Establishing Team Norms for Communication

Meetings aren’t for updates - they’re where your culture is being built… or broken. In distributed, remote, & hybrid teams, meetings are key moments where team members experience culture together. That makes every meeting a high-stakes opportunity. Yet most teams stay in default mode - using meetings for project updates instead of connection, ideation, debate, and culture-building. Fixing meeting overload isn’t just about having fewer Zooms. It’s about rewiring your communication norms: ✔️ Do we know when to communicate synchronously vs. asynchronously? ✔️ Are we using async tools that give transparency without constant live check-ins? ✔️ Have we aligned on our team values and expected behaviors? 💡 3 ways to reduce meetings and make the remaining ones count: 1️⃣ Co-create a Team Working Agreement. Before you can reinforce values, your team needs to define them. We’ve spent hundreds of hours helping teams do this - and have seen measurable gains in team effectiveness. Key components: ✔️ Shared team goals ✔️ Defining team member roles ✔️ Agreed-upon behaviors ✔️ Communication norms (sync vs. async) 2️⃣ Begin meetings with a connection moment. Relationships fuel trust and collaboration. Kick things off with a check-in like: “What gave you energy this week?” Or tailor it to the topic. In a recent meeting on decision-making norms, we asked: “Speed or certainty - which do you value more when making decisions, and why?” 3️⃣ Make team values part of the agenda. Create a ritual to recognize teammates for living into the team behaviors. Ask the question: “Where did we see our values or team agreements show up this week?” And check in on where could the team have done better. Culture doesn’t happen by accident - especially when your teams are spread across time zones, WFH setups, and multiple office sites. Your meetings can become a powerful tool to build culture with intention. Excerpt from the Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick

Every team should have clear communication guidelines that are taught and enforced for all employees. Teams should make a cultural communication guideline document that lists out the channels they uses to communicate and how each team member is expected to use them. By defining how the team should communicate it becomes easier to enforce the cultural norms you want and accelerates how quickly new team members can onboard into the culture. Check out this example from Proletariat: https://lnkd.in/drGPdH3T What should be in a Cultural Communication Guide? For the guide to be useful it should include at least three sections. By reading this document every employee should be on their way to becoming a great communicator with the rest of their team. 1. Choosing the Right Communication Channel Teams often use multiple channels—email, Slack, meetings. Clearly define which type of communication belongs where based on message content, urgency, and response needs. 2. Communication Channel Usage Guidelines Once a channel is chosen, the guide should outline how to use it effectively. This includes setting expectations for tone, timing, format, and best practices for emails, meetings, and other interactions. 3. Examples and Best Practices Include examples to show the guidelines in action, making it easier for employees to understand and follow. How do you use a Cultural Communication Guide? The two primary uses for this guide will be with existing teams and with new team members. For existing teams this should be used for creating consistency and agreement on how the team wants to communicate. For new employees it should be part of their training and onboarding. At Proletariat we would include this guide as part of the employee handbook, send it to new employees when they started, and also give a presentation covering these details as part of their onboarding. It is up to company leadership to decide how to enforce these guidelines. The way these are enforced, and how strictly, is also a major reflection on the culture of the team. Do not define these rules and then decide to not enforce them! How do you make a Cultural Communication Guide? Crafting a document like this should be a group effort with feedback from the full team. If there is no agreement on ways to communicate, use the creation of this guide to find compromises. The process of choosing how the team will communicate is a great step to improving efficiency across the team. The best way to start making this guide is to simply write down all the ways the team communicates now. Taking stock of the current communication practices of the team sets a good foundation for discussion around what areas of team communication are working well and what areas could be improved. This should be a living document, something that is updated regularly as your team grows and changes. I have found that certain communication styles can work well when a team is small but fall apart when a team is big. 

