We are accustomed to working in a world of physical meetings when dealing with our sales teams. We visit their homes, we call them for annual dinners, sometimes we also go for picnics, etc. In today’s context all this looks too far fetched. COVID has thrown out all our old methods and we are forced to work in a virtual world. Social media, internet video meetings, etc. have now become the norm.

Internet has made relationships too formal

But internet and social media for most creates a very formal atmosphere and web-based discussions are mostly work related, and formal. Yet our relationships with members of our team has grown and has been sustained through many informal tools, such as home visits, annual dinners, having a cup tea together, having a chat with our agents on many aspects to do with their non-work related lives.

Let us make it informal

In a recent MDRT Blog article (Creating camaraderie from afar through relationship building for remote teams, MDRT Blog, 25 November 2020), Kent Bridgeman gives some useful tips on how we can build great teams by being informal even on the internet. The main thrust of his article is that we can do, through technology, all that we did earlier in a personalized manner without the technology. Some examples are given below:

Create a Virtual Happy Hour: Designate a specified time once a week for about 1 hour for a virtual tea party through Zoom, where all team members have tea together online and have informal chats.

Game Time: Play a game online through Zoom. Chose the game depending upon the age and social/educational background group of your team members. You could play snakes and ladders, Ludo, scrabble, or any other game that all are comfortable with.

Have a daily question: Task team members to post one daily fun question (not related to work) on WhatsApp or Facebook. The question may be e.g. why do you think the sky is blue? or why do trains run late? or why have tea at all? Taking turns each team member can post one question a day to which all send in their answers.

Monthly Book Clubs: One team member can be tasked with the work of reading a book or an article and discussing the content through Zoom calls. The team member doing this can be different every month.

In other words create a Communications Charter which includes the informal along with the formal. You may also have ideas to work with teams in the virtual world. Please share with all. Put it in the comments below.