What Are the Ground Rules?
When a new team meets to start work on a new project, it is very important to establish operating agreements, called ground rules. These group rules are the set of values and guidelines that the team establishes consciously to help individual members act properly. They articulate the expected behaviors for team members in the future.
Why are ground rules so important? Well, it is obvious that groups of people working together tend to be more complex in their behavior than people working alone. Unfortunately, dysfunctional behavior that doesn`t seem to help move the group forward is common and may happen quite often. One way to resolve this problem, or at least to have a hedge against it, is to have the group work through a process where team members establish group project rules together.
Once developed, they create a framework that sets the boundaries within which the team will operate.
To be effective, ground rules must be clear, consistent, agreed to, and followed. There are a couple of factors that should be taken into account when establishing ground rules:
- Project duration. It’s evident that ground rules are essential for any project, regardless of its duration. However, for long-term projects, the list of rules may be more flexible because there will be opportunities to review the rules. On the contrary, short-term projects should have clearer and stricter rules because the cost of a mistake in such projects is higher.
- Team location. The location of the team is another essential factor in defining ground rules. Compared to a stationary team, remote or distributed teams usually require additional ground rules.
- Team members’ experience. You should also take into account how much team working experience each member of the team has. A lot of communication and collaboration norms are obvious for those with quite a lot of experience working in a team, so you may not dive deep into details. But if you have a couple of juniors on your team, you should definitely clarify all expectations in detail.
- Team ethnicity. If your team consists of people of different cultures, you must consider the ethnicity of the team members and add some ground rules for effective multicultural collaboration.
How to Establish Ground Rules in Your Team
The first thing we should avoid when establishing ground rules for effective teams is allowing a manager or a facilitator to give the ground rules to the group. The team has to come up with them on their own. A facilitator can guide the group by suggesting specific ground rules and asking them if they are important enough to become theirs. But let the group develop its own rules, addressing those behaviors that it finds frustrating.
Before the meeting to establish team ground rules, it may be helpful to define the topics you want to cover in advance. These may include attendance and participation in team activities, fulfilling responsibilities and commitments, communicating with one another, and resolving conflicts within the team.
An hour or two-hour meeting on establishing team ground rules is usually enough for a traditional Scrum team of up to 10 people. You may use either a physical or virtual board to write down all ideas at first. And then, if a disagreement on some items occurs, you may vote for them with your hands up.
You may also use another, more engaging way to define ground rules. Before the meeting, give all the participants a set of sticky notes and let them write down 3-5 ground rules they consider the most important. After that, place all the sticky notes on the board, eliminate duplicates, and let the team members vote by putting a plus sign (or some other sign) on the items they support. Sticky notes that will get more than 50% of the votes can be considered qualified for your ground rules agreement.
To facilitate the meeting on ground rules, you may also divide the board into two parts: On the left, you will place items related to welcomed actions and behavior, and on the right, items related to unacceptable actions and behavior. See an example of such a board:
You may definitely invent and use your method of setting ground rules for teams. However, it is very important to review ground rules from time to time and add or drop some group norms as needed. Over time, certain behaviors or circumstances may encourage the team to create a new rule. On the other hand, with time, some rules may become irrelevant so that they can be dropped.
Most Common Ground Rules
When it comes to ground rules, there is no silver bullet or pre-defined rules that work for every team. Moreover, it is vital to set specific ground rules for your particular project and involve as many team members in this process as possible. People who create ground rules feel more responsible for following them.
For example, I will give here a couple of standard ground rules that can work for any team.
- Communicate openly and honestly. Trust is one of the basic conditions for team and project success.
- Be patient and tolerant. Every voice deserves to be heard, even if people don’t initially agree with the point of view being expressed. Accept that people may solve problems differently, so value the opinions of others as well as your own.
- Share all the relevant information with your team members. If team members don’t share their information, it can lead to incorrect decisions. Even worse, if it’s revealed that someone has withheld the information, it can cause serious problems.
- Participate in all group activities (meetings, for instance). Group work is based on multiple perspectives, so don’t hesitate to express your own opinion.
- Keep commitments and schedules. The team member to whom you have committed relies on you, and it`s entirely possible that his work depends on the result of your work. If you don`t keep your commitment, you may put the whole project at risk.
I hope this ground rules template can help you get started on your ground rules discussion.
Ground Rules for Remote Teams
When your team is spread out among different locations, it definitely affects communication and collaboration and adds some extra items to your ground rules agreement.
One of the most critical differences concerns telecommuting as the primary way of communication. This peculiarity may result in ground rules such as checking all telecommuting tools and devices before meetings or muting microphones during meetings to avoid side noise.
Another issue with remote teams is time zone differences. These may result in additional ground rules and limitations regarding the schedule of team meetings and some norms related to work handover.
Ground Rules Template
To make your life as a project manager easier, I have prepared a template for the Ground Rules. It is available both in Google Docs and in Notion. Hope it will help.
Summary
Now, you can see the value of establishing team ground rules for your project and will practice them with your teams. These agreements really help manage group dynamics and regulate team operations. Teams that don`t set ground rules from the start almost always have an uphill battle to coordinate project work. However, the teams that have pre-defined agreements are usually successful and high-performing.
Please share in the comments whether you use ground rules on your team or not. What difficulties have you faced when establishing team agreements? Maybe you can share how your team’s ground rules have come to your rescue.
If you`re interested in getting more information on the topic, I suggest you read this brochure by Roger Schwarz: Ground Rules for Effective Groups.