Managing remote teams is here to stay. After the initial flurry of getting people home working, dealing with the immediate challenges and breaking new collaborative ground, there is the threat of falling back to old ways of working, although it may feel very different.

The cracks that hindered yesterday’s performance will start to spread and grow if not properly managed and whether we like it or not, virtual teams do come with their own unique challenge – with people struggling to use technology and losing a sense of belonging or even purpose.

1. We work with the leadership team to set a clear purpose and then define outcomes, which may have changed. Key to this is being really clear about how teams and individuals are going to help to achieve those outcomes and how their input contributes to the overall objectives of the organisation. We define and co-create the team principles that enable good behaviours.

2. We build into the management processes space for creativity and social and wellbeing activities. We develop meeting principles that get everyone’s voice into the virtual room and keep it there, coaching meeting owners to make sure those principles are lived in each meeting

3. We ensure that the digital tools that are in place, allow everyone to share, to collaborate fully and to connect

4. We help crystallise and quantify risks and opportunities and build in processes that systematically review these and the impact on performance