Creating a Team Culture and Norms

“The word ‘culture’ gets thrown around a lot and sometimes it seems like people see it as something that teams don't have until they define it. However, every team has a culture, whether they recognize it or not.” - Winnie da Silva

In this episode, Winnie and Peter explore the importance of developing an aspirational culture with supporting norms. They emphasize that teams already have a culture, but it may not be explicit or aligned with their goals. Developing a shared vision for the team's culture and defining specific norms can significantly improve team effectiveness.

Episode Highlights:

Challenges in Developing Team Culture

Peter discusses how teams are often composed of individuals with diverse backgrounds, values, and experiences. This leads to the formation of a patchwork culture consisting of implicit norms, diverse expectations, and behaviors that can hinder team effectiveness.

Defining Culture and Norms

• Winnie and Peter provide definitions for culture and norms.
• Culture is described as the result of implicit and explicit rules guiding behavior within a group. It is learned from the environment and reflects a shared mindset and common language.
• Norms are specific behavioral agreements or rules intended to help the team “live into” their aspirational culture.

Process of Defining Culture and Norms

• Peter and Winnie explain how they help teams define their culture and norms.
• New teams have a blank slate to define their culture, while existing teams will need to shift from their implicit culture to an explicit, agreed-upon culture.
• They introduce five key questions that serve as a framework for this work:
• Why bother?
• Describe the culture you'd like to see in this team a year from now.
• What challenges do you expect in living into this culture?
• What agreements should be made to address these challenges (team norms)?
• How will departures from team norms be handled?

Importance of the "Why Bother" Question

Winnie explains the significance of the "why bother" question. Teams need a clear motivation to invest time and effort in defining their culture and norms. The aspirational culture should be reflective of the five metrics for team effectiveness.

Defining the Aspirational Culture

• Winnie and Peter walk through the first two prompts used to define the aspirational culture:
• Describe the team's desired culture
• Provide details on what the team should be doing or not doing, what patterns should emerge, and what experiences team members should have.
• They emphasize that this description should reflect an inside perspective and should focus on the most important elements.

Anticipating Challenges

Teams are encouraged to think about potential challenges in "living into" their aspirational culture. This prepares them for the journey ahead, ensuring they are not surprised or discouraged when obstacles arise.

Defining Team Norms

• Peter explains the next step of defining team norms based on the aspirational culture and expected challenges. These norms are specific, behavioral agreements.
• Teams are advised to focus on a short list of norms, usually around 5-8, that address the most important anticipated challenges.

Dynamic Nature of Team Norms

Winnie and Peter emphasize that team norms are not static and should evolve over time. As teams overcome challenges, they can drop old norms and adopt new ones as new challenges emerge.

Anecdote on Team Culture and Norms

Peter shares an example of a team's aspirational culture statement and associated norms to illustrate how the process works. The example highlights a transformation from an unhappy team with friction to one with shared values and norms.

Dealing with Departures from Norms

Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of team members not adhering to agreed upon team norms through feedback and accountability. They explain that it is natural for teams to struggle to stick to their norms but feedback mechanisms help address this.

Benefits of Defining Team Culture and Norms

• Peter and Winnie underline the substantial benefits of this work, noting that it serves as a standard for measuring progress.  
• Winnie discusses how team culture and norms differ from shared goals and joint work, as they are more personal and about the people on the team, which can benefit cohesion and team identity. 

Resources

Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn 

Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com



Geert Hofstede