Author: Lee S. Johnsen, CPT, CPLP, SPHR, is an international leader in virtual team management, leadership development and performance improvement. He is an expert in helping global teams and their leaders overcome the challenges and opportunities of working in a virtual world. He has lectured internationally on this and other topics that inspire the public to broaden his thinking and leadership practices. One of the most important actions a virtual team can perform is to create a documented Team Operations Agreement (TOA). The TOA serves as guidelines and ground rules that help virtual team members work together optimally. Creating a TOA clarifies expectations and reduces conflict when team members commit to getting along and holding each other accountable. Here are some components of a typical toA. In addition, it is recommended that you also attach the mission, vision and objectives of your team. Instead of starting the ICC workflow from scratch, I decided it would be easier to go through the Google document point by point, which we decided last time, and take a look at everything we`ve written and decide on its relevance.

And I admit that it was a bit complicated to just go through the list. So I wonder if there`s a way to make this more fun. But even that highlighted some differences in how we use the tools, and it gave us the opportunity to clarify some assumptions, which was very interesting. For example, Chad, our illustrator, there [inaudible – 05:02] status updates, and other people look very closely and really look at it every day. This kind of thing is good to know, because if you want to tell Chad something important, you have to mark it specifically in an update, and I had done that, or use another tool that he pays more attention to. One of the hypotheses we encountered came from [inaudible – 05:24], who assumed that when she saw the Slack status of an available person, she assumed she was online and available to answer questions. But it turns out that most team members don`t exactly keep their Slack status. For example, I am one of those people.

I only opened it in my browser all day, but I turned off all notifications. So it`s open, but when I`m working on something else, I don`t know. Clarifying this assumption will save her from being frustrated in the future if she doesn`t get an immediate response from people because she knows she can`t assume they`re online. The TOA is a component of the Partner in Development remote leadership model and other resources that help your virtual™ team and remote staff excel. REVIEW YOUR AGREEMENT REGULARLY. Keep in mind that the way people work will naturally change over time. The team`s agreement should be a “living document”; Adapt to the team as it grows. Your team`s agreement should be reviewed and adjusted regularly as the way you work changes. A good time to do this is when you hire new people or when someone leaves the team. Even if things are going well, take the opportunity to review your team`s agreement to see if everyone is still on the same page.

Each team consists of a specific combination of personality types. And with these unique personality types come different ways of processing and transmitting information. To act as a team, it is important that everyone communicates. Just like an orchestra votes before a performance or an athlete warms up before a training session, setting up a virtual team helps everyone on the same page. Download the instructions and template to create a REMOTE TEAM AGREEMENT: i.e. team agreements. In many of the interviews I conduct with remote teams, I hear that creating a basic set of guidelines helps avoid misunderstandings. Through my workshops, I learn that very few companies have team agreements. So I wanted to share a little bit about the process and experience of the Happy Melly team, which is completely distant, hoping that they highlight how to create a team agreement and what the process might look like for you. Phil Montaro of the Anywhere office introduced me to a policy he had created for team agreements, and he called it ICC Workflow. I have certainly talked about it in the past.

And it represents the division of your labor into three categories: information, communication, and collaboration. Specifically, you`d ask the team what kind of information you need for the projects you`re working on, what kind of communication you use to do your job, and how do you know what everyone else is doing. Developing a TOA opens a discussion about the values of team members and reinforces the team`s purpose. It fosters strong relationships with team members as they learn to collaborate, communicate and build trust, from a distance. Welcome to the Collaboration Superpowers podcast. My name is Lisette and I interview people and companies that do great things remotely. Welcome to another episode, all of them. Today we are going to talk about team agreements. But first, I want to announce that I`ve teamed up with another Learning 3.0 moderator.

And we will offer a remote work study in London on July 25. So, if you`re curious about what it is, keep an eye out for the Superpower Collaboration newsletter. Some organizations simply don`t need or feel comfortable with company agreements. If your organization has a history of conflict within projects, a history of poorly executed meetings, low attendance, lack of follow-up work, and an imbalance of project team members making or forcing decisions about other team members, agreement on project operations may be required for your project. Although they may seem authoritarian at first glance, they can be created and executed appositively to provide the project with a tool for success. Whether your team is in training or has been together for a while, “never assume that everyone has the same understanding of the components of the team operations agreement.” The TOA is a living document and needs to be updated regularly. DOCUMENT THE THINGS YOU DO AND DISAGREE ABOUT. Once you`re done, talk about each post-it as a team, which is important in all three areas. The things you agree on can be included in your official team contract (use the tool your team wants to use to document this: Google Docs, Word, Wikis, etc.).

In every team, there will be things you don`t agree on. That`s great. Document these things as well. At least everyone knows where the team is not aligned. One of the most important actions a virtual team can perform is to create a documented Team Operations Agreement (TOA). The TOA serves as guidelines and ground rules that help virtual team members work together optimally. Geographical, functional and cultural differences affect the functioning of individuals and teams. Taking these differences into account is crucial for clear, honest and trustworthy communication. Phil Montaro of The Anywhere Office presented a guideline for a team agreement called ICC Workflow. This process divides work into three categories: information, communication and collaboration. The idea is for the team to define the information they need for the projects they are working on, the communication protocols needed to do their job, and the tools they need so everyone knows what the other is working on. Company agreements typically cover the most common aspects of a project that can cause problems for team members.

These include, among others: Each TOA is unique and must be tailored to the specific needs of your team. Nevertheless, there are important key elements. Your team may not use all of them, so adapt as needed. The template provided will lead your team to create their own unique toA. Choose, edit, and add everything that applies to your team. So it`s been about four months since we created these team agreements. And in the meantime, we`ve hired a few new people for the team. When I led the new team members to the team agreement, it was pretty obvious that a number of things were outdated. And given that we had just hired new people, I thought it was a good opportunity to review the team`s agreement to see if we were still on the same page.

Now, I didn`t do it right after I hired the new people. But instead, I waited about a month and after the last person was hired before we looked at the team`s agreement. And I thought it was a good idea because it gives them the opportunity to settle in and see who`s who and learn how things work. And I think that gives them a better perspective to give their opinion during the review process. So I found it helpful. Of course, we tried to set a date that anyone could do, but it turned out that with nine people and a pretty large choice in the time zone, it just wasn`t possible. So we chose the ones who were there, we recorded the meeting and the people who couldn`t do it then had the opportunity to watch the meeting and give their opinion on the latest version of the team agreement. We can avoid some of the basic misunderstandings through the process of creating a team agreement: a basic set of collaboration expectations.

A team agreement determines the type of information we share, how we communicate with each other, and how we know what the other is doing. Many other things have also been raised. For example, meeting minutes and ways to improve our feedback process and how everyone is struggling with OKRs and what we could do to make that process a little easier. And we found out that we didn`t have each other`s phone numbers, which was interesting. One day all the communication came from Chad and he realized that he couldn`t let anyone in the team know because he had no way to communicate with us. .