by Suzan Last and Candice Neveu

Teamwork is essential to almost any workplace; team synergy and intelligence lead to greater efficiency and better results in most situations. Why, then, are some people reluctant to engage in teamwork? This reluctance may stem from ineffective or dysfunctional teamwork experiences in the past. Often the culprit in these situations is not a “poor team player” or an “inability to get along with others.” Their reluctance is usually caused by one of two things: misaligned goals or confusion over roles. For teamwork to be effective, all team members must understand and share the project’s goals, and all members must fully understand their roles—what is expected of them and how they will be held accountable. An effective team leader will ensure all team members fully understand their goals and functions.

Typical teamwork benefits include increased productivity, innovation, and efficiency. Excellent teams have a synergy that makes them more than simply the sum of their parts. The term “team intelligence” refers to the collective knowledge and skill of the team than that of the single individuals working separately. However, challenges can also arise when working in a group. Conflicts within a team will occur, and often they begin due to poor communication and soft focus. Some ways to handle these challenges include the following:

• Elect a team leader: the team leader will be the hub for communication and tasks. This person helps provide direction and guidance for the team. The leader should be someone who has earned the team’s respect and can be persuasive and diplomatic. The role can be rotated among team members.
• Ensure the goal is clear: a team is governed by the plan that everyone works to achieve. The purpose must be clearly understood and agreed upon by everyone on the team.
• Establish team rules: as a team, determine the rules by which the team will operate. These should include expectations around time, meetings, attendance, communication, decision-making, contribution, and mechanisms to warn and/or fire or quit a team member.
• Assign responsibilities: as part of the breakdown of tasks, assign members responsible for specific duties, which means they are the primary leads in preventing and addressing issues in that area.
• Set agendas for meetings and keep minutes: to ensure that team meeting time is beneficial, create meeting agendas to help keep everyone on task. In addition, have someone take minutes to record decisions. This record helps prevent repetition and ensures work gets done.
• Determine the timing for tasks: task timing involves two aspects: the duration for completing the task and its timing concerning other tasks. Lessons typically take longer than you think, so adding 25% to your duration estimate is often better. The timing of the functions is essential because some tasks can be completed concurrently, but others may have to be sequenced. Professionals often use Gantt Charts to outline duties and their time within the overall project scale.
• Manage communications: if a problem arises with someone on the team, the team leader should speak privately to the person and indicate what needs to change and why. The focus should be on the behavior, not the person’s character. Issues should be dealt with quickly rather than left to deteriorate further. If this does not solve the problem, try other approaches (See McCahan et al. “Management Strategies” for more information).

A team charter is a helpful tool that outlines the rules and expectations agreed upon by the team.

Team Charter Template

Below is are two templates for a team charter. Could you create a document with the sections below and fill them in according to the instructions? You can also copy the Google Doc form of this template:

https://templatelab.com/team-charter-templates/#google_vignette

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E27reNFfTqI3d2RK5UeOFQ4T3sc6RarNvTHaW3pAjQs/edit?usp=sharing

<Company/Team Name> Charter

Purpose

State the reasons for the team’s formation and its purposes. Who are your stakeholders, and what are their expectations of and for the team?

Goals

What are the team’s project, process, and quality goals? To what level of performance are team members willing to commit?

Member Roles and Responsibilities

While all members share some team responsibilities, collaborative teams work best when members have unique roles and responsibilities. These could be technical and/or project management-related (e.g., meeting facilitator, documentation coordinator, information manager, sponsor/advisor communications point person, etc.). Create a table like the one below, with a row for each member.

   Team MemberRoles/Responsibilities

<member name> <role>, <responsibility>, …

Ground Rules

• How and when will this team meet?
• What are the norms and ground rules the group will agree to?
• How will you conduct discussions and make decisions?
• How will you handle dissenting views among members?
• How will you hold each other accountable for living by these rules and completing tasks?
• What kind of participation and level of commitment do you expect from one another?

Potential Barriers and Coping Strategies

What barriers to effective teamwork might arise while completing your project and other team obligations, and how will you handle them if they materialize? What problems with team dynamics have you experienced, and how will you handle them if they arise again?

Signees

Have each member sign and date the charter to signify that the entire team agrees. Electronic signatures (typed) are acceptable.