Team Principles

What are some general team principles worth making explicit, for this period (or beyond)?

• Eg. Health and Family First
• Eg: Ask for help
• Eg. Control the controllables

Work Hours
When do we expect each other to be working, or available to connect?

• Eg. Generally, we’re working adjusted hours of X:XXam-X.XXpm, to allow for more time for team members to connect with and support loved ones, and decompress
• Eg. Working parents and caregivers, in particular, are encouraged to set working hours that work for them and their families, without hesitation.
• Eg. Each day, we signal to each other how much + when we intend to be working and available

Meetings
How are this team’s meetings working or evolving, during this period?

• Eg. All team meetings are happening via video conference, using _____ (eg. Zoom)
• Eg. Our current meeting cadence (for now) is:

• Daily: Standup (10am for 15 mins)
• Weekly: Kickoff (Mondays, 10am for 30 mins); Team Demo + Connect (Fridays, 3pm for 60 mins)
• Monthly: Retrospective (the last Friday of every month, 60 mins)

• Eg. We signal our ability to join meetings by responding to calendar invites, directly

Communication Channels + Norms

What channels/tools are we using to stay connected, communicate and collaborate? How are we using them? 

• Eg. We’re using email for A, B and C
• Eg. We’re using Slack/Teams for D, E and F
• Eg. In Slack/Teams, we use the #announcements channel to share company-wide updates
• Eg. We discourage and avoid messaging each other during non-working hours
• Eg. When messaged directly, we aim to respond to each other within X period of time
• Eg. We steer sensitive or highly-charged topics away from chat and towards video calls
• Eg. We typically default to having video on during our calls, but trust each other to decide what works best given our situation at home
• Eg. When our home environment is creating background noise, we mute ourselves when not speaking

Working Parents + Caregivers

How do we support those caring for others (especially regarding scheduling)?

• Eg. Family Leave is available to any employee per our existing company policy (link).
• Eg. That said: We expect working parents are particularly challenged during this period, with schools closed. We encourage them to set boundaries around their work schedules that allow for a sustainable balance between family time and work, and to ask their managers and team members for help or flexibility where needed. We’ll all do our best to support them, and each other.     

If You/Someone You Care For is Sick

What happens if a team member or loved one falls ill, or is confirmed to have contracted COVID-19?

• Eg. Refer to our company-wide policy regarding Recovering from COVID-19, here (link)
• Eg. If one of us or someone we are responsible for caring for becomes sick, we’ll signal to the team as early as possible, do our best to transition any work-in-progress, and then put 100% of our energy towards recovery and care.
• Eg. Sick team members are strongly discouraged from joining meetings while sick

Equipment + Ergonomics
What does our team need to work from home successfully?

• Eg. Team members are able to have office equipment including their desk, desk chair and computer monitor delivered from the office to their homes. For help in coordinating this, contact...
• Eg. All team members are able to spend and expense up to $XXX on equipment that supports healthy and effective work from home. Details on eligible equipment can be found...

Boundaries
What is our team certain we will not do, during this period?

• Eg. Gather in-person, for any reason
• Eg. Schedule more than X hours of video meetings per day, or XX  hours of video meetings per week
• Eg: Message each other outside of work hours
• Eg. Communicate messages with the potential to increase stress or tension via chat

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