Tailor-Made WoW: The Why, When, and How of Team Agreements

Ever been to an outdoor event with no trash cans in sight? Awkward! You're left searching for a place to ditch your debris after every snack or sneeze.

I shove trash in my pockets, hoping to find a bin before I forget and stick my fingers in the mess. My middle child just tosses it on the grass (I swear he was raised better!). Both are undesirable outcomes that could've been prevented.

Most event organizers anticipate this need and select one of the known good ways to address it. They might have servers collect debris, or simply place bins in conveniently obvious locations. For my son, seeing a bin changes his options from "search (urgh, thinking!), carry (urgh, inconvenient!), or litter (easy!)" to "ground (easy) or bin (even easier, because mom won't yell at me)." Since he’s apathetic, not evil, he'll choose the bin.

That's what we want at work too. In a healthy collaborative ecosystem, known good behaviors are easy, default behaviors.

Every team operates within a collaborative ecosystem shaped by elements defined at the organizational level, team-specific practices, and external factors. This ecosystem includes everything from the tech stack to team rituals and learning loops.

When I began this series, I believed every team needed a document outlining their agreed ways of working, especially given the proliferation of collaborative tech and the rise of adaptive teaming, with fluid groups tackling short-term projects. I set out to refresh existing approaches, conducting interviews and research along the way.

I found example agreements in many forms. Collectively, let's refer to them as "WoW Agreements":

In other words…

WoW Agreements Fill Gaps

Now that I understand this better, I no longer believe every team needs a WoW Agreement.

These agreements aren't universally necessary; rather, they fill gaps. Teams typically need WoW Agreements if:

1. They operate beyond what the organization has anticipated and provided for, or

2. They face too many options, making it difficult to identify effective ways of working.

In short, if the team doesn't have a known good way to get a job done, requiring each individual to waste time figuring it out on their own, the team could benefit from a WoW Agreement.

These agreements are most useful when:

• Starting from Scratch:
  Have you ever launched a new startup or community project? Then you've experienced a time when your team was alight with passion and ideas but lacked established processes. In this blank-slate environment, WoW Agreements become crucial, providing structure where none exists. These agreements push your team past the potential quagmires of analysis paralysis (e.g., When should we meet? Where should we put the files? Who will buy the snacks?) so you can focus on your cool new project.

• Innovating at the Edge:
  When your team is tasked with disrupting the status quo, status quo ways of working just won't do. Operating beyond standard protocols, these teams need WoW Agreements to guide their unique approach and clarify the boundaries where innovation yields to the needs of integrating with the broader organization.

• Filling Organizational Gaps:
  Here's why remote team experts champion WoW agreements.
  Many traditional companies hastily transitioned to remote work without establishing guidelines. While mature remote organizations have clear policies on digital availability, communication norms, and work hours, transitioning companies leave it to the teams. In this vacuum, WoW Agreements become crucial. Teams must explicitly define how they'll signal availability, set expectations for response times, and establish core collaboration hours. These agreements fill the void left by the organization, preventing miscommunication and frustration until company-wide remote work policies catch up.

Unclear remote work policies may be the most common reason a team builds a WoW agreement, but that's not the only trend driving their adoption. Consider these increasingly common organizational gaps.

• Gap! Decision-Making Ambiguity

  While some companies define decision-making methods and how to determine decision rights, many don't. This leaves teams adhering to tacit beliefs based on job titles or past practices, often leading to confusion, conflict, and bad decisions. WoW Agreements fill this gap by explicitly outlining the team's chosen decision-making approaches, rights, and collaborative methods.

• Gap! Overwhelming Collaborative Tech
  The promise of productivity gains from collaborative tech often falls short because it takes wads of time to work through all the options. When teams and individuals choose tools based solely on personal preferences, employees must navigate multiple shifting "digital islands." WoW Agreements can standardize tool usage, define file organization, and establish update protocols within a team, creating a more stable digital environment.

• Gap! Multi-Team Participation
  Execs seem to think new initiatives or leadership changes require a fresh draw of the org chart, as if people were playing cards they could reshuffle into a winning hand. Folks find themselves team-hopping and serving on multiple teams simultaneously. Each team develops a unique microclimate within the larger organizational ecosystem. WoW Agreements help team members quickly adapt to these varied environments, outlining specific practices and expectations for each team they join.

• Gap! AI 
  Like, what even are we going to do about that? Or are we? Or... urgh. With so many open questions, WoW Agreements can serve as a flexible framework for addressing evolving concerns, allowing teams to adapt their practices as AI capabilities and organizational policies develop.

Team Agreement Templates Don't Work Because Gaps Vary

I've been struggling to figure out what bugged me about all the existing guides to creating team agreements (my own included), and I feel like I've got it. We haven't been minding the gap.

Each team has a specific gap between what their organization provides and what they need.

Existing WoW templates outline a handful of pre-determined questions, without any consideration for whether:

• The questions already have answers within the organization.

• The team's default way of working meaningfully impairs their success.

• The team can make informed choices.

• The questions have answers that the team can implement on their own.

This matters because it takes time and energy to create and maintain team agreements. That energy should be invested in resolving collaborative friction that's within the team's control and interfering with their success, rather than debating the answers to some expert's top-five list.

So - I suggest that we should appreciatively build on all the deep thinking and wise foundations set by those who have guided us this far, and shift our approach to team agreements.

The Adaptive Approach to Team Agreements

This approach focuses on identifying and addressing the specific gaps in each team's collaborative ecosystem, adapting to their unique needs.

Golden Guideline
Use agreements to reduce collaborative friction.
No friction? No need for more rules.
You hired adults. Trust them to make sound decisions.

