With the announcement of the Global eCollaboration Competition (GeCCo) 2016, I would like to share some of my thought about the growing phenomena across the project management field.

That phenomenon is undeniably working in the virtual teams and essentially managing the projects. Projects without ever meeting your fellow team members, yet ensuring that the project goals are met and KPIs fulfilled.

It is no secret nor surprise that the GeCCo has been an excellent opportunity. To my mind, one of the best and most accessible ways for any Young Crew member to try the work in the virtual teams, managing a project solely in an online environment.

Virtual teams – the challenges to overcome

When I started my journey in the GeCCo back in 2014, I had some fears and doubts. Essentially as most of the previous experience was about physical meetings and interactions with your teammates, grasping the idea of not having to see everyone on a regular basis in real life physical location was something that gives a few sleepless nights. At least for the first time.

The first challenge to overcome – building trust. How can you trust someone you have never met before? And the lots of – what if… – questions arise. Thankfully I had the great chance of having the Young Crew community to support me. Trust is essentially something you can build over time and, to be fully honest, you cannot 100% trust everyone at the beginning. I would advise anyone to invest some time finding out everything about their team members online – either on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. You might get an idea what the person is like. Secondly – as in every project – manage your risks. Always think of a possible substitute to any team member. That will help a lot if any of team members happen to fall out of the project (especially the ones where people are engaged on a voluntary basis).

And then come the stereotypes. Today I think it is a bit of shame, that the world still works with lots of stereotypes in mind. But the good news – the situation is improving rapidly. I think the next generations of project managers will not have major problems regarding the stereotypes as they most likely will grow up with virtual tools around and 24/7 accessibility to the world.

Internet connection is still an issue but improving

Virtual teams critically depend on the quality of communication technologies, software, and infrastructure. Although the GeCCo team, this year is facing some technical challenges, and the participants should plan for those as well, I can say that during the last 2 years, internet connections have improved rapidly across the globe. For example, generally, there are no major connection problems in Europe. Also – Africa seems to be responding much, much better. Still, we have some issues when connecting to the Americas, but I hope that will be solved in the near future as well.

Rise of new tools for communication

I have noticed the rise of new ways to exchange the information within the team. Email and Google Docs still form the base of the communication in the GeCCo project. The rising stars – Whatsapp and Facebook groups. Those provide almost immediate communication channels with the team members, that in most cases go directly to our beloved friends – smartphones – for us to instantly see the updates. Facebook groups are especially successful as they allow to post updates in different ways – video, polls, images, links etc. Whatsapp is excellent for instant voice messages and on-demand feedback.

Think of the value for the team members

One of the last remarks for future project managers. Think of some extra value for your team members. I think the lack of physical contact should be compensated with some other emotional attachment to the project and the team. In the GeCCo we are doing some fun activities during some meetings (our traditional Lemon challenge) and giving each other presentations on different topics from our own experience. So that not only we perform our duties, but also learn from each other and have fun as well.

If you are young project manager aged 18-35, interested in trying your hands-on experience in virtual teamwork and project management, consider participating in the GeCCo 2016. Registration available until October 20 in the GeCCo web page become.pm/gecco