The creation of teamwork contracts takes place in a team building workshop. In this environment, the team leader and his teammates are ready to discuss and agree on behavior at work. They intentionally use work arrangements to solve interpersonal or process problems that harm the team because they know it will help the team achieve its goals and work better together. As a result, these teams were successful, in part because they created and tracked their team`s working arrangements. One year after their working arrangements were established, the team presented the following results to its senior management team. After studying the survey results, I interviewed the nine teammates individually. During the interviews, I learned several dysfunctions of teamwork. A number of teammates commented on the tendency of several other teammates to « explode » when frustrated. I called the behavior: In between, all teamwork issues are suitable for teamwork agreements. Team contracts are both created and monitored by the team. Each team contract mainly includes a code of conduct. Step 1: Individual Responsibility Each participant writes a few sentences, starting with the phrase « You can count on me for ____ », » which must be complemented by a behavior/standard that they consider a team agreement. Keep each set on a separate map (Post-it) so that you can organize them more easily in the future.

4. Keep it simple Every team has things they do well and things they don`t do so well. Start with what`s most important to your team to monitor. If something requires a longer discussion, discuss it in a retrospective meeting and add a new element to your team`s agreement once a decision has been made. As a rule, a team agreement consists of ten to thirty points. The document can begin as follows: « We agree. followed by the list of agreed items. The fascinating story of the Chevron team is a great example of how working conditions help teams.

But it`s certainly not the only one. Step 3: Create your team agreements Once you have all the votes, look for the cards with the most votes. Those who won everyone`s vote are definitely part of the team agreements. For those who don`t have a consensus (all votes), ask team members who didn`t vote for them if they can still support them and live them democratically. And for those with few voices, prioritize and have a conversation. Most of the time, these elements are either included in something else that has already been included in the team agreements, or they are modified and then changed in the final document. At the end, each participant signs the document as a symbol of compliance with the team`s statutes. Step 2: Discover team responsibility All participants take the time to read what everyone has written and ask clarifying questions to the author of each card until each team member understands what they can count on in others. Once clarity is achieved, each person votes for the cards that they believe should become a team responsibility.

For example, if a team member wrote, « You can rest assured that I will never put my code into production on a Friday, and you think all team members should behave this way, vote for that card. It is also important to describe the behaviors that team members must adopt in order to hold each other accountable for team agreements. And the most important thing of all is that team values and team agreements cannot be dictated to the team by a manager. Only your team really knows what they need, so outside influence should be kept to a minimum. Second, the students worked together for each of these words to explain why that word was important to their team and what steps they would take to make sure they respected the word they chose. I can`t wait to see what you and your team accomplish. It`s all very well to create both types of agreements within your team. Every team contract should set the ground rules for participation: Your moment of reason has changed the way these nine teammates interact and work with each other. In the final section, student teams looked at four of the conflict scenarios that students shared during the circle, describing how they should react and how they should not react. When the teams signed all three parts of the contract, they signed their names and took a team selfie with my classmate. Team agreements are created by the team for the team. The final notes of this step can be used as a reference to the area of responsibility of each team member.

This reference is a great way for a new team member to be introduced to each team member, and can also be completed by the new member. Before I met them, they were competent, but they were unhappy, far from productive. The worst part was that two-thirds of the team members were arrogant and aggressive. The day after the focus group, the students formed their project team and worked together to prepare their contract. The contract was divided into three sections. In addition to contracts, I used the collaboration words on the flashcards to create a collaboration bulletin board. On the board, placed between the cards, I posted each team selfie. The group contract and bulletin board became very important resources for me and the students during the project. In their first team building workshop, the team created two employment contracts. Three months later, these agreements provoked a « moment of reason ».

Throughout the project, I was able to create reflection prompts based on team contracts. Also, contracts were useful when I had one-on-one conversations with groups. When I had to intervene in group conflicts, the contract and the scoreboard were useful reference points to help the group move forward positively. By incorporating students` responses on focus group collaboration into the team contract, I was able to support the impact of the circle experience on students throughout the project collaboration. It is important for each team to assess its current strengths. This forms the basis of a plan to increase the team`s effectiveness in achieving organizational goals. Their first working arrangement was an agreement on the code of conduct on how they would build trust. The other was a process agreement to help them become a self-managed team. The team agreed to hold team building follow-up workshops every three months. They asked me to lead these workshops and conduct a new survey each time.

When the team saw this graph, they knew it described their behavior. They realized and accepted that they had to change as a team. It was a perfect example of how teammates who are out of their heads can get back into their true minds. As the third and fourth surveys showed, the team continued to improve over the next six months. 5. Lead by example The leader must model the desired behavior in the social contract. If you expect to see some behavior in the team, make sure you stick to it first. And if you see someone deviating from the agreements, gently remind them of the agreement instead of blaming or shaming them. During the second workshop, the team experienced a crucial moment of agreement around their agreements.

This collective moment of teammates was a « moment of reason ». After a brief discussion, they agreed to act and behave responsibly. In addition, they agreed on certain behaviors on the list of benevolent attitudes and teamwork behaviors. Their chosen teamwork behavior played an important role in creating two teamwork agreements. 6. Sign the team agreement At the bottom of the document, there should be a field for each team member`s signature. Use poster cardboard or flip-leaf table paper so that the entire document can be on a single sheet. There is a lot of power to sign your name in a document. It can even become a kind of ceremony where team members are recognized and thanked for their contributions. Hang it prominently on the wall (or on the main digital area of your remote team`s workspace) to remind everyone of what it stands for. 3. Thematic agreements for different aspects of cooperation You can focus conversations on different topics to make the agreements more accurate.

For example, you can use different sets of agreements for If you have worked as a team, it is possible that you have experienced some of the above situations. You may have even found a few articles on how to solve these challenges. Creating a team agreement is a great first step in overcoming these challenges. First, your team`s rules should be consistent with your team`s values and the principles you follow in your collaboration. For example, if you`re a completely remote team, working anywhere and at any time you feel more productive can be a principle you all follow, which can result from the value of flexible work schedules. .