Have you ever felt like everybody in your team is working like free atoms? That you put effort into something, and nobody supports it? Some people do things, but when you ask them why they do it they can’t answer. It happens to all of us. Here are a few tools that can help you and your team align efforts around things that really matter.
One of the easiest forms to express the hygiene of our day-to-day work. I usually start with an explanation of why we want to create such a document for our team. I start with one, or two rules that feel important and encourage the rest of the team to discuss what content we put there.
It contains behaviors that we expect from each team member; what is undeniable required in communication; what rituals we have in the team; how we treat each other.
What I recommend is to keep it simple. Add only those points that we feel are essential and avoid dreaming. The best option is to write the practices that the team is already doing. If it's a new team we suggest falling back to the Organization's practices.
A working agreement is an important tool, especially working remotely.
Here are some points that our teams include in the Working Agreement:
• If it is possible, we have the camera turned on in daily meetings and we are fully focused on what others are saying. The daily meeting should have a short and concise form, max. 15-20 minutes.
• We communicate on public channels, avoiding direct messages and closed groups
• We don't leave problems - If things don't go our way and we finish the workday, we share the status of our job.
I would like to put one additional point at the top of the working agreement:
• We agree to feedback on each other if we see a violation of this agreement.