Bring your team together with a charter
This team charter template can be completely customized to outline your team’s skills, objectives, and working styles for high-impact projects
Increase the visibility of your team with Qatalog directory
Try QatalogWhat is a team charter?
A team charter is a document that teams use to optimize collaboration while working on an assignment. It outlines the members of the team in addition to the team’s goals, its working norms, its measurements of success, its quality standards, and its core values.
Team charters are used for ensuring all team members are on the same page when it comes to the project’s purpose, the team’s working style, and the assignment’s direction before any other work is done. It’s a North Star to refer to when conflict or confusion arises, as well as to communicate roles, tasks, and a decision-making process for a project manager.
What is included in a team charter?
A team charter includes any direction, clarification, or agreement a team needs in order to function and work well together. Typical elements in a team charter might include:
- The purpose for the team’s existence
- List of team members and their areas of ownership
- Team objectives and goals, alongside measurements of success
- Group norms to establish a working style and decision-making process
- Communication guidelines for responsiveness expectations and meeting cadence
- Timeline for completing subtasks and the overall assignment
- Budget and resources
How do I write a team charter statement?
To write a team charter statement, it’s recommended that you work off of a pre-designed team charter template so that you don’t overlook any essential elements of the agreement. You can use this free team charter template, available in Google Docs. Once you’re there, click “File,” then “Make a copy,” and you’ll be prompted to create your own editable charter template.
Once this step is complete, work your way through the team charter template, discussing the document’s elements with your team to get their input for the agreement. Specifically, make sure everyone is comfortable with each of their roles and responsibilities, the proposed deadlines for team contributions, and overall team working style so that everyone’s time and preferences are valued.
Once everyone shares their thoughts, the team’s leader should distill everything into a concise team charter. After it’s complete, the team members can review it, request revisions to the proposed process, and then get to work.
How do I embed a team charter into the team?
A team charter needs to be instilled as a lifeblood for the team to be successful. However, it might not help your team stay focused and productive unless everyone on the team buys into its contents. Here are a few ways you can embed the team charter into your team.
- Source honest opinions up-front. Encourage all team members to let their voices be heard during the drafting stage of the document
- Hold team members accountable. If one team member doesn’t honor their commitments, deadlines, or agreed-upon quality of work, it could create friction on the team
How to increase the visibility of your team in an org?
A cohesive directory that is connected to your projects will instantly increase your team’s visibility. And when the whole org adopts a work hub, cross-team collaboration gets that much easier.
