Team norms and working agreement template

Fill in the template

TEAM WORKING AGREEMENT

Norm
What it looks like in practice
How we will notice if it slips

1.
   Norm: ______________________
   What it looks like in practice: ______________________
   How we will notice if it slips: ______________________

2.
   Norm: ______________________
   What it looks like in practice: ______________________
   How we will notice if it slips: ______________________

3.
   Norm: ______________________
   What it looks like in practice: ______________________
   How we will notice if it slips: ______________________

4.
   Norm: ______________________
   What it looks like in practice: ______________________
   How we will notice if it slips: ______________________

5.
   Norm: ______________________
   What it looks like in practice: ______________________
   How we will notice if it slips: ______________________

Get the editable version: this template as a Word file with a worked example, in the Change Toolkit. Or learn to use it on your own change in the course Leading Change with Evidence.

How to use it well

These steps are practice suggestions, not tested findings.

Write them together. Ask each person to write down one thing that helps the team work well and one thing that gets in the way. Group the answers, then turn them into norms. If the manager writes them alone, they are the manager's rules, not the team's.

Make each norm observable. "We respect each other" cannot be checked. "We let people finish before responding" can. The second column on the template is there to force that step.

Include the uncomfortable ones. The norms that matter most during a change are about raising problems, disagreeing with the boss and admitting mistakes. If the list has none of these, ask why.

Keep it short. A short list the team actually uses beats a long one on a poster.

Check them on a rhythm. At each regular review, ask which norm slipped and what made it slip. Change the norm or the conditions, not only the people.

Show new members. A written agreement saves new members from having to guess the rules.

What the research says

No study in the Evidence Library behind this site tests writing team norms or a working agreement, so treat this template as a practical tool. The nearest evidence is on psychological safety, the belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risks such as speaking up (see psychological safety).

A small, tested gain from team sessions. In a cluster-randomized trial of 56 hybrid work teams (478 people), teams that took part in two coach-led sessions using team-regulatory strategies reported more support for flexible work and slightly higher psychological safety than waitlist teams, and the gain in psychological safety held at 9 weeks (Althammer et al., 2025, rated Medium in the Evidence Library after a full-text read). In raw terms the change in psychological safety was tiny, and all measures were self-rated.

Listening as a norm. Across five studies by the same authors (744 people), being listened to by a supervisor was associated with more creativity, partly through psychological safety; in their vignette experiment the effect was small (Castro et al., 2018, rated Medium after a full-text read). A norm about listening is a reasonable bet on that evidence, not a proven one.

A short manager training did not change fairness ratings overall. In a cluster-randomized trial of 46 departments, a 90-minute training for managers did not change subordinates' overall ratings of organizational justice, or fairness, at 3 months (Nakamura et al., 2016, rated High after a full-text read). A single session is unlikely to be enough by itself, so the template adds a checking column and a regular review. That is a practice suggestion, not a tested finding.

How it maps to the Unfrozen Loop

1. Week 0
   Before you start
2. 1
   Surface both ways
3. 2
   Make sense together, top included
4. 3
   Start it close to the work
5. 4
   Review on a rhythm, then hold the pace

   Check the agreement at your regular review. Ask which norm slipped this cycle and what made it slip.

6. 5
   The middle’s own weather
7. Ring
   Safe to speak, and speaking changes something

   Norms about raising problems and disagreeing are the culture ring written down. The ring asks two things, whether it is safe to speak and whether speaking changes something, so write a norm for each.

Highlighted parts are the ones this idea speaks to. The mapping is my reading, not a tested finding. See the whole Loop and the evidence for each part.