Start with a team charter
Before a football match, the team agrees who plays where and what the plan is. If everyone just runs after the ball, nobody guards the goal. A team charter is your team's plan written down before the game starts.
Before this course: Class Presentations: design and delivery (course 13.17.2). You already know how to storyboard, design accessible slides, use notes and Presenter View, rehearse with a timer and handle questions on your own. Here we go one step deeper: doing all of that as a team.
- A team charter is a short written agreement made at the start of a project. It usually covers: the goal, each person's role, ground rules (how you communicate and decide), deadlines, and what happens if someone falls behind.
- In a 2009 study (Mathieu and Rapp, Journal of Applied Psychology), 32 teams of business students ran a strategy simulation over time. Teams with better performance strategies did better, and the teams with the best sustained performance had both a high-quality charter and a high-quality strategy.
- Limits: this was one study with university business students. It supports writing a careful charter together with a clear plan; it does not prove a charter alone guarantees a good mark.
- A good charter is specific: "Reply in the group chat within 24 hours on school days" is better than "communicate well."
- Write the charter together, in the first meeting, and have everyone agree to it. Keep it where everyone can see it.
| Charter section | Example |
|---|---|
| Goal | "A 10-minute talk on local water use that scores at least 'proficient' on every rubric row" |
| Roles | Coordinator, design lead, fact-checker, timekeeper (everyone also presents) |
| Ground rules | Reply within 24 hours on school days; decisions by discussion, then vote if stuck |
| Deadlines | Research done by Friday; slides drafted by Tuesday; first full rehearsal Thursday |
| If someone falls behind | Talk to them first; then the team asks the teacher for help |
- Hold a first meeting of 20 to 30 minutes with everyone present (in person or on a call).
- Read the assignment and rubric together. Write the team goal in one sentence.
- Agree on roles. Make sure everyone also has a part to present.
- Write three to five ground rules that are specific and checkable.
- Put the deadlines on a shared calendar, working backwards from the presentation date.
- Agree on what happens if someone falls behind.
- Everyone reads the charter and says or types "I agree."
- Check: every section of the table has an entry, and every person can find the charter.
Read the video script
[Host] "Group projects go wrong in the first week, not the last."
[Screen: a one-page team charter] "Write a team charter: goal, roles, ground rules, deadlines, and what happens if someone falls behind."
[Text on screen: Charter + strategy = best results] "In one study of 32 teams, the best long-run results came from teams with a good charter and a good plan."
[Host] "Twenty minutes in the first meeting can save you twenty hours of stress later."
Write a one-page team charter for a real or practice group presentation, with all five sections filled in and agreed by every member.
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I'm learning "Group Presentations: teams" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Start with a team charter". What the lesson teaches: - A team charter is a short written agreement made at the start of a project. It usually covers: the goal, each person's role, ground rules (how you communicate and decide), deadlines, and what happens if someone falls behind. - In a 2009 study (Mathieu and Rapp, Journal of Applied Psychology), 32 teams of business students ran a strategy simulation over time. Teams with better performance strategies did better, and the teams with the best sustained performance had both a high-quality charter and a high-quality strategy. - Limits: this was one study with university business students. It supports writing a careful charter together with a clear plan; it does not prove a charter alone guarantees a good mark. - A good charter is specific: "Reply in the group chat within 24 hours on school days" is better than "communicate well." - Write the charter together, in the first meeting, and have everyone agree to it. Keep it where everyone can see it. - Charter section - Example - Goal - "A 10-minute talk on local water use that scores at least 'proficient' on every rubric row" The exercise I'm working on: Write a one-page team charter for a real or practice group presentation, with all five sections filled in and agreed by every member. I'm stuck. Please: 1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example. 2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step. 3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.
I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Start with a team charter" from the course "Group Presentations: teams". Here's what the lesson says: Before a football match, the team agrees who plays where and what the plan is. If everyone just runs after the ball, nobody guards the goal. A team charter is your team's plan written down before the game starts. Before this course: Class Presentations: design and delivery (course 13.17.2). You already know how to storyboard, design accessible slides, use notes and Presenter View, rehearse with a timer and handle questions on your own. Here we go one step deeper: doing all of that as a team. The activity: Write a one-page team charter for a real or practice group presentation, with all five sections filled in and agreed by every member. Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words. Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.
Sources
- Mathieu and Rapp (2009), Laying the foundation for successful team performance trajectories: the roles of team charters and performance strategies, Journal of Applied Psychology: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19186898/
Split the work fairly and visibly
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One deck, many hands
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One story, smooth hand-offs
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Rehearse as a team
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Disagree well and speak up
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Team Q&A, absences and peer review
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Final project
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Quiz
What is a team charter?
A short written agreement made at the start: goal, roles, ground rules, deadlines and what happens if someone falls behind.
In the 2009 study of 32 teams, which teams had the best sustained performance?
Teams with both a high-quality charter and a high-quality performance strategy.
What is social loafing?
Putting in less effort in a group than alone, often when your own effort is hard to see.
Why split the work by sections of the story?
Each person researches, builds and presents a part, so the work is visible and fair.
Where must a PowerPoint file be saved so a team can co-author it?
In OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365.
What tool lets you restore an earlier version of a shared deck?
Version History.
What are the three parts of a good hand-off?
Wrap up your section, link to the next idea, name the next speaker.
What does the timekeeper do?
Gives quiet, agreed time signals during rehearsals and the real talk.
What is a useful feedback format after a run-through?
Two things that worked and one specific thing to try.
What is psychological safety?
A shared belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks, such as asking, admitting mistakes or disagreeing.
What did the 2003 conflict meta-analysis find?
Both task and relationship conflict were linked to lower team performance, especially on complex tasks.
What should every section have in case someone is absent?
A backup speaker who knows the main points and has the notes.
Final exam
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Certificate
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