One Next Step: Improve Collaboration Through Co-created Rules

In this article, I share a simple, step-by-step team session – eg. a Retrospective – you can run to reflect on your co-created team agreements.
Together, your team can evaluate how well those rules still serve you, revise or update them if needed, and define concrete actions to work even better together — while supporting individual happiness and team success.

Base your team agreements on your shared values — and on the intention to create the most value possible for your customers.
Use a solution-focused mindset: instead of analyzing what’s not working, focus on what you want to achieve and the specific actions that will help you get there.

The goal of this evaluation is to help teams reflect on how well they live their co-created agreements.
Together, we identify what’s already working and where small improvements could help us level up.
The tasks on this page support both individual and team-level reflection — helping us see how our actions, attitudes, and shared responsibility shape the team’s success.

Do we remember our team agreements — the agreed values and coc-reated rules we’ve agreed upon with our colleagues on how to work together? And are we actually following all of them? Are these rules and expectations realistic and necessary, or is it time to revisit them?
What can we do, and how can we show up, to become an even more successful team and happier individuals?

At the beginning of the session, we look back and review the past — ideally short – period, e.g., 1 operational cycle (1 sprint). What do we notice? Did we adhere to our agreements? Did they help or hinder us in successfully (efficiently, on time, with an acceptable error rate, etc.) completing our tasks? Compared to our very best potential, where do we currently stand in this area? What would make a difference, what would it look like if we rated our team’s performance just one point higher than now? This is how we search for what we want to newly or freshly commit to, and do differently in the next cycle. What is the one — even small — concrete step we will definitely take to be more successful by the end of the next unit of time?

During the evaluation, we can internalize that it is the team that decides exactly how we work together — and our collective success depends on that. We are accountable to each other for the decisions we make and for following them. We’ll also likely recognize that team agreements occasionally need to be renegotiated, because the nature of our work and how best to approach it changes over time. Therefore, if between evaluations someone feels that a team rule no longer serves the team’s goals effectively, they are obliged to bring it to the team’s attention as soon as possible so that we can reconsider and, if necessary, modify it at the earliest opportunity.

0. Before the session

Send out a Google Form 2 days in advance.
Ask team members to reflect on the topic (e.g., adherence to team agreements).
Filling it out is optional, but it helps people arrive more prepared.

1. Set the Stage

Clarify the purpose of the session.
Reflect on how well the team is following its co-created rules and values.
Open with questions like:
Do we remember our agreements? Are they still useful? Do we follow them in daily work?

2. Gather Data

Look back at a recent period (e.g., one sprint).
Discuss observations:
Which agreements supported us? Where did we succeed in living our values?

3. Generate Insights

Explore the “Preferred Future”.
Ask: If we were at our best, what would that look like?

Use a 1–10 scale to assess where the team is now.
Then ask: What would be different if we moved one point higher?

4. Decide What to Do

Agree on one small, concrete next step.
Choose something realistic the team will try in the next sprint.
Make sure it’s actionable and clearly defined.

5. Close the Meeting

Clarify commitments and follow-up.
Decide who will do what and how progress will be tracked.
Reinforce that team agreements are flexible: they can and should evolve as needed.

• Make a copy of the Google Form below and update it for your own use.
• Share the form with your team and ask them to fill it out two working days before the scheduled meeting. This gives you time to analyze and summarize the responses.
• Create the collaboration space for your team meeting online, or prepare the room if you’re meeting onsite.
• Plan the meeting agenda and timing.
• Hold the meeting with your team.
• Evaluate the meeting. You can find guiding questions in the Feedback section.
• Add the agreed next steps from the meeting to your team’s task board (e.g., in Jira) or just trust yourself to remember what you have agreed on.
• Follow up on the implementation of these commitments in a way that works for your team.
• Re-evaluate the topic and your achievements regularly, and agree on new steps to further improve collaboration.

At the end of the meeting or immediately afterward, ask participants for feedback to evaluate the session.

A practical tool for collecting feedback is menti.com.

I’m curious to hear your feedback on how successfully you used the information and resources here with your team. Feel free to share your experiences in a comment — what worked well, what worked less well, and what you did differently that proved effective.