Learning and leadership processes in the wake of the pandemic

Purpose This study aims to explore how teams adapt their work practices including identifying key factors influencing the team’s group learning process and exploring how team mangers adapt their strategies to support group learning processes during the rapid transition to new ways of working. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a qualitative interactive design where researchers facilitated three workshops during 2021–2023 within seven selected work teams, where participants shared experiences related to the transition to remote work. Interviews with the team managers (n = 7) and a final cross-organizational workshop were held to summarize insights gained and potential changes in how the work was organized. Workshop field notes and interviews were analysed thematically using directed content analysis. Findings Key factors influencing group learning processes were: adaptation to individual flexibility in time and space, restructuring of communication and relations and organizational culture for learning and continuous improvement. The first two themes reflected factors influencing the learning processes within the teams. Managers adapted strategies to facilitate socialization through individualized support and expectations in the first theme, while supporting the group learning processes and enabling externalization of the learning process in the second theme. The third theme reflects how the embedded strategies and policies by upper management shaped the learning conditions for both teams and their managers. Originality/value This study contributes to how knowledge-creation processes are influenced and shaped within teams during times of radical change and unplanned changes. Additionally, it reveals how a culture of trust from upper management is essential to provide time and space for the cyclical development of knowledge-creation processes.