Team Agreements 2: What Works in Practice & What Doesn't

Second in a four-part series on updating our approach to team agreements

Author

Elise Keith
May 03, 2024

Happy almost-the-weekend to you!

It’s time for part two of our four-part interview series on team agreements. We’re on the hunt for golden tips and reliable advice that we can use to get these agreements ready for a future where adaptive teaming is the norm.

In the first episode, six marvelous collaboration experts shared their thoughts about What Team Agreements Are and When Teams Need Them.

Today, we're sorting the essential agreements from the optional extras. Of all the possible agreements teams could make, which prove most useful over time? And which ones sound good, but rarely transition from nice ideas into daily practices?

🚀 Episode Title: Future-Fit Team Agreements 2: What Works & What Doesn't

🔍 Episode Description: In this episode, we hear from seven pioneering experts about the specific agreements they find most helpful, some that rarely work, and a few common traps teams encounter after creating their first team agreement.

🎧 Listen Now: here or watch on YouTube here.

👉 Episode Timestamps:

  • 01:38 - Chase Warrington: Doist's 10 communication principles

  • 02:09 - Gwen Wilkie on meetings

  • 02:50 - Lisette Sutherland on Communication

  • 03:50 - Gustavo Razetti on Communication

  • 04:25 - Mark Kilby on Respect

  • 05:27 - Lisette: Learning Communication from Astronauts

  • 07:35 - Bud Caddell on Rituals

  • 09:10 - Gwen: Collaboration & Relationships

  • 10:29 - Lisette: Appropriate Teambuilding

  • 14:27 - Jim Benson Shows an Agreement in Action

  • 18:02 - What Doesn't Always Work: Decision Making

  • 19:37 - Chase: Too Rigid or Too Impersonal

  • 20:06 - Bud: Assuming Psychological Safety

  • 22:16 - Gustavo: Blindly Following a Script

  • 23:35 - Bud: Dogma without Outcome Clarity

  • 24:36 - Gwen: Change Takes Time

  • 26:44 - Bud: Pay Attention to Other Teams

  • 28:46 - Jim: Give People Permission to Care

🎧 Listen Now: here or watch on YouTube here.

About Our Guests

🌟 Our Guests:  Wait, seven? There were only six experts in the last episode - what happened?

We’re excited to welcome Chase Warrington to the conversation. He joins Gustavo Razetti, Jim Benson, Gwen Stirling Wilkie, Bud Caddell, Mark Kilby, and Lisette Sutherland. Sort of.

When I invited our guests to share their insights, I gave them a choice of a video or written interview. Chase, who was Head of Remote at the time, chose to reply in writing. Since then, Chase recently took on a new role as Head of Operations at Doist, joining other Heads of Remote in transitioning to Operations roles as remote work becomes simply "work". My request landed with a busy guy in transition. His reply demonstrates the power of flexibility and asynchronous collaboration!

That said, everyone else chose to share a video interview. So – to get Chase’s ideas into the mix – we enlisted CAMILO - AMERICAN VOICE NARRATOR (an 🤖 AI voice supplied by ElevenLabs) to bring voice to Chase’s writing.

What a strange and wonderful world this is.

To learn more about and connect with our guests, visit their websites and follow them on LinkedIn:

Alright - two interviews down, two to go.

What’s standing out to you? What do you think should absolutely for sure become part of future team agreements? What would you change in your practice now?

Take a listen and share your insights and questions in the comments. Then, stay tuned for more answers in the episodes to come.

– Elise

P.S. Did you catch our interview with Alison Wood Brooks? She has me hooked on YouTube videos of folks telling dad jokes. 🤣 
So far, Bros in Hats are my favorite. ❤️ it. If you know of others, please send ‘em my way!

This week’s article is sponsored by The Rundown AI.
Interested in sponsoring future articles? Get in touch.

Keep up with AI

How do you keep up with the insane pace of AI? Join The Rundown — the world’s largest AI newsletter that keeps you up-to-date with everything happening in AI, and why it actually matters in just a 5-minute read per day.

Reply

or to participate.