Social Contract
Last updated
Last updated
We use this to establish moral, work, and political rules of behaviour so that we can hold each other accountable.
Social contracts set the ground rules on what is acceptable or expected behaviour, making it safe for everyone to participate. Essentially the agreement creates the norms of what is expected in the specific context of that team.
The biggest problem of living in the state of nature: there is no authority to enforce the law of nature. Because of this, people want to enter into civil society. People realize that they cannot live successfully in a state of nature. Cooperation among people is necessary to enjoy life.
People voluntarily give up some of their individual freedoms and enter into a community with other people in order to live a good life.
People create a social contract – an agreement to grant a limited amount of power to a government in exchange for some of their personal freedom so they can live together peacefully.
Good starting questions to ask to get the team thinking are:
What do we value?
What’s important?
What would make this team powerful?
What can we count on from one another?
How will we know we have achieved this?
What will it feel like?
It is important to make sure the team knows this is a safe space to speak up and everyone's voice will be heard. You don’t want someone too afraid to say what they really think and they go away disagreeing with most of the contract.
What are the key areas or topics we need to talk about to be effective as a team and work together in harmony?
Working from home
Do not disturb and quiet time
Communication
Meetings
Vacations
Availability
Active listening
Safe place
Workout time?
Eating at the desk?
Celebrations — birthdays
Team lunch
Stand-ups at 9:00 am.
Always create an agenda
Be present for a core set of hours: 10 am to 4 pm
If you don’t believe you can contribute to a meeting, let the organizer know and don’t attend
Ensure all meetings have an agenda and that actions are recorded
If you can’t attend or need to leave early from a meeting, notify the team beforehand
Come prepared to meetings
Be on time for Stand-Ups and meetings
Mobile phones on silent
Everyone has an equal voice and valuable contributions.
Raise a problem as soon as you see it
Face-to-face conversations over email, anytime
Respect each other and understand differences in knowledge
All team documents are to be shared
There are no silly questions if you don’t understand, ask
Share success stories
Focus on the positives
Don’t make assumptions
Don’t interrupt and cut another person off while they are talking
Listen when someone is talking, don’t interject
We have zero tolerance for bullying.
Communication in this order: Face to face, phone call, Instant Message, then email
Publish phone numbers and open and share calendars
Use Slack as the primary method of team communication.
A social contract can be formed or revisited at any time. It is generally created when the team is first formed and then regularly reviewed whenever a new member joins the team.
The retrospective is a good forum to utilise to create the Social Contract.
Each team members bring along their own ideas of their suggested team social norms.
A published social contract, usually a one-pager that serves as the team's agreement with each other
Together in a room, the whole team brainstorms the group rules they would like to see.
Depending on how many items are suggested, the group may group into themes and vote on a top 10 they would like to go forward with.
The social content is then placed in a prominent space online and/or on a physical wall near the team's co-location space.
