7 Proven Ways to Create a Team Charter for Better Team Alignment in Project Management
By: Alvin Villanueva, PMP; Editor: Geram Lompon; Reviewed by: Grace Payumo, PMP
Have you ever felt like your team is just not syncing up? Maybe there’s confusion about who’s responsible for what, communication feels scattered, or roles overlap in frustrating ways.
I know I’ve been there. That’s when I learned the value of a team charter, a simple yet powerful tool that transformed how my team and I collaborated.
It wasn’t just a piece of paper. It became our team’s guide to clarity, unity, and success.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the 7-step process that worked for me and show you how you can create an entire team charter template to set your project on the path to success.
Why You Need a Team Charter for Success
A team charter is not just a formality; it is essential to ensure your team works together effectively, respects each other’s roles, and strives toward the same goals.
Think of it as your team’s mission statement and guiding principles. This document outlines the project team’s purpose, individual roles, and values, which increase accountability and minimize confusion.
Whether you’re working on a tight deadline or tackling a long-term project, a team charter helps keep everyone on the same page and promotes a strong sense of shared responsibility.
Top Reasons to Learn How to Create a Team Charter for Stronger Teams
A team charter enables your team to work effectively and harmoniously toward shared goals. Without clear guidelines, misunderstandings, miscommunications, and conflict can quickly derail even the best-laid plans.
A team charter provides the clarity, structure, and unity needed to succeed in a high-performing team (Aaron et al., 2014). It is your team’s foundation for mutual respect, accountability, and a strong sense of purpose.
- Aligns everyone on the team’s mission and goals from the start
- It helps define individual roles, reducing confusion and overlap
- Establishes clear expectations for communication and behavior
- Strengthens team dynamics and builds trust among members
- Provides a reference point to resolve conflicts and keep everyone focused
- Promotes long-term collaboration beyond the current project
By creating a team charter, you’re holding the team accountable and setting it up for success. It’s a simple yet powerful tool for creating an environment where everyone knows their role, understands the project planning team’s purpose, and is motivated to contribute their best.
7 Steps to Create Your Team Charter and Align Your Team for Success
A team charter is a powerful tool for helping you and your team work cohesively and stay aligned toward your shared goals.
This process goes beyond assigning roles and tasks; it defines values, establishes team norms, establishes accountability, sets expectations, and ensures everyone understands their purpose and contribution.
With these seven steps, you’ll build a strong foundation for success, ensuring your team is ready to tackle challenges and deliver results together.
1. Kickstart the Collaboration
Start the team retreat or kickoff session with an icebreaker to build rapport. This helps everyone feel comfortable and ready to discuss the project more deeply. Consider using virtual icebreaker activities or tools such as Miro or Google Jamboard to create a collaborative environment where everyone can contribute ideas and feel included, especially for remote teams.
2. Pinpoint Core Values
Have new team members join and reflect on the values that matter to them personally and professionally. Use these reflections to craft a shared values statement for the team. These values should reflect how you plan to work together, not just the task. Including input from every team member makes the charter feel more inclusive, increasing ownership and motivation.
3. Clarify Your Team’s Purpose
Work together to define the team’s mission. What unique role does your team play in the project, and how can you contribute to its success? Each member must understand how their work connects to the larger goal. This can be done collaboratively through a real-time document or collaborative tools like Trello or Asana.
4. Set Achievable Milestones
Establish short-term and long-term goals that guide the team’s efforts throughout the project and into the future. Setting clear milestones will ensure everyone understands what success looks like. This can be aligned with agile methodologies , where milestones are revisited regularly to adapt to changing needs and new challenges.
5. Ground Rules
Decide on how your team members communicate, collaborate, and resolve conflicts. This step sets the guidelines for working together as a group. Regarding communication expectations , consider using tools like Slack for quick discussions, Zoom for video meetings, and Asana for tracking tasks and deadlines. This creates an efficient, integrated system that aligns with the team’s needs.
6. Feedback Loop
Refine the team charter with input from all team members. This will ensure everyone feels involved and invested in the team’s direction. Consider setting up quarterly team reviews to ensure the charter is still aligned with the new team’s goals. Feedback tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms can help collect anonymous input to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
7. Put It Into Action
Once finalized, display the team charter during team meetings and actively use it to guide decisions and actions. To stay accountable, keep the charter visible in the team’s collaborative tools (Sperry et al., 2025). Displaying it digitally or through
Key Factors for a Successful Team Charter Implementation
One of the most important things to remember when implementing a team charter is that it’s not a one-time exercise.
