[teampractices] Team Canvas: a process for forming (or re-forming) teams

[Kevin Smith]

Last night, I attended a meetup[1] where we learned about the Team
Canvas[2] approach to establishing how a team will operate. It roughly
replaces the "Team Norms" or "Working Agreements" development, and is
structured as a 2-hour session (or 30 minutes for the abridged "basic"
version).

Rather than jumping straight to working agreements, the canvas has
time-boxed segments to have team members share both things about themselves
individually (e.g. strengths) as well as things about the group (e.g.
common goals). Within each segment, prompting questions give a structure
that makes it easy for individuals to participate.

By the time the group gets to the point of listing rules, they have a much
better shared understanding, so that part goes quickly and smoothly (at
least in theory).

The work can be done with sticky notes, or electronically. Some tools (like
Trello) actually include pre-built templates for the Canvas system.

Some tips from the presenter last night:

   - It's important for each person to use a different color sticky note,
   so their voice is visually represented in the shared space.
   - Even if the paper output doesn't seem impressive, the shared work done
   by the team is where the real value lies..
   - At least for the "complete" version, an external facilitator is
   important, so all the team members can participate fully.
   - The team should understand the types of conversations that will be
   involved, so they don't freak out when they arrive.
   - However, it's probably better not to share the detailed materials with
   the team in advance--you want their thoughts in the moment, not some
   over-processed watered-down version.
   - It's not just for forming: A team should probably go through the
   exercise again every few months, or when members are added or removed.

I haven't done enough team-forming/charters/norms/working agreements work
to know how this compares to other systems. But it sounded like something I
would be interested in trying at some point.

[1] https://www.meetup.com/BeyondAgile/events/243808919/
[2] http://theteamcanvas.com/


Kevin Smith
Engineering Program Manager, Wikimedia Foundation
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