Creating a Team Charter for Clarity

Key Elements of a Powerful Agile Team Charter 📌 1. Purpose What contribution does the team make? How do we create impact? 📌 2. Team Type & Responsibilities What areas of the solution are we responsible for? What’s our role within the broader organization? 📌 3. Working Agreements How do we collaborate to create a positive, productive environment? (This is crucial for fostering trust and ownership.) 📌 4. Success Measures What are our key indicators of success? How do we track progress? 📌 5. Definition of Done What criteria must be met for work to be accepted? (This prevents ambiguity and rework.) 📌 6. Key Interactions Which teams do we need to work closely with? 📌 7. Key Stakeholders Who are our key stakeholders, and how will we keep them informed? 📌 8. Team Members Who’s on the team? What are their roles and responsibilities? 📌 9. Distinctive Competencies What are we uniquely good at? What can we help others with? 📌 10. Team Events When and how do we meet, plan, and inspect progress? Agile Success Begins with Alignment A team without a charter is like a ship without a compass It may move, but without direction. Setting up an Agile Team Charter isn’t a one-time activity; it should evolve as the team grows, faces challenges, and learns. Does your team have a charter? If so, how has it helped? If not, what’s stopping you from creating one? Let’s discuss!

In a time when so many companies can feel toxic, it's our responsibility in leadership to double down on team culture.  I'm not talking about escape rooms and icebreakers. 🗝️ 🗺️ I'm talking about a team charter.  It's not just an exercise. It's a collaborative agreement on your team's purpose, roles, goals, and how you want to treat each other.  Sit down together and ask your team to answer the following questions: 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲  - What is the point of what we do? - Why does it matter that we showed up today?  - What value do we provide? 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀  - How do we know when we're winning - what metrics are we looking at? - Are our goals crystal clear? - Do we know how to achieve them? 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀  - What matters to us? - What do we want to be known for?  - How do we want to treat each other? 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗹𝘀  - What does each team member need to know? - How do we keep each other informed? - What are the expected turnaround times on emails and slack messages?   - Do certain things get communicated only in certain channels? - Are after-hours messages okay? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗗𝗼 𝗪𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀? - What is decided as a group and what needs to be decided by leadership? - How do we work on strategy together? Having a sense of purpose, and a say in how you want to work together makes a HUGE difference in how people show up every day. Have you ever done this with your team?

When I was asked to work with a team in Budapest, they were a dream on paper. 5 high performers from different functional areas each with fantastic knowledge and skills. Yet month one felt like herding cats. Meetings went off the rails. Hand-offs were missed. No one knew who owned what. That’s when we stepped back and wrote our team charter: ✔️ Shared Purpose – Why we exist, beyond our individual KPIs ✔️ Working Agreements – How we’ll meet, make decisions, and give feedback ✔️ Strengths & Needs – What each member brings and what support they require ✔️ Escalation Path – How we’ll handle conflicts or roadblocks It made a huge impact to the team's ability to work cohesively, collaborate and achieve the outcomes they were tasked to deliver. In 3 months stakeholders were sharing positive feedback about the engagement. We were hitting milestones and adapting to shifting goals. When was the last time your teams connected to align on their purpose, strengths, and ways of working? If the answer is never, now might be the time to start. Tip: Revisit your charter after any new hire or pivot. Small check-ins keep it alive and your team aligned. #TeamDynamics #Collaboration #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamCharter #LeadGrowThrive #PsychologicalSafety –– 🎯 Want to chat more about this? Let’s grab a virtual coffee! https://lnkd.in/gGJjcffw