Extract from Managing Business Transformation – A Practical Guide (itgp, 2011)

Here we reproduce an extract from the chapter on 'Implementing the Change' where she discusses the importance of the team charter.

Scope

The team needs to be clear about the reason for its creation, what it is expected to deliver and the breadth of its responsibilities.

Internal processes

All team members must be clear about how work is done and how information and decisions are communicated. This includes low-level details about the hours of work, dress code, criteria for working from home, access to equipment, technology, etc.

When a team is formed there will be initial politeness, followed by  jostling for position and challenges over the purpose of the team. Once team members start to work together, ‘norms’ of behaviour will be established and eventually the team should operate as a coherent unit that achieves high levels of performance.

The longer the team takes to move through these steps, the longer the wait for it to achieve its objectives.

A team charter is a useful tool in defining the structure, purpose and processes, propelling the team through these early stages and providing facts and specifics for the team members to challenge. Without it this aggressive, challenging phase will still  take place, but the fights will be based on inconsequential aspects of the team, rather than the meaningful ‘What are we supposed to be doing’ aspect.

For example, a change team has been formed to implement a change in the invoicing system that the finance team uses. The change is from a manual invoicing process, producing paper copies of invoices and purchase orders mailed to customers and suppliers, to an online web-based payments system.

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