Using a Team Charter
A Team Charter is a tool a Team uses to check that their behaviours and ways of working are in line with their purpose and the environment they want to create together. It is a living declaration that provides a point of reference for inspecting and adapting what they do and how they go about their work. Creating a Team Charter is of little value unless the Team uses their Charter to sustain the Team’s Culture.
In A Nutshell
A foundation of trust enables a team to pursue the behaviours that can lead to high levels of performance. Such trust cannot be assumed, it has to be built and then maintained over time. A Team Charter provides the foundations for the team to hold each other accountable and create a positive team culture that underpins team performance. As a Team continues to learn more about each other, their environment, how they work together and how they meet their customers needs, they will adapt their team charter to better express their purpose, their culture, and their ways of working.
The Team will refer to their Charter to inspect how they are working together, adapt their ways of working and continue building mutual trust as they undertake the challenges of their work.
Things for the Team to consider:
How they keep it alive
The Team must ensure that the Team Charter is accessible to all team members. They may set out their Charter on their team web/intranet page, or display it in their collaboration workspace or on their Team Work Board, or on their Team Retrospective board - anywhere that helps the team keep it in mind. They ensure that their Team Charter continues to be relevant and applicable to the team’s work and how they conduct themselves by referring to it when planning their work, when making decisions, when engaging with their customers and stakeholders, and when reflecting on their work as a team.
How they refer to and respond to their Charter
The Team Charter is a reminder of the standards that the Team has set for themselves. It is an invitation to aspire to behaviours that create a healthy culture and high-performance.
The Team uses their Charter to show how they work together in a healthy and effective manner.
Being accountable to their charter - individually and collectively
For a team to be accountable, each member of the team must be accountable. A Team Charter that has been negotiated by the members of the team is the point of reference for holding each other accountable. In high-performing teams, individuals are accountable to the team as a whole. The team is also accountable to each individual, providing support to team members when it is needed.
On a regular basis, the Team will make an honest assessment of how they are meeting the commitments in their Charter, and hold each other accountable to these commitments as and when needed. Additionally, if a team member breaks the charter other members of the team should be able to ‘call them out’. This requires a safe environment where the team can be honest with each other in order to challenge and learn together without fear of judgement or ridicule. Knowing who is in the team in a crucial aspect of creating a team culture where people feel safe to hold each other accountable.
Initially, they look for obstacles that are preventing them from working in accordance with their Charter. When they identify areas that need improvement, they will thrash out a course of action to address any changes required. It may be necessary to change their behaviours or processes to better align with their desired ways of working. It may be necessary to adapt their Team Charter to better describe the Team’s culture and how they want to work together going forward.
Where a Team has established psychological safety, a Team Retrospective is a good opportunity to review the Team Charter and consider how they are doing against the standard they agreed. The key is to agree critical actionable steps that the Team can execute in order to improve their culture and performance as a Team.
How to adapt the Charter as the team develops
Over time, the Team may need to adapt their Team Charter in response to changes in the team or the context that the team is working in. The Team Charter is a living artefact and is changed to better reflect how the team wants to work in light of such changes to the team or the context they are working in. Any changes to the Team Charter must be negotiated by the whole team and agreed by each team member.
The Team may wish to adapt their Charter as they learn and develop as a Team. Their ongoing efforts to continuously improve may necessitate changes to their Charter. As they develop more mature behaviour or achieve higher levels of performance, they may want to raise their aspirations and articulate these in their Charter.
When there are changes to the Team line-up, interactions between members of the team will change and the Team will go through the 4 Stages of Team Development (Bruce Tuckman, 1965). This is a key time to revisit the Team Charter and renegotiate its tenets to ensure that it meets the needs and aspirations of the new team and that everyone has had an opportunity to contribute to its content.
Related Practices
A Team Charter is a tool a team can use to express their purpose and the environment they require and provide a point of reference to commit to creating this together. It is a living declarationstatement that servesacts as the North Star describing why the team exists, their principles, what they do and how they go about their work.
The forming-storming-norming-performing model of group development was suggested by Tuckman in 1965. It remains an effective way of thinking about the development of a group - of teams, in particular. Understanding the model and its implications helps leaders to focus on how they can create a culture within which high performing teams can develop.
Workshops are a significant investment of the time and intellect of the stakeholders involved - team, customers, leadership and others. It is essential that we strive to get the best outcomes we can achieve from every workshop that we execute. Effective workshop planning can give us a sequence of activities to lead participants from problem to solutions and prioritised actions.