Fun diagrams to keep remote teams connected

Set some time aside

Scheduling in 1-1s with your team, daily stand-ups, weekly team meetings… These all contribute towards working as a team, no matter where you’re based: in office, distributed, or remote. However, to improve and sustain team morale, this isn’t enough.

One of the biggest challenges when working in distributed or remote teams is a sense of belonging and keeping everyone’s spirits up. When you’re not in the same physical location, it’s hard to foster that team dynamic and capture the positive and fun moments of being in an office.

It’s important to set time aside regularly for some downtime as a team. Not only will it help reduce the likelihood of colleagues burning out, it provides crucial opportunities for your teammates to get to know each other outside of a work context, and this is essential for building trust within the team. It can also help with wider issues such as productivity, in-team collaboration, and employee retention.

So, in the last blogpost of our Every Moment Matters series, let’s have a little playtime! Here are a few diagrams (tried and tested by draw.io) to help your teams get to know each other better, celebrate everyone’s achievements, and create unique experiences that don’t just see teammates as colleagues or resources, but recognize and appreciate every individual we work with.

Let’s have some fun!

Here are some of our favorite diagrams for keeping your team feeling close:

Icebreaker template

Icebreakers are a great way for teammates to get to know each other. Often, these feature as warm-ups before a main workshop. It’s important to allocate time for them, and set the right tone that helps teammates stay engaged and focused, rather than simply jumping straight into the workshop.

1. Open Confluence.
2. Open draw.io (blank diagram).
3. Drag & drop your XML file into your blank drawing area.
4. Use it as a custom template if you like.

Warm up to get in shape

A warm-up activity we did as a team was for our recent In-Shape Campaign. We asked each team member how they keep in shape – mentally, physically, and emotionally. You can either search for shapes that correspond to what you wish to capture, or create them using diagram shapes and see if your team can guess what you’ve depicted (you have to use your imagination here, and get creative)!

Guess which hobbies Team draw.io loves and uses to stay in shape!

Wall of Wins

Create a collage of all the precious moments when your team has smashed achievements with a Wall of Wins! Add stickies every time you want to praise a colleague for their hard work, or to highlight something you’ve achieved to the team.

You can refer to the board in team meetings, or even company meetings, to recognize and reward team members for their effort and commitment. This fosters an environment of celebrating positive achievements publicly, by focusing on all the great things people have accomplished.

Some of the highlights from our Wall of Wins

Team world map

A world map is a lovely global addition to any team homepage. Our team world map features on our Confluence space overview page, with pins showing where everyone is based. While it shows how spread out we are from each other, seeing the team on a map like this brings everyone a little closer together.

If you create your team world map in draw.io, you can add a custom link for each teammate, that directs the user to a personal bio with some fun facts about them, or to a website on their favorite hobby.

World map showing where each of us is based

Pet Portrait org chart

On the surface, org charts do not seem like the kind of diagram to have some fun with. But think again!

In this chart, we have exchanged the headshots of our team members with their pets! If someone doesn’t have a pet, then a favorite animal will do. If they don’t have a favorite animal, then pick a favorite hobby or something else, but perhaps you might need to question why you’re working with someone who doesn’t have a favorite animal in the first place…

Who’s “top dog” (or cat) in this board? We all are!

Capturing precious moments

As we come to the end of our Every Moment Matters Campaign, we hope these ideas kick off some fun-filled activities for you and your team, encourage you to take some downtime together, and help make the working day go that little bit lighter.

Want to dive deeper into the world of draw.io? Access our linktr.ee page to follow us on social media and learn how others use draw.io, as well as pick up some helpful tips and tricks.