Align your team through co-creation of a team charter
Every team manager knows trust doesn't come out of the blue. Trust grows out of striving for the same goal, setting common expectations, clearly defining everyone's role and finally, of course, keeping the agreements made. Logical one would think, and yet these crucial conditions often remain undiscussed or invisible and many teams work according to habits that have not been clearly agreed upon.
"A team is more than a group of people working together. A team is a group of people who trust each other." (Simon Sinek, author)
Changing team habits
Changing these fixed and unspoken habits is not an easy task, but it is possible, provided it is tackled consciously. And that’s what high-performing teams do.
As a manager, it is crucial not to come up with the answers yourself or impose team principles, but to create space for dialogue and facilitate the process. You can of course suggest elements, but make sure that your team members are listened to first.
Teamliner, the co-creation tool
To support this process of co-creating your team charter, we have developed TeamLiner®. It’s an effective and above all practical tool for managers and process facilitators to use:
- when starting up a new team, for example as part of a change or innovation process
- for aligning the members of an existing team, when there is a need for clear agreements or when a new manager or team member joins the team
- for adjusting teamwork when there are uncertainties or conflicts around cooperation
co-create your team charter
The team process
In the process you set up, it is good to have the team members reflect on the team and the guiding principles beforehand. After that, during a creative session with the team, the focus is first and foremost on a constructive dialogue. You can build that dialogue around a number of basic questions you can ask yourself as a team:
- How do the values of the organisation translate to our team? How do we make this more concrete?
- What are our current strengths and skills?
- What are the obstacles on our way to achieving our goals?
- How can we communicate better and make decision-making clearer?
- How do we deal with conflicts?
These are just a few possible questions, which depend on the specific situation of the team and the goal of the session.
By thinking together as a team about your team principles, you immediately create an enormous support base. Because when people are invited to help shape their own objectives and rules, working on change or innovation suddenly becomes a lot easier.
You can download the template here: Teamliner Download
Learn how to facilitate a Teamliner workshop
If you want to know how to conduct a Teamliner workshop to co-create your team charter and to build your high-performing team, then you can find all the necessary information and guidance in our Udemy course. It contains 9 small lectures that give you a quick start to build your Team Charter! A must-have for team leaders, facilitators, consultants or coaches.
