Drive collaboration by making norms your New Normal

How do you work together with your team?

That’s a huge question, and it almost seems impossible to answer.

The thing is, we’ve all had different experiences, and so what I consider “common sense” might not be so common to the others that I’m working with.

This is why sorting out your team norms is such a valuable exercise.

Team norms are the shared expectations and mutually-agreed upon standards for team members. These collective behaviors and attitudes define a team’s culture, and ensures that everybody is on the same page.

I have found that when done effectively, creating team norms allows all members to share their beliefs and preferences, which helps them feel seen and heard. This increases engagement, and positive emotions around our work.

Your team norms should encompass the behaviors related to the specific tasks that your team does. Each team is unique. Does your team:

• Work with clients
• Share work space
• Have virtual meetings or in-person
• Manage unpredictable workloads that result in high pressure situations
• Do creative work that is highly collaborative

Team norms can be either explicit or implicit, and we are generally better at clarifying the explicit ones, like how we assign tasks, or how we will track progress. We have standard operating procedures for the ‘hard’ tasks that we do.

Implicit norms are unwritten rules that are supposed to be understood by all members, but they’re not usually discussed. This is where sticky situations can arise.

For example, do all members of the team have the same understanding of:

• What behaviors demonstrate respect
• How to speak up when something doesn’t feel right
• What it means to be punctual
• How to acknowledge other peoples’ work and contributions
• How to manage a disagreement
• What active listening is and how to be a “good listener”
• How to us common spaces in a way that work for all
• How to give direct and kind feedback
• How to receive feedback
• What behaviors create trust, and help us work together better

Benefits of having clearly defined and communicated team norms:

• Better decision making
• Better collaboration: Expectations are set relating to working together
• A unified team:  Provide a sense of cohesion, where everybody is working together on the same goals, and helps build trust
• Fewer headaches: When everybody knows what is expected, there is far less confusion and conflict  
• Accountability: norms can help build accountability, where people take ownership of their actions, and work to keep others accountable

Common Issues:

When establishing team norms, it’s essential to avoid some common pitfalls, including:

• Not enough flexibility: Team norms should provide a framework for how the team works but should still be flexible enough to accommodate change.
• Making them too broad: Everybody needs to have the same understanding of the norms, and so they do need to be specific and clear
• Not talking about them: Everybody should have helped create them, and they should be referenced regularly
• Not allowing everybody to have a say in their creation: this will kill your buy-in
• Not holding everyone accountable: Everybody needs to be equally accountable for following the norms. This means that the leader must model them, and if the leader breaches a norm, they should be the first person to bring it up.

How to Create Team Norms:

Clearly state that the exercise of defining your team standards will help the group hold each other accountable to a specific set of norms and behaviors that the team, not the leader, defines. Remind your team that all groups have their own customs. 

1. Ask each person to think about the worst team experience they’ve ever had – this can be a work team, sports team or a volunteer team. (I’ve even had people talk about the experiences they’ve had in their families – essentially, any group where people are depending on each other can bring valuable about valuable discussion.)
2. Then, have each person take a couple minutes to write down what specifically made the experience so nasty. The more specific they can be, the better.
3.  Discuss everyone’s experiences together as a group.
4.  Now have each person think about their best team experience, and write down exactly what made it so good.
5.  Share together as the whole group.  
6.  Have a general discussion about what makes a team experience good, versus bad. There probably are some commonalities across team members.  
7.  Begin brainstorming in the tasks that your team does. Give people a chance to think about what they do specifically, and have them write all their tasks down. These might include things like speaking with donors on the phone, emailing clients, attending team meetings (virtually and/or in person) etc.

8. Come together and talk about everyone’s task list – you will probably find lots of overlap, and maybe define other tasks that have been missed.

9. Ask everybody to suggest behaviors and team norms that would lead to team success. Many times, the first ones that are suggested come from our “best” team experiences. Be as specific as possible. For example, “be respectful” can mean different things to different people. You might need to break that down into a definition that makes sense to everybody.

As you go about creating your norms, make sure to cover off all the relevant tasks.

For example:

• What about meeting punctuality?

• What norms are important for virtual versus in person meetings?

• Do meetings finish on time? What are the norms needed when somebody disagrees with something?

• How does it work when a point is brought up that is important, but not relevant at that specific meeting and needs to be set aside?

10. Talk about the suggestions, and if the whole group believes they can abide by them. Sometimes, there are some that a few members don’t see the value in, or that they feel will be challenging to follow. You can set these aside for now, but it’s important to allow everybody to be heard, and not dismissed. You will come back to these later.  

11. Talk about what will happen if a team member breaches a norm. Let’s say I interrupt somebody in our meeting. How is that handled, or what will be said?

12. Go back to the norms that are not totally agreed upon by all members. A change in wording might bring about consensus, or maybe not. However, a discussion should be had, including allowing members to share why they feel this norm is not relevant. Most times, agreement can be found.

13. Create the team norms document, and make sure everyone has access to it. (Depending on your team and how many norms you have included, you can create create categories, such as “communication”, “team meetings” etc. You can even create an acknowledgement that all members can sign (if you choose).

14. If a new member joins the group, share norms with them.  Depending on the nature of your team, you might have a lunch and learn where the new member takes part in a discussion with everybody regarding the team, and how you go about doing your best work.

15. Keep your finger on the pulse of the team. Talk about what is going well, and what needs to be tweaked. It’s amazing how rich conversations can be when all team members trust each other and work well together. By keeping your team norms in the forefront of peoples’ minds, you send the message that “this is important”.

Remember, every team is different. The specific norm that will benefit your team and the work you do, might not resonate my my team.

Here are some Team Norm Examples:

No matter what, we treat each other with dignity and kindness.

We assume the best intentions of one another.

We say please and thank you to show respect.

We value each others’ time, and are always ready to work before the meeting begins.

We admit when we don’t have an answer to something.

We believe that we always have an impact, and reflect on the part we’ve played, especially when things don’t go well.

We do what we say we will do.

We share information openly with each other.

We refill supplies when we use the last one.

We debate to find better solutions, we do not make things personal.

We are present during meetings, and put our phone away so we can contribute fully.

We tell the truth at all times.

We acknowledge and learn from our mistakes.

We are curious.

We communicate to understand, not to respond.

We refrain from speaking about others when they are not present.

What is discussed in team meetings in never shared outside of the room with others.

We receive feedback with an open heart, and reflect on how it can help us perform better together.

We respond to emails within 24 hours.

We support each other during busy seasons.

We make statements with facts or evidence.   

We treat each other as equals.

We encourage all ideas and reflect first before providing feedback.

Our cameras are on during virtual meetings and we don’t multitask so we are fully present.

Have you created your norms with your team?

Reach out if you’d like me to facilitate this process.