Team Building

43% of employed Americans spend at least some time working remotely, according to a 2016 Gallup survey. How do you bond teams where people aren’t in the same location? How do you connect departments that work opposite schedules, like the night crew and day staff? Beyond time and location, how do you build a team in a culture that doesn’t promote team building?

Video has become the simplest, most cost-effective way to transcend traditional methods of team building. Teams can quickly disseminate information across the world, ensuring a consistent, comprehensive, and expansive message each and every time. From live broadcasting to video chatting, and from training videos to team introductions, video has become a highly fruitful way to build interactions between colleagues both inside and outside the office.

Why and how should you use video in your team building efforts?

Why Use Video For Team Building

1. Consistency

When building a team, you want a unified message that everyone can rally around. Whether that’s generating a brand narrativeor a company-wide joke, the purpose of team building is to pull all members towards a single idea of significance. Video allows for you to create a single message that’s clear-cut and to the point, which can then be disseminated to all employees. This means that an employee in China is hearing the exact same consistent, branded message as an employee in New York.

Consistency is vital to building a team. Video helps to build that sense of uniformity by relaying the same information in the same format time and time again.

2. Efficiency

Videos can be used anywhere, at any time, on any device. This saves time and money on travel for traditional team building events like transformation management and large-scale meetings.

Moreover, videos have a set time limit. There isn’t one speaker going off into an hour-long soliloquy while the audience drifts off or answers emails under the table. Videos have only a few minutes to get the main point across, so they’re often chock full with high levels of value in a digestible, efficient format. In fact, Forrester Research reported that one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.

3. Collaboration

Video can allow colleagues to collaborate better with one another by building interpersonal interactions. Webcasts and video chats have options for employees to work directly on the platform by sharing screens and sending attachments, allowing employees from different locations to work as though they were in the same room.

Moreover, videos can start a conversation. If you have a funny, inspiring, or empowering video, your workers will keep talking about it. Often the conversation that spurs from the video itself can enhance team bonding beyond traditional team building exercises. Well-crafted videos can initiate a natural sense of camaraderie amongst the viewers.

Videos are also a great way to promote cross-departmental training. Learn more about training videos here.

4. Trust

A study by the University of Michigan looked at various communication forms for the highest level of trust. In-person communication was the winner, but video came in as the second most trustworthy form of communication. When in-person collaboration isn’t realistic or possible, video is the next best way to build trusting relationships. Video helps put a face, name, and personality on each of the individuals working on the team.

5. Engagement

Videos are engaging and fun. You can create team or leadership videos that are filled with personality and culture. Make it fun, goofy, and enjoyable.

You can also use videos to help employees gain exposure within the organization, overcome their fears of public speaking, and improve their creative processes. Talking on video can teach employees better in-person interpersonal skills as well. The video-making process can actually be another form of growth for many employees. Gaining new skills through hands-on training, like creating a video, is one of the strongest means of learning and development engagement.

How To Use Video For Team Building

Below you’ll find our three favorite ways that you can use videos to build your team, whether they work across the globe or in the same garage.

1. Out The Window

If you’re on a video conference call or live broadcast, ask the team members to take turns pointing their camera out the window. This shows where they are in the world and what the weather is like. Weather is a go-to icebreaker for most people in conversation, so utilizing this tactic via video can make people feel comfortable and at ease. Pointing the camera out the window instantly spurs a discussion that improves trust, collaboration, and engagement for the rest of the video call.

2. Pump Up

In trainings or bonding events, video is a great way to pump people up. You can make the video funny, inspiring, exciting, or empowering. In person, this can create a positive “mob mentality” behind your brand, firing people up for the rest of the training. Remotely, this can create a widespread emotion across the company that will build connections despite distance.

3. Introductions

Have each person in the organization—experienced and new hires alike—create a video about themselves. Ask them to make a 30 or 60 second snippet that shares who they are, so the rest of the team can get to know them. Using a video is more personal than sending out an email with a new hire’s name and title. Employees can share fun facts, show off their personality, and even show what their custom workspace looks like. This is a great way to bond teams and show off the unique personality, qualities, and goals of each team member.

The Bottom Line

Video creates a personal and intimate connection that breaks down traditional barriers of communication. Whether live video or pre-recorded employee intros, video helps grow interpersonal skills and collaboration towards a higher level of organizational team building.

Are you interested in introducing video to your organization?

Contact True Film Production now to learn how!