The rapid shift to virtual teamwork has created a lot of strain for teams and individuals. And the pressures on teams will continue for the foreseeable future as companies shift their focus to how and when to return employees to the office setting. Now is the time to take stock of the design and status of your organization’s teams, considering both their tasks and people. Are your teams objectives or work still relevant to the current situation? Do they have a solid interpersonal foundation? Are teams being staffed in an idiosyncratic or uncoordinated manner? And is being on multiple teams creating untenable difficulties for some individuals? Answering these questions will help you triage problems, create stability, and invest in long-term solutions. After all, sustainably healthy teams require ongoing attention and preventative care.
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Before the pandemic, there were no playbooks for how to convert a co-located team to 100% virtual in a matter of days and we’re finding in our research that the conversion process — and the results — has differed substantially from team to team, even within the same organization. This variability puts tremendous strain on individual employees who are now navigating not just one whole new way of working, but often several.
