A team charter is an excellent resource to improve your team’s performance. I’ve witnessed how it helps define goals, remove ambiguity, and increase output capacity. In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a strong team charter. We’ll discuss the key components, necessary elements, and how to implement it effectively. So let’s improve your team’s results.
Understanding Team Charter Components
A team charter is a document that defines a team’s purpose, goals, and operating principles. It’s essentially a roadmap to success. I’ve leveraged team charters throughout my entire career, and I believe they’re absolutely essential for aligning team members and setting operating principles.
Key components of a team charter are:
- Mission statement
- Team goals and objectives
- Roles and responsibilities
- Team norms and ground rules
- Decision making processes
- Communication protocols
The mission statement communicates the team’s purpose and how it contributes to larger company goals. This is a great way to keep teams focused on their core mission.
The goals and objectives section ensures the team has specific, measurable goals to achieve. This gives purpose to the team and a way to measure success. Ensure goals listed here are SMART: Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound
The roles and responsibilities section defines who does what. By outlining roles and responsibilities, you avoid duplicated work and ensure all critical tasks are being covered. This is key to operating effectively.
The team norms and ground rules sets the standard for how the team will operate. Setting these from the start establishes a strong team culture and avoids potential conflicts.
The decision making processes section details how the team will make decisions, ensuring the team doesn’t get stuck, and everyone has a say.
The communication protocols section details how and when team members will communicate with each other. This ensures everyone is kept in the loop and can be engaged.
Each of these components is a key piece of effective team operations. Of course, when you combine these, you have a framework for effective collaboration and achievement. And a well thought out charter will significantly improve team performance and satisfaction.
Creating an Effective Team Charter
Creating a team charter is a thoughtful process that requires collaboration. Here’s a step-by-step process I use to build a team charter:
Gather the team. Start by bringing the entire team together.
Define the mission. Discuss the team’s reason for being.
Set goals. Define specific goals that support the team mission.
Assign roles. Clarify who does what work.
Establish norms. Discuss your working agreements and how you will work together.
Make decision about decision-making. How will you make decisions as a team?
Plan your communication. How will you communicate with each other?
Document it all. Make sure everything you discuss goes into writing.
Review and get buy-in. Make sure the team agrees and approves of everything in the document.
It’s important to involve the entire team in this process to create buy-in and a sense of ownership. When writing charter statements, make sure they are easily understandable and not too verbose. You want the entire team to easily understand and remember the content.
Make sure your charter connects to broader company objectives. This step helps you articulate why this team is important and how it can contribute to broader company goals.
Customizing Your Team Charter
Customize the team charter to your team’s specific pain points and project requirements. For example, if you’re building a software development team, you might talk about agile methodologies and sprint planning in the processes section. If you’re a marketing team, you might discuss brand consistency and campaign planning in the objectives section.
Customize the team charter to your team’s size, industry, and working environment. A team of two people working in a corporate environment might have a more formal team charter, while a team of 50 people working in a remote setting might have slightly different protocols.
Remember that the team charter is a living document. You should revisit and update it as the team changes and encounters new pain points. With a properly customized team charter, you’ll find it to be a valuable asset that will help the team succeed.
Team Charter Example: Structure and Format
A more organized team charter is more clear and usable. Here’s a basic structure I often use that works well:
- Header: Team Name, Project, and Date
- Mission Statement
- Goals and Objectives
- Team Members and Roles
- Operating Principles
- Decision Making
- Communication
- Key Performance Indicators
- Signatures
This structure naturally progresses from the purpose of the team down to the specific operational details. Keep each section brief and to the point.
For the formatting, use clear headers and bullet points so others can easily scan the charter. Select a font size of 11 or 12 for readability. Use bolding or underlining sparingly to highlight key points.
Here’s a quick comparison of different formats you can use for your team charter:
| Format | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| One pager | Quick to read and reference | Lacks detail |
| Multi-page | Detailed | Can be overwhelming |
| Visual | Easily digestible at a glance | Risks oversimplifying complex items |
| Digital | Easy to update and share with team | Requires access to tech |
Choose the format that best matches your team’s objectives and preferences. The right format significantly impacts how effective your team charter is.
Most team charters should be about 2-4 pages long to ensure you balance detail with ease of use. Remember, you want it to be a valuable reference, not a lengthy document they never read.
Key Elements of a Team Charter Example
Let’s go through each item with some practical examples:
Mission statement: “To provide customers with innovative software solutions that help them achieve their business goals.”
SMART goal: “Within the next 6 months, increase customer happiness scores by 15% through better product features and superior customer support.”
Role description: “UX Designer. Create easy-to-use designs by conducting user research and working with the development team to bring designs to life.”
Team norm: “We promise to always start and end meetings on time to be respectful of everyone’s schedule and work/life balance.”
Ground rule: “Come prepared having reviewed any materials sent out before the meeting.”
Decision making: “We will make decisions by consensus unless it’s a minor decision related to only one person. In that case, that person has full autonomy.”
- Communication: “We’ll have a daily 9 AM standup. Weekly progress reports are due by 3 PM on Fridays. Use Slack for any quick questions or updates.”
These examples should give you a framework you can use for each item with your own team. Just make sure you keep each item as crystal clear and specific as possible. You’ll quickly see that clear, concise items will help you get your team on the same page and performing better.
