Team charter

Decide the workshop activities and workshop length

Before you invite your team to participate in team charter activities, there are some key decisions to make:

1. How much time can you and your team spend on this play?
   Depending on team size and time you need for each activity, the full play could span over a full working day. The minimum time would be 1.5 hours, where you would be able to run 1-2 activities out of 4.
2. Will you run the workshop remotely or in person?
   For this play, it is vital that all participants are in the same environment, meaning everyone is dialling in remotely or everyone is joining in-person.

Invite participants

Participants in this session should be made up of the full project team. You should aim for full attendance, to make sure everyone feels included in the team activities. If people cannot join, try to find a new time and date that is suitable for everyone.

It’s important to give enough notice to ensure participants have free time to come along to the session. Aim to send invitations about 2 weeks in advance.

Here is an email template you can use to invite people for the session.

Calendar invite team charter

Setting up the tools

For remote teams, use the Miro template provided.

For in-person teams, you will need a booked meeting space, sticky notes (one pad per participant), markers (one for each participant) and a whiteboard, wall, or butcher paper to attach the sticky notes.

Even if you are working in person, consider reviewing the Miro template to get an idea of how we suggest running the play.

This play can be run as one session (with breaks included), or you can choose the activities that are most important to your team’s needs and use them as separate modules.

This play is divided into four main activities:

• Personal profiles
• Shared goals
• Ways of working
• Values and behaviours

The following play instructions will assume that you run through all activities, but you have the freedom to pick and choose and modify to suit your team’s needs. We have intentionally left exact timings out of the main activities in this play, as that will depend on team size and needs around each activity. To give you an idea of how much time to spend, we have included the minimum recommended time for each activity.

1. Introduction – 15 min

If using Miro, check that everyone knows how to navigate and use the board.  
Welcome the team and start by explaining the goal, expected outcomes, and what activities that you will run in the session.

2. Warm up – 10 min

Explain to the participants that a warm up activity is a quick and playful activity before jumping into the main activities. This will help people relax and get comfortable with the rest of the session.

3. Personal profiles – minimum 30 minutes

3a. Fill the personal profiles

Give your team 20 minutes or more to fill in their profiles. They can do so in the provided Miro activity space, or on a printed A3 or A4 page (if you are running the workshop in person).

These are the sections they can complete:

• Name
• About me
• Something you may not know about me
• What I contribute to the team
• Ask me about...
• The best way to communicate with me...
• I prefer to avoid this communication style...
• I am my best and have most energy when...

3b. Review and discussion

Spend 10 minutes reviewing each other’s profiles and encourage questions or thoughts around the activity.

3c. Share your profile with your team

It is great to let your team members present their profiles to the group, so that they get to know each other better. Give between 5-10 minutes per person, so that they have enough time to talk to their profile. The time it takes for this will vary depending on team size.

4. Shared goals – minimum 30 minutes

4a. Team vision: ideation

Give some time for people to add any aspirational statements that capture the essence of what your team hopes to achieve.

4b. Team vision: consensus

Once the ideas are identified, as a team, vote on the most inspiring, memorable, and easy to understand statements to come up with a consensual vision for the team.

4c. Core objectives: ideation

Now give some time for people to add fundamental goals and outcomes that you aim to achieve to move towards your shared team vision.

4d. Core objectives: consensus

Now, as a team, identify which objectives are specific, measurable, and achievable, to finally vote on the ones to be prioritised, coming up with the consensual team's core objectives.

4e. Measure success: ideation

Let people add potential performance indicators or milestones that can measure the progress towards shared vision and objectives.

4f. Measure success: consensus

After the ideas are listed, as a team, vote on the most relevant metrics to come up with consensual ways to measure the team's performance.

This is a good time to take a break

5. Ways of working

For this activity, it is recommended that you go through each section one at a time. As a rough timing guide, we recommend that you guide the participants in 3 steps for each section:

1. Ask participants to spend time adding their individual thoughts on sticky notes
2. Discuss the sticky notes as a group – add anything that might come up in discussion
3. Let everyone in the team vote on their top choices

5a. Communication

What are the best ways for all team members to communicate with each other? Ask participants to add any preferred ways of communicating, for different situations. For example, if there is an urgent issue, how can people reach each other quickly?

5b. Decision-making

How can your team easily and promptly make important decisions within your team? Consider who is responsible for each type of decision and what the process for escalating them might be.

5c. Accountability and ownership

How can your team align the expectations for individual contributions and participation, to ensure that everyone is doing their part?

5d. Conflict resolution

Ask participants to come up with ways that internal conflicts can be identified and addressed, and how we can mediate conflicts when needed.

5e. Visibility

Ask participants to come up with ways to make sure everyone is aligned and committed to the same standards for sharing work progress, information, and resources. For example, how will your team members share that they have completed an urgent task?

6. Values and behaviours - minimum 60 mins

6a. Individual top 3 values

Ask participants to reflect on what values are important to them and write down at least 3 each individually.

6b. Vote

Vote on your top 5 values, out of all the values on the individual values working area. Are there any values besides your own that resonate with you?

6c. Shared values

With the group, review the voted values, and agree on three values that you think reflect your team's culture and ambitions the most. If you need, you can do another voting session.

From the three values you agreed on, try to describe them so that they explain how you behave as a team to uphold those values in the best way possible.

6d. Team manifesto

In this activity, you will collaborate as a group to come up with a set of behaviours that your team wants to live by. Inspired by your team values, how can you create a set of positive rules and behaviours that your team will live by?

1. Ask participants to add their individual ideas
2. Discuss as a group
3. Vote and/or add your team's top voted behaviours or rules to your team’s manifesto list

Here are some questions that can help your team get started:

• What are things you want to make sure you always do?
• Are there behaviours you want to avoid negative vibes?
• How will you check in on each other to maintain a healthy and happy team?
• How can you nurture a safe and trusting space to allow everyone to be themselves?

6e. Optional activity: Team mascot

This is an optional activity, and it’s a great thing to do to enhance your team’s sense of belonging while coming up with creative and fun ideas.

Ask your team to draw a representation of your team's values! What could a team mascot look like?

After this play, share the results of the completed activities with all the participants in a follow-up email. This would either be an exported PDF of a virtual Miro board, resharing the Miro board link, or sharing photos of the physical sticky notes from an in-person session (you could save these in your project files in Teams).

A good way to keep your results visible, a great way can be to print them and stick to your office walls. This will inspire and remind your team of what you decided together in the workshop.

Remember: this play can be reviewed and iterated on for as many times as you like, to reflect the changing circumstances and needs of your team.

Team charter Miro board

Subject:

Join us for a team charter session for [project name]

Meeting description:

Hi [team name if sending a group invitation, or participant name if sending individual invitations],

As part of our ongoing work for [project name], we'd like to get everyone together to create a team charter. A team charter is a document that outlines what our team is all about, our goals, and how we will work together. It helps visualise our shared objectives and expectations, ensuring we're all aligned for success. This workshop is crucial for establishing a strong foundation for our team's collaboration and effectiveness.

In this session, we'll work together through various activities including [personal profiles,] [shared goals,] [ways of working,] [values and behaviours] to develop our team charter. The workshop will take approximately [duration], and there is no preparation required on your end. We aim to foster an inclusive environment where everyone's input is valued.

The session may be recorded for reference purposes. If you have any concerns about being recorded, please let me know via email.

I'm excited to have your valuable contribution to this session as we shape our team's journey.

Kind Regards,

[Facilitator name]

Printable A4 profile