3 Tips to Building a Virtual Team

Alex Protyagov
3 min readJul 29, 2021

The body of social science that deals with team-building has been substantially growing, particularly since the beginning of the pandemic. It is vital that businesses look to that science when trying to create experiences enhancing virtual team-building.

An in-person interaction is an important team-building aspect, but one-on-one contact is something that virtual workplaces today just can’t replicate. The lack of those interactions has an impact upon team cohesion at both the company wide level and the individual team level. In turn, organizational structures are moving from the hierarchical model of the past to more flexible and looser ones, according to Finland-based Metropolia University of Applied Sciences’ Carita Lilian Snellman.

Casual Friendships May Increase Team Cohesion

Encourage a culture of kindness among staff members. That might sound obvious, yet the impact it may have on team-building is powerful, according to London School of Economics researchers Grace Lordan and Teresa Almeida.

Studies have proven that weak ties have a positive effect on feelings of belonging and subjective well-being” according to Lordan and Almeida. During a point when working from home has been formed upon us, there’s a chance for managers to encourage forming weak ties within their company, and bring together folks from geographically distant places.

Encourage staff members to engage in random acts of kindness toward their colleagues and reward them by doing so.

Be Very Clear With All Communication

Folks do not always know what you know, particularly in the virtual job atmosphere, according to Natasha Ouslis, a behavior change consultant.

According to Ouslis, we’re aware of how hard we are working, which roadblocks we are faced with, and what we require from them. That distance makes us get better at explaining our circumstances. We cannot hope that folks are going to ‘see’ what is going on without explaining. It forces us to communicate more concisely.

Clear and open communication between team members is important. One great strategy to facilitate this communication includes showing members of the team how their tasks drive the team toward its end goal.

Set apart time every month or week for staff members to explain their work in-depth to their staff members. The walls between staff members will begin to break down, and folks will be more clear into what their coworkers are doing each day.

Leaders May Take an Active Part in Team Building

According to Carita Lilian Snellman, trust is among the most critical aspects in virtual team-building. Trust is more important in virtual workplaces than in team settings used in the past because it’s the necessary condition for successful virtual team work.

However, to build up that trust, team members first must go through specific stages — and it is up to leaders to shepherd their flock along the road to more trust. Snellman adds that leaders may enhance coherence, establish mutual expectations, and motivate and inspire staff members to grow more trust.

Empirical assessments show that team members that have highest trust levels started their engagement with social messages; established clear roles for every member of the team; and showed good attitudes and enthusiasm, eagerness, and an intense action orientation within all their messages, adds Snellman.

Establish clear team goals prior to every new project and keep a positive mood when establishing expectations for everyone.

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Alex Protyagov

Tech enthusiast with 15 years of experience creating solutions for small startups, large scale retail, media, and government entities.