Team Contract

LDR 300 – Foundations of Leadership
Team Contract and Plan – Guidelines and Examples

“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent Return on Energy!” ― Brian Tracy

Why make a Team Contract?
Teamwork is challenging whether in person or online and every member’s contribution is needed for the success of the project. All team members must be willing to contribute not only their fair share of the work, but also to communicate with team members in a timely manner through email, in class, or other agreed upon communication modes. It is necessary that all team members have a clear understanding of their role and responsibility for the project. Team members also need clarification and set guidelines for acceptable and unacceptable behavior. These team norms help guide the team in communication, organization, conflict resolution, decision-making, and other team activities. A team conflict management process is also vital to team effectiveness and accountability. When every member participates and has a clear role with an understanding of team expectations and procedures, the team is more likely to achieve its goals and objectives. Finally, a timeline that reflects milestones and tasks with deadlines for completion will help keep the team on schedule.

Team Roles & Responsibilities
Each team should discuss the designation of leaders for specific roles and responsibilities. Below are three examples that teams may use, modify, and add to with additional roles and responsibilities. Every team member must have a role with defined responsibilities. While everyone contributes to getting the tasks done, different individuals, based on their personality, experience, or assigned position, might play different functions as members of the team. Of course, the roles overlap to some degree, and a person may behave outside of his/her role. It is helpful to consider who will formally be responsible for the actions and contributions of a particular role.

Examples a. Communication Leader Josh – responsibilities include scheduling, coordinating, taking notes at meetings, initiating communication, requesting updates, etc.

b. Coordination Leader Marley – responsibilities include delegating, collecting, organizing, formatting, and proofreading team’s work for the project, etc.

c. Team Relations Leader Jordan – responsibilities include focusing the team members on an effective state of mind and positive interactions, maintaining positivity and forward momentum, addressing conflict or problems head-on and professionally.

Team Norms
Teams should also collaborate to establish team norms concerning communication, conflict resolution, meeting management, etc. Below are examples that teams may use, modify, or add to with additional norms.

Examples

1. Team members will respond to emails within __20___ hours. 2. All in-person meetings will be scheduled __2-3___ days in advance. 3. All team members are responsible for submitting work free of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. To best efforts 4. Any team member who misses __2___ meetings without rescheduling will be subject to the conflict resolution process approved by the team. 5. Any team member who does not respond to emails within __5__ days or hours will be subject to the conflict resolution process approved by the team.

Communication Plan
The team should determine what modes of communication will be utilized, and specifically outline this agreement on paper. Outline your team’s communication plan. Include information about the modes and frequency of communication.

Examples 1. Possible modes of communication include: email, phone (voice or text), in-class communication, out of class in-person meetings, virtual chats, Facebook, Blackboard Team Area (wiki, blog, discussion board, file exchange), etc. 2. Possible frequencies for communication include: daily, weekly, bi-weekly, every other week, etc.

Team Conflict Management Process
Some conflict is a healthy and normal part of working with other people. Everyone on the team is responsible for addressing conflict in a productive manner. Having a defined conflict management process will assist with this process.

Conflicts on teams may be person-related or project-related; person-related issues are conflicts based on personality or experience that create disagreements between individuals. These are typically unproductive conflicts (unless handled responsibly). When handled effectively, personal conflict can bring about greater understanding of team members and build cohesion.

Project-related or “task-related” conflict brings teams together and helps them see things from a shared perspective. This conflict is considered productive conflict. It helps the team layout specifics about how the project will be accomplished. However, ultimately conflicts or disagreements must be resolved. Below are some example ideas for a conflict management process.

Examples

1. The team will appoint a “Team Relations Leader” (or other role) who will take responsibility for initiating the conflict management process when necessary. 2. However, every team member is empowered to initiate healthy resolution of conflict. 3. Team members will attempt to initiate and resolve conflict on their own, and they will seek the help of the “Team Relations Leader” when needed (and the professor if required as a last resort). 4. The team will view project/task-related conflict as productive and work to achieve a shared agreement on how to proceed, making the team more effective and stronger. 5. Conflict that includes clashes of personality or personal outlooks will be addressed respectfully and professionally, remembering that everyone’s uniqueness should be valued. Team members will manage their personal emotions when necessary. 6. When there is a conflict or problem, the team will identify the specific issue that is at the heart of the conflict. Identifying the true problem/conflict is critical to addressing it. 7. If a conflict involves a violation of the team contract or team norms, the team members should identify the specific norms or contract component being violated. 8. In addressing conflict of any kind, team members will remember to view the situation from alternative perspectives to gain insights and objectivity to the situation. 9. The team will seek comprise were possible, resolving conflicts creativity and allowing “win-wins”. 10. The team will attempt to resolve conflict in-person, because electronic communication can be difficult for addressing such concerns.

Timeline
A timeline or chart is a snapshot of key milestones and tasks a team needs to complete in order to reach its goals and objectives. It is a “road map” for keeping the team on schedule. Whether your team creates a Gantt Chart, or uses another timeline approach (such as a list, table, or calendar), your team will need to identify the project milestones, the tasks that need to be completed, the timeframe for completing them, and who will complete which tasks. Remember that a timeline is only useful if it is referred to after making it! Also, timelines and plans often need to be revised and adapted; this is normal. The purpose of a plan is to create an initial guideline that gets the project on track to success.
For example, the team might create a table like the following:

Key ProjectMilestones | Describe the Milestone Here | Specific Tasks Needed to Reach Milestone | Delegation of Tasks (Indicate which individual team members will complete which tasks) | Deadline Date for Task Completion | 1 | | | | | 2 | | | | | 3 | | | | | 4 | | | | | 5 | | | | | 6 | | | | | 7 | | | | | 8 | | | | |

Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart is one type of timeline that uses a bar chart to depict a project schedule. There are various software options for creating timelines such as PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, MS Project to name a few. They can become rather complex. The tasks go down the left-hand side of the chart, and the days, weeks, or months go across the top. Below is an example Gantt chart. For other examples and Excel templates visit: http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/timeline.html

Example Gantt Chart (From: http://www.ganttchart.in/GanttChartsExamples.html)