Team charters - supporting collaboration for remote teams
Explore how a team charter can transform collaboration in remote, agile teams. With teams likely to remain remote or distributed, Rebecca looks at the benefits of using a team charter to focus and align group working.
Working as part of a team is both difficult and rewarding. Every individual in a team brings with them particular skills, strengths and traits which can nurture collaboration or introduce conflict. The team may share the same goals but individual objectives often differ.
As more organisations introduce hybrid or remote working an option for employees and the world becomes smaller. With distributed Global teams across regions and timezones, cultural norms and language barriers also come into play.
Typically, being based in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, teams and stakeholders are likely to be from a variety of countries and cultural backgrounds. You may have distributed teams working in Bangladesh, Qatar, Jordan, India and Singapore, all working on the same product delivery.
Regardless of location, teams thrown together to work on a project without the chance for proper onboarding rarely lead to a truly empowered, motivated or collaborative team.
A team charter is a fantastic tool, and doing this exercise at a projects’ kick off can really bring a team together to form a strong and lasting group dynamic.
So what is it? A team charter is an evolving document that serves as a guiding star for a team.
It lays out the overall mission, scope of the project, objectives and expectations.
The most effective team charters clearly define the roles and responsibilities of individuals. Taking the time to pull together an effective charter will reduce confusion, duplication and repetition which leads to saving on time and expense.
When new people are brought into the team, as may well happen, the Team Charter will provide a valuable tool to support and focus them.
Charter evolves with the team
This document should evolve throughout the life of the project. This means new team members have the opportunity to contribute, helping to shape optimum ways of working and build a dynamic team culture.
The best scenario that digital consultancies, agencies and client-side agile teams can hope for is that they retain the same personnel, on the same agile team, for the life of the delivery. For short term projects this is easier to manage, for long term engagements this can be challenging.
Battles for resources, both on the client and consultancy side can happen. Sickness, vacation and life happens with people inevitably coming in and out of projects.
A team charter helps keep a team focused, engaged and on the same page, and is especially helpful in a climate of remote working.
In his article “The Team Charter — Build a better team together”, Nick Butler says it really well
‘Government of the team, by the team, for the team — that’s the Agile Team Charter.’
He also makes some great points on how to draft it and make it visible, which can be tricky with distributed teams. However, referencing it with regularity, for example reviewing it in retro’s with distributed teams, is a good way to check in on team happiness and performance, and perhaps reset if needed.
From my learnings of building a successful charter, here are some tips:
Top tips for a successful team charter
Common purpose — Make it relevant
Autonomy — Give ownership of the charter to the team to maintain it
Visibility — Use online tools such as Miro or commandeer the office white board
Recognition — Remember to add, and engage in celebrations of success!
Miro has a few Team Charter or Team Alignment templates, which you may find useful.
However, it may be helpful for you to build your own, as I have done.
Here are my recommendations for your Team Charter:
In my immediate team we include 14 nationalities across 19 individuals, in our Dubai office alone. Each month we get together virtually and physically, where possible, for a ‘Monthly Culture Exchange’.
Individuals, on a monthly rota, give a little presentation about their country of origin and their cultural heritage. We share history, food and personal experiences. It really helps us learn about each other culturally and personally, as well as taking a nice social break together. This is something you could do as part of your Team Charter exercise when working with Globally distributed teams.
Good luck with building our your next Team Charter!