Ways of Working (WoW) is a phrase that summarizes how people collaborate, typically focusing on teamwork success. Ways of Working may be also known as working agreements, team arrangements, shared expectations, group understandings, and ground rules.
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
Ways of Working are guidelines that improve teamwork and communication. Ways of Working can define a team's set of expectations for participating, collaborating, and interrelating.
Ways of Working can include ground rules, aspirations, team values, team norms, working agreements, and more. For a deep dive on these see Esther Derby.
-
Ground rules are statements of how people need to behave, for specific times, places, and situations. Example: At our meetings, everyone has the opportunity to speak.
-
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.
-
Team values are statements of what people hold as important. Often, teams make a list of their values by using behavior-related nouns. Example: We value courage, collaboration, respect.
-
Team 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.
-
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.
Be creative. Be constructive. Be collaborative.
Be prepared. Be present. Be productive.
Focus is limited so budget it wisely.
Focus yourself and your team with practices such as TEAM FOCUS, OKR, SBS, VSM, GIST, SMART, etc.
View the issue as “we” not “me”.
Consider what's happening from each person's perspective.
Presume good-faith intentions.
Debate the issue, not the person.
Encourage everyone to participate fully.
Listen actively and attentively.
Emphasize mutual respect.
Emphasize mutual purpose.
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?
Communications are radiated when events happen, so teammates can be in the loop.
Communications provide equitable participation for everyone involved.
Ask for feedback often.
Ensure you’re giving lots of positive feedback.
Prepare the participants. For example "The purpose of this meeting is X because Y".
Plan the outcome. For example "At the end of this meeting we want X because Y".
Use the strengths of "maker's schedule, manager's schedule".
Ensure all stakeholders know the expectations for availability, attendance, and RSVPs.
Voting: thumb up means yes, down means no, sideways means maybe. Everyone votes and the leader tallies.
Clarification: make the letter "C" hand sign. Everyone pauses and the leader figures out what's needed.
Team bonding is good and valuable because it improves communication.
Try multiple kinds of bonding events, such as all-hands, kick-offs, offsites, outings, fun events, etc.
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.
Each teammate gets their own credentials, such as a username, a password, a security badge, etc.
Each teammate knows how to get new credentials, manage them securely, and revoke them if necessary.
Post relevant information prominently, such as phone numbers, wifi codes, room reservations, etc.
Whiteboards are eraseable any time; please erase any whiteboard writing that says "Do not erase".
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.
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.
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent