The world’s most brilliant strategies are only as strong as the teams behind them, Project Management Institute (PMI)’s latest Pulse of the Profession® In-Depth report claims. According to the report, due to unprecedented workplace evolution and complexity, more than half of all organizations are already reorganizing their activities around projects – requiring employers to reimagine how talent is deployed to solve problems and get work done. The study, Tomorrow’s Teams Today, explores how the future of work has led to the future of teams, and how agile, change-ready teams—led by strong power skills including collaboration, empathy and innovation—will thrive in and drive The Project Economy.

The introduction of automation, demand for flexible working conditions, and desire for agility has shifted individual roles and responsibilities within organizations. The report identified three core principles to prioritize when building ready-for-anything project teams:

1. Make agility part of the team DNA: As roles and responsibilities are reimagined, teams that adopt an all-for-one mentality will be best prepared to adjust on the fly.
2. Look beyond technical prowess: Bring together talent who have the new power skills: empathy, collaboration and communication.
3. The customer is king: Forward-thinking teams make user feedback the core of planning and execution to generate meaningful solutions with long-term benefits.

“The rapid evolution of the workplace has led to many companies organizing task flow through projects, leading to teams who thrive on change and embrace a more agile workstyle,” said Michael DePrisco, vice president, global experience & solutions at PMI. “We see this as a positive step and expect teams that excel in a changing environment will better navigate priorities from multidisciplinary stakeholders.”

According to the report, organizations need teams that can gracefully pivot amid changes to a scope or customer demands, and when embracing new technology. More than 50 percent of project professionals say they’ve worked on at least one team that uses disruptive technology like artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning, and half of those respondents expect to work on more AI teams over the next year.

As tasks increasingly become automated, executives are starting to look beyond the technical realm when evaluating talent. The Tomorrow’s Teams Today report identified five essential team skills valued the most:

1. Collaborative Leadership
2. Empathy for the Voice of the Customer
3. Risk Management
4. Innovative Mindset
5. Methodology or Framework Governance

With recruiting practices relying more on soft skills than ever before, organizations are transforming to agile working models to incorporate new talent with modern skills. Nearly 1 in 4 projects completed over the past year used agile and half of project management offices expect this number to increase in the next 5 years. The 2020 Pulse of the Profession also found that 42 percent of projects in the past year were characterized as having “high complexity,” which average 24 core team members compared to 8 members for “low complexity” projects.

“The must-have skills for projects have evolved well beyond the usual technical skills that have been used for generations,” DePrisco added. “This will be especially apparent as more large-scale projects are introduced to improve world infrastructure, enhance cybersecurity measures and more.”

Read more about the 2020 Pulse of the Profession In-Depth Report: Tomorrow’s Teams Today.

About Project Management Institute (PMI)

Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading association for those who consider project, program or portfolio management their profession. Through global advocacy, collaboration, education and research, we work to prepare more than three million professionals around the world for The Project Economy: the coming economy in which work, and individuals, are organized around projects, products, programs and value streams. Now 50 years in the making, we work in nearly every country around the world to advance careers, improve organizational success and further mature the project management profession through globally-recognized standards, certifications, communities, resources, tools, academic research, publications, professional development courses and networking opportunities. As part of the PMI family, ProjectManagement.com creates online global communities that deliver more resources, better tools, larger networks and broader perspectives. Visit us at www.PMI.org, www.projectmanagement.com, www.facebook.com/PMInstitute and on Twitter @PMInstitute.