Ways Of Working (WOW) describes how people work, especially together in teams.
You and your teammates can use this page to help your Ways Of Working. There are 100+ tips for teamwork here, and articles that we use with our own teams.
WOW can use principles, values, whys, tenets, ground rules, aspirations, norms, aspirations, working agreements, culture, and more.
Are your ways of working explicit? Example: are your ways of working are written, and also easy to access and read any time, such as in your team's documentation?
Are your ways of working understood? Example: can you confirm that each of your teammates is familiar with all the ideas, and also knows where to find out more about the ideas?
Are your ways of working open to debate? Example: can you verify that each of your teammates knows how to suggest changes, and also can provide comments, feedback, and opportunities for new ways of working.
Are your ways of working alertable? Example: do all your teammates all know quickly if someone breaks the ways of working, and also who is responsible for handling a breakage?
Overviews:
- Team Norms, Working Agreements, and Simple Rules - by Esther Derby
- Working Agreements - by Jane Haskell
Supporting repositories:
Supporting files:
- Adult Principles - by John Perry Barlow
- Principles - by Nabeel S. Qureshi
- 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 to send progress updates - by Slava Akhmechet
- How we structure our work and teams at Basecamp
- People are package deals - by Steve Jobs
- 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 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- The Core Protocols - by McCarthy
- The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team
- The Pragmatic Open Source Contributor
- The unwritten laws of engineering at Stedi
- Engineering management checklist - by Patrick Newman
- Strategies to improve workplace communication - by Calm Business
- Onboarding and induction checklist - by employmenthero
- Our Values - What it Means to Work at ZOE
- 101 Additional Advices - by Kevin Kelly
- Agenda for a day of sessions
Be creative. Be constructive. Be collaborative.
Be prepared. Be present. Be productive.
Focus is limited so budget it wisely.
Focus is critical for deep work, so decide on team indicators that mean "do not disturb", then respect them.
Focus yourself and your team with practices such as TEAM FOCUS, OKR, SBS, VSM, GIST, SMART, etc.
Debate the issue, not the person.
Test assumptions and inferences.
View the issue as “we” not “me”.
Create more understanding, and less conflict.
Encourage everyone to participate fully.
Listen actively and attentively.
Emphasize mutual respect.
Emphasize mutual purpose.
Psychological safety: Can we take risks on this team while feeling secure?
Impact of work: Do we fundamentally know that the work we’re doing matters?
Communications are radiated when events happen, so teammates can be in the loop.
Communications use relevant channels, such as chat, or email, or video, or wiki.
Minimize first messages that are vague, such as "Hi" or "Have a minute?". Instead, state your idea, question, etc.
Prefer using topic channels over direct messaging, because topic channels can help more people, in more ways, over more timelines.
Ask for feedback often. Give positive feedback often.
Formal feedback works best when its SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relatable, Timely.
Set the stage. Example: "The purpose of this meeting is X because Y".
Aim the outcome. Example "At the end of this meeting we want X because Y".
Structure work and communications for parallel work streams, so people can work on one task while awaiting a response on another task.
When a blocker happens, then work hard to unblock it.
Emphasize time for focus and deep work. Example: use the strengths of "maker's schedule, manager's schedule".
Verify all stakeholders know the expectations for availability, attendance, RSVP, and the like.
For votes: thumb up means yes; thumb down means no; thumb sideways means maybe. Everyone votes. The moderator tallies.
For clarification: anyone at any time can ask for clarification, by making the one-hand sign "C". Everyone pauses. The speaker takes charge. The speaker and the asker discuss.
Team bonding is good and valuable because it improves communication, trust, and teamwork.
Respect people's differences if people can't come.
We use a "people" document. It lists our names, contact information, roles, responsibilities, etc.
We use a "projects" document. It lists our projects, their purposes and progress, like startup pitch deck.
Each teammate knows how to manage their credentials securely, such as by using a secrets application.
Each teammate fire-drills reporting their credentials as lost, or stolen, or otherwise at risk.
Post relevant information prominently, such as phone numbers, wifi codes, room reservations, etc.
If you use confidential information in the shared space, then you must ensure the information stays confidential.
If you need the reader to be fast, then write "URGENT".
If you need the reader to do something, then write "ACTION".
When there's an issue, then we have a way to triage it, handle it, learn from it, and improve because of it.
When we have dangerous setups, we use lockout/tagout.