We work in new and more ‘virtual’ ways, a development accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic – and our ways of working will continue to change in the years to come. Remote teams are today for many organisations a permanent change to work life that also implies a wider geographical spread – project offices are not an exception. As we face the complexity of multi-location and changes in work setting – from home or a different location than our organization’s main hub(s) – we need to reflect this change in the way we build our teams.

What does it take to transfer building efficient teams for large complex projects to a virtual setting?

In our new White Paper 2021-07 ‘Building Remote Project Teams in Project Start-Up Phase’ we share our experience of ‘building virtual teams’ in project start-up phases. They stem from our own experience, discussions in our network and our collaboration with clients who already start up these large, complex projects in the new highly virtual setting.

Remote work settings are not a new reality of large complex projects, but it is now seen at a much larger scale and with permanence. This has many implications on remote teams, especially in the early phases of the projects, when project goals, culture, ways of working and tools are being developed and incorporated in the project. Important and informal ‘coffee machine’ conversations will not happen and thereby the room to ‘wiggle’ things in place later in the project is reduced. Planning projects for remote work early in the project is essential for project success.

We have identified ‘key guidance’ for building remote project teams in early project phases:

• Mobilise the right people at the right time, and keep them motivated while dedicated to the project.
• Take charge explicitly of the culture and team formation – and ensure that the agreed culture is known to all project team members and kept alive.
• Facilitate the key virtual start-up meetings – in a virtual setting the success of the start-up activities is more dependent on planning and facilitation skills.

Read our new White Paper 2021-07 ‘Building Remote Project Teams in Project Start-Up Phase’ to understand better how to overcome the challenge of initiating a project in a remote situation.

If you can’t access the link to the white paper, copy and paste the following link in your browser: https://www.projectvaluedelivery.com/_library/2021-07_Remote_project_team_start-up_v0.pdf