How To WoW When Starting from Scratch

When you form a brand-spanking-new team, starting with absolutely nothing, you need to build a collaborative foundation.

At a minimum, that means answering these four questions:

I believe discussing these four questions is the most efficient way for brand-new teams to reach useful agreements about what they're doing and how they'll get it done. These certainly aren't the only questions you might ask, so I've included links to other people's templates in the PDF, too.

Then, from this point out, you have an existing organization. Going forward, you'll run the same evaluation other teams do.

How To WoW When Teaming in an Organization

For teams operating within an existing organization, remember the goal:

Natural, easy, celebrated, no duh awesome. That's what you want.

Execs: Embrace The Organizational Leaders' Mission

As organizational leaders, you want every team focused on delivering value rather than on figuring out how to navigate your environment.

As leaders, you can create an environment where teams can easily deliver value without getting bogged down in figuring out how to navigate your organization. This involves at a minimum:

1. Creating a living, single source of truth Employee Handbook.

2. Thoughtful physical and digital workplace design.

3. Establishing organization-wide alignment, operational, and relational cadences.

There are great reference examples and research for all these. More to come in future articles.

The Team Leaders' Mission

Find and close the gaps that make it difficult for your team to do their unique things in known good ways.

FYI: I'm referring to leadership as a verb rather than a title here. If you suspect your team could benefit from creating some agreements, accept this mission.

To complete your mission as quickly and successfully as possible, follow these rules:

1. No wasted energy.

Before tackling collaborative questions with your team, check:

• Do good answers exist somewhere else in the organization?
  If so, adopting those answers saves you time, distraction, and cognitive overhead. It also prevents cross-team confusion in the future.
  If the answers exist but don't quite cut it, try to adapt before you invent. Avoid creating ways of collaborating that folks will have to learn and unlearn just to work with your team.
  When that's not possible, double check:

• Will answering this question make a significant, valuable difference?
  Make sure you're solving a real problem the team faces. Otherwise, you risk creating rules for rules’ sake and falling prey to many other ugly managerial clichés.

2. Maximum Coverage: Extend beneficial agreements to the largest possible audience.

When your team creates a new agreement, see if others might benefit from it too, so they don't have to waste energy!

For example, let's say you're on the marketing team and you just finalized branding guidelines. Don't squirrel those away in some private marketing hole! Get those posted for the whole organization.

A less obvious example: Let's say your remote team agreed on an asynchronous process for reviewing proposed decisions that improves the quality, speed, and transparency of your decision making. Dang, dawg! That's awesome! Spread that everywhere!

Here’s how.

Step 1: Identify the Gaps. Create a Gap List.

What does your team need to know that isn’t clear now? You’ll find a list of sample questions below. Review these and decide which ones to focus on.

Questions Teams May Need Answered

Here’s a selection of common collaboration questions. Some have simple answers. Others have entire professions dedicated to answering them and benefit from deep thought and extensive documentation. Questions highlighted in yellow are those mentioned most often by remote team experts.

Step 2: Identify Your Zone of Agency

Review your Gap List. Can your team make these decisions? Should they?

This will depend on your group's collaborative style.

• Affiliations: Leadership should set answers.

• Co-Acting groups: Most answers come from charters, bylaws, and legal mandates.

• Shallow Teams: Most answers should be covered in the company handbook; try to minimize local agreements.

• Deep Teams: May need to customize many answers

Use the Circles and Soup exercise to identify the agreements within your team's control. You'll bring these to your team. For those outside your control, plan to work with the folks in charge.

Step 3: Close the Gap! Creating and Maintaining Your WoW Agreement

Now, you have a targeted list of collaboration questions that:

1. Don't have answers,

2. Need answers and

3. Your team has the authority to answer.

Sweet! Do this.

Newer teams should repeat this process frequently (e.g., answering one question every two weeks) until collaboration is smooth. Mature teams should set a regular schedule for refining agreements.

Create an environment that makes it easy and natural to do things in known good ways.

I encourage you to treat tailoring WoW Agreements as a fundamental practice, rather than as a special-occassion workshop activity. This requires ongoing thoughtful consideration of your team's unique needs and context within the larger organizational ecosystem.

To help you on this journey, here’s a 20-page detailed guide to creating WoW Agreements, including the resources from this article and more. You can download it here.

Most collaborative questions don't have simple, one-size-fits-all answers. Each team and organization will need to find their own balance and approach. That's why your feedback is invaluable. As you work through this process, I'd love to hear about your experiences, challenges, and successes. Please share your thoughts and insights in the comments below or reach out directly.

I’m especially keen to hear your stories. How did you make good collaboration obvious for your team?

I also want to express again my deep gratitude to Lisette Sutherland, Founder & CEO at Collaboration Superpowers (LinkedIn), Bud Caddell, Founder & CEO at Nobl (LinkedIn), Gustavo Razetti, Founder & CEO at Fearless Culture (LinkedIn), Gwen Stirling Wilkie, Founder & CEO at Seeds of Transformation, Omni-Working (LinkedIn), Mark Kilby, Founder K5 Labs and Differability (LinkedIn), Jim Benson, Founder & CEO at Modus Institute (LinkedIn), and Chase Warrington, Head of Operations at Doist (LinkedIn) for sharing their experience and guidance.

In future articles, we’ll explore more corners of the ecosystem. We’re diving into creating effective company handbooks, balancing change with stability, and establishing organizational rhythms in the coming months.

Finally, if you aim to evaluate and improve your organization's collaborative environment more broadly, we're here to help. Whether you're a startup finding your footing or an established company seeking to optimize your teamwork, our team of experts can provide tailored guidance and support.

Thank you for your ongoing feedback and support,
Elise

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