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We’re proud to announce we have reached One Million Practice Labs learners, and we want to thank YOU for getting us there.
Regardless of your feelings about the SARS-COV2 (COVID-19) virus pandemic, project management communication was impacted in many ways.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) for years has maintained that virtual teams and video calls can be efficient, but physical co-located teams provide the best environment for project success.
But what has happened is that over time, technology has grown more immersive and engaging when it comes to video conferencing, remote system operation, application sharing, etc. This has allowed a slow and sure movement to more virtual teams and meetings for global projects. March 2020 brought an accelerated implementation of virtual communications throughout the project management industry.
It’s fair to say the pandemic “fast-forwarded” technological and interpersonal developments in virtual video conferencing. While some projects were canceled or postponed, the ones that remained in progress had to adjust to the lack of physical co-location. Was this shift positive? How well did project managers/program managers navigate this change?
Now that COVID-19 has exited the pandemic phase and we understand the virus better than when companies and countries originally responded, should we slow the change? Perhaps we should even move back to more in-person meetings? These are all questions that must be addressed by a project manager in the modern workspace.
The first question deals with whether the shift to a more virtual communication and meeting environment was positive or negative. I believe that if this had occurred 10-15 years ago, the results would have been negative.
A few short years ago, video conferencing, especially from remote locations such as someone’s home office, was dicey at best. Broadband was still in its infancy in homes, with most people happy with getting 1-2mbps download speeds and only 500kps upstream. For quality video and audio to operate over that in a group conversation, the rates needed to be much higher.
Thankfully, enterprises and government organizations are cooperating to support video conferencing as a viable solution to connect remote workers, customers, and employees safely, efficiently and effectively.
It’s been noted many times over that one thing that made social distancing possible during the pandemic was that technology was at a place that did assist project managers and teams to continue to maintain quality communication, performance reporting, and feedback. The situation prompted companies to adopt work-from-home policies and procedures that they might have otherwise taken years to transition into.
Virtual communication will continue to be a necessary tool for facilitating remote work. And as companies anticipate the future needs of employees, stakeholders and consumers, it remains a critical component of a resilient business model.
Now that the modern workspace has almost universally adopted video conferencing and remote work wherever it’s possible, how do we continue moving forward and leverage virtual communication tools? I believe there are several things important to include in any virtual workplace:
Overall, there will always be a slight advantage for project teams that are physically co-located. However, I know as time goes by we can continue to improve our virtual teams and the communication involved in successful projects. Now, pardon me as I go do my virtual Sprint retrospective. Zoom is calling!
References:
Kier, L., 2022. Council Post: Virtual Communication Is Vital To Business Resilience. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/09/16/virtual-communication-is-vital-to-business-resilience/?sh=3badb4a77d15> [Accessed 15 July 2022].
Smith, A., 2022. New Zoom update will make it more difficult for people to ‘Zoombomb’. [online] The Independent. Available at: <https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/zoom-update-new-features-latest-zoombomb-hacking-a9501136.html> [Accessed 15 July 2022].
Communication in the Time of Covid-19: Navigating the New Normal (https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/communication-in- the-time-of-covid-19-navigating-the-new-normal/7550115)
We are happy to announce that ACI Learning will be at the Learning Technologies Conference and Exhibition on the 4th-5th of May 2022 at Excel London. #LT2022