Charter for a "No Assholes" Project Team

Nine Principles for a

“No Assholes”

Project Team

PLUS A TEAM CHARTER THAT LOCKS

IN AGREEMENT, UNDERSTANDING

AND CO-OPERATION

adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016

http://adamonprojects.com/library/articles/building-asshole-project-team-2/

CREDITS

Cartoons are © adamonprojects.com,

drawn by Maignan “Kadran” Stéphane

Thanks to Bob Sutton (@work_matters) for

not objecting to me co-opting the “Asshole

Rule” concept / theme.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MaignanSt%C3%A9phaneKadran?cfem=1






https://twitter.com/work_matters

https://twitter.com/work_matters

✴ Have you ever worked in a high-performance team? One that

really “clicked”? A team that was harmonious, complementary, and

truly greater than the sum of its parts?

✴ Have you ever worked in a real “self-organizing team”? A team that

could quickly and respectfully work out solutions for itself? A self-

organizing team that wasn’t managed to death?

✴ If you have, you never cease wanting to work in another one. If

you haven’t, you’ve never really experienced positive work.

Building a Great Team



✴ Why is building a great team so hard? We know and value the need, and there are so many courses,

tips and tricks, consultants, and so forth.

✴ Teams form through the exercise of discipline and maturity, and by following a some basic principles.

These principles overcome or remove the threats to team-building that prevent people from bonding

and exploring team benefits as they would in an unmanaged state.

✴ One of the main threats to team-building is the “Project Asshole”: an individual who breaks or

undermines these principles by their attitudes, behaviour or emotions.

✴ Here we outline nine Teaming Principles that can nudge a team towards excellence, and a Team

Charter that helps set up agreement and understanding of those principles, especially designed to

weed out those “Project Assholes” from your teams.

Building a Great Team



AND THEIR BEHAVIOURS

The Project Asshole



A “Project Asshole” is someone on or around

your Project team who exhibits behaviours

that are acts, words, or attitudes that create

tension or frustration.

“Project Asshole” behaviours (examples of

which are listed in the next slide), if left

unchecked, relentlessly undermine the trust,

common work ethic, and interpersonal

bonding required to form a high-performance

team. They generate negative emotions and

friction.

On the next 2 slides we summarise some

examples of Project Asshole behaviours.

Unfortunately it’s a long list.

The Project Asshole



Project Asshole Behaviours (1)

• Showing little respect for individuals or teams in the

context of group discussions: interrupting speakers

before they have finished, or responding to

propositions with ridicule or sarcasm.

• Agreeing to something at a meeting, and then doing

whatever they originally planned, or something else

entirely

• Regularly intimating that they are not happy about the

project or their role; treating the project team as merely

a very short-term activity.

• Always taking advantage of opportunities to be absent:

sick on Fridays or Mondays, or taking a holiday

“sandwich day”; “special assignments” from boss etc.

Not advising of upcoming holidays.

• Assigning an action to someone else just before a

review meeting so they can say “I’m waiting on

so-and-so”. Saying “I’m trying to contact so-and-

so” when they’ve only sent 1 email, or stopped by

the desk at lunchtime.

• Insisting on a particular process, document, or

technique regardless of whether it’s appropriate

or actually adds value to the project.

• Keeping religiously to a fixed work schedule even

stopping mid-task to go home at the designated

time, rather than complete the job at hand,

especially when other team members are working

long and irregular hours.



Project Asshole Behaviours (2)

• Giving feedback on documents at signoff

meetings instead of providing it in advance so

that it can be incorporated into the final

document, because “I’m so busy”.

• Treating project or other meetings as the

“quality time” for the project, by reading the

material to be discussed or workshopped, or

by catching up on reading or emails.

• Not reading or responding to actions assigned

in meetings until the next meeting. Claiming

that they didn’t know they had been given a

task.

• Bringing past disputes with other teams

into the current project, perhaps by

making negative comments or proposing

pathways that circumvent or undermine

a particular system or team.

• Not reviewing and approving key

documents without numerous follow-ups.

• Not executing actions or tasks unless

repeatedly prompted to.

• Artificially prioritizing the needs of

existing systems or organizations over

project needs.



IN VARIOUS FORMS

The Principles and the

Charter



Principles & Charter

The Principle-based Charter

The full charter is outlined as a set of 9 pairs of

slides

First, each of the nine principles is summarised

on a slide, with a link back to the principle’s

page on the adamonprojects.com website.

Second, is a slide that provides the full charter

clause relevant to that principle.

All the clauses appended together make up the

Charter.

