Social Bonding Experiences

Social Bonding is the process of developing a close, interpersonal relationship with two or more people. The Social Bonding process occurs when a group of individuals are faced with a collective challenge that has a common goal; or when, commonalities of the individuals are similar enough that the bonds form naturally. When we are face-to-face, like in an office, these experiences are a normal part of everyday life and are pretty easy to come by. But in a virtual environment, we have to be more intentional.

"Social Distancing" has become a trigger phrase for me. It's said with such authority and arrogance at this point. It is posted on signs, floors, doors. I understand the point. There is some evidence that staying farther away from other humans decreases the spread of COVID-19. OK, so be it. But we are social beings and to keep telling people to social distance themselves leads to social isolation. There must be another way to creatively engage in Social Bonding Experiences.

And there is! Use that remote screen sharing tool to get a group of people together and try a few of my favorite Social Bonding Experiences:

• Name That Tune! - Best right after lunch, share your system sound over your conference session and play snippets of music. Participants enter song and artist info in the chat window. try a wide range of music genres on this one!
• Bring Your Kids / Pets to work - Prepare everyone to bring their kids and or pets into their screen and take a team selfie

• Who's your favorite batman? - Using a tool like Mentimeter, open a new poll with selections of the actors who have played batman and have people vote on their favorite one (Val Kilmer for the win!)
• Storytime - Use that chat window and have each person write our the next line of a story. "Once upon a time, there was a global pandemic that caught the world by surprise. Then one day..."
• Aliens Have Landed - Use a shared whiteboard space like Mural to create a place for people to describe the earth to aliens who have just landed.

Honestly, it doesn't matter what you do. Just be intentional about socially bonding with your teammates. You may need to set up recurring times in people's calendars. Do what ever it takes, but please don't social distance!