Covid 19 becomes a main challenge to many organizations, teams and project leaders. Most of the organizations are doing things differently than they did 14 – 15 months ago before the offices closed and the travel ceased. They need to find a way to plan, manage and deliver the projects differently. It has become a good thing for some organizations, at least the beginning of something good.

Sri Lanka started to face this Corona pandemic at the end of January in 2020 and because of this, most of the organizations become more forced on outcomes than processes. That was the only way to stay in the game, to meet strategic goals and to continue critical initiatives. Because of these reasons, a new organization is building up. It’s called “gymnastic enterprise”.

This organization helps to make people “changemakers”. It means it helps people to make their ideas reality. It’s happening because people know what they are doing, being good at what they do and building a perfect portfolio of skills. The main reason for that is they have a strong organizational culture, helpful team and strong leaders.

Remote working in Project Management

As a project manager, it’s become so difficult to connect with the team and manage the work because of this Covid – 19 situation. But also, it helps as a key to success for many projects. All we need to focus on is how to manage a digital team and clients and meet the correct outputs according to the deadlines.

Because of this pandemic situation, most companies started to work from home and they started to hire top candidates for open roles from across the country. Project managers need to focus on the clear lines of communication, clear expectations and goals and direct feedback to manage those virtual teams. Also, they can get these benefits too.

• Improve work / life balance
• Reduce turnover rates
• Reduce levels of stress
• Increase productivity
• Access to top talent globally

Areas need to be focused by a project manager

Working with contributors – As I mentioned before, we can hire best performing contributors from all over the country and can increase the productivity of the organizations by getting their good performances and their new ideas. Carefully need to analyze their contracts and perform a risk analysis of all critical contractors to avoid potential disruptions to productivity.

Risk mitigation – Project managers need to focus on risks such as internet connection issues and virus attacks etc. So, they must focus on those issues humanely and give some extra period or some solutions for them and lead them to meet correct outputs.

Cost implications – The organizations will be required to optimize their capital to stretch the budget to the rest of their ability. most of the companies started to work from home and because of that reason, they can save office electricity bills, internet bills and others also. So, they can use those saved money for the other employee. If the organizations try to work as usual, health and safety for an employee infected with the virus could lead to workplace closure and enhanced cleaning measures, that could result in major cost implications for an organization.

How to improve and practice to achieve successful results

People management – Working remotely leads to a whole new enormous challenge to the organizations. It isn't easy to motivate the whole team to work during office hours and get the expected results. But upskilling to learn new collaborative approaches and lead in a virtual setting can empower the remote workforce to yield exceptional results.

Technology – According to organizations related to the IT field, there aren't many issues regarding this matter. But in some organizations that don't use technology much, face huge problems. Those organization’s project managers can help them to go through those innovation problems by upskilling everyone’s knowledge to stay ahead of the curve in emerging technology that is shifting to long-term success. So, they can include,

• Cloud base systems
• Data analytics
• AI and automation
• Project management software

Quality and continuous improvement – Because the team works virtually, sometimes there can be some mistakes or the development can be changed then the customer expected. Need to reduce these mistakes and need to maintain the quality of their products by continuing the improvements**.**