Why your team needs a social contract

What is a social contract and how to create one

A social contract is a contract that your team agrees on that covers everything from ways of working to toolsets. It is a team-designed agreement for an aspirational set of behaviors and social norms.

Think of it as a vision for how it would be to work in an incredibly safe and powerful team.

Why do we need one?

In short, you need one to have a group defined set of rules or ways of doing things that everyone has agreed on. Everything from how you say good morning or leave the office to a priority order for communication and agreed set of tools.

Problems a social contract can help with

Have you ever been trying to plan a step in a project, or give key insights to progress work only to have to reply to a string of emails, then jump onto MS Teams to let marketing know, back to Slack to inform the product team? This is the communication of a team without a set agreement on where and how that important information should be shared.

Another example might be, Will loves RnB, Will has control of the music via his phone across the ground floor office. Will has done this for years and years, you hate the music, you can’t…