Victor’s team had recently delivered a couple of large projects, and he was pleased with their performance. But there was feedback that they were feeling burned out, and two people had recently requested transfers.
When I suggested creating a Team Charter, he told me, “Planning is fine, but I’m all about action. I’d rather see people take action and feel ownership than set up a bunch of rules that slow things down.”
Is Victor right? Absolutely!
When people initiate action, they assume greater responsibility for ensuring a successful outcome.
Is Victor wrong? Absolutely!
When people take random action without clear agreements with others, they are likely to waste their time and other’s as well.
Here’s the paradox:
Taking the time to get clear agreements does slow things down.
But… going slow in the beginning can help you to go faster sooner – faster in the right direction, with smarter decisions.
To create a Team Charter, answer these questions:
The discussion itself is as important as the answers because through the discussion, team members understand each other’s viewpoints better and develop a deeper sense of trust.
1. Vision and Values
- What is the purpose of this team? Why does it exist? Why is it worth investing this time and effort?
- What shared values are needed to guide how we approach our work and how we work with each other?
- What would we see that would indicate we have been successful?
2. Team Processes
- How will we organize to accomplish the work? What is the best structure? What roles are needed?
- What planning and problem solving process are we going to use?
- How will we coordinate our efforts?
- How will we make decisions?
3. Goals
- What are the deliverables?
- How will we measure success?
- What are the timeframes?
4. Communications and Coordination
- What information needs to be shared?
- When will we meet, how frequently. where, etc.
- How will we keep up to date on the team’s progress? How will we communicate between meetings? How often?
5. Authority and Accountability
- To whom is the team accountable?
- What is the team’s decision-making authority? Do any decisions require outside approval? If so, how will approval be obtained?
- What decisions can be made by subgroups and what decisions need to be made by the whole team?
- How will we track and report progress on commitments and action items?
6. Resources
- Who are the members of the team and what are their primary areas of expertise? Is any other expertise needed? Are there any other groups or individuals that need to be represented or consulted?
- How is the team financially supported? Do we have the materials and technology needed?
- Are the time demands on team members understood and considered reasonable?
- What information do we need? Do we have access to all the information we need?
- Do our team members need any special training? (i.e. Working as a team, problem-solving, listening skills, etc.)
Use Your Team Charter
Is there conflict on your team? Before you blame each other, make sure you have clear agreements on the elements of a Team Charter. Often what appears to be interpersonal conflict is resolved once assumptions are surfaced and clarified.
Update your Team Charter as new goals are set and new questions arise about how you need to work together.
Many teams get bogged down in details and never reach their full potential because they have not created clear expectations around how they will work together. Taking time to get clear agreements can save you a lot of time with duplication of efforts, heading in different directions, and with the many other issues that arise from lack of clarity.
Jesse,
As I often tell people “slow down to speed up.”
The charter is fabulous because it captures all the critical pieces in one place and reminds us of each important piece.
Cheers,
David
A great mantra! – “Slow down to speed up” Thanks, David.
I like “Slow down to speed up”. So true and yet so overlooked. I am all about action, but have burnt my fingers enough to refrain from rushing in without having thought through what it is I want done and why?
It takes emotional intelligence to understand your natural preferences, and then use your experience to decide when it makes sense to put them on hold. Thanks for sharing your experience, Thabo.
Goals and timeframes are essential. It makes for a clear sounding board for all involved.
Thanks, Ellen!
Nice one! One element in making this effective would be having the team develop the Charter. They might not develop the best charter (assuming that’s possible), but they would own it and live it.
Indeed! In fact, the only way to create a team charter is through a team discussion. There is some information that could be supplied by the team leader or whomever has charged the team with its task if this is a project team, but the team needs to make clear agreements about how they will work together, identify any questions, and clarify the information.
Thanks for this post,
I like this way of doing things, involve each team member to have the large image of the project so they can measure the impact of their actions on each project side and on each others actions,
Indeed “Slow down to speed up”
Good points. Another benefit of this conversation is that team members see the larger picture of how they are working together and gives them a way of measuring their impact on the project and on each other. Thanks for adding to the conversation, Hictoy!
