Back in 2012/13 when I began research for my PhD I had the opportunity to spend time with a number of major resources project personnel, where I interviewed them as part of my research data collection on the good and bad of using virtual teams to deliver their projects. Within a few months, practically all of the teams I interviewed had dissolved as the resources boom began to end, but my research continued on.

After spending the succeeding years analyzing the data and reflecting on the insights, I am now watching the emerging wave of new resources projects and wondering how many the lessons of the last wave have been retained. So, just in case they weren’t, here are a few points for those leading or working in these new projects to consider.

New tools, old thoughts

Since the end of the last wave technology has clearly advanced, its now easier than ever to talk to team members in other locations, we have a far more robust and user friendly version of Skype, most mobile phones have at least one built in app for face to face communications, there are a number of free to use tools on most computers and tools like Slack are part of the day to day landscape of many businesses.

However, for many organisations and many individuals the tools are all that has changed. The same thought processes and level of understanding of what constitutes good communications remain. Many still see technical prowess as the yard stick to measure their abilities and the abilities of their colleagues, ignoring or at best minimising the need and perceived value of empathy and good communications skills.

All this is a little like repainting a rusty and unreliable car, yes it may have the most fashionable paint scheme but underneath it still runs the same. Many project managers are still indoctrinated to lead by control and their mastery of Gantt charts, budgets and earned value curves, issuing commands and edicts by email and then grudgingly holding a quarterly town hall meeting to inform their personnel of the project status (often only in one location regardless of the locations of their people). Cross cultural skills are still seen as the domain of HR, and organisational culture is typically given a passing reference in a few pieces of corporate and project handbooks.

Much of the above could be seen as just a task waiting to be completed if there were a sense that the fundamentals of leadership that differentiate a virtual team project from a co-located one were in place. Sadly though this seems to be rarely the case. Projects are essentially still applying the same practices to these new projects as the last time. Budgets are developed that do not acknowledge the differences such as increased integration costs to keep the different locations aligned, increased travel costs (still projects delude themselves by believing the technology will remove the need for travel) and the needs for additional checking for consistency and localised standards needs.

Loss of corporate knowledge

When the last project wave ended most companies shed their project personnel as they had no work for them. For a while these personnel remained on the market then progressively were lost to other roles, retirement or relocation. This shedding of staff was done quickly with little thought of capturing corporate knowledge – many companies assume they will just hire that knowledge back in or buy it elsewhere.

However, reality is that much of this corporate knowledge is irreplaceable as it is held in a collective conscious rather than in written documents or individual heads. Groups of personnel will have developed ways of working together across distance over month to years of collaboration,