Documents and Tools to Improve Team Effectiveness

Several tools and strategies can help teams improve their functioning and productivity. Some examples include using the following documents:

• Team Charter. Identifies rules and expectations agreed upon by the team, as well as individual member roles.
• Meeting-Related Documents.
• Meeting Agenda. Outlines main points for discussion at a meeting.
• Meeting Minutes. Record decisions and relevant discussion points for a meeting.
• Work Log. Records the tasks and time spent for each team member.
• Status Report or Status Update. Records the completed tasks and work left to complete.
• Gantt Chart or Task Schedule. Breaks down tasks and their estimated duration over the work period.

Team Charter

While all members of a project team may be working toward the same goals, they may have different visions of what a successful and productive team dynamic looks like. Each member also knows their schedules, strengths, and weaknesses better than the others. Further still, it is impossible to predict what difficulties may emerge as the team works toward their project goals.

Composing a team charter (sometimes called a group contract) is an effective strategy for addressing potential obstacles to group harmony and goal fulfillment. This is because a well- crafted team charter ensures that every team member articulates and negotiates their expectations with the group from the beginning.

A comprehensive yet adaptable team charter should be drafted and agreed upon by all members, and should address the following concerns:

• Member roles and responsibilities. These should be clearly defined, with some flexibility to avoid an overly rigid hierarchy (such as members alternating secretarial and management roles).
• Group member expectations. These are expectations both in completing the work and engaging in discussion on the project. There should also be discussion of consequences for failing to meet expectations, as it is best to determine consequences when everyone is level-headed and before anyone has disappointed their teammates.
• Procedures for conflict resolution and amending the charter. These procedures could include protocol for addressing disagreements and “firing” a member.
• A work schedule or task schedule and timeline. This should cover when members are and are not available, deadlines for different project components, and when/how often group members are expected to meet.
• Division of labor on project deliverables. These details include who will work on presentation visuals, what sections of a written report will be drafted by whom, and how the editing and revising will occur. These tasks should be clearly articulated and fairly distributed.