The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You need shared norms for meetings, response times, decisions and focus time that your team agrees to.
- {{team_name}}
- {{team_facts}}
- {{team_input}}
- {{problems}}
- {{company_policies}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
Draft a working agreement for {{team_name}} from my team's input. It is a draft for the team to discuss, change and agree together, not a set of rules from me, because people keep the norms they helped set. Team facts: {{team_facts}} What the team said when I asked how we want to work (survey answers, retrospective or meeting notes): """ {{team_input}} """ Problems we want the agreement to solve: {{problems}} Company policies the agreement must fit within: {{company_policies}} Cover these areas, each as a heading with three to five agreements: 1. Meetings: when we meet, agendas, notes, and when a written update replaces a meeting. 2. Communication and response times: which channel for what, how fast we reply on each, what counts as urgent, and how to flag it. 3. Focus time: protected hours or days, and how to signal them. 4. Decisions: who decides what, where we record decisions, and how to disagree and then commit. 5. Availability and handoffs: working hours across time zones, cover when someone is out, and how to ask for help. 6. Review: when and how we will revisit the agreement, for example after three months. Each agreement should be a specific, observable behavior, so that anyone could tell whether it has been kept. For example, "We reply to direct messages within four working hours" rather than "We communicate responsively". Keep the whole agreement under 500 words, in bullets under each heading. Use what the team said. Do not add norms nobody raised unless one is needed to cover an area above, and mark those "[suggested]". Do not set expectations that conflict with the company policies above, and do not expect anyone to reply outside their working hours. Where team members disagree, do not pick a side: mark the point "[to decide together]" and set out the options under "Open questions for the team meeting" at the end. If an area has no input at all, say so there too.
Variables
- {{team_name}}
- Your team's name.
- {{team_facts}}
- Size, locations and time zones, and the main tools you use, for example "eight people in three time zones, using Slack and Zoom".
- {{team_input}}
- What people said about how they want to work: survey answers, retrospective notes or meeting notes.
- {{problems}}
- What is not working now, for example "too many meetings" or "decisions get reopened".
- {{company_policies}}
- Policies on hours, remote work or availability the agreement must respect. Write "none" if there are none.
Why it works
- What good looks like. Every agreement is an observable behavior, so the team can tell when a norm is slipping instead of arguing about what it meant.
- Who it's for. It is drafted as a starting point for the team to change and agree, because norms imposed by a manager rarely stick.
- If unsure. Disagreements are marked "to decide together" with the options laid out, rather than settled quietly in the draft.