Setting Group Norms

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What norms might make our work together more effective?

Creating guidelines or norms for group behavior makes collaboration and group meetings more effective. In this exercise, we will establish norms for our group and develop a model that can be used at your school.

Getting Started

We are going to focus on setting some norms that will help us work better or more effectively as a group. By setting these norms we are accepting ownership for how we work as a group. The process we use, and many of the norms we choose, should be useful to you when you return to your schools.

1. Think of behaviors that lead to effective meetings.
2. Look at the example norms listed below for ideas.
3. As a large group, brainstorm the question: What norms might make our work together more effective?
4. If you offer a norm, to tell your group why and whether the norm proved effective in a meeting.
5. Choose a group recorder to record the group brainstorm.
6. After 10 minutes, stop and look for commonalities to refine the list.
7. Determine which five norms will be most beneficial to our work together.

Your facilitator will reproduce this list for future use during the T2T sessions.

Example Norms

• Begin on time.
• End on time.
• Attend all meetings.
• Respect questions.
• Monitor your own airtime.
• Stay on agenda.
• Do assignments prior to meetings.
• Hold yourself personally accountable.
• Do not use hostile language.
• Respect the group.
• Listen attentively.
• Attend to goals and objectives.
• Listen respectfully.
• Discuss issues, not people.
• Probe ideas; do not criticize people.
• Show respect for views of others.
• Avoid side conversations.
• Assume positive intentions.
• Observe basic conversational courtesies.
• Avoid use of cell phone and checking personal emails.

Now that you have completed your list, it's important to remember this is a starting point. The list may grow or shrink after you have applied these as you work with this group. It may also change as you work with other teachers in your school. We will develop our own list of norms for the program and revisit them in each session.

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