2.1. Formatting
Your Teamwork Agreement should take the form of a memo. You might go back to your Strengths and Goals Memo to review the formatting. Remember, a memo is purely informative and written to a group. In this case, you will draft the contents together as if you are sending it to a larger team working for the client. While you put together the SWOT Report, those team members will be working on other projects for the company and need to know your goals and timeline. In addition, you are writing for your group so that you are on the same page about what is expected.
Your memo should look something like this:
Memorandum
Date
To: Erin Cheslow
From: [Team Point Person]
CC: [Group Members]
RE: Teamwork Agreement
The teamwork agreement should hit a few main points. You might use this as an outline:
- Team composition
- Statement of standards, communication channels
- Outline of times to meet and ideal location
- How you will keep track of each other’s progress/status
- Who will communicate with instructor and how will you submit final drafts of documents (pointer person)
- How you will deal with delinquent members. What sort of resolution measures will you take and when will you ask for intervention from the instructor?
In practice, this document might look something like the paragraphs below. Talk with your group to make sure you all agree on your standards, methods of tracking progress, and what to do if someone is unresponsive. I recommend having each group member sign off on the policies you create here as well. Note that the example below is general. You should assess the specifics of this assignment and determine who will tackle each part in this document. Do not simply copy the example below.
This team is composed of ______, ________, and ______. It is an assigned group in BTW 250 for the A3 assignment. This group is expected to work together and produce a SWOT Report. It is also expected that each of us will be available by text on a frequent basis to discuss the development process of our report. To communicate, we will use ________ and ______ platforms.
We’ll also establish a meetup time at least once per week outside of the scheduled Group Sessions, which is currently set for every Monday at 5:00 PM. We’ll meet up by joining a Zoom meeting set up by the point person, _________.
For every Monday meetup, we’ll establish a checkpoint for each of us to complete by the next meetup. Every Friday will then be used to further discuss each of our individual progress, as well as resolve any inquiries or confusions that arise midway. Each of us will be assigned to a specific portion of the written assignment, and we’ll use a Google Doc file to revise and assess each other’s progress while working on our own portions of the report.
Primarily, ______ will be the one submitting the assignments. For our draft due on ________, we’ll have our submitter post one copy on a forum in the Moodle page. The final draft will be submitted by our representative via email with everyone else cc’d. Additionally, each of us will be able to individually contact the instructor for any questions or inquiries we may have. We will cc other group members when emailing the instructor so that all of us can get the answers and stay on the same track.
For members who don’t pull their own weight or fail to establish communications with the rest of the group, the remaining members will discuss the issue and then come to a unanimous vote on how to proceed. The decision will usually come to setting a grace period for the delinquent group member to correct their behavior before we report them to the instructor. The grace period will last for two days after the unanimous decision is made. We’ll also send the delinquent group member an email with a warning of this grace period. In the rare case that the delinquent member is removed from the group, the rest of the members will redistribute the assigned work.
Signed: __________________ __________________ __________________ __________________
Erin Cheslow 