Team Charter Template
Fill in your team's purpose, scope, goals, roles, working agreements, communication and decision rules. The charter lays itself out as you type, as a full charter with sign-off lines or a one-page summary to pin up. Load the field sales example to see a finished one.
What goes in a team charter
A charter answers the questions a team otherwise argues about later. Keep each section short enough that people remember it.
Purpose
Why the team exists and who it serves, in one or two sentences. If the team cannot agree on this, nothing below it will hold.
Scope
What the team owns and, just as useful, what it does not. Out-of-scope lines stop work landing on the team by default.
Goals and measures
Three to five outcomes with a number or a clear finish line and a date. The summary format shows the first five.
Members and roles
Who is on the team and what each person is responsible for. For task-by-task ownership, use a RACI chart next to the charter.
Working agreements
The behaviours the team commits to: meetings, follow-up, how bad news travels. Pick from common norms or write your own.
Communication
Meeting cadence, which channel is for what, and how fast people answer. Most friction in field teams starts here.
Decision making
How decisions get made, and who decides what. Saying it upfront saves the argument about how to decide.
Conflict, resources, constraints and review
What to do when people disagree, what the team has to work with, the limits it works within, and when you will look at the charter again.
How to run the chartering session
Write the charter with the team, not for it. A first draft takes one meeting of 60 to 90 minutes; this agenda fits 90.
1. Open and set the goal
10 minSay why you are writing a charter and what you will leave with. A short warm-up helps a new team.
2. Purpose
15 minEveryone writes one sentence on why the team exists. Read them out and merge them into one.
3. Scope
10 minList what is in and what is out. Park anything that needs a decision from outside the team.
4. Goals and measures
15 minAgree three to five goals, each with a measure and a date.
5. Roles
10 minGo round the room: what each person owns. Note gaps and overlaps.
6. Working agreements and communication
15 minPick the norms the team will actually keep, then cadence, channels and response times.
7. Decisions and conflict
10 minChoose a default decision rule and say who decides what. Agree the first step when people disagree.
8. Review date and next steps
5 minSet a review date, name who writes up the charter and when everyone signs.
90 minutes
For a 60-minute session, send a draft a few days ahead and spend the meeting on the sections people disagree about.
Four ways to make decisions
Pick a default for the team and note the exceptions under "who decides what". Many teams use consult-then-decide for most calls and consensus for the team's own rules.
Consensus
We talk it through until everyone can support the decision, even if it is not their first choice.
Consult, then decide
The person who owns the decision asks the people affected for input, then decides and explains why.
Majority vote
We discuss, then vote; the option with more than half the votes wins.
Leader decides
The team lead decides, after hearing the team when there is time.
For who does each task, build a RACI chart alongside the charter.
Running the team once the charter is signed: field sales management.
Setting the rhythm the charter describes: meeting cadence.
More for sales leaders: field sales management, sales onboarding, how to run effective meetings.
Record the chartering session. Write the charter from what the team said.
The agreements in a charter are made out loud, in the room. Record the session with ParrotNotes and you get the transcript, a summary and the action items, so the charter you write up matches what the team actually agreed. Free for 100 minutes of recording a month.
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