The charter should evolve as the team progresses, with regular check-ins to ensure it still aligns with the team’s goals and dynamics. Don’t be afraid to adjust the team charter periodically if issues arise or the team’s focus or project direction changes. This adaptability will keep your team on track and ensure the charter remains relevant and practical.
Another key consideration is ensuring full buy-in from every team leader and member. It’s vital that everyone feels they’ve had input into the charter and that their voices are heard. This sense of ownership will increase commitment and motivate the other team members to join in to uphold the charter’s values and agreements.
Remember that the charter is more than a document—it’s the foundation for a collaborative process, building trust and strong team dynamics. It can foster a sense of belonging and camaraderie, ensuring the whole team exists and works cohesively toward the project’s success.
Taking Your Team Charter to the Next Level: Strategies for Long-Term Success
Once your team charter is in place and actively guiding your team, you can enhance its effectiveness by integrating regular reflection, planning sessions, and improvement sessions with your own team charter.
Consider scheduling periodic team reviews of the charter—maybe every quarter or after key project milestones—to assess how well it’s supporting the team’s progress. These reviews will allow you to identify team dynamics or changes in project goals and refine the charter to address new challenges or opportunities.
Alternatives to Team Charters
While a team charter is a powerful tool for aligning and motivating your team, there are other methods you can use to foster team cohesion and clarity. Compared to a formal team charter, which provides a structured and codified reference point, these alternatives prioritize adaptability and real-time collaboration.
For example, team-building workshops or collaborative tools like Trello or Miro allow team members to continuously contribute to defining their team-building activities, roles, values, and goals in real time.
These alternatives work well in dynamic environments where flexibility is key and can complement the structure of a team charter or serve as stand-alone solutions.
Wrapping Up: My Personal Experience With Creating a Successful Team Charter
Creating a team charter is a powerful way to establish a shared sense of purpose and direction within your team. Following the steps outlined, you and the team can develop a document clarifying roles and setting goals, which helps build trust, accountability, and strong team dynamics.
The process can become as valuable as the final charter, offering insights that improve your team’s performance and overall cohesion.
From my experience, I’ve seen firsthand how a well-executed and effective team charter can transform a group of individuals into a high-performing unit. When everyone on the team is aligned and committed to a shared set of values and goals, it’s incredible how quickly teams can overcome challenges and achieve their objectives. This isn’t just theory—it’s a proven method that has worked for me, and I believe it can do the same for you.
So, take the time to craft a charter that resonates with your team. It’s an investment that will pay off in stronger team collaboration and lasting success.
Key Takeaways
- A Team Charter Builds Clarity: It helps define roles, values, mission, and operating agreements, giving everyone on the team a clear sense of purpose and direction.
- It Promotes Accountability: By putting expectations in writing, team members can hold each other accountable, ensuring alignment throughout the project.
- It Fosters Team Cohesion: Developing the charter together strengthens relationships and trust within the team, laying the foundation for better collaboration.
- It’s a Living Document: A team charter should be revisited periodically to ensure it remains relevant as the team evolves and new challenges arise.
- Alternatives to a Formal Charter: If a formal charter doesn’t resonate, team-building workshops or collaborative tools can offer a more dynamic approach to fostering team alignment and communication.
References
Aaron, J. R., McDowell, W. C., & Herdman, A. O. (2014). The effects of a team charter on student and team leader behaviors. Journal of Education for Business, 89(2), 90–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2013.763753
Andrade, M. S., Westover, J., & Workman, L. (2018). The perceived value of using a team collaboration charter in business education. Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education, 2(1), Article 8. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1392622
APA PsycNet. (n.d.). https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-00697-021
Conway Hughston, V. C. (2014). Consequences of Team Charter Quality: Teamwork Mental Model Similarity and Team Viability in Engineering Design Student Teams. (Doctoral dissertation, Pennsylvania State University). Retrieved from https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/20503
Chung, S. K., PhD. (n.d.). Virtual Teamwork in a Business School Master’s Program: Do Team Charters have an Impact? Digital USD. https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations/840/
Knutson, J. (1997). Developing a new team charter. PM Network, 11(8), 15–16.
Scholda, B. (2020). The impact of Team-Level norms and new team members charters on the Performance-Trajectories of Work-Teams (By NHH Norwegian School of Economics). https://openaccess.nhh.no/nhh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2737188/masterthesis.pdf?sequence=1
Sperry, M. P., Aldana, A. J., O’Neill, T., Mimovic, A., Gibson, C. B., & McLarnon, M. J. W. (2025). Hybrid and remote team chartering: creating clarity and effective teams in an increasingly virtual world. Journal of Innovative Education.https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5108231
