A Team Charter is a written document created by colleagues within a team to purposefully communicate and work together. Co-creating a Team Charter is a way of establishing clarity of purpose, defining operational responsibilities within and for the team, and a way to ensure challenges can be approached respectfully and with accountability.
Ongoing maintenance and review of a Team Charter supports teams as they evolve and develop, for example when team members change and as new working patterns develop. Ongoing purposeful communication about how we want to work together is beneficial to all members of the team, and is helpful for new team members too.
Creating a Team Charter can be led by the manager, group or team lead, or by a member of the team, or as a peer activity. Everyone will be involved, and there are various ways of approaching it. See the guidance and template below.
Team Charter template - text only version (Word)