Operating Guidelines for Innovative Teams

Team operating guidelines are simple statements about how the team wants to work together and treat one another.

By their very nature, creativity and innovation can be abrasive and involve conflicting preferences and points of view. Without well-established and reinforced team guidelines, all this abrasion can lead to personal rather than intellectual conflicts, and cause a breakdown in the group process.

A quality operating guideline:

- Is determined by the team
- Is agreed on by all team members
- Has clear implications for action
- Is simply stated, not detailed
- Helps the team make decisions.

Examples of quality guidelines include:

- Informing others as soon as you know you cannot keep an agreement
- Arriving to meetings on time
- Having only one person speak at a time

Does your team have a set of operating guidelines? If so, be sure to review them regularly.