Ways of working
Ways of Working (WoW) is a phrase that describes how people collaborate. Ways of Working is also known as working agreements, team arrangements, shared expectations, ground rules and group understandings.
You and your teammates can use this document to help with Ways of Working. This document describes principles, values, ground rules, and more, then provides hundreds of examples of Ways of Working created by many teams.
What are Ways of Working?
Ways of Working describes a team's set of expectations for participating, collaborating, and interrelating.
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Principles are fundamental truths that are the foundation for beliefs, behaviors, and reasoning. Principles are intended to be universal and permanent. Examples: "be kind", "bias for action", "encourage participation", "seek improvement", "train as a team", "think big", and "tell the truth".
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Values are virtues that you want such as: kindness, innovation, community, learning, teamwork, honesty. Values can be subjective and impermanent, such as "happy customers this year, large profits next year". Values can be comparative, such as "responding to change over following a plan".
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Ground rules are guidelines of how people need to behave, for specific situations such as meetings, or activities, or tasks. Examples: "At our meetings everyone gets the opportunity to speak", "Communicate directly irrespective of hierarchy", "Use safety gear when working on equipment".
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Aspirations are statements intended to guide interactions and decision making within the group, and also across other groups within the organization. Example: Every challenge is an opportunity to learn.
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Norms are informal implicit standards of behavior that emerge over time from the interactions of the group. Example: By observing the team, we see that teammates are punctual.
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Working agreements are protocols that the group develops together, commits to follow together, and agreed to uphold together. Example: Code is complete when all tests pass.
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Culture is the customs, arts, groups, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group. We advise phasing out the word "culture" for ways-of-working, in favor of "principles", "values", "practices", etc.
Success looks like...
Your ways of working are explicit. Example: they are written in your team's documentation.
Your ways of working are understood. Example: each teammate is familiar with the ideas, and knows where to find the specifics, such as in documentation.
Your ways of working are debatable. Example: how does a teammate suggest changes, or provide comments, etc.?
Your ways of working are alertable. Example: if someone breaks the ways of working, then do all the teammates have the responsbility and capabilty handle the issue effectively?
Resources
Overviews:
Supporting files:
- Adult Principles by John Perry Barlow
- Ground rules at Tesla by Elon Musk
- Ground Rules by Tree Bressen
- Ground rules for effective meetings by Get The Picture
- High-velocity decision making by Amazon
- How we structure our work and teams at Basecamp
- Leadership Principles by United States Marine Corps
- Project management practices by Hacker News participants
- Rules of the Road by Jerry Perenchio
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- Software Engineering at Google
- Software working advice by Cyranix
- Team working agreements example by giffconstable
- The Core Protocols by McCarthy
- The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team
Ideas
For goodness and wellness
Be creative. Be constructive. Be collaborative.
Be prepared. Be present. Be productive.
Be respectful. Be trustable. Be truthful.
For focus and attention
Focus is limited so budget it wisely.
Focus is critical for deep work, so decide on team indicators that mean "do not disturb", then respect them.
Focus yourself and your team with practices such as TEAM FOCUS, OKR, SBS, VSM, GIST, SMART, etc.
For collaborators and partners
View the issue as “we” not “me”.
Consider what's happening from each person's perspective.
Create more understanding, and less conflict.
For respect and honor
Presume good-faith intentions.
Debate the issue, not the person.
Test assumptions and inferences.
For discussions and forums
Encourage everyone to participate fully.
Listen actively and attentively.
Build on one another’s comments, to work toward shared understanding.
For mutual interactions
Emphasize mutual respect.
Emphasize mutual purpose.
Emphasize mutual communication.
For successful teams
Psychological safety: Can we take risks on this team without feeling insecure or embarrassed?
Dependability: Can we count on each other to do high quality work on time?
Impact of work: Do we fundamentally believe that the work we’re doing matters?
For communications
Communications are radiated when events happen, so teammates can be in the loop.
Communications provide equitable participation for everyone involved.
Communications use relevant channels, such as chat, or email, or video, or wiki.
For chat and messaging
Minimize first messages that are vague, such as "Hi" or "Have a minute?". Instead, state your idea, question, etc.
Favor shortcuts such as symbols, hashtags, emojis, etc. Example: "+1" means "I agree", "#todo" means "For our TODO list", and a green-checkmark emoji means "Done".
Prefer using topic channels over direct messaging, because topic channels can help more people, in more ways, over more timelines.
For feedback and advice
Ask for feedback often.
Ensure you’re giving lots of positive feedback.
Formal feedback works best when its SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Timely.
For meetings and briefings
Set the stage. Example: "The purpose of this meeting is X because Y".
Announce the agenda. Example: "The plan of this meeting is X because Y".
Optimize the outcome. Example "At the end of this meeting we want X because Y".
For asynchronous and remote
Ensure that everyone can participate equitably, where they want, when they want.
Structure work and communications for parallel work streams, so people can work on one task while awaiting a response on another task.
If a blocker turns asynchronous work into synchronous work, then work hard to unblock it.
For schedules and calendars
Emphasize time for focus and deep work. Example: use the strengths of "maker's schedule, manager's schedule".
Ensure all stakeholders know the expectations for availability, attendance, RSVP, and the like.
Automate. Example: use a group schedule system that create a calendar event using a group's first available date and time.
For hand signs and visual communication
For votes: thumb up means yes; thumb down means no; thumb sideways means maybe. Everyone votes. The moderator tallies.
For clarification: anyone at any time can ask for clarification, by making the one-hand sign "C". Everyone pauses. The speaker takes charge. The speaker and the asker discuss.
For time out: anyone at any time can ask for a time out, by making the two-hand sign "T". Everyone stops. The moderator takes charge. The moderator and the asker discuss.
For bonding and team events
Team bonding is good and valuable because it improves communication, trust, and teamwork.
Try multiple kinds of bonding events, such as all-hands, kick-offs, offsites, outings, fun events, etc.
Respect people's differences. Examples: people who are in AA may not be able to go to bars for beers; people who have children may not be able to do after-hours events; people who have commitments may not be able to do ad-hoc events.
For orientation and onboarding
We use a "people" document. It lists our names, contact information, roles, responsibilities, etc.
We use a "pitch" document. It summarizes the project and its progress, much like a startup pitch deck.
We use an "onboard" document. It explains how to join our team, how to set up, and how to collaborate.
For credentials and accounts
Each teammate gets their own credentials, such as a username, a password, a security badge, etc.
Each teammate knows how to manage their credentials securely, such as by using a secrets application.
Each teammate knows how to report their credentials as lost, or stolen, or otherwise at risk.
For shared spaces and group areas
Post relevant information prominently, such as phone numbers, wifi codes, room reservations, etc.
If you use confidential information in the shared space, then you must ensure the information stays confidential.
When you finish using a shared space, ensure it's in correct condition for the next people.
For email messages and forum posts
If you need the reader to do something, then write "ACTION NEEDED", "REPLY PLEASE", etc.
If you need the reader to schedule, then write "DUE BY X", "DEADLINE IS X", etc.
If you need the reader to be fast, then write "URGENT", "EMERGENCY", etc.
For safety and reliability
Each teammate knows what to do if another teamate is absent, including who handles what, how, when, and why.
When there's an issue, then we have a way to triage it, handle it, learn from it, and improve because of it.
When we have dangerous setups, we use lockout/tagout.