I. TEAM CONTRACT
The purpose of the team contract is to develop a statement of the team's purpose, primary goals
and the duties/role of each team member including how leadership functions will be carried out.
You should carefully describe what is expected from each member of the team. Successful teams
have clear direction for team and clear about roles played. Sample questions to address:
1. What is our team's purpose or mission?
2. What is our team's the primary outcomes or goals?
3. What are duties/role of each team member? What is expected of each team member?
4. How will the team handle the leadership/facilitation/management activities?
5. Come up with a team name that reflects your team's purpose, outcomes, etc.
You are to write a team contract for your team.
II. CREATING YOUR TEAM'S CODE OF CONDUCT
OUTCOME::
Successful teams have either explicit or implicit rules that guide their behavior. A code of conduct
states the norms or ground rules for team to follow. Ground rules are team guidelines or
outcomes that the team will agree to follow to ensure high team performance and satisfaction. For
ground rules to be useful, everyone one must understand them, agree on their meanings
(importance of evidence), and commit to using them. Ground Rules should address both taskoriented and people-related issues.
Evidence:
1-2 page document summarizing your team's ground rules/norms and the evidence you would
see-hear-feel to know ground rule is being followed.
SUGGESTED PROCEDURE/AGENDA
1. Brainstorm a list of norms or ground rules that will affect how your team will operate. Make sure
that some of these norms are related to task and some are related to group dynamics (people).
2. For each norm, identify what behavior you would see, hear, and feel if this norm were accepted
by the team (evidence?). Discuss some hypothetical situations to see how it would work. This will
help you develop evidence.
3. Check for consensus on the content and wording of your code of conduct. Can every team
member agree to honor it as it stands?
4. Have each team member make a verbal commitment to follow the code of conduct.
ISSUES TO CONSIDER PUTTING IN YOUR CODE
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What "on time" and "meeting attendance" mean (both in face-to-face and virtual modes)?
How will relevant information be shared?
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How will you discuss "nondiscussable" issues?
How will you keep team focused, committed and energized?
How will decisions be made?
How will conflict/disagreements be handled? (What procedures will you use?)
What behaviors should be encouraged? Avoided?
What happens when ground rule is broken? How will you handle exceptions?
What recourse will you take when a team member does not perform agreed to
responsibilities? In other words, what happens when one of the team members lets the
others down?
How will specific roles (activities, tasks) be assigned for team projects?
How will team members give each other feedback on their performance in team?
How will team self-critique itself?
SOME SAMPLE CODES OF CONDUCT FROM WEB
NOTE: These are not suggested as excellent examples, only to illustrate the wide range of
application a code of conduct can have:
Code of Conduct Advisory Committee http://www.wmc.com/about/conduct/committee.htm
Rules and Regulations for Student Behavior http://www.palomar.edu/library/conduct.htm
III. CREATING YOUR TEAM'S COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES OR MEDIA PLAN
One of the key aspects of teams is that they successfully communicate in ways that are effective
for the team. Briefly outline the following in as much detail needed so that I can clearly
understand the media in which your team will interact: Preferences: procedures and media
preferences you will use to contact each other?
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Media preferences: how will use various media? Face-to-face, email, phone, electronic
communication (eg., Sametime) and workspaces (eg., Teamroom), etc.
What technology types to use for what different types of communication?
What information will you put in your Team workspace (Teamroom)
Will you have private conversations or will you do all your work out in the open in
electronic spaces?
How you will ensure that you are effectively communicating with each other?