Team members want to do meaningful work, but often come from a variety of backgrounds and working environments.

Team members also often have a wide range of work style preferences and habits.

To create common ground, a team working agreement gives your team the opportunity to create a shared understanding about WHY you are working together and WHAT you are trying to achieve, and to mutually agree on some key details on HOW you will work together.

Based on our years of Scrum/Agile training experience, we suggest seven basic steps to creating a team working agreement, whether you are working in an internal team or a collaborative team spanning numerous organizations.

 

Step 1: Gather all team members to brainstorm together

Step 2: Agree on the purpose of the work the team is doing together

Step 3: Have each team member share the strengths that they bring to the team

Step 4: Consider norms for events, roles, and processes

Step 5: Discuss what should happen if agreements are broken

Step 6: Agree to disagree; all members should agree to team norms or keep discussing

Step 7: Revisit the working agreement as often as needed, and each time a new team member joins

 

Take advantage of our recorded Lunch & Learn, “In the Huddle, How to Create a Team Working Agreement,” to learn more about how to facilitate the creation of a Team Working Agreement using these seven steps.

We also recommend, whether you participate in the Lunch & Learn session or not, downloading our *free* Team Working Agreement Guide.