The 5-Minute Manager - How to create Team Culture

The establishment of clear ground rules gives a team its cultural and psychologically safe baseline. It is a fundamental step in team development.

In the case of a new team, rules also help remove the inevitable confusion and anxiety that usually exists as new team members get to know each other. Establishing team rules is a simple way to negotiate and establish team behaviours and practices, both in general and temporarily say for a project. Team rules increase psychological safety and reduce potential conflict among team members by:

1. Aligning relationships on appropriate and inappropriate behaviours.

2. Making team values explicit.

3. Creating a cultural baseline.

4. Not assigning blame.

5. Allowing legitimate measures in case of non-compliance.

6. Preventing a sense of inequity and injustice from developing within the team.

Team rules are a behavioural framework, an agreement a team makes around the behaviours it will or will not accept. It includes team behaviours and values, decision-making rules, coordinating and communicating, framing expectations such as no assignment of blame in case of failure, dealing with issues, accepting diversity, taking risks, asking for help, mutual support, and accepting diversity appreciation.

For example, if you agree upon honesty as a behaviour in a team rules framework, you prioritise being honest above most other things. If everyone agrees with each other that the team will be 'supportive', then it's much easier to reward supportive behaviour. At the same time, if someone in the team isn't being supportive, it's much easier for anyone to say, "we said we were going to be supportive, and I felt you weren't when you did XYZ". This removes the personal attack and is much easier to manage and deliver.

Why have Team Rules?

1. The establishment of clear ground rules gives a team its cultural baseline.

2. Team rules are a behavioural framework, an agreement a team makes around the behaviours it will or will not accept. It includes topics such as team behaviours and values, decision-making rules, how to coordinate and communicate, how to frame expectations such as no assignment of blame in case of failure, how to deal with issues, accepting diversity, taking risks, asking for help, mutual support, and appreciation.

3. Establishing team rules is a simple way to negotiate and establish team behaviours and practices, both in general and temporarily say, for a project.

4. We want team rules because it is a simple way to describe team behaviours and practices, both in general and temporarily, say, for a project. Team rules increase psychological safety and reduce potential conflict.

Example Team Rules

Neglecting your family is unacceptable.

We actively support our staff.

Everyone has a voice.

If it's not written down, it doesn't exist.

Problems are fixed once.

Team members do not speak over or interrupt others.

Be prepared to present evidence.

Never assign blame, only criticise a lack of process or a bad procedure.

Make everyone feel that there are no negative consequences for self-image, status, or career based on what they say.

Never ridicule, humiliate, or show a lack of respect to anyone.

Always conduct yourself professionally.

Asking for and offering help is expected.

Failure is ok; having a go is what's important.

Management submissions are restricted to one page.

Our team is non-hierarchical, and we are non-competitive.

It's not what you say but how you say it.

Sometimes it's ok to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

Team Rules Exercise

Break into groups and answer these two questions:

1. What is acceptable? What are the behaviours we want to abide by in our team?

What is IN? e.g., Being on time, having no meetings on Friday, being open to new ideas, completing work as agreed, informing on progress, and doing it right the first time.

2. What is unacceptable? What are the behaviours we do not want in our team?

What is OUT? e.g., Being disengaged, a one-fits-all solution, being late, applying procedures blindly.