As with all aspects of life, teamwork paid a price during the pandemic. Yes, some teams profited from the advent of greater online share and connect, but we know that some teams suffered due to the lack of in-person connection and the cumbersome, but necessary, pandemic limitations.
So how to we build teams back after the pandemic? What do we do?
Storytelling
I believe we have to give people time to tell their pandemic stories--we need to understand how this pandemic affected people's lives and livelihoods. There is no one that didn't have some positive and negative pandemic impact. Understanding this about the people you team with will help you to work with them with greater compassion, empathy, and camaraderie. We need to tell our pandemic stories to ourselves and to others.
Revision
As teams, we need to ask ourselves, how do we want to revise the way we work together as well as how we want to revise the work we do. We all learned lessons during the pandemic. We are all seeing life anew after the pandemic year. If we ignore this change, we will not be able to do the good work possible. As I think of my work with some of the teams I belong to, I recognize that my teammates and I had many revelations about ourselves and life during the pandemic, and these revelations have altered our outlook and choices in life. Because of this, we have to alter the way we work together and the work we do too, and hopefully that revision will be for the better.
Communication
The pandemic fast forwarded all of us into the high tech world of online communication. In some ways this was awesome and in other ways detrimental. This reality calls all of us to rethink how we communicate with one another on teams--what works for your team and what will not work? All teams have to revisit the subject of apt communication protocols, policies, and objectives post pandemic.
Vision
Post pandemic, every team has to reconsider their short-term and long-term objectives, goals, and vision. We are a changed people and culture due to the pandemic, and this must be reflected in the way we update our vision, goals, and objectives.
All teams must rebuild after the pandemic. The categories above offer some pathways to good change and development. What other categories would you add that will empower teams in positive ways going forward.