Implementing and Utilizing a Team Charter
It’s important to introduce the team charter in a way that ensures it will be successful. I suggest introducing the charter in a dedicated meeting. Walk through the charter and discuss each section. Explain why each section is in there. Allow people to ask questions and provide feedback.
Review the charter regularly. At a minimum, I suggest reviewing it quarterly. This will ensure the charter is still relevant, and you can update it if needed based on changes in team dynamics. You’ll also find that discussing the charter periodically will help reinforce its importance to the team.
Use the charter as a point of reference to align the team. Whenever in-fighting starts happening, reference the charter. It’s an objective document that you all agreed to follow, so this will help you avoid taking sides while still offering a solution to the conflict.
Measure the impact of the charter on the team’s performance. You can think of creative ways to track this. For example, one of the teams I worked with tracked the number of tasks each team member completed before and after implementing the charter. If you have clear measurable data on team performance before and after the charter, this will help you sell the charter to other teams or managers.
Research by Katzenbach and Smith (1993) found that teams with a written charter outperformed teams that did not have a charter. In my own experience, I’ve seen this to be 100% true. Every team that I’ve worked with to create a charter and then effectively implemented that charter, saw a significant increase in productivity and team morale.
Industry-Specific Team Charter Examples
Each industry will have slightly different team charter variations. Here are a few examples:
Software Development: Discuss specific agile methodologies, sprint planning, and code review processes. Outline version control and deployment processes.
Marketing: Discuss brand consistency, campaign coordination, and performance metrics. Outline procedures for managing multiple campaigns and client communications.
Project Management: Discuss risk management, resource allocation, and stakeholder communication. Outline change management processes and progress reporting.
In the software development charter, you might outline specific coding standards or testing processes. Marketing charters often outline specific creative content approval processes. Project management charters often outline more detailed risk assessment and how to mitigate those risks.
Modify these examples to fit your industry. You’ll find that each industry charter addresses slightly different pain points, and the team is more efficient as a result.
Common Mistakes in Team Charter Creation
These are the common pitfalls to avoid with your team charter:
- Too vague or too detailed
- Failing to involve all team members
- Disconnection from the broader organizational goals
- Not updating it regularly
If the charter is too vague, it won’t help your team make decisions. If it’s too detailed, people feel restricted by it. To avoid this, use clear and concise language that provides direction without being overly prescriptive.
If you don’t involve all team members, they won’t buy into or follow the charter. If the team didn’t help create it, they also probably overlooked something important. To fix this, involve your entire team in charter creation.
If the charter isn’t tied to the broader organizational objectives, the team won’t have a clear purpose. It also might not be contributing to the broader company objectives. To prevent this, reread your company’s objectives and review the charter.
If you don’t update the charter, it will become irrelevant. If it’s irrelevant, no one will use it. To avoid this, schedule regular charter reviews.
To avoid all these pitfalls, involve the entire team in creating the charter, use specific language, regularly read and update the broader company objectives, and schedule regular charter reviews and updates.
Benefits of Using a Team Charter
There are several benefits of creating a team charter:
- Better team alignment and focus
- Improved communication and collaboration
- Clear expectations and accountability
- Quicker conflict resolution
- Improved team performance and satisfaction
A great charter ensures everyone is aligned and working toward the same goals. It also establishes a shared understanding of why the team exists and where it’s headed. As a result, you’ll see improved efficiency vs effectiveness as each team member is driving toward the same goals.
Clear expectations and communication guidelines help prevent miscommunication, making collaboration smoother and reducing conflicts. And if conflicts do come up, you already have a structure in place to resolve them.
Roles and responsibilities become much clearer, which naturally increases accountability. HBR also found that teams with clear goals and responsibilities perform better. Anecdotally, I’ve seen this play out time and time again. Teams with an effective charter will always outperform teams without an established framework.
Team Charter for Remote and Hybrid Teams
Remote and hybrid work environments have different pain points, so it’s key to modify team charters for virtual collaboration. Solve pain points directly within your team charter.
Include specific norms for virtual meetings and any protocols you have around cameras on or turn taking. Define expectations around response times to messages and emails. This ensures clear communication even if team members aren’t in the same location.
Agree on working styles and availability within the charter. This is particularly important if you have a global team. Agreements mitigate burnout and ensure an even distribution of the workload.
Document the tools and technologies you’ll collaborate with. This might include project management software video conferencing platforms and document sharing systems. Ensure everyone on the team has access to and knows how to use these tools.
Remote and hybrid teams have pain points related to communication and collaboration, and the best solution is to document agreements and expectations in a team charter. A detailed charter can virtually bridge the gap of being in different locations.
Don’t forget to regularly revisit and update your remote team charter. The world of remote work is evolving, so continue to be adaptable and adjust the charter as new pain points and solutions arise.
To effectively implement your team charter, you may want to consider adopting a coaching leadership style. This approach can help you guide your team members in understanding and applying the principles outlined in the charter.
A Few Last Words
I’ve witnessed team charters turn a group of underperforming individuals into a high-performing team. They offer clarity, focus, and alignment. When done properly, team charters increase productivity, improve communication, and minimize conflicts. Just be sure to include all team members in creating the team charter.
Keep the charter updated as your team changes. If you have a strong team charter, you’ll be in great shape. It’s well worth the time and effort to create one because it will deliver better results and team happiness.
