Team Canvas

Team Canvas is a strategic tool that helps team members align goals for the project and rules for co-working.

Depending on the project's duration, you can use the Basic version (5 elements) or the Full version (9 elements).

Basic version

1. Goals
2. Roles and Skills
3. Mission
4. Values
5. Rules and activities

Full version

1. People and roles
2. Common goals
3. Personal goals
4. Purpose
5. Values
6. Strengths and assets
7. Weaknesses and risks
8. Needs and expectations
9. Rules and activities

Ask people to write their names and roles on stickers. If someone has several roles, use separate stickers.

Questions:

• What is your name?
• What roles are on the team?
• What is the name of your team?

Examples:

• Alex: CEO.
• Elena: Design and programming.
• Team name: Phantom.

Ask the team to agree on common goals.

Questions:

• What do we as a group really want to achieve?
• What is our key goal that is achievable, measurable and time-bound?

Examples:

• Become a leading company in our region by 2021.
• Create a company with a revenue of 100 million by the fall of 2025.

Ask the team members about the individual goals that they set for the project.

Questions:

• What are our personal goals for this project?
• Are there any personal plans that we want to achieve?

Examples:

• Become more confident in iOS development [Julia]
• Figure out how to work with contractors [Sergey]

Ask the team to take one step further towards their common goal and ask them why they are doing what they are doing.

Questions:

• Why are we doing what we are doing at all?
• What is the more important factor making us pursue the common goal?

Examples:

• Positively impact people's lives through social innovation.
• Make people's lives easier and reduce stress with innovation.

Ask the team what core values (most important principles) they want to support in the team. The team should agree on the values so everyone buys into the final set.

Questions:

• What do we stand for?
• What are our guiding principles?
• What shared values do we want to make foundational to our team?

Examples:

• Trust
• Creativity
• Quality
• Transparency
• Understanding
• Equality
• Respect

Ask the team to share the essential skills and assets available in the team. Don't discount "trivial" things. You may find that the team has martial arts, marathon running, or persuasion abilities. Encourage people to share something about themselves and recognize important qualities they see in their teammates.

Questions:

• What skills do we have as a team to help us reach our goals?
• What interpersonal skills do we have?
• What are we good at individually and as a team?

Examples:

• Coding (iOS/Python/etc.)
• Design
• Being devoted and led
• Energy
• Sales and pitching

Ask the team to talk about the main weaknesses and areas for improvement they see in themselves, as well as the obstacles they are facing as a team. Emphasize finding the positives in each person rather than pointing out anyone’s weaknesses.

Questions:

• What weaknesses do we have individually and as a team?
• What do our team mates need to know about us?
• What obstacles may we face ahead?

Examples:

• Easily distracted [Mary]
• Prone to being condescending [Max]
• Lack of structured communication [general] etc.

Ask the team to express their needs for success. Think of this as a continuation of the previous two sections: After team members have expressed their strengths and weaknesses, they should be able to tell their needs to strengthen their strengths and to perform at their best despite their weaknesses.

Questions:

• What does each team member need for success?
• How can the team support each member with their needs?

Examples:

• Some "me time"
• Clearer weekly updates of the status
• Help and coaching
• Trust
• Fun
• Stability

Ask the team to agree on general rules and actions. Think of it as a result of the previous sections: a specific set of practices and actions they want to implement.

Questions:

• What rules do we want to introduce after this session?
• How do we communicate and keep everybody in the loop?
• How do we make decisions?
• How do we execute and assess what we do?

Examples:

• Maintaining confidentiality in the group.
• Weekly status updates.
• Communication via Slack + Skype for calls.
• Dinners together every second week (Max as the organizer).
• Working day: from 9 to 10, meetings at the beginning of 10.
• Working day up to 8 hours except for cases where it needs to be slightly increased.

Team Canvas is useful in the following situations:

• when creating a team;
• when launching a new project;
• when adding new members to the team;
• when clarifying goals and considering team performance as a whole;
• in general, team alignment sessions (recommended every 2-3 months).

Team Canvas Structure

• What is the team: roles and goals (general and personal)
• Why does the team do what it does: goals and values
• Who are team members: their strengths and weaknesses, and needs (included in full version)
• How will the team achieve what it needs to achieve: rules and actions

1. Reserve 1 hour for the basic version and 1.5-2 hours for the full version of the canvas.
2. For greater engagement, urge people to write answers down themselves.
3. If some topic takes too much time, it's possible to arrange separate meetings to solve the difficult questions.
4. As a session facilitator, you might be asked often: "How do we answer this? What do you expect us to say here?" To such questions, ask: "How would you answer if you knew? What do you think the answer should be?" it is important to understand that the team canvas creates the context for the team, not content, so all answers are correct.
5. Repeating the Team Canvas sessions from time to time is recommended, especially when new members join the team.