtual Meeting BINGO
Someone 1 I'm sorry Someone s Can we Hi - can asks a - I was screen take this you hear question freezes at the end on mute offline? me?
Sorry (Unintelligible 1 You are Sorry - didn t catch words that still (Dog that, can cuts in and barking) go you repeat? out) sharing ... ahead
1 Someone Are 1 11 have to 1 get back FREE can t figure (Child you out how to talking/yelling) there? to you SPACE mute
No - Can Sorry - I Can everyone was having (Baby everyone it's still go on connection see my loading mute? issues crying) screen?
I'm sorry I think Can you (Sound of Sorry email that someone - you cut there's typing, I'm late to possibly with out there a lag everyone? a hammer) myfreebingocards.com
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 63 Bingo Card ID 004 Virtual Meeting BINGO
Sorry I think Sorry - I (Sound of I'll have to was having someone go there's connection typing, get back possibly with to you ahead a lag issues a hammer)
I'm sorry I'm sorry Someone's (Child Sorry screen talking/yelling) - I was - you cut on mute out there I'm late freezes
Someone Someone You are Are can't figure asks a FREE still out how to question SPACE you mute at the end sharing ... there?
(Loud Can we Can (Unintelligible Sorry painful everyone words that didn't catch echo I take this see my cuts in and that, can feedback) offline? screen? out) you repeat?
Can you No Hi - can email that (Dog you hear (Baby to it's still barking) everyone? loading me? crying) myfreebingocards.com
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 64 Virtual Team Building Exercises Worksheet
Lost at Sea Ranking Chart Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Your Your Difference Difference Item Coast Guard Individual Group Between Between Ranking Ranking Ranking Column 1 & 3 Column 2 & 3 A mosquito net
A can of petrol
A water container
A shaving mirror
A sextant
Emergency rations
A sea chart
A floating seat or cushion
A rope
Some chocolate bars
A waterproof sheet
A fishing rod
Shark repellent
A bottle of rum
A VHF radio
Totals Your Score Team Score
© Copyright Emerald Works, 2006-2020
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 65 LOST AT SEA U.S. COAST GUARD RANKING
From Mindtools.com: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/team-building-problem-solving.htm
1. Shaving mirror. (One of your most powerful tools, because you can use it to signal your location by reflecting the sun.) 2.Can of petrol. (Again, potentially vital for signaling as petrol floats on water and can be lit by your matches.) 3.Water container. (Essential for collecting water to restore your lost fluids.) 4.Emergency rations. (Valuable for basic food intake.) 5.Plastic sheet. (Could be used for shelter, or to collect rainwater.) 6.Chocolate bars. (A handy food supply.) 7.Fishing rod. (Potentially useful, but there is no guarantee that you're able to catch fish. Could also feasibly double as a tent pole.) 8.Rope. (Handy for tying equipment together, but not necessarily vital for survival.) 9.Floating seat or cushion. (Useful as a life preserver.) 10.Shark repellent. (Potentially important when in the water.) 11.Bottle of rum. (Could be useful as an antiseptic for treating injuries, but will only dehydrate you if you drink it.) 12.Radio. (Chances are that you're out of range of any signal, anyway.) 13.Sea chart. (Worthless without navigational equipment.) 14.Mosquito net. (Assuming that you've been shipwrecked in the Atlantic, where there are no mosquitoes, this is pretty much useless.) 15.Sextant. (Impractical without relevant tables or a chronometer.)
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 66 APPENDIX D: SURVEY RESULTS
In this section, you will find the results of the Morale and Team Building Toolkit Survey conducted earlier in 2021 by J.A. Strategies, LLC and Krieger Solutions, LLC. The survey contained 11 questions total, with 8 of them relating specifically to the concerns for staff heading into the final winter months. The other questions (not included here) asked more specific information regarding contact information.
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 6 7 Winter Morale and Team Connections Tool Kit Project Survey
Q1 How concerned are you about added stress staff will face this winter?
Answered: 64 Skipped: 0 100%
80%
54.69%54.69% 60% 42.19%42.19%
40%
20% 3.13%3.13%
0% (no label)
Very concerned Somewhat concerned Not very concerned
VERY CONCERNED SOMEWHAT CONCERNED NOT VERY CONCERNED TOTAL WEIGHTED AVERAGE (no label) 54.69% 42.19% 3.13% 35 27 2 64 2.52
Q2 Which do you think will be major stressors for your staff? (check all that apply)
Answered: 64 Skipped: 0
100%
68.75%68.75% 68.75%68.75% 80% 68.75%68.75% 68.75%68.75% 85.94%85.94%
60% 50.00%50.00%
40% 28.13%28.13%
20% 1.56%1.56%1.56%
0% Isolation Managing Family Staff I don't Other, clients in challenges illness/abs think there please greater (childcare, ence will be describe: distress family... causing... major...
