Managing improvisation in dispersed settings

A constant challenge that teams face relates to devising solutions to emergent problems. Unanticipated issues can be especially challenging when teams are geographically distributed and face significant time pressure to achieve their goals. Such situations call for team members to improvise. Unfortunately, managers are currently without much guidance on how to manage improvisation to meet challenges under these conditions. In this chapter, we identify three strategies for effectively managing improvisation at different degrees of dispersion and time pressure. These strategies are discussed in the context of software development teams, but can be extended to knowledge workers who are currently facing the challenges of hybrid work derived from COVID-19 outbreak.