The Pocket Charter

The Pocket Charter simply lists an abbreviated

text of the charter clause that is related to the

equivalent of the nine principles.

There are also two bonus Charter clauses (#10

and #11) at the end, which can be optionally

used in either version of the Charter.



The Principle-based

Charter



The most fundamental

element of putting together a

great project team is the

unambiguous and explicit

commitment to the team.

Individuals can be in a team

without putting aside their

individuality.

Once bonded to a team,

individuals prioritise the team

over almost anything.

#1: There’s No “I” in team



CLAUSE #1

I commit to this team:

“I join this team willingly and freely. I may have been assigned to this team or

volunteered, but I now independently and explicitly commit myself to the team.

I am now part of the future success or failure of the project. I trust and expect that

it is the same with all members of the team. I recognize that I can achieve my own

personal goals, such as skills improvement, reward or recognition, only by

ensuring the team’s success; I cannot ethically succeed if the team fails.

Teams are strong because they are mutually supportive and complementary, and

can achieve goals that cannot be achieved by one person alone. My skills,

knowledge, experience, and judgment will be amplified by those of my teammates.

My emotional and personal capabilities are just as important as my technical or

domain expertise, and I can express my personal style within the framework of a

mutually supportive group .”



The project must move forward at the

required rate and delivers real value to

its customers.

The “required” rate is the rate at which

you will beat all the existing milestones.

It is as fast as the team can go without

creating uncertainty and doubt, and then

push just a little harder.

Speed is more important at the start of

the project than the end.

This needs to be a clear expectation for

every team member.

#2: Deliver Value: Fast &

Furious



CLAUSE #2

My contribution is value, speed, and passion:

“My primary responsibility is to ensure that the project delivers real value to its

customer and moves forward at real speed. This team uses speed to push

alignment and efficiency; the team does not subscribe to reckless speed for its

own sake. I acknowledge our team’s obligation to get our project done as quickly

as practicable, and as inexpensively as we can manage, without inadvertent

reduction in quality.

I understand that the biggest contributor to net time to delivery is to develop a

direct and deep understanding of this customer value. I will encourage a passion

within the whole team to understand and empathize with that value in the way that

our customer sees it. We cannot know too much about our customer and how our

customer derives value from our project’s deliverables.

I define the value of my work in terms of how the output from this work satisfies

this customer’s needs.”



A common mental model for

success will help form a team,

guide its efforts, and even in the

absence of a plan, keep it on track

as problems and gaps emerge

between the expected/committed

and the delivered.

Mental models are the “fuel” to the

team’s “engine” that drives team

identity, efficiency and harmony/

#3: Share the Dream



CLAUSE #3

I will embrace and nurture the dream.:

“Our team must have a mutually compatible and shared idea of its end goal, which

is our “shared vision of success” and a critical enabler of the team’s effectiveness.

I understand that developing, validating, and maintaining a “shared vision of

success” requires nontrivial effort, and I will help establish, protect, and nurture

this shared vision so that it is actionable and tangible in the minds my teammates.

I will help my teammates validate that their understanding and mine are the same,

by looking for evidence each and every day that the shared vision is in use and

that it drives all of our activities on the project.

A valid and shared vision of success literally puts the team “on the same page,”

and sets the team up for rapid progress toward this success .”



One powerful way to destroy or hinder a

team is to add constraints that aren’t

really part of the solution to the problem

you are trying to solve.

Acting on the basis of your job title, your

department, or your profession over the

team’s needs will threaten the team’s

existence.

Bringing in fixed ideas about who you

represent, how you do things, or what

you deliver causes friction and gaps in

the team structure.

#4: Do Your Job, But Don’t

Get in the Way



CLAUSE #4

I am not a job title, a deliverable, or a process:

“I will exercise my specialist skills and domain expertise as required to achieve the

team’s goals, and not as an end in themselves. My title, profession, or

departmental origins do not dictate how I contribute to the team.

My organization or department may have specific deliverables or processes that it

values or even mandates, but executing these deliverables and processes are not

my primary purpose in the team. The team will mutually work out what role each

person will focus on for the project (my “position”) in order to maximize the

chances of success.

I will contribute ideas and suggestions based on my experience, and that of my

department or professional vocation, to define the role. But once the role is agreed

upon, I will “play my position” within the team as required. At all times I will be

ready and flexible to support the team in different roles as the need may arise.”



Projects move forward by the accumulation

of outcomes: decisions, completed tasks,

successful milestones, and so forth.

Each outcome is achieved because

someone accepted accountability for its

completion.

A team must enthusiastically embrace

accountability, first at the individual level,

then at the team level.