A good comprehensive chart for teams.
A workable tool for a team to use for getting (or creating) a clear picture that will help getting results faster and smarter.
Though your post starts with Victor’s being right and wrong, your model seems to me as useful for already existing teams – taking the time to review their work and making sure every aspect of the chart is clear to the team members.
I believe that such an activity, could fuel the team with renewed energy.
It is a useful tool for existing teams to surface and get clarity on issues that prevent them from reaching their full potential. It is most powerful as a discussion guide, but the agreements should be written down and made available to all team members. And it should be updated periodically especially when there is something new (e.g. a new task, a new team member, etc). It definitely will help renew energy. Thanks for point that out, Yoram!
Jesse…thanks for sharing your thoughts on the team charter process.
One item I would add is to encourage teams to do the following at the end of each day. Take 5 minutes and ask team members to consider:
1. What went well?
2. What went not so well?
3. What insights can we harvest from the day’s experience?
4. Revisit and revise the charter as needed.
p.s. I would also put a stronger emphasis on managing conflict within the team. I think teams in general don’t give enough attention to how they will resolve or management conflict that surfaces (which it inevitable will).
Making agreements on how conflict will be resolved in an important. It would have been good to make that an explicit bullet point under Team Processes. Defining processes for problem solving and conflict resolution in advance makes it much easier to deal with issues when they do arise.
When facilitating a team meeting, I always include a “meeting review” at the end. This is a best practice that many people don’t think about. Thanks for pointing it out, Ron.
Jesse,
Thank you for this tool and the depth in which you have covered this topic by virtue of your embedded links. One is never too old or long in a profession to not renew and reaffirm ones understanding and commitments to ones profession. Refreshingly concise, insightful and conferring.
Thank you!
Thanks, Christopher. So glad you found it helpful 🙂
I love “slow down to speed up.” When working with a team(s), I have often heard the comment, “that is going to take too much time.” My reply is “sometimes you have to go slow to go fast.”
Yep, that’s one of my replies also. The other is, “We can take the time now, or we can wait and take more time later when we need to first unravel the mess before we get clear about these things.” (Unfortunately, too often they decide to wait, and at that point morale has plummeted).
Jesse, where do you see team learning and growth in this model?
It depends on what agreements the team wants to make about learning and growth. It could be a norm or value and therefore would be part of the discussion under #1. And/or the team might want to set up a process to support learning, such as identifying a process to debrief projects, and that would be part of item #2 – team processes.
The Team Charter will not cover everything initially. As the team gets smarter about what is needed, the Charter will be added to and sometimes modified.
Once again, Jesse– Bravo.It’s the old “cart before the horse” syndrome…or even worse, a number of horses without a sense of direction and lack of clarity around who pulls what cart and when! I am fascinated by the burnout mentioned and that 2 people request transfers. Victor seems rather slow on the uptake to realize something is indeed going down with his team. Before he can bring them together, I think he needs to do some careful listening and then– if it appears appropriate– take personal responsibility for not helping the team come together to create this charter.
As my PA-Dutch mama would say “The hurrydier I go, the behinder I get.” Victor is behind.
Sadly, this is more common than it should be. A lot of teams are getting further and further behinder because they’ve been going hurrydier.
Great post Jesse! Your team charter is perfect for forming business alliances as well!
Great point, Chery. Thanks for adding to the conversation!
Jesse, excellent post – I like the charter as a ‘3rd point’ perspective – we use it as a visual reminder of who we are as a team, what we value, and what we will achieve. As the team works through the challenges of a project, it is good to occasionally step back together and look at that ‘3rd point’ and evaluate our position and make adjustments if necessary –
Appreciative of your work,
Regards,
Carl
@SparktheAction
It is so helpful to document these understandings and agreements in writing, and then use the Team Charter to evaluate functioning and progress. Thanks for emphasizing this, Carl.
A great way to form a cohesive team and get true value from each team member. All team members can take ownership of the charter and be accountable to each other for the role they play in the team. Great!
Absolutely! The act of having these conversations and making these agreements is what creates shared ownership and accountability. Thanks for making this point, Mandy!