5 Steps To Establishing Team Agreements That Last: The Foundation of Trust and Collaboration

The most effective teams share more than just goals—they share a set of agreements on how they’ll work together. Without them, teams can drift into confusion, frustration, and misalignment.

---

What Are Team Agreements?

Team agreements are a set of clearly defined behaviors and expectations you and your team commit to.

 They’re not "rules" from leadership—they’re co-created guidelines that:

• Provide context (why we do what we do)

• Create clarity (how we work together)

• Build psychological safety (a space where people feel safe to speak up)

Why Team Agreements Matter

 Without shared agreements, teams often run into:

• Misaligned expectations

• Avoidance of tough conversations

• Burnout from unclear roles

• Erosion of trust

---

How to Create Team Agreements:

Step-By-Step

1. Assess your team’s effectiveness

   • Identify what’s working well and what needs improvement.

     
     

2. Brainstorm agreements

   • Capture ideas without judgment—this is about possibilities, not policies.

     
     

3. Align on the most important agreements

   • Define what each agreement looks like in action so there’s no ambiguity.

     
     

4. Define how you’ll use them

   • Deciding when/ how you’ll use them, helps to ensure you’re all speaking the same language.

     
     

5. Use and then adjust the agreements

   • Check in periodically to see if they’re still serving the team and be open to changing them as needs evolve.

     
     

When agreements are in place, they become your playbook for handling disagreements, celebrating wins, and keeping projects moving without friction.

---

Examples of Team Agreements in Action 

• We speak directly to each other when concerns arise. No side conversations.

• We start meetings on time and end with clear next steps.

• We assume good intent, but clarify when something feels unclear.

• We always do the next hard thing (like sharing feedback with one another).

Questions To Spark The Conversation

• How are we working together on a scale from 1–10?

• What’s something we’re doing as a team that's working really well?

• What are some things you wish we did differently?

---

The Bottom Line

Team agreements aren’t about restricting behavior—they’re about creating a shared language for collaboration.

When done well, they transform team culture from reactive to proactive, and from fragmented to fully aligned.

To learn more, you can dive deeper into this article about team agreements or you can connect with one of our coaches to learn more about how Raise The Bar can help unlock your team’s potential.

---