One of the best kept/secretive powerful teams is how they are actually guided by and stick to a team work agreement. This work agreement could also be described as team building, team standards or a clear type. Employment contracts are not new, but they are usually ignored when a new team is formed and tends to form while the team matures and sees the need. Keeping and respecting a fresh work agreement is really the place where the magic happens. I can`t tell you how many teams forget it after spending a few hours creating it and not using it. People, especially engineers, are not very good at resolving conflicts, and when that happens, the best way to do that is to pay attention to a work agreement. The other important aspect of the teamwork agreement is that the team maintains and uses them frequently. It is also the team-centered guide that describes how the team works and should be updated when a new case becomes relevant. The theory says that work agreements (AV) are a series of rules that are generated by the whole team in terms of mentality and behavior within the team. It reduces unwanted friction ending between team members.
My first experience in team launch came while I was working alongside Joe Justice. He taught me everything about building a team, creating a work agreement and get on the right foot. Since then, I`ve created dozens of teams and I`ve constantly optimized the process to make it better over time. Gitlab, the open-source development tool company, has given a working agreement in its distributed team culture, which describes how remote work should be done. They call it “The Remote Manifesto,” which is part of onboarding for new employees. Steve begins to ask for proposed agreements in his first priority area: Daily Scrum Start Time. After any possible work agreement, it uses the Decider protocol[2] to quickly examine the possibility of consensus. If there is no immediate consensus, the person who said “no” to an idea suggests what they see as a better idea. If more than one person has a problem, everyone is expected to offer a better idea. If too many people say “no,” the applicant should consider withdrawing the proposal. In the case of Steve`s team, the team has its first work arrangements after 20 minutes: a team member can propose a change to the work agreement at any time, there should also be a process in which this happens and all team members should be part of that process.