Create a team working agreement
Ask the team to identify the everyday behaviours that would make collaboration easier. Focus on a few practical topics: response times, meetings, handovers, raising risks and resolving disagreements.
Turn each idea into an observable agreement. Instead of “communicate better”, use “flag a delivery risk as soon as it becomes known, with a proposed next step”. Decide when to review the agreement and how new team members will be introduced to it. A working agreement should remain usable as the team’s needs change.
A workplace example
A team disagrees about response times because no shared expectation exists. Discuss which messages need an immediate response and which can wait, then write a practical agreement.
Try this in practice
- Select a recurring coordination problem.
- Agree an observable working rule.
- Set a date to review whether it helps.
Which unwritten expectation is creating avoidable friction?
More on teamwork
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