Team Communication Norms

Collaborating with people who have different communication styles and across time zones can be tricky. Make it easier by agreeing on team communication norms.

PREP TIME

10m

Run TIME

75m

Persons

2-10

5-second summary

Identify pain points or challenges with your team’s communication.
Brainstorm how to adjust the way your team communicates to improve timing, inclusivity, and visibility.
Document decisions, and put them into practice to see what works well and what needs further improvement.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Video conferencing with screen sharing or meeting space
Digital or physical whiteboard (see templates)
Markers, sticky notes, and a time for in-person meetings

PLAY resources

Working Agreements Play and template

Team Communication Norms Template

How to create team communication norms

Improve collaboration, especially across time zones, by agreeing on how your team will communicate with each other.

What is a team communication norm?

Team communication norms are expectations for how team members behave and interact with each other. They can include what to do and what not to do to keep communication smooth, respectful, and inclusive.

Why run the Team Communication Norms Play?

Everyone has different communication styles, which can create challenges with understanding and team culture. Distributed teams often feel these pains even more because they’re working across multiple time zones. Reaching your goals requires finding common ground.

This quick, practical exercise helps your team co-create shared norms that improve collaboration— no matter where or when you work.

With these norms, your team can:

Clarify communication expectations across time zones
Respect working hours by balancing availability
Support inclusion by making space of all voices
Boost team effectiveness by aligning tool use and building trust through transparent practices

When should you create team communication norms?

There is never a bad time to do this exercise. It’s especially helpful when team members are experiencing burnout or when expectations around how and when to communicate are unclear.

4 benefits of setting team communication norms

Atlassian’s Teamwork Lab ran an internal experiment on setting communication norms and reported the following:

Encourage productive communication: 74% of executives say lack of communication interferes with speed and quality of work. Explicit communication norms help everyone do their jobs efficiently and effectively.
Reduce stress and improve productivity: Research shows that a lack of work-life balance or an inability to unplug impacts stress levels and workplace productivity. Setting clear norms and boundaries for communication can relieve stress for the team and pave the way for impactful collaboration.
Create space for meaningful work: 65% of knowledge workers say it’s more important to quickly respond to messages than it is to make progress on top priorities. Without transparent communication agreements, it can be difficult for employees to balance focus time with collaboration expectations.
Reduce meeting overload: 78% of workers say they’re expected to attend so many meetings, it’s hard to get their work done. For distributed teams, clear norms around async communication and meeting expectations help respect time zones and working hours, making it easier for everyone to participate.

1. Schedule a meeting

Est. time: 5 MIN

Send a calendar invitation for a one-hour meeting with your teammates. Make sure to include context about the meeting's topic.

Example script

The ask:

Primarily for Molly and Allison.
Review my page and leave comments, particularly regarding page readability and content clarity.

The context:

I made a page detailing our decision to shift directions on the latest project.
It is to be shared with stakeholders Jolene and Dolly to keep them informed.
They have lots of competition for attention, so this should be crisp.

Go deeper:

The page is about the new project direction.
We’re pivoting from the old feature to a new one because of recent feedback from leadership.
The new direction requires a slight change of roles, especially for Molly and Allison.

Tip: Get writing help

Use the Comms Crafter Rovo Agent to draft your outline and/or script.

2. Set up a whiteboard

Est. time: 2 MIN

Set up a digital or physical whiteboard to guide the conversation with five sections:

Timing your messages
Response expectations
Inclusivity
Visibility
Team communication norms

A note about on-call teammates: On-call rotations are a special case. Since they require availability outside of core working hours, they’re considered out of scope for this exercise.

3. Set the scene

Est. time: 5 min

Open the conversation by explaining why the team is meeting and by creating a safe place for discussion. Having a leader to do this introduction can help gain buy-in and communicate the importance of the conversation.

During the intro, highlight a few challenges team members have been experiencing, like feeling pressure to respond outside of working hours, or goals you have for improving communication, like providing clarity on expectations and being more inclusive with decision-making.

To make the conversation as productive as possible, share a few mutual agreements, too, such as:

Listen with an open mind.
Think outside the box. There are no wrong answers during this meeting.
Share as much as you’re comfortable with.
Remember that everyone’s experience is valid.
Be honest and candid about potential issues and risks.
Make critique constructive by focusing on ways to improve rather than blaming.

4. Identify challenges to address

Est. time: 10 min

First, explore why some team members may be feeling like they can’t unplug after working hours. If you aren’t using the Confluence whiteboard template, write these three questions on the board:

When you get messages outside your working hours, do you feel like you have to respond right away?
After your workday ends, do you worry important decisions might happen without your input?
Do you ever feel like not responding during core hours might make you seem less committed?

Give the team 10 minutes to answer these questions using “Yes” or “No” stickers for a digital whiteboard or green and red markers for physical whiteboards.

The responses will determine which kind of communication norms would be most helpful for the team:

If several people said “Yes” to question 1, try exercises A, B, and D.
If several people said “Yes” to question 2, try exercise C.
If several people said “Yes” to question 3, try exercises A, B, and D.

5. Review the two steps for each exercise

Est. time: 1 min

Divide each exercise into two sections:
* Brainwriting (3 mins): Ask team members to add their responses to the prompts on sticky notes. (One response or idea per sticky note.)

2. Discussion and commitment (7 mins): Discuss the responses as a team, and decide on your process and communication norms. Capture those decisions on sticky notes in the section called “Our team communication norms.”

6. Exercise A: Timing your messages

Est. time: 10 min

Ask the group:

When is the best time to send team communications?

Should direct messages be sent anytime or saved for the start of someone’s day?

Again, spend three minutes brainwriting and seven minutes discussing and committing.

7. Exercise B: Response expectations

Est. time: 10 min

Ask the group:

How quickly should teammates reply to messages outside of their core working hours?

When should someone ideally read and respond to messages?

Again, spend three minutes brainwriting and seven minutes discussing and committing.

8. Exercise C: Inclusivity

Est. time: 10 min

Ask the group:

How can we gather input from everyone?

How can everyone weigh in on important discussions, no matter their time zone?

How might the process change depending on the type of decision that needs to be made?

Again, spend three minutes brainwriting and seven minutes discussing and committing.

9. Exercise D: Visibility

Est. time: 10 min

Ask the group:

How can we flag time-sensitive info so it gets noticed?

What’s the best way to mark communications as critical or urgent?

Where should we post important updates so people see them as soon as they log in?

Again, spend three minutes brainwriting and seven minutes discussing and committing.

10. Review team communication norms

Est. time: 10 min

As the team goes through each of the exercises, add decisions from each topic to the appropriate section below to create norms about:

When will team communications be sent
When we expect people to read and respond to messages
How we gather input from everyone
How we share time-sensitive information
Any other team communication norms that come up during the conversation

11. Document and bookmark decisions

Est. time: 5 min

Capture what your team agreed on so the norms aren’t forgotten when the meeting ends.

Document the decisions in your team’s shared workspace, such as a Confluence page or a Slack channel.
Make it easy to find by pinning the Slack message or bookmarking the page in your team’s chat channel.

Tip: Get manager support

If a team member is facilitating this exercise instead of a manager, make sure the leader is aware of these communication norms and ask them to help reinforce them. Their support can go a long way toward turning agreements into lasting habits.