Team Charter Canvas

Team charters are a fantastic way of creating alignment, cohesion and psychological safety in a team. They also help to onboard new team members, and enable teams to work together more effectively.

This Psychological Safety Practice Playbook Add-on for the action pack contains a team charter canvas, social contract canvas, personal user manual template and manager manual template!

Team Charters and Team Performance

This issue of the Psychological Safety newsletter dives deep into Team Charters if you want to read more.

A Team Charter is a document co-created by all team members, outlining everything important about the team such as shared values, behaviours, expectations, goals, and communication styles.

The creation of a Team Charter can serve as an effective team-building exercise and a means to discover potential mismatches or misalignments within the team. Important aspects that may be covered in a Team Charter Canvas include the team’s name, mission, shared values, communication protocols, work schedule, definitions of success and failure, required tools and resources, interactions with other teams, and more.

Despite the numerous questions that can be included in a Team Charter, teams are encouraged to choose the most pertinent ones and add their own as needed. This should be a living and evolving document, changing and improving over time and ideally reviewed periodically, particularly during significant team changes such as new members joining or completion of large projects.

Team Charters can also assist in onboarding new members by providing a comprehensive overview of the team’s dynamics, values, and goals. Additionally, they can facilitate inter-team communication and set clear expectations for interactions with other teams within the organisation. The use of Team Charters is not limited to permanent teams; they can be equally beneficial for transient or project-based teams, or for single, time-boxed sessions.