One remarkably interesting moment in the delivery of this workshop format was right at the beginning, during check-in. Talking about what participants need for the workshop but also for the team to work best together all of them stated Trust as the number one item!
You could argue that this is nothing new. However, for a team who has been working together for a while coming back to this point of needing trust shows that there is a longing for more.
One dynamic that possibly boosts the emphasis on trust in a virtual context is an amplifying effect of every single event or activity in a virtual context. In this case, it is applicable especially to negative experiences, that are massively enhanced or even exaggerated in the perception (cognitively but more so emotionally) of people involved or affected by it.
So, experiencing the disruption through the current pandemic or any other disruptive dynamics in the industry, members of virtual teams need much deeper trust relationships to overcome the anxiety of fear driven by uncertainty in order to function well as a team.
This insight triggered my thinking to re-share elements of a blog I have published a couple of years ago about this one essential ingredient I have kept in focus when leading a virtual team: TRUST.