Unlock Your Team’s Potential with a Team Charter

It’s a scenario many of us have encountered: striving to finalize a project or deliverable with a team lacking alignment. It is frustrating for all involved; complicating straightforward tasks and sometimes yielding substandard results. Leaders and teams with the best intentions are not immune to this trap. However, there is a great way to help avoid it.

At The Clearing, we often employ a Team Agreement Framework, commonly known as a “Team Charter,” to ensure teams or working groups are aligned at the start of a project, development sprint, or another team engagement.

Here’s How it Works

A Team Agreement Framework is a co-created plan that outlines a team’s purpose, goals, roles, responsibilities, and norms of operating. It serves as a roadmap for the group, providing clarity and alignment on objectives and expectations.

A well-crafted and mutually agreed upon charter helps to establish a shared understanding among team members, enhances communication, fosters accountability, and promotes teamwork. An effective Team Agreement Framework often includes:

• The team’s mission or objectives
• The scope of work and timeline
• Decision-making processes and guidelines for resolving conflicts

The Clearing has an easy-to-populate Team Agreement Framework template to facilitate team alignment before the work begins for leaders and teams alike.

You can download the template here, then leverage the following best practices checklist to engage your team to complete the charter. 

As always, if you have workplace questions, need help getting a team on track, or are looking for ideas to get the most out of your workforce, our workplace experts are here to help. Reach out, as we would welcome a conversation.