Create a team charter

• TIME REQUIRED

  60 mins
• EFFORT

  Medium
• TEAM SIZE

  2 or more
• GOOD FOR

  Respectful teams

What you’ll need

Physical

If you’re together physically, you’ll need:

• a blank wall or board
• markers
• post-it notes
• sticky dots

Remote

If your team is working remotely, you’ll need to set up an online tool.

When you choose a tool, think if anyone in your team has accessibility needs and that they’ll be able to easily use it.

Some free tools you can use are:

• FunRetro
• Microsoft Whiteboard
• Miro
• Mural
• Trello

But this is just a list of examples. There are a lot of tools.

Scheduling the session

Set up your meeting at a time where you’ll get the best results.

This means to think about the diverse needs of each of your team members.

Think of things like this:

• Do some people work better earlier or later in the day?
• Does anyone have kids or caring responsibilities that mean they need to start late or leave early?
• Is there a time to avoid due to other work commitments?

How to run the activity

This a rough schedule of how you can run the session.

The key thing is to set a timer for each section of your session and stick to each time.

When people have a limited time to think, they’ll focus on the things that matter to them the most.

Before you start

Divide up your workspace into 6 sections:

1. Members
2. Values
3. Behaviours
4. Roles
5. Success measures
6. Standards of quality

We’ll get to what you need to do in each space later.

Acknowledge country (20 seconds)

Always acknowledge the traditional owners before you start.

It shows your respect for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.

Set the scene (2 minutes)

Give them background on why your team is making a team charter.

Brainstorm ideas (5 minutes)

Explain to them what each section of the workspace means:

Section	What to write
Members	Who’s is in the team and each person’s 2 biggest strengths
Values	The shared values of your team in-line with the 7 public sector values
Behaviours	How your team expects each person to behave to demonstrate your values
Roles	Work out each role in the team and each role’s responsibilities
Success	How you as a team will measure your success
Standards	What quality of work will you deliver as a team

Ask each person to write down one idea per post-it note.

There’s no limit to how many ideas everyone can write down.

Group ideas (10 minutes)

Go around to each person and ask them to start sticking their post it notes to your workspace.

As each person puts their post-it notes on the wall, ask them to group similar ideas together.

Vote on ideas (5 minutes)

Tell each person they have 3 votes and agree on what visual mark you’ll all use to show their vote.

For example, you may ask everyone to draw a line on a post-it note to visualise 1 vote. Or, you may give them stickers to place on post-it notes.

Ask everyone to vote on what they think is the best idea or group of ideas they see. They can use all 3 of their votes on one idea.

When everyone’s voted, see what ideas are the most popular.

If it doesn’t make anyone feel uncomfortable, ask everyone to discuss why they voted a certain way.

Refine into sentences (10 minutes)

As a group, turn each of the top ideas in each section into concise sentences.

After the activity

Write up the concise sentences into a single team charter.

Send this charter to each team member.

Review your charter annually or when you get a new team member.