How to build a remote team in two days: ManGO! Games online mastermind session

Mastermind is a mini-group activity aimed at finding a solution within a well-defined procedure. It allows the participants to come up with a quick, high-quality solution to address an issue of mutual importance. The ManGO! Games team has shown the effectiveness of this approach in an online format. The problem of everyone's concern was the rapid and competent organization of remote collaboration. And now it's time to share this successful case with you.

The ManGO! Games' invited expert was Alla Velikanova, the Head of Staff Training and Development at Gedeon Richter Pharma, the "Project of the Year" winner for gaming practices, and the best speaker of CFO-Russia – 2019.

Mission: Host an open online meet-up to teach the nuances of remote team-building, mini-group cooperation, and online facilitation.

Background:
The quarantine restrictions made traditional ManGO business lunches impossible. With once the hottest issues fading into the background, all subdued by a single question: how to quickly set up remote employee's work.

Solution:
Instead of holding a standard webinar, we opted for a live interactive discussion in a mastermind format, i.e. in self-help mini groups. With this experience under their belt, teams can solve problems in a comfortable and efficient way even with their members being kilometers away from each other.

The Zoom video conferencing service seemed to us the optimal technical solution for the event. The point was to illustrate the platform's capability to host not only video lectures and discussions but also online group-based facilitation or corporate training sessions. We also conducted a Quiz-based benchmarking survey to determine current corporate life trends and shared attitudes toward online solutions. During group discussions, we used the Zoom whiteboard for capturing and systematizing ideas.

Aside from opening up new opportunities, the gathering revealed a desperate need for new knowledge and skills. Following the event, the participants expressed a desire to hold leadership training to improve their technical literacy. Another idea that emerged from the discussion was to run an online facilitation course.