Organizational culture, remote teams and project management

Dear Thomas
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion

I agree with some things you wrote, namely:
- "A new way of working requires new perspectives and new behaviors, adapted to the changed infrastructure and environment. These perspectives and behaviors have to be embedded in an existing culture or, in case of newly build teams, drive definition of a new culture"
- "Any leader of a virtual team should now establish an explicit culture. It should establish a joint purpose, team behaviors in a virtual environment, while in calls or working by yourself, team signs and rites, celebrations and feedbacks"

Should the culture of teams working online be integrated into the organizational culture?

In his opinion, what can be done about the integration of these two cultures, which, after all, should be just one.

It is critical to create and maintain a organizational culture in any setting and it is easier said than done. First you have to establish what the most effective organizational culture looks like and then figure out a way to achieve it.

Typically you would do that through vision and mission statements followed by a Team 'terms of reference' or Team Charter, The vision and mission statements would identify values and the Team Charter would establish objectives, roles, responsibilities and commitments, communication, etc. The vision and mission statements would most likely not differentiate between typical work environments and on-line/WFH formats but the Charter would have to address the inter-relationships between the team members especially where there is a mixture of traditional office, on-line and/or "WFH" team members.

Communications has to be the key. Not only for the formal meetings but also the "hallway" meetings, coffee get-togethers and even pub night.

The more I think about it, the more I like the Team Charter idea. In the traditional office setting it may be an "understanding" rather than an actual document but for on-line and/or WFH operations written format may be effective.

In my experience project values and culture are not well communicated even in traditional office environments. In traditional office environments these are "picked-up" by the team members, sometimes through mentoring or observations. There is limited opportunity for such with on-line and WFH so how does one go about it?

Peter, agree.

Team Charter is a key tool, communications have to be effective, and online working is a huge opportunity.

Think in the old (!) days, many team cultures developed without conscious and skillful settings. Some people were amiable, good to get along, good listeners and so a team cohesion just happened. Sometimes bad apples were bullied out (not very ethical but group benefits prevail). Easy to do if you see each other every day, can chitchat at the coffee corner, and build 1:1 relationships in every depth.

Isn't people skills, soft skills, leadership skills one part of the talent triangle? Now we talk about power skills. Did we not see many surveys showing the relevance of these skills? Even more looking at AI, VUCA, disruptions?

Now, here is the opportunity to refurbish and use these team and trust building capabilities, the processes how to run an effective meeting, move our focus from the task at hand or the product to deliver to relationships. And by the way, relationships determine value and success, not the product.

But as a prerequisite, we all must work on ourselves, our self awareness, self control, empathy, ethical values and our understanding how humans think. PMI does not offer a leadership certificate yet. You can take that of toastmasters instead.

In the end, we project managers offer security to humans.

I some times wonder if 'ability to drink coffee' should by a recognized management skill. My past is full of situations resolved over a quiet coffee with a 'troubled' team member. The virtual coffee date just doesn't seem to cut it. :-)

Very good question- I too was wondering how we induct new staff or indeed bring in trainees in this environment

Luis - fantastic question. It's interesting to consider that many are just now trying to figure out what the online culture will look like or how to get to a place that resembles what once was. Certainly, existing employees can carry the torch forward into the online events, but when it comes to new staff, how do we impress upon them what the intrinsic culture of the organization they just joined is like.

I wonder if the learning and development department will now begin to have more of a focus on online presence and actions/behaviors to be exercised to promote a 'defined' organizational culture - which is interesting in itself because that culture is often an undertone, felt and perceived through interactions and hallway conversations.

I would think working agreements at multiple levels with some top-down cascaded agreements, similar to how performance goals are shared across the organization, some cascaded down, with an expectation we'll add additional goals within and satisfying predefined criteria.

Curious what others think.

Thanks Luis - you just gave me the inspiration for my next weekend's blog article :-)

Culture is created by the people who work together - our job as leaders is to create an environment such that a "healthy" culture develops within the team, regardless of what the culture of the overall performing organization is.

When working remotely, the PM might have to be a bit more overt in their tactics to help create a team culture, but the basic tenets would still apply.

Starting the project off with an effective kick-off meeting and helping the team to establish and evolve their working agreements are a couple of useful starting points...

Kiron

Organizational culture is based on a variety of a factors including proximity, social interactions and work events. It is inevitable when you go online that you have to change your organizational culture. Playing online Jeopardy does not create the same social attitudes within teams as indoor wall climbing or golf tournaments do.