I got a DM from a friend with this request instead of losing these ideas forever inside a DM chat, I figured I'd put them here for future reference and sharability.

DM: Morning Cale, how are you doing??? How would you run a team building exercise that also teaches agility concepts virtually?

Once I clarified that we are referring to general Agile or Scrum concepts (rather than trying to address a specific challenge or learning point) I had a few ideas.

See one list of them here: https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/agile-games/ (formerly "Tasty Cupcakes")

Table of Contents:

1. Complete the Manifesto
2. Delayed Battleship Game

1. Complete the Manifesto

If you are trying to simply introduce the Agile Manifesto or re-introduce it to folks, you can break apart the Manifesto and the Principles into separate statements and have the team put them back together.

What over What?

Break up the lines of the manifesto and break apart the left and right sides of the manifesto. Present the team with cards or sticky notes that say :

card with "Individuals and interactions"
card with "Following a plan"
card with "Responding to change"
card with "Process and Tools"

Then have the team move the cards to either side of the word "OVER" with the correlating statements. Invite the team to create conversation around why specific approaches are more valuable than other approaches.

The solution:

"Following a plan" over "Individuals and interactions"

would be incorrect, while the follow solution would be correct:

"Individuals and Interactions" over "Processes and tools"

BUT WHY??

Finish the Principles

You can do this with the principles as well, creating false ending or statements within the principles as options:

"Build projects around ___. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done."
options:
a. smart clients
b. motivated individuals
c. micromanaged teams
d. dumb engineers

Option b is correct.
BUT WHY?

2. Delayed Battleship Game

The delayed battleship game is about learning the value of quick feedback, as well as the "inspect, adapt" cycle.

Give players separate Miro Boards with battleship game boards on them and invite them to play in several rounds.

Round 1: Delayed No Feedback

In round 1, the players set out their own ships as normal. They are given only enough shots to perfectly destroy all of their opponents ships (17 on a full game board). Each player plans off of their shots before taking turns revealing the pre-planned shot locations. Whoever has sunk the most boats wins.

Round 2: Delayed Feedback

In round 2 the players set out their ships as normal. They lay out where their first 3 shots will go and then start their turns. On a turn the player will plan another shot, reveal their first shot and get feedback on if it was a hit or a miss. Players will take turns like this until there is a winner or X number of shots have been taken.

Round 3: Immediate Feedback

In round 3 players will play as normal. Each turn will consist of placing a shot, revealing that shot, and receiving feedback on if it was a hit or a miss.

Round 4: Moving Targets

An optional round. Players will play with the round 2 rules, but after a player reveals the success of the opponent's shot, they are able to move one of their boats one space away.

What lessons do we learn?

Hold a discussion with the team around what they experienced and how that experience might translate to their own team operations.

I am including some intended takeaways to create clarity around the rounds.

ROUND 1
Not having any feedback until the end (until the product is delivered) creates a significant amount of risk. There is a really good chance that we will miss the intended mark.

ROUND 2
Even having delayed feedback makes landing our shots quite difficult, we already have several items in the works- if they are not aligned with the new information we discover, they are basically a waste.

ROUND 3
Having timely feedback of what shots are landing and what shots are not, gives us the ability to pivot quickly making every shot more valuable to the success of the game.

ROUND 4
Because we are in a ever changing world, even finding that some of our shots are successful 3 moves ago doesn't mean that they will be successful now.