Social Contract
The Social Contract helps teams explicitly define and agree upon desired and undesired behaviors, fostering a more productive and collaborative environment. By creating shared guidelines, teams can proactively address potential conflicts and improve overall team dynamics.
Use this method at the beginning of a project or when a team is experiencing conflict or dysfunction to establish clear behavioral expectations and promote accountability.
Solves: Unclear expectations leading to conflict and unproductive team dynamics.
- 1
Step 1: Individual Reflection (5 mins): Ask each participant to individually brainstorm 5 helpful and 5 hindering behaviors within a team context.
- 2
Step 2: Pair Sharing (10 mins): Divide participants into pairs and have them share their lists, creating a combined list of 5 helpful and 5 hindering behaviors.
- 3
Step 3: Quad Sharing & Prioritization (15 mins): Merge pairs into groups of four. Have them repeat the sharing process, prioritizing the most important helpful and hindering behaviors.
- 4
Step 4: Group Sharing & Agreement (15 mins): Bring the entire group together. Each small group shares their top helpful and hindering behaviors, which the facilitator captures on a flip chart or whiteboard. Facilitate a discussion to ensure understanding and commitment.
- 5
Step 5: Commitment & Accountability (5 mins): Ask the group if everyone is willing to commit to the agreed-upon behaviors. Discuss how the team will hold themselves accountable.
- Encourage open and honest communication during the sharing process.
- Ensure that the final contract is specific and actionable.
- If confidentiality isn't raised, the facilitator should add it as a criteria.
- Use different categories of behaviors (e.g., communication, collaboration, conflict resolution).
- Have the team create visual representations of the desired behaviors.
- Revisit the social contract periodically to assess its effectiveness and make adjustments.