Teams without a “cult of accountability” will

never reach their potential.

#5: Demand Accountability



CLAUSE #5

I embrace a cult of accountability:

“Personal accountability for team outcomes, fulfi l led fully and generously, is the foundation of

team success. I accept and will fulfi l my accountabilit ies in conjunction with my teammates.

My accountability cannot be replaced or subverted by prescriptive methodology, process

document, job description, isolated conversation, or any other mechanism other than an explicit

agreement with my teammates.

The team as a whole owns all the project outcomes and the means to achieve them, including

administrative or office environmental tasks. I will proactively help to identify work or deliverables

that have no owner so that the full scope of the project is fully accounted for in our plans.

Not all situations can be determined in advance, so I will be flexible in terms of what work I do, and

what accountabilit ies I might be asked to hand off or take on, to ensure the team’s success.

I will help my teammates by helping to keep them accountable for their tasks, at all t imes in a

respectful and supportive manner.”



Every team needs to leave a

“footprints” that can be tracked

backwards to decisions, data,

actions or instructions.

Anyone who doesn’t document

their work in a project, or actively

participates in helping create a

persistent record of the project, is a

Project Asshole.

Yet the entire concept of project

documentation seems to generate

a lot of angst for many people.

#6: Leave Footprints



CLAUSE #6

I will leave footprints:

“I understand that the team has an obligation to create a persistent record of project

outcomes and to communicate to key stakeholders; this is often called “documentation.”

Such documentation includes project progress, status, and outlook reports, summaries of

decisions, and deliverables-related information. After the project is over these records

must enable future teams identify project successes and/or failures to help with future

project planning.

I will work with my teammates to identify and provide the optimal set of “documentation”

to meet our team obligations, and I will not debate or avoid this necessity, only

participate in discussion regarding what is optimal for this particular project. “Optimal”

means that the effort expended in the project documentation will be reasonable with

respect to the size, scope, and complexity of the project.

Creating this persistent record is not the responsibility of a single role or individual (e.g.,

the project manager or project administrator), and I will participate in this task to ensure

minimal impact on any one team member, done as completely, quickly, accurately, and

efficiently as possible.” adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016


Doing things the same way or allowing

habits to constrain the team’s creativity or

impact will lead to disaster, and allowing

complacency or personal problems to

evolve disrupts harmony and builds

contempt and mistrust.

Anytime someone says “the process

won’t allow me to ...” you know you have

a blockage that requires a rethink. But

often the signals are more subtle.

You must disrupt the team to improve the

team, but don’t be rude or negative.

#7: Disrupt Respectfully



CLAUSE #7

When beneficial, I will respectfully and appropriately disrupt:

“From time to time, members of the team will not have the same opinion about a situation,

direction, decision, or outcome. Often these differences are not raised within the team for

fear of conflict and remain unresolved. I acknowledge that as a team member it is

important that these differences be surfaced and resolved as rapidly as possible. This

applies in particular to dissonance over the “shared vision of success.”

I will voice and work to resolve these differences of opinion with my teammates in a

constructive and respectful way that creates lasting harmony among the team.

I will be vigilant and have particular sensitivity to call attention to harmful or

unprofessional behavior or other major items of dissonance. But I also may need to

disrupt emerging bad habits or trends in a creative and amusing way.

Above all, I will ensure that no matter how well the team is performing, how many

successes the team achieves, or how much praise the team is getting, we will never fall

victim to ‘believing our own bull crap’.”



All organizations develop their own ways

of doing business.

Their internal systems, processes, rules,

and management style can evolve

organically or under the direction of

company strategy.

But every organization will eventually

end up with a certain number of

processes that don’t provide value.

Recognise and undermine value-less

process, lest it undermine the team.

#8: Undermine Bureaucracy



CLAUSE #8

I will undermine bureaucracy when I can, and cooperate efficiently when I

have to:

“During the project I may be asked to perform processes that don’t make sense to me, are

boring, or that slow down my work. These processes may originate from within the team,

or be imposed by other parts of the organization or even externally. I may propose my

own processes to the project based on habit, preference, or past professional training.

I will look carefully at any process that is followed or proposed and objectively determine

whether it adds value when measured against our team’s project goals.

If the team has a choice, I will work with the team to ensure that processes that do not

add value, even my own, are eliminated without ruthlessly and without emotion.

If the team does not have a choice, then the process will be performed to the necessary

minimum, without emotion, ridicule, or bitterness. I will make it my goal to ensure that

such processes do not interfere with or distract my teammates from the execution of their

required tasks.”



