Team charter template: Free download + steps to write

Your team is like carefully placed dominoes. You can mix and match skill sets to build something special, but when one person wobbles, everyone feels it. Teams require positive synergy to withstand challenges and produce great results. One way to spark synergy is with a team charter.

Team charters are communal references that show your team that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In this article, learn how to create a team charter so you can establish a shared vision and source of truth for your team.

What is a team charter?

A team charter is a document that defines a team's purpose, goals, roles, and operating guidelines. It serves as a shared reference that aligns team members on how they work together. Here's what a team charter typically does:

• Provides accountability for team members

• Delivers a customized team process document

• Establishes a shared vision for project success

• Improves communication among team members

• Ensures all team members understand team ideals

In addition to their internal benefits, team charters can show your team's purpose to the rest of your company. As others read the document, they'll understand how your team operates as a whole.

Why use a team charter?

A team charter aligns your team from day one by documenting shared goals, roles, and working agreements. Here's why investing time in this document pays off:

• Establishes alignment from day one: A team charter ensures everyone understands the team's purpose and direction before diving into projects.

• Creates accountability: When team members sign off on shared agreements, they take ownership of their roles and commitments.

• Reduces confusion and conflict: Clear documentation of processes and expectations prevents misunderstandings that can derail progress.

• Speeds up onboarding: New team members can quickly understand how the team operates by reviewing the charter.

• Improves team effectiveness: Teams with documented norms and goals tend to collaborate more effectively and deliver better work.

Whether you're forming a new team with a kickoff meeting or strengthening an existing one, a team charter provides the foundation for successful collaboration.

What is included in a team charter?

​​Before learning how to create a team charter, review the basic elements of a team charter template. You can format your team charter template in a variety of ways, ranging from a mind map to a flowchart.

• Mission and objectives: State the purpose of your team and what you collectively seek to accomplish.

• Roles and responsibilities: List team member roles and responsibilities so everyone can review expectations of them and others.

• Budget and resources: Explain how your team will determine project budgets and allocate project resources. List any universal rules for managing project finances.

• Work processes: Give a step-by-step overview of your team's project workflows, and ensure everyone on the team understands this process.

• Performance assessment: Explain how your team will measure project success in objective and subjective terms.

• Communication norms: Identify where and how team members should communicate, and whether the communication should change based on your discussion.

• Rules and conflict resolution: List basic ground rules for how team members will work together and offer strategies for resolving conflicts when they arise.

• Signatures: Provide an area for team members to sign the document and establish accountability for the information presented and agreed upon.

Team charter vs. project charter

While team charters and project charters may seem similar, they serve different purposes. Understanding the distinction helps you use each document effectively.

Many teams benefit from having both documents. The team charter establishes your foundation for collaboration, while project charters guide specific initiatives.

How to create a team charter

As a manager, you'll likely know what information you want to include in each section of the team charter, but team collaboration is also important as you write up your document. By involving your team members throughout the process, you can work together to create a team charter you're all proud to use. Try the steps below to guide you along the way.

1. State your team's purpose

While your team may work on multiple projects, there's likely a larger program that describes your work. Consider this question to begin your team charter: How does our team work within the company? This will help you state your team's purpose.

Tip: Place your team's purpose in the mission and objectives section of your charter. Ask your team to brainstorm ideas, then narrow your purpose down to one sentence. Some teams call this their "North Star."

2. Outline the team structure

Starting with the highest-ranking job role on your team, break down your team structure and list out the responsibilities associated with each role. This section reinforces expectations while helping team members understand what their coworkers work on.

This section is especially helpful for cross-team collaboration. When you share everyone's roles and responsibilities in your team charter, you create a central source of truth that team members can reference anytime. As things change, you can easily update this section when roles shift or new members join.

Tip: To break down your team structure collaboratively, consider turning this section of your team charter into a team-building activity. Gather your team members, virtually or in person, and challenge everyone to learn each other's names, job roles, and associated responsibilities.

3. Discuss budgeting and resource strategies

Project budgets and resources can be difficult to secure, manage, and allocate. Having a section dedicated to cost management strategies can help team members during project planning and in change control situations.

