Team Chartering Workshop - Background
The Team Chartering Workshop is one of the stances that I can come into a team with a limited engagement approach and make a large impact. While I have run similar workshops and activities with multiple teams for about 6 years now, this is the first time I am offering them to clients at an ad-hoc/ limited engagement format.
I am making this workshop available to the first few clients at a significantly lower rate than they are valued at (more than 50% off) to build some quick momentum on UpWork and to honor those who are taking these first steps with me on this leg of my journey.
Find the team Chartering Workshop Offerings here
Find the Team Chartering Workshop UpWork site Here
Team Chartering Workshop Schedule Overview
Why is this impactful?
Frequently, teams that are asked to start working together spend a few weeks to a few months (if at all) identifying some foundational information that enables the teams success:
- What the team is created to do
- What success looks like for the team in the eyes of management and stakeholders
- Who the management and stakeholders are for the team
- Who sets the priorities of the team (who do they listen to when more than 1 person is giving instructions?)
The team will also spend that time identifying what the expectations are within the team:
- What is okay and not okay in how the team works together
- What is expected when the team makes agreements
- When, where, and how does the team execute what tasks (ie: regular meetings with purpose)
- How does the team change the way they work together
- What happens when there is a disagreement or argument on the team
I have found that teams who don't intentionally set out to align in these spaces will often spend hours each week trying to find answers and alignment on these things. Taking a few hours near the team's formation will often save significant time, effort, and frustration for the team in the long run.
Isn't that what Agile is for?
Sure, a mature Agile team will identify a lot of these items in a retrospective or team improvement space. These teams would benefit more from my Team Retrospective Workshop offering (if they need a facilitator, or are finding themselves in a rut). The teams that might need the Team Chartering Workshop are teams who are in the forming or storming stage of the Tuckman Model, have not done a dedicated Team Chartering Workshop (or only done a truncated version) and want to move quicker towards Agile maturity.
Tiered offerings
There are a number of things that UpWork encourages that are not super helpful, but the tiered offering format has really supported some great ideas and perspectives for me.
I believe that one size workshop may not fit all teams, orgs, or budgets (if the challenge is a budget issue- I am offering these workshops at a more than 50% discount for the first few teams,so grab the full engagement/ top tier option at a significantly discounted rate before the slots run out). I am giving a tiered approach a try to see how effective it is for the teams and clients and how effective it is for me.
I developed the full workshop, including conversations, exercises, and alignment sessions that I know new teams frequently benefit from. This is what constitutes the full engagement/ top tier option.
When I narrowed down the workshop to the bare bones and potentially highest value items, I used this as the basis for the starter/ economy offering. We miss out on a lot of high value conversations, but even the starter tier will create a return on investment with a team that is more aligned and will move through forming and storming faster than otherwise.
Costs and Discounts
Price theory is pretty complex and I am still trying to figure out the nuances of it. These would not be as simple as "number of hours times hourly rate" as there is time spent designing the workshop AND time involved in crafting the workshop for the specific team I am working with.
I have found that these kinds of workshops facilitated in a one-off setting will often go for $200-$300 per person per hour. Running a 2-8 hr workshop like this for a team of 5-9 would find us in the range of $2,000-$12,000. I am intentionally setting my rates low (more than 50% off) in order to build some momentum through UpWork and honor those who are taking these first steps with me.
Marketing and Logistics
Marketing these workshops is something that I will be testing and refining. My first inclination is to utilize the UpWork site as a means for managing logistics for clients who I have not worked with or have not connected with.