Creating Team Norms

Now that we have established the essentials of team norms, the next step is to create these

norms so that each team member learn to interact with fellow members, as well as those

outside of the team, effectively and successfully. If you lead a team that has difficulty of

interacting with each other, perhaps you need to follow these steps in creating and developing

team norms.

Form a charter – Draft a list of proposed team norms that you want to project in your team. You

could also follow team norms from other work groups. You could also advise your co-members

to make up their own ideas for team norms.

Gather your members – Schedule and hold a meeting to introduce the proposed team norms to

your members. Make sure that all team members must be present at the meeting so that the

norms can be “owned” by all of them. If one member is absent or does not attend, postpone the

meeting for another day.

Let an outside person facilitate – It is best that a person outside of your team facilitate the

meeting so that members would not feel that they are being “dictated” by a new set of rules. In

the absence of a facilitator, let another team member lead the meeting.

Let ideas flow – Begin the brainstorming by brining out each of the member’s drafts for a team

norm. Let them provide additional ideas as they come along. The more ideas generated, the

better. Remember not to comment or critique on the ideas, and instead list everything on the

board so the whole group can see them.

Discuss about these ideas – Once the proposed norms are generated on the board, you might

want to cross out redundant ideas off the list. You can decide to keep all the group norms
listed, or you can discuss to determine the group norms your group wishes to keep. Although

there is no recommended number of group norms you can keep, it is best to let common sense

prevail when you find there are one too many guidelines. You could also add new group norms

over time if the team sees it fit.

Only pay attention to how you interact – Group norms does not concern all group behavior and

therefore should not be legislated. What needs attention are the important interaction areas

including effective conflict communication, and keeping commitments.

Commit to the norms – Once the set of guidelines has been agreed upon by all members, they

are also bound to commit into applying the team norms, as well as telling each other if they

believe a group member is violating these norms.

Distribute the list of team norms– After the meeting, distribute to all member the group norms

that they have agreed upon.

Evaluate the team norms – After a certain period of time, such as every three months, evaluate

how the team norms are affecting the group into achieving its business goals as well as its

members’ relationship goals.