Social Contracts
We, the four authors, are in a very fortunate position where we get to help kick-start new product teams. We use a range of practices to help bootstrap these teams and get them off to the best start possible. We've come to realize that one practice in particular is foundational – social contracts.
The social contract practice is a simple yet highly effective way to enable team autonomy and self-accountability for engagements. A social contract is created by and for the team. It looks to codify the behaviors and expectations of the team. It also provides a mechanism for the team to visualize and share its desired behaviors with management and other stakeholders.
A social contract is not some big expensive consulting engagement but a simple set of guidelines and behaviors put forward by a team for how they would like to interact with one another. It promotes autonomy and self-governance within a team.
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