The Team Charter (as configured for an MBA Team)

The imperative is to develop a “Team Charter” for use as guidance in your project / organization Team. The Team Charter will consist of two critical elements:

First: a Team Mission Statement based the following “stem sentence” format:

Our mission is to ____________________________________________________________ (broad general statement of the overall mission of the team)

e.g. : Our mission is to ensure the deepest level of learning of all members of the team as possible through the production of consistently high quality group products

In a way which _____________________________________________________________ (more specific statements of both sub-goals and values)

e.g. In a way which: . ensures that we work as a team, not as a working group; . focuses on the learning, not the grade; . focuses on all levels of learning in the program simultaneously (courses, team effectiveness, individual growth)

So that ____________________________________________________________________ (statements of the desired outcomes from working on the mission)

e.g. So that: . each of us as individuals consistently learn new knowledge and skills through group product development . we as a group learn how to deal with group challenges effectively.

As evaluated by ____________________________________________________________ (listing of specific measures that will be used to evaluate progress)

e.g. The measures that we will use to measure our success are the following: . measurement of our team climate on a quarterly basis (Group Satisfaction Index) . individual course grades and feedback (shared within the group).

Second: a listing of the team norms along with specific behaviors that are associated with each of the norms. Generally, these are generated through discussion of past experiences, good and bad, that team members have had on other teams. The final list of norms should be specific and measurable through observation in the real life of your team.