7 Steps to Creating Team Operating Guidelines That Actually Work (and Get Buy-In!) Struggling with team alignment? Without clear operating guidelines, teams often face confusion, miscommunication, and inconsistent expectations. But here’s the truth: rules don’t work if people don’t believe in them. The Problem: Many leaders try to impose guidelines top-down, only to see them ignored. Why? Because people support what they help create. If your team isn’t involved in defining the “how,” they won’t follow it. The Fix: Co-Create, Don’t Dictate Instead of presenting a list of rules, facilitate a process where the team defines what great collaboration looks like. When they shape the standards, they take ownership. Here’s How to Do It (In 7 Steps): 1️⃣ Start with the WHY – Open with a discussion: What does success look like for us? What makes or breaks a great team experience? People must see the need before they commit. 2️⃣ Identify Key Areas – Communication, decision-making, accountability—what matters most? Don’t overwhelm the team with too many rules. 3️⃣ Make It Real – Instead of abstract values like “respect,” define behaviors: What does respect LOOK like? How do we handle disagreements? Clarity drives action. 4️⃣ Turn Ideas Into Agreements – Get specific: “We respond to messages within 24 hours.” “We address conflicts directly before escalating them.” Avoid vague expectations. 5️⃣ Capture & Visualize – Document guidelines in a simple, accessible way (team charter, infographic, shared doc). No one follows a 10-page rulebook. 6️⃣ Model & Reinforce – Leaders must live by the guidelines. If they break them, the team will too. Call out good examples often. 7️⃣ Review & Adapt – Set a 90-day check-in. What’s working? What’s ignored? Make it a living document, not a one-time exercise. Example in Action: A tech startup struggled with unclear decision-making. After defining their “decision rights” framework together, they cut project delays by 40% and improved accountability—because everyone knew who owned what. Your Turn: Want a team that runs smoothly without micromanagement? Start the conversation. Let your team define what great collaboration looks like. 💬 Drop a comment: What’s one operating guideline that transformed your team? Let’s share and learn! ♻️ I hope you found this valuable, please share with your network. 📌As a seasoned finance and operations leader with years of experience, I am passionate about organizational leadership and developing future leaders. I am currently seeking my next opportunity and welcome connections to discuss how my expertise can add value to your organization.📈 Click "Follow" and 🔔 #Leadership #TeamSuccess #WorkplaceCulture #HighPerformanceTeams #TeamAlignment #EffectiveLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #CoachingTips #CollaborationMatters #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork

I once worked with a team that was, quite frankly, toxic. The same two team members routinely derailed meeting agendas. Eye-rolling was a primary form of communication. Side conversations overtook the official discussion. Most members had disengaged, emotionally checking out while physically present. Trust was nonexistent. This wasn't just unpleasant—it was preventing meaningful work from happening. The transformation began with a deceptively simple intervention: establishing clear community agreements. Not generic "respect each other" platitudes, but specific behavioral norms with concrete descriptions of what they looked like in practice. The team agreed to norms like "Listen to understand," "Speak your truth without blame or judgment," and "Be unattached to outcome." For each norm, we articulated exactly what it looked like in action, providing language and behaviors everyone could recognize. More importantly, we implemented structures to uphold these agreements. A "process observer" role was established, rotating among team members, with the explicit responsibility to name when norms were being upheld or broken during meetings. Initially, this felt awkward. When the process observer first said, "I notice we're interrupting each other, which doesn't align with our agreement to listen fully," the room went silent. But within weeks, team members began to self-regulate, sometimes even catching themselves mid-sentence. Trust didn't build overnight. It grew through consistent small actions that demonstrated reliability and integrity—keeping commitments, following through on tasks, acknowledging mistakes. Meeting time was protected and focused on meaningful work rather than administrative tasks that could be handled via email. The team began to practice active listening techniques, learning to paraphrase each other's ideas before responding. This simple practice dramatically shifted the quality of conversation. One team member later told me, "For the first time, I felt like people were actually trying to understand my perspective rather than waiting for their turn to speak." Six months later, the transformation was remarkable. The same team that once couldn't agree on a meeting agenda was collaboratively designing innovative approaches to their work. Conflicts still emerged, but they were about ideas rather than personalities, and they led to better solutions rather than deeper divisions. The lesson was clear: trust doesn't simply happen through team-building exercises or shared experiences. It must be intentionally cultivated through concrete practices, consistently upheld, and regularly reflected upon. Share one trust-building practice that's worked well in your team experience. P.S. If you’re a leader, I recommend checking out my free challenge: The Resilient Leader: 28 Days to Thrive in Uncertainty  https://lnkd.in/gxBnKQ8n