Make Team Norms The New Normal

There are as many ways to collaborate as there are socks lost in the dryer. We’re constantly making micro-decisions about how to communicate with one another, when to reach out in writing versus in-person, and what technology platform best meets a particular need. Talk about decision fatigue!

Team norms provide a roadmap for how to work together most effectively. When teams use them consistently, they enable speed and ease, eliminating many of the frictions common to day-to-day work. When members of a team rely on their individual preferences instead, the workday is fraught with frustration. While it seems harmless enough, we are inadvertently making life harder for one another all day long.

Imagine this scenario: You and a colleague are working together on a critical presentation for the executive team. You’ve created a shared working space in the cloud where you are collaborating on the material. You provide notes to one another in the comments and delegate tasks – great uses of the technology’s capability.

But then, your collaborator emails you some late-night ideas and attaches an image they would like to include in the presentation. Your boss downloads the presentation and makes comments using call-out boxes, which they then email to you without changing the document name. Now version control is shot and apparently you’re on the hook to reconcile all of the moving parts. Rather than focusing on what really matters – the content – you’re left mopping up a collaborative mess.

Establishing and committing to team norms prevents collaborative snarls. High-performing teams establish shared practices for document collaboration, naming, and storage; communication channels; calendar management; and meeting standards. Here are a few of ours:

  • For quick questions, use an IM platform; for urgent issues only, reach out via text
  • When scheduling meetings, always check calendars and don’t schedule over existing meetings without consulting the individual
  • The subject line of all meeting invitations is a purpose statement, e.g., “Decide on the location for the annual retreat”
  • Email subject lines begin with a bracketed intention to signal to the recipient what response is needed, e.g., [INFORM] or [ACTION]
  • New / updated versions of shared docs are posted on our team platform only – never emailed

While these may seem overly prescriptive, they save meaningful time in the long run.

To decide which norms would be most beneficial, we recommend asking your team to recall the most common frustrations you encounter in collaborating today. Make it safe and fun by submitting them anonymously through a survey platform or, if in person, on slips of paper. Reading them aloud provides a nice catharsis.

Next, have the team generate ideas for what standards they would like to introduce. It can be helpful to post a list of your technology platforms to stimulate the team’s thinking. Once you have a robust list of options, vote on which ones would have a disproportionately positive impact on how the team works together.

Once you have your winners, take them for a test drive. Don’t take on too many behaviors at once. Stick with 3-5 for the first wave and publish them in a shared space. Once you have those mastered, you can gradually add on more. Check in on adoption at a regular cadence and commit to holding one another accountable for maintaining them.

Team norms are a “go slow to go fast” rocket ship for team performance. Jump on yours today.