Team Work and Setting Team Norms
What are ‘Norms’ ?
Why are ‘Norms’ important for Team Work?
Norms are ways of working together that promote open dialogue, participation, trust and
productive work. Norms are divided into two categories: procedural and interpersonal. Norms
should be set and agreed upon by the whole group.
The facilitator along with the entire group, have responsibility for ensuring that the norms are
respected and for redirecting the group when they are not. Norms can be changed and added to
over time. It is important that when a new member joins the group they are made aware of the
norms followed.
Procedural Norms to Consider
Logistics: Meeting time, place, duration and frequency
Time: Start time, finish time, punctuality and attendance
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Norms can change over time.
It is important that when a new member joins the group they are made aware of the
norms followed.
Team members will need to support, plan, share vision and discover how to
build on the strengths of the school.
Strong management representation is needed on the Literacy Core Team to
support the work of the Team.
Team Work and Setting Team Norms
Interpersonal Norms to Consider
‘A river without banks is a pond. Likewise, a team without relationship norms
leaves itself open to potential interpersonal problems.’
Ken Blanchard
Courtesy: Listening, interruptions, equal participation, dealing with
disagreements, respect, empathy and sharing the workload.
Workload Assignment: How will work load be assigned? How will conflicts
with existing workloads be settled?
http://www.scoe.org/files/setting-norms.pdf
The role of Norms in effective teams...
• Help the group or organisation survive
• Clarify or simplify behavioural expectations
• Help individuals avoid embarrassing situations
• Clarify the group’s central values and/or unique identity.
Activities for setting norms – Hopes and Fears Exercise
Post It, Vote It:
1. The Facilitator gives each team member four post it notes.
2. Each team member writes a norm- a statement about how they want the group to
work together on each of the post-its.
3. Each member reads their post it aloud to the group and places it on a chart labelled
with one of two categories- procedural norms and interpersonal norms.
4. Contributions with similar suggestions are grouped together e.g. ‘everyone gets a
chance to speak’, ‘take turns speaking’ to form a norm i.e. ‘Make sure everyone is
heard’
5. The group then discusses the norms and reaches agreement.
6. The norms are written down and brought along to each meeting.
Hopes and Fears:
1. The facilitator asks team members to write down their greatest hope for and greatest
fear for the task at hand.
2. If time permits they share these with a partner.
3. Team members call out their hopes and fears and they are listed on separate chart
sheets.
4. The facilitator takes feedback from the members e.g. What did you notice while
doing this activity? What was the impact of expressing negative thoughts.
5. This is followed by norm setting. The facilitator asks ‘What norms do we realise to
increase the likelihood that our hopes will be realised and our fears allayed’?
6. These can then be listed as outlined above in Post It Vote It.