Teams that are open to being excellent will

often surprise you with what they can

achieve.

Allow teams to become too comfortable and

they will start an inward spiral to mediocrity,

corner-cutting and, ultimately, failure.

When was the last time you a project

thrilled you? When was the last time the

hairs on the back of your neck stood up

because what you had produced was so

cool and awesome?

It’s a great feeling and generates much

positivity, confidence and de-stresses

everytong.

#9: Practice Awesomization



CLAUSE #9

I will strive to be awesome:

“I will strive to infuse a sense of “awesomeness” into every aspect of my team’s work,

and I will support my teammates in being awesome. “Awesome” in this context is top -line

quality and standards consistent with project goals and team behavior. It means

preferably world or country- level “best in class.” It means the highest possible quality

within project constraints. It means that if I’ve done this type of project or role before,

then I want to do it much better this time, no matter how good I was the last time. I want

this project to become a case study for other teams in the future. I want our team to be

awesome.

It is not my goal to do as little as possible, to just “get by” or do the minimum that is

needed. I understand that “just showing up” to do my own job in a project context is not

being a team member.

I will challenge comfort and boundaries: if the customer doesn’t expect best -in-class

quality, I will ask ‘how close can we come?’ If the customer wants this in five months with

a budget of $100k, I will ask, ‘Why can’t we do it in three months and for $50k?’”



CHARTER POCKET

VERSION



I commit to the team.

“Whether I was assigned to this

team or volunteered, I explicitly

commit myself to the team.

I recognize that I can achieve my

own personal goals by ensuring the

team’s success.

I gain from the power of individuals

working together and cannot

succeed ethically if the team fails.”

#1: There’s No “I” in team



My contribution is value, speed,

and passion:

“Our obligation is to complete our

project as quickly and as inexpensively

as practicable, without inadvertent

reduction in expected customer value.

The right speed is its own risk

management function.

I define the value of my work in terms

of its outcomes satisfies this

customer’s needs.”

#2: Deliver Value: Fast &

Furious



I will embrace and nurture the

dream.

“Our team must have a mutually compatible

and shared idea of its end goal, which is our

‘shared vision of success’.

I undertake the non-trivial effort to help

establish, protect, and nurture this shared

vision that is actionable and tangible, and to

continuously validate their understanding

with mine.

I will help set the team up for success to put

the team literally ‘on the same page’.”

#3: Share the Dream



I am not a job title, a deliverable,

or a process.

“My title or departmentally mandated

deliverables do not dictate how I

contribute to the team.

At all times I will be ready and flexible

to support the team in different roles as

the need may arise.”

#4: Do Your Job, But Don’t

Get in the Way



I embrace a cult of accountability.

“I will fulfill my accountabilities in

conjunction with my teammates.

I will proactively help to identify

deliverables that have no owner.

I will be flexible in terms of what I might

be asked to hand off or take on as

situations change.”

#5: Demand Accountability



I will leave footprints.

“Our team must create a persistent

record of project outcomes that

includes project reports, decisions, and

deliverables.

I will perform this necessary work as

accurately and efficiently as possible.”

#6: Leave Footprints



When beneficial, I will

respectfully and

appropriately disrupt.

“I will surface and help resolve

disagreements within the team

about a situation, direction,

decision or outcome as rapidly

as possible, and in a

constructive and respectful

way that creates lasting

harmony. “

#7: Disrupt Respectfully



I will undermine bureaucracy

when I can, and cooperate

when I have to.

“If a process does not add value, I

will eliminate if I can and perform it

without complaint if I can’t.

I will work to ensure that such

processes don’t interfere with the

execution of my teammates’ tasks.”

#8: Undermine Bureaucracy



I will strive to be awesome.

“I will strive to infuse a sense of

‘awesomeness’ into every aspect of

my team’s work and to help my

teammates to be awesome,

meaning achieving the highest

possible quality within project

constraints.”

#9: Practice Awesomization



Bonus Slides



Bonus #1: Additional

Principles #10: I will build and reinforce the

team as personnel changes.

“As a member of a team that is

valuable I have a moral obligation to

keep the team healthy and to maintain

its value over time.

When we make changes to the team’s

membership, I will actively participate in

discussing the role or “position” within

the team, reviewing resumes, or and

engaging in interviews and orientation.”

#11: I will support every effort to

improve the team’s environment.

“I recognize that the team’s working

environment has a significant impact on

the awesomeness of team

performance.

I will surface environmental concerns in

a solution-oriented way and will not

‘suffer in silence’.”



Leadership & Management

Charter for a "No Assholes" Project Team