Effective Teams Part 2: Examples of Team Norms

Team norms are basically relationship guidelines that develop gradually. Team members develop particular ways of interacting with each other over time until those habits become behavioral expectations. A team can have high performance norms or low performance norms… in addition to norms around things other than performance… such as communication, decision-making, or dealing with conflict. Here are several examples of some common team norms:



  • What is the structure of team meetings?
  • When is it acceptable to miss a meeting?
  • How do we encourage participation?
  • When, how often, and for how long do we meet?
  • Who keeps minutes?
  • Who leads the meeting?

Project Management

  • What is the definition of quality work?
  • Do we strive for excellence or mediocrity?
  • How strictly do we adhere to deadlines?
  • Is creativity encouraged?
  • Who leads the completion of the project?
  • What are the roles and boundaries?
  • Do we help each other out? To what extent?



Eva Rykrsmith

Eva Rykrsmith is an organizational psychology practitioner. Her passion lies in bringing a psychology perspective to the business world, with the mission of creating a high-performance environment. Follow her @EvaRykr.

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  • Dana Larson

    these are fantastic guidelines for any business looking to increase structure and effectiveness. It’s incredibly important, but unfortunately, I think it’s something that not many businesses seek out. They think they have it all figured out until, one day, they realize their business effectiveness isn’t cutting it. Great post.