Team Charter

180 North Stetson, Suite 3500 | Chicago, IL 60601 | +18476863500 | Brighton Leadership Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved



The effectiveness of a team is greatly enhanced when they invest the time necessary to
understand what they will collectively accomplish before they move into action.





A team leader sets the stage for success by ensuring that the entire team understands the
mission, the roles and responsibilities and the rules of engagement. Early on in the team
formation process, dedicate a meeting to discussing each of the components of the team
charter. The team must believe that the mission is achievable and commit to accomplishing
it together.

Once the charter is drafted, review it with the sponsor and other stakeholders to align and
obtain their support. The final team charter will emerge through the process of negotiation
between the sponsor, the team leader, the team, and other stakeholders.

The team charter should be signed by the team as tangible commitment to the purpose, the
principles and the results detailed in the document. This helps create accountability to each
other and to the organization.

Working through the details of the team charter establishes a foundation for future success
of the team. The team charter is a written record of discussions, decisions and actions that
each team member commits to accomplish.


Tip: There are many different components outlined in this team charter document. Do not
get buried in detail. The main objective of a team charter is to clarify what the team is going
to accomplish and align on the rules of engagement. If you spend too much time in
discussion without coming to a decision you will not deliver the results required.

Discuss Decide Deliver

Team Charter

180 North Stetson, Suite 3500 | Chicago, IL 60601 | +18476863500 | Brighton Leadership Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved


Team Name

Some project teams like to come up with a unique name for the team that supports its mission.

Team Members

The team members, team leader and the team sponsor (as applicable) should be listed
individually to provide recognition and enhance commitment. Membership criteria or
alternate team members may be listed here as well.


Purpose
The purpose must answer why the team was formed, and the problem it's trying to
solve or the mission it must accomplish. It may also describe how resolving the
problem or accomplishing the mission fits in with the broader objectives of the
organization.
Results
Establish measurable outcomes or results that the team must accomplish. Results
must be concrete, clear, and completely understood and agreed to by everybody. It
requires all members to contribute equivalent amounts of real work.
This component may describe the documents, the desired behaviors and a long-term
process that verifies the results are achieved. Results focus on what to achieve and
not how to achieve it. Team engagement is diminished when a team is told how to
achieve its objectives.
Boundaries

How big is the sand box the team is playing in? What is the amount of time the team
will work together and how much time are they expected to dedicate to the team?
The boundaries section is also knows as scope and sets parameters to easily identify
areas that are outside of the scope, minimizing scope creep.

In addition to scope, the constraints of time and budget should also be addressed.
Provide clarity on the resources that are available for the team to accomplish its
purpose and achieve results.

Team Charter

180 North Stetson, Suite 3500 | Chicago, IL 60601 | +18476863500 | Brighton Leadership Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved


Norms

Norms are rules of conduct to help the team achieve their purpose and results. Some
critical early rules pertain to attendance, communication, constructive confrontation
and roles and responsibilities. Depending upon the purpose and results defined in
previous sections, this section may contain a lot or a little detail. Examples of norms:

Meeting frequency and attendance expectations make sure that team members
understand the demands in their schedule; that meetings start on time; everyone
is expected to be prepared and participate, etc.
Communication how team members communicate, where information is stored,
how disagreements are handles,
Decision making process are decisions by consensus, does the team provide
input to the leader who makes a decision or does the majority rule?
Reporting describes how the team will provide progress updates. If there is a
sponsor or a higher authority that the team must answer to, it is important to
report how the team activities are going and what hurdles the team is facing. The
reporting plan should establish the frequency of reporting as well as content.
Celebrate success by intentionally recognizing small steps or progress towards
milestones or objectives.
Roles and responsibilities of each team member; this may be in the form of a
RACI (responsible, accountable, communication, inform) chart or a high level
description.

Most newly formed teams find it effective to start out with an initial set of norms with
the understanding that these will need to be reviewed and modified frequently. Some
teams decide to review norms at the beginning or end of each meeting. Establishing
team norms helps build team discipline, trust between team members, and supports
a productive environment.