Top 5 games to engage your team during the lockdown

Lockdown has certainly made us think of new ways to have fun and keep motivated over the past year. I can guarantee you have been involved in at least one Zoom Quiz. Well, haven’t you?

During the first lockdown, our team at Oyster dedicated 30 minutes, sometimes an hour to have a virtual catch-up. (More of a games session to be honest). Each week one of us would nominate ourselves to host the game the following week. This itself is a great idea to change things up if you are struggling to come up with new ideas. I think we were all impressed that after several weeks someone else was still thinking of something new to do to switch things up! It also takes the pressure off whoever usually hosts your team to catch up and let the team really get involved and get those creative juices flowing!

1. Through the Key Hole

You may or may not have heard of Keith Lemon, if you have you may well know of or have seen his show Through the Keyhole. The show consists of a panel of celebrities Keith provides them with videos of inside another celebrity’s house. The aim is to guess whose house it is.

Get it? Let me explain how you can play:

• You will need to have a games master for this game. As many people can play as you would like.
• Each player must take 3 photos of objects/clues around their house and send it on to the Games Master. These 3 objects should give off little clues to allow other players to guess who they belong to.
• The games master will then send the photos into the chat (or our games master made a presentation so that they could share this whilst on our call).
• Then allow the other players to guess whose house it is after each clue.

2. Face Changer

There could well be a better name out there for this game, but I am not the inventor here! This is more of a comical game for everyone to get involved in and to have a good laugh. (We all need something to laugh at right now!)

Here’s how to play:

• You will need a Games Master to host this game, the Game Master should download the following app – iPhone or iPad: Future Baby Maker.
• You should have some photos saved of your Team Mates or whoever else is participating in the game.
• Take 2 photos to upload them to the app which will then merge the two faces together and leave you with something really strange looking like below!
• I would recommend the Games Master make a PowerPoint beforehand of the merged faces to ensure a smooth running of the game.
• Once you have presented the merged face the team gets to guess who they are. Sounds simple but trust me when I say this game is hilarious!
• Once everyone has had some fun guessing you can show them who is really behind the face.
• Don’t forget you make this completely your own and use any images if you don’t want to use your own faces you can use celebs or even animals, but from my experience, this is the best!

3. Digital Escape Rooms

We all need a bit of escaping now right. Well, the digital escape rooms are great for Team Building! And there are plenty to choose from, the Escape Room allows you to work together on a virtual platform to solve riddles and complete puzzles.

This is also a great idea for one of those Lockdown birthdays you might have coming up, or even one with the family, there are plenty of kids ones out there too!

Here are some links to some of the best ones I have heard of, if you are a fan of Harry Potter like me, you’ll love the Hogwarts one!

The Hogwarts Escape

Telescape Live – Bring your online escape room to life!

Mr X – The Online Treasure Hunt (escapedurham.co.uk)

4. Cocktail Club

Now that Dry Jan is over why not hold a cocktail master class? There are lots of great and different ways of hosting a cocktail master class. There are lots of companies out there that can supply you with the ingredients and teach you how to shake and stir the perfect Martini.

But there are also ways you can do this yourselves. Here is how you can do it:

• Simply send out an invite to everyone who will be getting involved with a date, time, dress code, equipment, and all-important shopping list
• You can pick as many cocktails/mocktails as you like, if on a budget try and stick to a range of cocktails that consist of the same ingredients. For example; Cranberry Juice, Orange Juice, Vodka, and Peach Schnapps. If you mix all 4 ingredients you will have made a Sex on the Breach and minus the OJ, a Woo Woo.
• If you have someone brave enough to teach the group how to make a cocktail then absolutely let them, I’m sure they’ll be a few laughs. If none of you have a clue there are lots of cocktail making classes on YouTube. Send the link to the group so everyone can make their cocktail at the same time.

If you are looking for something a bit fancier, then you can find a company to organise the whole thing for you! Here are some I have seen:

Virtual Cocktail Class – Book Today

Virtual Masterclasses | Dirty Martini

After VI

5. Home Fitness

There are plenty of good reasons to exercise, especially during these unprecedented times. With most of us stuck in the same 4 walls and in the same chair for hours, it’s essential to get up and get moving. Therefore, why not make it fun and all join in together!

I must say we were lucky enough to have an ex PT among us at Oyster Partnership therefore every Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon we would all meet on Zoom and follow along to a workout he demonstrated for us. Admittedly it was the summer weather that was motivating in itself but there are still lots of ways you can still make exercise fun and get the whole team involved!

Why not do a workout that doesn’t necessarily need to be done outside such as a morning Yoga session or a dance class? There are plenty to follow on Youtube. I am sure you have seen Joe Wicks jumping around in some sort of fancy dress outfit. Why not all dress up in a fancy dress and work out together on a virtual platform.

Or make it a competition, who can do the most steps, kilometers, or hula hoops by the end of the week. Everyone loves a bit of friendly competition right? There are a few different apps out there now that can help you to keep track of it all. You can try Strava Apps.

Motivating your team to get involved with fitness can be a great boost of morale. If your team are more active they’re more likely to relieve any stress they might have and be getting more rest in the evenings.

This 3^rd lockdown has made it difficult for us all to keep the morale high and our teams motivated. As weeks go by it is becoming very clear everyone is getting tired of online quizzes, myself included, however the importance of keeping the team motivated has not diminished.

During a conversation with one of my clients Monique Duchen, Customer Service Manager at a Housing Association based in London I asked her, why is it important to you right now to keep the morale high in your team?

Monique shared that: “More than before we are managing frustrated conversations from vulnerable residents, we have seen a significant rise in Anti-Social Behavior cases as well as anxiety levels. The team are dealing with disconnected and tearful residents and finding themselves in situations that they have not come up against before. To ensure that our residents are protected, we must start with the team, not only by keeping morale high but also making sure they are protected as well as the residents.”

If you’re in the same situation as the team above, or if you’re just looking for something to make your second birthday in lockdown more interesting then I hope this has given you some food for thought!