In summary, work arrangements can be powerful when used correctly. If they are created with little or no intention, they will not help the group work better together. Be sure to review your work agreement frequently and keep it up to date. Look often and remember that agreements can always be renegotiated, especially when new members join or situations change. Each new team has a distinct dynamic, with individuals who prefer a certain mix of behaviors and practices. Respect your uniqueness! The team compiles all the individual agreements into the work agreement and displays them on the wall of the team room. In the months that follow, team members slowly get used to reminding their colleagues of behaviors that don`t respect the agreement. Every few sprints, Steve asks in a retrospective: “Is this still our working arrangement? Is there anything you want to change? The list evolves as team members find other areas where they see benefits. After six months, they are much more able to cope with tense problems within the team or when the pressure from the outside increases on them. Steve starts asking for proposed deals in his first area of interest: the daily Scrum start time. After all possible working arrangements, it uses the Decision-Maker Protocol[2] to quickly seek consensus. If there is no immediate consensus, the person who said “no” to an idea suggests what they think is a better idea.
When several people have a problem, everyone is supposed to offer a better idea. If too many people say no, the applicant should consider withdrawing the proposal. In the case of Steve`s team, the team has its first working arrangements after 20 minutes: now that you have the basics, here are examples of a few clauses you can include in your teamwork agreement. Some of them are specific to agile teams. Work arrangements are a simple and powerful way to create explicit guidelines for the type of work culture you want for your team. They remind everyone how to engage in respectful behavior and communication. In this article, we`ll help you understand why these agreements are useful and how you can help your team create their own agreements. Teamwork agreements are a simple practice that you can use to do wonders to build new teams as well as reform existing ones. These agreements are a consolidation of policies that define how groups want to collaborate and what they ideally want both in the work environment and from one another to promote a safe and open environment for productivity. It`s easy to embark on projects with new teams, but work arrangements create the kind of solid foundation needed for high-performing collaboration, especially between people with different backgrounds, assumptions, and experiences.
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