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By Lexi Watkins, Jack Bilello, Megan Kight, Ian Robinson & Alison Tu
Background
In the summer of 2023, our team conducted a study looking at the impact of gameplay on hybrid and remote teams. We explored common team challenges that arise from remote work, and the role of online team-building games, and compiled a list of popular games that teams have reported using and enjoying.
This exploratory research led to a project partnered with the company Weljo. Weljo provides software that integrates into digital workspaces and provides unique activities to do with team members, from ice-breaking games to meditation. Weljo aims to promote healthy remote work cultures and by encouraging group activities while building connection and collaboration. Weljo reached out to our lab to further look into the impact of Weljo activities on various aspects of team cohesion. Since our lab operates remotely and is broken up into teams, we utilized our lab members to gather data on the impact of Weljo activities.
Read our prior blog post here
Read more about Weljo here
Team
Methodology
The collaboration with Weljo occurred in two different experiments, both utilizing participants within the GIT Lab. We conducted both quantitative and qualitative analyses. We used an affinity mapping method to gather key qualitative insights while for the quantitative analysis, we ran t-tests in R to determine differences in participant sentiment pre and post-treatment.
In both experiments, participants first took a 3 to 4-minute survey about team cohesion. The questions were designed to gather participant sentiment on how their team was doing across 4 dimensions: trust and collaboration, inclusion, psychological safety, and effective communication. The 9 Likert-scale questions were on a 7-point scale with values ranging from “Never” to “Always” and were sourced from existing peer-reviewed and published scales. Participants then took part in an activity utilizing Weljo’s platform. At the end of the activity, they were asked to take the same 3-4 min survey with 6 additional qualitative questions allowing for more open-ended feedback to be given.
The only difference between the experiments was that for Experiment 1, participants were invited to join an unmoderated game via an integration in Slack and did the activity in their individual teams of 2-5 people. While in Experiment 2, Weljo provided a moderator for the entire lab as a whole.
Insights
Experiment 1
Following our first experiment, our analysis revealed a few key insights about the Weljo experience. The first is that participants scored higher in affective trust after the activity, measured by the statement: “I feel supported by my team when facing challenges in my work.”. In other words, before the activity, most participants scored a six or below, but after the Weljo activity, most participants scored a six or above.
The second quantitative insight revealed an increase in team cohesion. Following the activity, participants saw an increase in their satisfaction with their team’s commitment, measured by the statement: “I am happy with my team’s level of commitment to tasks.” Similarly to our first insight, most participants scored a six or below in agreeableness with the prior statement. After the activity, most people scored a six or above. There was no detectable change in any of the other seven survey items.
From our qualitative data, we found repeated themes across our participants. The positive impact of Weljo was felt the strongest on newly formed teams and also those who did not have a connection already. Additionally, newly formed teams reported that Weljo could help their group feel more comfortable with one another. Participants also expressed that the Weljo break felt like a natural way to connect and that they thought it was a fun way to interact with one another. Furthermore, team leaders specified that the Weljo activity sparked meaningful conversation. A majority of participants reported interest in continued Weljo use.
Despite the improvements to team cohesion, affective trust, and overall enjoyment of the team bonding, the Weljo activities were not without their pain points. Onboarding was not clear for all users, as some reported missing the join button on the invites that were sent out. As a result, this required team leads to resend invites in order to get everyone together again. Because this was outside of the scope of our research, we do not know the exact cause. Further research could help us understand this issue better.
Experiment 2
For experiment 2, our team generated five key insights from a moderated session in Weljo. Results for experiment 2 were similar to experiment 1, which is important to note since the main difference between the experiments is the external moderator.
Our first insight was that participants reported a greater sense of alignment with their team’s goals. This was measured by the statement, “My team and I are working toward a common goal” (Question 7). The charts below show the increase in means from pretest to posttest responses.
After analyzing our qualitative data using affinity mapping, we generated four more insights. An insight that was also found in experiment 1 was Insight 2. Insight 2 was that participants really saw value in using Weljo for team-building activities. About 83% of the participants found the moderated session to be fun, interesting, and unique with 44% wanting to see changes. Our third insight revolved around concerns participants seemed to have. Some were about the moderator and others were on the clarity of the activity itself. About a quarter of the participants had negative feelings towards the moderator and a quarter also reported feeling lost or confused. Some participants also reported they would have liked to hear from all members during the moderated session.
In our analysis, we found a small group of outliers that do not enjoy group activities or socialization. Even with some concerns shown by participants, 61% said they would use Weljo again in the future! We asked participants how they thought Weljo would affect their team and the majority reported that repeated use of Weljo would bring them closer to their teammates. About 80% of the participants felt it would be a great way to bond with their team in the future. Some responses said that Weljo helped them relax, be silly, and laugh with teammates, as well as understand strengths and weaknesses all while connecting in a non-work way.
Bottom Line
The first Weljo experiment, centered on self-led Weljo group activities. Each GIT Lab team held their own Weljo break resulting in increased team commitment and support during arduous tasks. However, participants expressed a need for more feedback and continuity between breaks to foster connection and motivation. To address this, we recommended that Weljo incorporate features such as progress bars, perpetual scoreboards, in-game competitions, and interactive polls to maintain engagement and intrinsic investment in the activities. Many of these seemed crucial since part of Weljo allows for asynchronous activities, so progress tracking is necessary.
At the welcomed request of stakeholders, the second experiment was an extension of the first but included a single moderated activity instead of individual team groups. Moderation proved vital for inclusivity and participation in larger groups but revealed the need for a brief onboarding process. One recommendation provided to Weljo included a moderator-led introduction to clarify the activity's structure and purpose. This would help ease participants into the setting, and reduce apprehension, particularly for those unfamiliar with Weljo. This gradual and structured approach, coupled with clear expectations, can enhance comfort and engagement, making the sessions more impactful for team cohesion and overall effectiveness.
Conclusion
When we take a step back and look at the big picture of these experiments, we found significant improvement on aspects of team cohesion within our lab. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, we found that using Weljo made an overall positive impact on our team members. While there may be some room for improvement to make a perfect Weljo experience for our teams, we feel it is a useful tool to use if your organization utilizes a unified platform like Slack, Teams, etc.
If there’s anything to take away from this research, it's that team bonding games are really worthwhile in partaking in especially if your team is remote or hybrid. While these impacts may vary by team type and preferences, this research builds upon our prior blog post that team-building games and activities can be a great way to mitigate common challenges faced at work, and Weljo is certainly on the list of effective activities to consider implementing.
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