Every team needs a Decision-Making Work Agreement that clearly defines how decisions are made and who makes them. Creating a general agreement and putting it into your team’s Operating System’s Business Plan as a team Work Agreement makes good business sense.
If you do not currently have a Decision-Making team agreement or you have not updated it recently, I highly recommend you do that as soon as it is practical.
Incidentally, Decision-Making is #18 in the Team Performance Factor Assessment that you will use every 90 days to keep your team focused and on track. See Team Operating SystemRMT’s Team Operating System is a six-step, 90-day, continuous improvement system that organizes team functions to increase the likelihood of achieving customer satisfaction. More.
To learn more, pick up a copy of Right-Minded Teamwork in Any Team: The Ultimate Team-Building Method to Create a Team That Works as One.
In the book, How to Facilitate Team Work AgreementsA Work Agreement is a collective promise made by teammates to transform non-productive behavior into collaborative teamwork behavior. More: A Practical, 10-Step Process for Building a Right-Minded Team That Works as One, you will find two real agreement examples. The first one is a behavioral team Communication Work AgreementWhat you think – your thought system – drives your communication in one of two ways. You either communicate as a collaborative ally or as a competitive, dysfunctional, and emotionally immature adversary. More, and the other is a Decision-Making Work Agreement. Check it out and use it as a model for your team’s Decision-Making Work Agreement.