Working Agreements Play
The Working Agreements Play helps teams establish shared norms for communication, collaboration, and ways of working. It fosters mutual understanding and sets expectations, leading to more effective teamwork and reduced misunderstandings.
Use this method when forming a new team, after a reorganization, when onboarding new members, or when existing team dynamics need improvement. It's beneficial for clarifying expectations and improving team cohesion.
Solves: Miscommunication, unclear expectations, lack of shared understanding of working styles, inefficient meetings.
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Step 1: Facilitator sends pre-work to team members, including a template to capture individual working preferences (5 min).
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Step 2: Team members individually complete the template, sharing their working styles, preferences, and feedback approaches (5 min).
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Step 3: Leader drafts sections on communication channels and escalation processes in the template (10 min).
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Step 4: Facilitate a group discussion to review and edit the communication channels section, reaching a compromise on preferred tools and protocols (10 min).
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Step 5: Collaboratively create or refine a meeting plan, defining meeting types, formats, cadence, and participant roles, considering both synchronous and asynchronous options (30 min).
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Step 6: Review and edit the escalation process section as a team, ensuring clarity on decision-making and issue resolution (10 min).
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Step 7: Establish a continuous improvement plan for the working agreements, outlining how and when they will be revisited and updated (10 min).
- Emphasize that this is about people, not just processes. Park process-related discussions for a separate time.
- Encourage active listening and ensure everyone has an opportunity to contribute.
- Use a 'User Manual' approach, where each team member creates a personal guide to their working style.
- Incorporate reflection questions to identify best practices from other teams and avoid past mistakes.