Phase 1: Launching a Team
In the video below, Joan Bragar highlights some key considerations for launching a team.
A. Team Contracts and Team Agreements
Objective: In order to work effectively in a team, you need to know the strengths and weaknesses for yourself and others. Members of a team will identify their purpose in class and their personal values. This initial meeting will clarify what each team member wants to get out of the project or the course and will work together to build a shared vision for their team's work. Here is the link to an exercise on shared vision that you may chose to work on with your team.
Establishing ground rules is important because they state what people's responsibilities are for approving, implementing, and evaluating activities. By agreeing on these rules via a Team Contract, members of the team will know what they will be held accountable for and what the consequences will be if they do not follow through on their responsibilities.
A team contract is an important tool for helping individuals function together as a team. It indicates what is important to the members about how they work together.
Reflect on the qualities of your team
Jot down responses to the following questions for later reflection.
- What are 3 of your team's qualities that will lay a foundation for positive and successful teamwork?
- What are 3 potential team challenges that you will focus on keeping out of your group dynamic?
B. Building a shared understanding at the first site visit
*This is relevant if your team is working on a site off campus.
Team/Site Agreements
In your first meeting with your client, in addition to getting to know their context and needs, it is important that they understand the scope of the work they will do with your team, and what you will request from them. You will need to have a shared understanding of some of the preliminary expectations you both might have.
Topics your team will discuss with your community partner at your first site-visit
- Scanning activities - what kinds of information you will need, who you will need to talk with, and the best way to do that given your clients' busy schedules.
- Communication protocols . Who from your team will be the main contact person, who from the site will be the main contact person? What is best way to communicate and the optimal frequency of communications (estimated)?
- Shared agreements on the work you are doing . How can you build a shared vision with the site of what you are trying to accomplish? How can you best check in with them on the results you are working towards, etc?
C. Setting Team Agreements and Accountabilities
Team Agreement and Discussion Questions (PDF)
Ground rules are an important tool for helping individuals function together as a team. They reflect what is important to the members about how they work together. Set these at the first meeting. Discussing ground rules after problems arise is much more difficult. Set aside time at your first team meeting to discuss ground rules. All team members should have a chance to provide input.
Ask team members to discuss prior group experiences:
- What worked well?
- What created problems?
- What unique talents/skills/background does each member bring to the team?
Write down the ground rules to which the team has agreed .
(Each member should have a copy of the ground rules. The ground rules should be reviewed periodically).
Questions you can discuss:
- What are the expectations and deliverables for the team?
- What are the standards for meeting attendance, promptness, and participation?
- What roles need to be filled (time keeper, note taker, facilitator) and how will they be assigned?
- How will we make decisions and solve problems?
- How will we handle conflicts?
- How does the team define respectful behavior?
- How will people be held accountable?
Team Agreements - Suggested Questions to Discuss
Attendance & Lateness
- How often should the team meet, in addition to the mandatory weekly meetings?
- When and how long should team meetings be?
- Under what conditions is it OK to miss a meeting?
- How do we inform each other if we are going to miss a meeting?
- How do we deal with lateness?
Participation & Information Sharing
- What do we mean by participation?
- How will/do we encourage participation?
- How are we going to share information?
- What is the flow of communication - between ourselves, with our client?
- How will people be held accountable?
Decision Making
- How do we make decisions?
- What decisions must be agreed to by all?
- What does consensus mean?
- How will we make decisions and solve problems?
- How will we handle conflicts?
Individual Contributions and Quality of Work
- What do we mean by quality?
- How do/will we encourage quality?
- How do we deal with individuals who dominate, don't participate, resist, are too noisy/quiet?
- How will we monitor our process and progress?
Professionalism
- How do we want to represent our team to our client?
- What are the key elements of professionalism?
- What areas of professionalism do team mates feel uncomfortable with/unsure of?
- How does the team define respectful behavior?
- How do we deal with inappropriate behavior
For each category, list 1-3 ground rules that your team agrees upon. For each category, please choose one team member who will help keep the group accountable for the established team rules.
Sample Team Agreements
Attendance/Lateness (Point Person: Robert)
- Call if you are going to be absent or late
- Meetings will start and end on time - no backtracking if someone is late.
Participation and Information Sharing (Point Person:Winnie)
- Everyone will participate and take ownership of group projects.
- When appropriate, sub-groups will be assigned to work on specific activities.
- Each meeting will have a note taker (rotating task) who will distribute notes and record decisions and assignments.
- Anyone who is absent from a meeting is responsible for finding out what they missed.
Decision-Making (Point Person:MaryAnn)
- Resolution of differences will typically be by majority decision, but on key issues the group will reach consensus
Professionalism (Point Person:George)
- Team members will complete assignments on time.
- Respect the value of each individual's contribution.
- Silence cell phones
Individual Contributions and Quality of Work (Point Person:Colbey)
- All presentations should be doubled checked for spelling and grammer(opps! grammar)
