What's a Team Contract?
A team contract is one of the most important tools you have for structuring clear expectations of your team, setting team norms, and establishing operating procedures as well as sanctions for not meeting team expectations.
As you can imagine, this kind of honest, straightforward communication and setting boundaries and expectations that everybody buys into can go a long way toward helping your team overcome problems. The reason is that when problems emerge, as they will, it is a lot easier to deal with them in a healthy and productive way if you have a contract. The contract, which every member of your team participated in creating and signed off on, is impersonal and not a 'meanie'.
If poor Shondra has to take it upon herself to 'talk to' poor Thomas, and she doesn't have a team contract (or apparently any other team members to help out with this conversation, weirdly), then she may (a) feel like too much of a meanie to be able to honestly talk to Thomas about his disruptive behavior, or (b) get a bunch of resentment from Thomas who may think, 'who died and made her boss?'. It's much more effective if Shondra and her other team members can talk to Thomas about how he's not living up to item 7 of the team contract, which he helped write and, by signing the contract, agreed to abide by.
Further, if the team contract specifies that the first time Thomas does a particular problematic behavior, he receives a written warning via email, and that if the behavior continues, he will be submitted to a particular disciplinary action that he has agreed is fair ahead of time, then it's a lot easier to deal with the problematic behavior and move forward as a team...instead of a dysfunctional group who now hates each other, and doesn't want to meet to do work because the silence is just too awkward, so Min and Cathy decide to do it all themselves. Ahhh!
All of us want to avoid that latter situation. I hope it's becoming clear how a well-written team contract can help us do so.
But what, you ask, should a team contract consist of?
Well, first for the fun part. Choose a team name that is appropriate to your project or to our class in some way. You should be able to defend why this name is appropriate. You may also choose team colors and a mascot, etc. (Go, Gryffindor!) (To state what should be obvious, you can't make a team member your mascot -- it's demeaning.)
To create your team contract, you will draw on the answers to each person's "getting to know you" questions.
As a team, you need to come to some consensus and agreement on certain issues. Remember, consensus is not the same thing as a majority vote, so make sure everybody is on board. If somebody is not on board and only 'gave in' or was outvoted, then he is not actually agreeing to the team contract.
Your team contract must include
(1) description of the desired end product, including what a successful project will look like, and what level of quality the team is aiming for;
(2) description of other goals and values of the team, such as, for example, being professional and respectful, learning leadership skills, working efficiently on this project so you can pass Calculus, etc.;
(3) clear operating procedures and roles, including who does what and when; how often, when, and where the team meets; how will team members keep in touch; how do roles, such as scribe/recorder, meeting leader, etc., rotate?.
The team contract must also
(4) establish clear expectations for team members, such as that members must attend and work during meetings, must not text during meetings, must complete drafts by team-created deadlines, etc.;
(5) establish clear sanctions for not meeting expectations, such as one warning then a punishment (specify the punishment--which should be project-related and academic); two warnings then talk to instructor, etc. (be sure to specify an end-point, ie., where do you draw the line on a behavior and what happens when that line is drawn?);
(6) anticipate and establish procedures for resolving conflicts based on your discussion as a team;
(7) establish a team norm of regularly giving feedback to the team and to each team member on their performance (it's important to make assessment and feedback a normal part of team work, so that it's not something unfamiliar and frightening when a major problem arises). How will you regularly give feedback in a non-threatening, safe, and low-stakes way?
When you are happy with your team contract, print two copies of it and have every team member sign both copies. One copy will be submitted to me for a grade, and another copy will stay with your team for reference. I will read your team contract, and if I think that you have not sufficiently worked out ways to handle conflicts and other issues, I may ask you to revise it before accepting it for a grade.
© Amy C. Smith 2013
As you can imagine, this kind of honest, straightforward communication and setting boundaries and expectations that everybody buys into can go a long way toward helping your team overcome problems. The reason is that when problems emerge, as they will, it is a lot easier to deal with them in a healthy and productive way if you have a contract. The contract, which every member of your team participated in creating and signed off on, is impersonal and not a 'meanie'.
If poor Shondra has to take it upon herself to 'talk to' poor Thomas, and she doesn't have a team contract (or apparently any other team members to help out with this conversation, weirdly), then she may (a) feel like too much of a meanie to be able to honestly talk to Thomas about his disruptive behavior, or (b) get a bunch of resentment from Thomas who may think, 'who died and made her boss?'. It's much more effective if Shondra and her other team members can talk to Thomas about how he's not living up to item 7 of the team contract, which he helped write and, by signing the contract, agreed to abide by.
Further, if the team contract specifies that the first time Thomas does a particular problematic behavior, he receives a written warning via email, and that if the behavior continues, he will be submitted to a particular disciplinary action that he has agreed is fair ahead of time, then it's a lot easier to deal with the problematic behavior and move forward as a team...instead of a dysfunctional group who now hates each other, and doesn't want to meet to do work because the silence is just too awkward, so Min and Cathy decide to do it all themselves. Ahhh!
All of us want to avoid that latter situation. I hope it's becoming clear how a well-written team contract can help us do so.
But what, you ask, should a team contract consist of?
Well, first for the fun part. Choose a team name that is appropriate to your project or to our class in some way. You should be able to defend why this name is appropriate. You may also choose team colors and a mascot, etc. (Go, Gryffindor!) (To state what should be obvious, you can't make a team member your mascot -- it's demeaning.)
To create your team contract, you will draw on the answers to each person's "getting to know you" questions.
As a team, you need to come to some consensus and agreement on certain issues. Remember, consensus is not the same thing as a majority vote, so make sure everybody is on board. If somebody is not on board and only 'gave in' or was outvoted, then he is not actually agreeing to the team contract.
Your team contract must include
(1) description of the desired end product, including what a successful project will look like, and what level of quality the team is aiming for;
(2) description of other goals and values of the team, such as, for example, being professional and respectful, learning leadership skills, working efficiently on this project so you can pass Calculus, etc.;
(3) clear operating procedures and roles, including who does what and when; how often, when, and where the team meets; how will team members keep in touch; how do roles, such as scribe/recorder, meeting leader, etc., rotate?.
The team contract must also
(4) establish clear expectations for team members, such as that members must attend and work during meetings, must not text during meetings, must complete drafts by team-created deadlines, etc.;
(5) establish clear sanctions for not meeting expectations, such as one warning then a punishment (specify the punishment--which should be project-related and academic); two warnings then talk to instructor, etc. (be sure to specify an end-point, ie., where do you draw the line on a behavior and what happens when that line is drawn?);
(6) anticipate and establish procedures for resolving conflicts based on your discussion as a team;
(7) establish a team norm of regularly giving feedback to the team and to each team member on their performance (it's important to make assessment and feedback a normal part of team work, so that it's not something unfamiliar and frightening when a major problem arises). How will you regularly give feedback in a non-threatening, safe, and low-stakes way?
When you are happy with your team contract, print two copies of it and have every team member sign both copies. One copy will be submitted to me for a grade, and another copy will stay with your team for reference. I will read your team contract, and if I think that you have not sufficiently worked out ways to handle conflicts and other issues, I may ask you to revise it before accepting it for a grade.
© Amy C. Smith 2013