Dear execs, HR folks, and managers, please, let’s stop with the virtual team building sessions.
- They waste time
- They force devs and QAs who are deep into real work to context-switch and lose focus
- They’re awkward
- 90% of the people are just waiting for it to be over
- And they never, never, create any real bonding
Just my humble opinion, but here are two things that actually do work
1. Real-life team building activities, in person
Not mandatory. Bonus points if there’s travel involved, even if it’s just for a day or two. The people who show up actually want to be there. When you bring together folks from different teams and roles who may have only interacted virtually for months, conversations happen naturally. Real groups form organically.
2. A good work environment
A healthy workplace, where people collaborate the right way, is actually team building by itself. Some of my closest friendships started like that, just working together every day, helping each other out, bonding over shared interests, games, movies, music, whatever. And again, but very very important, it all happens ORGANICALLY.
Now, why do I say virtual team building is a red flag?
In my experience, these things usually pop up when there are deeper problems on the team:
- Unrealistic deadlines
- People with weak soft skills being promoted to leadership
- A toxic environment where gatekeeping is rewarded instead of collaboration
- And the list goes on, you can probably add a few of your own, we all identify this kind of things
If you’re in a leadership role and thinking about starting these virtual bonding sessions, maybe take a step back and look at what’s really going on inside the team. Fix the root cause first.
Let’s be a bit more self-aware. Stop throwing band-aids at deeper issues. And instead, create space for real, meaningful connections to grow.
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