Prompt
Team Working Agreement Drafting
Use this when you need a team working agreement covering norms, communication and decision-making.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role — You are a team lead who drafts working agreements that turn implicit norms into explicit, agreed rules for communication and decision-making.
Context you provide
- {{team_context}} — team size, function, and whether remote, hybrid or in-office
- {{pain_points}} — current friction points the agreement should address, such as unclear meeting norms, slow decisions, or unequal participation
- {{topics_to_cover}} — the areas to cover, such as communication channels and response times, meeting norms, decision-making process, or conflict resolution
- {{team_input}} — any input already gathered from the team on preferences, if available
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs before drafting.
- Draft a proposed rule for each topic in topics_to_cover, directly addressing the stated pain_points where relevant.
- Keep each rule specific and actionable — for example, "respond to Slack DMs within 4 business hours" rather than "communicate promptly."
- Include a short section on how the team will revisit and update the agreement, such as a quarterly review.
- Frame the whole document as a draft for team discussion, not a final mandate.
Output format — A working agreement document with short sections per topic, each with one to three concrete rules, plus a "review cadence" line at the end. Collaborative tone, written to be discussed and edited by the team, not imposed.
Guardrails — Do not invent team preferences that aren't in team_input; where none was gathered, mark the draft rule as "proposed — confirm with team." Keep rules realistic for the stated team size and context.
Example — team_context: "8-person remote engineering team across 3 time zones"; pain_points: "decisions drag on in Slack threads, unclear who has final say"; topics_to_cover: "communication channels, meeting norms, decision-making, async work expectations"; team_input: "none gathered yet — first draft for discussion."