Every successful IT project is the result of a team effort. Inspiration, enthusiasm, collaboration, brainstorming, advocacy and support are all key elements in IT innovation. But what happens to teamwork when social distancing rules drive members into COVID-19-created isolation?
When circumstances force teams to work apart, IT leaders need to adopt a new set of team-building skills, says Steven Hatfield, a principal and global future of work leader at Deloitte Consulting. Some enterprises already have a head start.
“Companies that have previously embraced future of work practices [are] well positioned to sustain their operations and respond quickly to the demands of navigating COVID-19, including fostering teamwork amid social distancing,” he explains. Within these organizations, teams are supported by an ecosystem of virtual resources, technologies and behavioral norms that define work as a thing to do, not a place to go to.
Here are the seven principles IT leaders at forward-thinking enterprises abide by in building collaborative, productive teams in today’s new challenging, cloistered working environment.