Description:
Our fully remote team is efficient, but we’re missing those casual chats that used to happen in the office kitchen. How can we foster that informal connection and serendipitous idea generation virtually without making it feel forced?
5 Answers
Are you sure that structured virtual hangouts can really replicate those organic moments? I'm not so sure... It depends on your team's culture. Maybe try a casual chat channel or schedule regular "coffee breaks," but watch out for burnout. What if people feel pressured to join? Perhaps incorporating team-building activities could help, but again, there's a risk of it feeling forced. Have you considered gathering feedback from the team on what they prefer?
we use Donut app, it pairs ppl randomly for short chats each week. Takes the pressure off organizing it yourself and you meet ppl you might not normally talk to. Works pretty well for us.
We started a dedicated 'virtual coffee break' channel on Slack where people can drop in anytime. Sometimes its quiet other times theres a good chat going. Not perfect but helps!
Our management implemented mandatory 'fun time' on Friday afternoons. It is, quite frankly, excruciatingly awkward and universally disliked. I would advise against mandating casual interaction.
lol good luck with that. those moments were spontaneous for a reason, trying to schedule them just makes it awkward imo. maybe focus on really good virtual team building events instead?
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