How Teams Can Create Guidelines for Working Together
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Many faculty introduce community agreements at the beginning of the semester to establish guidelines for -- and build consensus around -- how they and their students will interact with each other as a community of learners.
Making space for everyone to discuss their needs and hopes sets the stage for future communication and collaboration, while allowing the group to anticipate how they might move forward in the face of conflict or disagreement -- well before the fact. Developed collectively, with the aim of including all voices, community agreements foster respect, inclusion, and mutual accountability. As such, they are a tool that community organizers, instructors, and facilitators regularly employ, and their applicability extends to the workplace.
Beverly Belisle, former director of the Mosaic Center for Students of Color at the University of Vermont, has used them with student groups and staff members alike, because "all human interactions and relationships stand to benefit from guardrails." She adds, "In any group, damage can be done. Community agreements are an invitation for everyone to weigh in on how we will be together. Being intentional about this can help us prevent unnecessary harm."
Defining Community Agreements
Teddy Walsh, manager of student advising and mentorship at Georgian College, says that when introducing community agreements to a team, it is imperative to share how they may benefit the group, ask questions, and listen. In his experience, buy-in happens when staff understand the underlying "why." When making the case for community agreements, share that your hope is to set the tone for how you'll work together. Community agreements can help eliminate ambiguity and provide structure for everyone. They also promote peer accountability. Walsh shares, "This reduces the need for management to intervene and mediate conflict and prepares junior team members for management roles where they'll be expected to lead those difficult conversations."
It's important that everyone understand that community agreements are distinct from policy, rules, or demands that are enforced by an institution or administration. Unlike an employee code of conduct, they require active buy-in, are created collaboratively by the members of the community who will uphold them, and can be altered and updated as often as necessary.
Often, community agreements center interpersonal interactions. Some examples include:
- We all make mistakes. We will extend grace, ask for support, and offer help.
- Be present. During meetings and interactions, we will offer our full attention and be mindful of side conversations and our technology usage.
- One mic. We will not speak over each other.
Community agreements can also be more procedural:
- Follow-up. We agree to share summaries and action steps after meetings.
- Clarity around timelines. We will indicate urgency in our subject lines and be clear about when/whether we require a response.
- Meeting requests. When requesting meetings, we will share what we want to discuss and the questions we have.
In short, community agreements can be whatever it is your team needs them to be. You'll know you're on the right track, Walsh says, "when staff feel the agreements promote or reinforce values that complement or reflect their own." If someone doesn't feel an agreement aligns with their values, it's a sign there isn't consensus. If there isn't consensus, there aren't community agreements.
Developing and Implementing Community Agreements
There are as many ways to develop community agreements as there are groups of people. Some start by talking through an existing list of agreements, deciding what to adopt, tailor, discard, and add. Others may start by asking everyone to freely write what they need and expect from their work environment and colleagues to feel respected and work effectively. Then they'll share what they've written with a partner, in a collaborative document, or on a whiteboard. The team may then discuss the proposed agreements, identify commonality, and ask questions as they develop and finalize the list.
Encouraging staff to share their whys behind any agreement they propose can go a long way in fostering understanding and decreasing the likelihood that it will be dismissed as punitive or arbitrary. Take, for example, the aforementioned agreement concerning meeting requests. One colleague may think this agreement stems from frustration with the excessive number of meetings or demands over-formality. In reality, the request may come from an employee who worries she's going to be reprimanded or fired every time someone senior invites her to meet. Knowing that the purpose of that meeting will be to answer specific questions could alleviate her anxiety and provide her time to prepare.
Walsh likes to start by "asking colleagues what they need in order to bring their best selves to the table." He's fond of having team members respond to the prompt, "What helps a team? What hurts a team?" The specific behaviors that staff want to promote or discourage serve as a foundation for the agreements the group then develops. For example, someone who has witnessed disrespectful comments, curt emails, and belittling responses stifle group interactions might propose that everyone lead with kindness. After discussion, this may grow into an agreement such as "We will approach communication courteously, with grace, respect, and gratitude" or "We each commit to speaking to others how we wish to be spoken to." Because "leading with kindness" means different things to different people, it's worthwhile to unpack each agreement as a collective, inviting staff to paraphrase the agreement in their own words, share why it matters to them, or offer concrete examples of what it would look like in practice.
Belisle describes community agreements as "trial and error." Early on in the conversation, acknowledge that any agreements reached will not be etched in stone, rather they will be reconsidered and updated on an ongoing basis. This gives the group space to always consider whether the agreements are serving the moment and to acknowledge that needs and circumstances evolve.
As agreements are developed, it's imperative to discuss what will happen if they are broken. How will the group hold each other accountable, address the impact, and work toward repair? What steps should someone take when they don't feel the agreements are working? As helpful as they are, community agreements aren't a cure-all. Be transparent about this with your colleagues. Rather than eliminate any tension and harm that may occur, agreements provide a framework to return to when things get messy. Think of community agreements as a map that can be used, when beginning a journey or later incurring obstacles, to guide your team back in the direction of civility and care.