Some strategies you may use include:

• Create a detailed budget proposal during project planning

• Allocate resources as soon as you know what you have to work with

• Reduce costs whenever and wherever possible

• Anticipate project changes before they occur

If team members know how to predict costs and keep them down, they'll have a better chance of keeping stakeholders happy.

Tip: The main goal of this section is to document general processes for handling project budgets and ensure everyone is on the same page. While you lead this discussion with your team, make sure to give team members the opportunity to provide input.

4. Explain the project workflow

A workflow is an end-to-end process that connects the right people to the right data at the right time. Once set up, it helps you organize information in a way that's both understandable and repeatable.

Every project workflow starts with a standard project planning phase, which includes these seven steps:

1. Define goals and project objectives

2. Set success metrics

3. Clarify stakeholders and roles

4. Set your budget

5. Align on milestones and deliverables

6. Outline your timeline and schedule

7. Share your communication plan

While each project may vary slightly based on its unique features, you should have a general process for creating deliverables and achieving project success.

Tip: Your team may have more than one workflow, depending on how many programs or workstreams you manage. For each major workflow, ensure team members understand the overall process and who to contact for any specific questions.

5. Define your version of success

Your team should have a general way to measure what project success looks like. It's a good idea to use both objective and subjective measures to define success. This way, your team won't fall into a routine of developing projects without first considering all perspectives.

To develop your team's specific definition(s) of success, consider the following questions:

• Do you define project success by comparing the project outcome to the initial project objectives?

• Do you use feedback from stakeholders or customers to measure success?

• Do you have a broader view of success based on your team's purpose?

Tip: Make sure your goals, even your subjective ones, follow the SMART methodology. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

6. Establish standard forms of communication

Team communication is crucial for project success, but there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to communicating with your team members. While face-to-face or virtual meetings may be suitable for certain types of team communication, maintaining a paper trail can also be beneficial for project discussions.

To establish your team's standard forms of communication, ask questions like:

• How should team members communicate when discussing projects?

• How should team members communicate about internal matters?

• Where should team members communicate with clients, or should they relay information to you so that you can handle client communication?

Tip: As you standardize your team's communication, take some time to discuss how your team currently communicates. Identify areas you want to improve, and use them as jumping-off points for your team charter.

7. Set ground rules and conflict resolution steps

Your team will inevitably disagree, and that's actually a good sign. It means team members feel comfortable sharing honest opinions. However, it's critical to establish ground rules to prevent disagreements from escalating.

Team rules don't need to be extensive; they just have to be things that your team values. Work with your team members to brainstorm your most important team values and create a series of ground rules.

Examples of ground rules in a team charter include:

• Treat everyone with respect.

• Always assume positive intent.

• Treat customers, coworkers, and managers equally.

• Celebrate each other's accomplishments.

• Constructive criticism only.

• Practice active listening.

With a simple set of ground rules, you can prevent conflicts and miscommunication. If conflicts arise, having conflict-resolution strategies in your team charter can help team members move forward.

Examples of conflict resolution strategies in a team charter include:

• Don't let problems fester.

• Differentiate between intent and impact

• Discuss conflicts openly.

• Find solutions together.

Tip: Turn this into a collaborative activity by role-playing challenging situations in which ground rules may be broken. Practice conflict resolution strategies together and consider using a partnership agreement template to formalize how your team handles disputes.

8. Review and sign off

Everyone on the team should be on the same page about what to include in the team charter. Share the document digitally with work management software like Asana to allow others to access the document and see when you've made changes.

Tip: To maintain team unity and ensure everyone remains on the same page, re-distribute the team charter each quarter and have team members review it. You can then hold a meeting and invite everyone to suggest or propose improvements.

Team charter template (and examples)

Here's an example of a team charter for a marketing team. Our team charter template helps teams view each section without scrolling through long blocks of text. Try the template! It makes it easy to find and update information when needed.

Your team charter will likely have more detail than this sample, but it can still be easily digestible and accessible. Try our free team charter template below to get started.

Build stronger teams with a team charter

It takes more than natural chemistry to create team synergy. Effective teams stand by their shared values and collaborate when making decisions. A team charter can ensure everyone stays in touch with the team's processes and purpose.

When you add your team charter to work management software like Asana, your team can show just how much they can achieve together. Get started today and give your team the focus they need to do their best work.

Frequently asked questions about team charters