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 68 Winter Morale and Team Connections Tool Kit Project Survey
ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES
Isolation 68.75% 44
Managing clients in greater distress 68.75% 44
Family challenges (childcare, family member illness) 85.94% 55
Staff illness/absence causing work overloads 50.00% 32
I don't think there will be major stressors for my staff 1.56% 1
Other, please describe: 28.13% 18 Total Respondents: 64
Q3 What additional steps if any are you taking to better manage potential staff absences? (check all that apply)
Answered: 64 Skipped: 0
100%
80% 57.81%57.81%57.81% 57.81%57.81%57.81% 60% 43.75%43.75%43.75%
40% 23.44%23.44%23.44%
20% 7.81%7.81%7.81% 9.38%9.38%9.38%
0% Cross Hiring Increasing Increasing Not taking Other, training temps or collaborati support to additional please floaters on so staff prevent steps describe: can cove... burnout
ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES
Cross training 43.75% 28
Hiring temps or floaters 7.81% 5
Increasing collaboration so staff can cover for each other 57.81% 37
Increasing support to prevent burnout 57.81% 37
Not taking additional steps 9.38% 6
Other, please describe: 23.44% 15
Total Respondents: 64
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 69 Winter Morale and Team Connections Tool Kit Project Survey
Q4 What have you done to provide increased support for staff? (check all that apply)
Answered: 64 Skipped: 0
100%
80%
54.69%54.69% 60% 42.19%42.19% 40.63%40.63% 34.38%34.38% 40% 17.19%17.19%17.19% 14.06%14.06%14.06% 12.50%12.50%12.50% 20% 9.38%9.38% 9.38%9.38%
0% Increas Virtual Virtual Fun Staff Self-ca Referra We are Other, ed time session session activit retreat re or ls to not please for s after s ies at s trainin EAP doing describ supe... hours duri... staf... g or... anyt... e:
ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES
Increased time for supervision 54.69% 35
Virtual sessions after hours 9.38% 6
Virtual sessions during lunch 14.06% 9
Fun activities at staff meetings 42.19% 27
Staff retreats 9.38% 6
Self-care or training or support groups 40.63% 26
Referrals to EAP 34.38% 22
We are not doing anything differently 12.50% 8
Other, please describe: 17.19% 11
Total Respondents: 64
Q5 If you were to receive a “toolkit” with activities and strategies to keep your staff’s morale up and help keep your team connected, what types of activities would you find useful? (check all that apply)
Answered: 64 Skipped: 0
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 70 Winter Morale and Team Connections Tool Kit Project Survey
100%
89.06%89.06%89.06% 80% 65.63%65.63%65.63% 60.94%60.94%60.94%
60%
34.38%34.38%34.38% 40%
20% 7.81%7.81%7.81% 1.56%1.56%1.56%
0% Short Longer Things we Suggestions I would Other, energizers activities could do as for working not find a please we could that could a group on individuall toolkit describe: work int... be a sho... non-work... y with... like thi...
ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES
Short energizers we could work into a staff meeting 89.06% 57
Longer activities that could be a short staff recharge session or retreat 60.94% 39
Things we could do as a group on non-work time such as lunch or evening 34.38% 22
Suggestions for working individually with staff 65.63% 42
I would not find a toolkit like this to be of value 1.56% 1
Other, please describe: 7.81% 5
Total Respondents: 64
Q6 How much time would be reasonable for you to devote to morale building/ team building? (Check the largest amount you might consider)
Answered: 64 Skipped: 0
100%
80%
60% 45.31%45.31%45.31%
40% 25.00%25.00%25.00%
20% 9.38%9.38%9.38% 9.38%9.38%9.38% 9.38%9.38%9.38% 1.56%1.56%1.56%
0% Less than 1-2 hours More than 30-60 1-2 hours Comments: 1 hour per per month 2 hours per minutes per week month month each week
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 71 Winter Morale and Team Connections Tool Kit Project Survey
ANSWER CHOICES RESPONSES
Less than 1 hour per month 1.56% 1
1-2 hours per month 45.31% 29
More than 2 hours per month 9.38% 6
30-60 minutes each week 25.00% 16
1-2 hours per week 9.38% 6
Comments: 9.38% 6 TOTAL 64
Q7 Please rate each of the following time format(s) as to your preference for morale building/teambuilding activities. (Where 5 is a strong preference and 1 is not preferable)
Answered: 64 Skipped: 0
100%
80%
53.23%53.23% 60% 45.90%45.90% 37.70%37.70% 38.33%38.33% 33.90%33.90%35.59%35.59% 40% 28.33%28.33% 17.74%17.74%17.74%19.35%19.35%19.35% 18.33%18.33%18.33% 18.64%18.64%18.64% 11.48%11.48%11.48% 20% 6.45%6.45% 6.67%6.67% 8.33%8.33% 6.78%6.78% 3.23%3.23% 4.92%4.92% 5.08%5.08%
0% 5-15 minute 15-30 minute 30-60 minute 1-2 hour blocks blocks blocks blocks
5 4 3 2 1
5 4 3 2 1 TOTAL WEIGHTED AVERAGE 5-15 minute blocks 53.23% 17.74% 19.35% 3.23% 6.45% 33 11 12 2 4 62 4.08
15-30 minute blocks 37.70% 45.90% 11.48% 4.92% 0.00% 23 28 7 3 0 61 4.16
30-60 minute blocks 38.33% 6.67% 28.33% 18.33% 8.33% 23 4 17 11 5 60 3.48
1-2 hour blocks 5.08% 6.78% 18.64% 33.90% 35.59% 3 4 11 20 21 59 2.12
MORALE AND TEAM BUILDING TOOLKIT | PAGE 72 QUICK LINKS
Thank you again to all of those who helped this toolkit come to life!
Below, please find a quick reference to important links and information.
OVS TTARP: https://ovs.ny.gov/TTARP TTARP Catalogue of Services: https://ovs.ny.gov/sites/default/files/training- technical-assistance-request/ovs-ttarp-catalogue-services.pdf
Questions regarding the submission process or eligibility of TTARP : [email protected] with "Question about TTARP" in the email subject line.
VAP Connect: https://ovs.ny.gov/vap-connect VAP Training Center Webpage: https://ovs.ny.gov/vap-training-center
Contact information:
Jennifer Amstutz - [email protected] Alan Krieger - [email protected]
Schedule a call or consultation: https://calendly.com/ovs-ttarp/ttar-outreach- and-information-appointment
M O R A L E A N D T E A M B U I L D I N G T O O L K I T | P A G E 7 3