Working Together: Team Roles and Responsibilities Exercise Guide

Team Initiation Exercise

Why use this exercise

Careful consideration of team purpose and members should occur when a new team is formed.  By assessing and determining some basic criteria the “storming and norming” period for a team can be reduced and productivity accelerated.

When to use this exercise

This exercise is most useful when a new team is being formed, roles are being identified, and members are being selected.

How to use this exercise

Consider the following questions when establishing a new team and assigning team member roles.

1. How will team members be engaging?  Different expectations and dynamics exist depending on whether a team is coming together to support a long-term need, daily operations, or a temporary project engagement.
2. What roles are required, and can/will members support multiple roles?  Team roles often differ from HR positions therefore it is important to clarify member roles and the associated responsibilities.
3. Do the team roles or people serving in those roles have overlapping or similar responsibilities?  This is common particularly when a team is dealing with ambiguous or complex topics.  Rather than creating walls between members, use communication to manage anticipated role overlap and achieve greater team collaboration, perspective, and support. 
4. What are the team members’ experience levels and how will they impact expectations for working together and role responsibilities?   As resources gain experience and their capabilities mature the ability to take on more responsibilities increases allowing for greater cross-team functionality and flexibility.  But this can also contribute to role clarity, confusion, and conflict.  Additionally, newer resources may bring different perspectives and historical references.
5. Do team members want or need an opportunity to grow and learn?  Teams can provide good opportunities for members to try new roles, expand their knowledge, and grow their capabilities and talent.

Formal roles are generally defined, established functions necessary to accomplish the goals of the team.

Informal roles are assumed based on personalities, motivations, styles and experiences. Examples of informal roles include spokesperson, social coordinator, optimist, realist, catalyst, etc.

When to use this exercise

The Team Role Discovery exercise is most useful when work may be dynamic or ambiguous, roles have overlap, or when there is not always clear distinct lines of handoff or separation across teams or positions.

This tool should be used to increase clarity and agreement of team member roles and responsibilities; and to establish comfort discussing roles and complex team dynamics.

How to complete the exercise

In this exercise each team member outlines the roles and responsibilities they believe they individually contribute. This is then presented and discussed with the team, and members then have an opportunity to respond and share their expectations of other roles on the team.

1. Identify a facilitator either from within or from outside the team.
2. Have each team member write a brief bulleted description of what they believe their formal and informal responsibilities are on the team. Each member should consider the skills, talents, and expertise they bring to the group as well as the work expected and required by the team.
3. Each team member then presents to the team.  The facilitator should prompt the other team members to ask questions and provide feedback in terms of their own expectations. Compare and contrast, discuss any differences in opinions or observations.
4. Once all team members have presented, identify the role and responsibility gaps, and clarify the role conflicts.
5. As a team, come to an understanding of and consensus on each person’s roles and responsibilities, and how gaps and conflict will be resolved; then update the team role descriptions.

Next Steps

Save your completed team role descriptions to a location accessible by all team members and revisit as needed or when the team situation changes.

Complement your Team Role Discovery exercise with a Work Agreement.

Work Agreements

Why use a Work Agreement

The purpose of a team created work agreement is to ensure the team shares responsibility in defining expectations, takes ownership in their self-organization process, and commits to how they will work together.

A work agreement serves as a document of shared understanding where parties have agreed upon specific matters that become the rules of behavior and engagement, minimizing friction, and providing a template for what is expected.

When to use a Work Agreement

A Work agreement can be helpful when looking to increase individual accountability for team tasks, when member operational practices differ, and when wanting to reduce the possibility of team conflict.

Role responsibility ice breaker tools can also aid in deciphering operational and personal work differences that should be included in a Work Agreement discussion.

How to use a Work Agreement

1. Prior to starting, determine how mitigation will be done when there are disagreements in how the team will work.
2. Meet as a Team to identify and discuss work agreement questions – the things that need to be decided by the team.  It is recommended that a “starter” list of questions be used to kick-off the discussion.  See Appendix A for example Work Agreement Questions.  You can use and adjust these questions to create a starter list.
3. As a team, brainstorm responses and then decide and document the team’s answer.

Note: An effective work agreement does not have to be formally documented.  The discussion exercise alone may clarify expectations and establish team harmony as well as foster an environment where team members feel comfortable speaking up about team dynamics.   In other words, don’t over think or over engineer the process.

Next Steps

Save your team’s completed work agreement to a location accessible by all team members and revisit as needed or when the team situation changes.

Complement your team’s Work Agreement with an Ice Breaker exercise, Team Role Discovery exercise, and/or a RACI.

RACI Matrix

Why use a RACI

A RACI matrix - Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed - is a tool to provide role clarity, drive task accountability, and support teamwork.

RACIs can be leveraged when ownership of an explicit task comes into question. With the myriad of tasks shared across teams and organizations, and the variety of overlapping, interdependent but independent work and services often occurring, it is easy to lose the clarity of task ownership; sometimes more than one person is owning a task and sometimes no one is.

RACIs are most useful for less experienced teams who are learning their positions and roles, and when work is unambiguous and with clearly discernible hand-offs from one team member to another.

When to use the RACI

RACIs are most helpful when needing clarity of ownership for pre-identified, explicitly known, and clearly separated tasks and activities.  For project implementations, the RACI is a great tool to be utilized during the project kick-off and during project team meetings.

Evaluate using a RACI matrix when there are questions, concerns, or conflicts regarding role responsibilities within your team.

Example RACI definitions

R = Responsible. Who is responsible for completing the work, who is assigned the function, the doer.

A = Accountable. Who is accountable for ensuring this task or function is properly completed, who has the authority to make the final decision.

C = Consulted. Who needs to provide input for the task or function to be properly performed and completed.

I = Informed. Whose work is impacted by this task, who needs to be informed of the results, kept in the loop.

How to Use the RACI 

1.  Answer the following questions as a Team BEFORE completing the RACI matrix.

• What type of team engagement is the RACI for?
• What is the objective for completing the RACI? (better team collaboration, hierarchy leadership organization, addressing specific engagement challenges, etc.)
• Who is the audience for the RACI (internal, external or both; executive leadership, middle management, customers, analysts, informatics, learning services, PMO, etc.)?
• What roles and positions need to be included in the RACI?
• What task responsibilities apply and don't apply to the team engagement?
• What task responsibilities are missing from the template?
• What definitions will be used for the RACI?

2.  Create the team RACI using a RACI Template.

• Select the appropriate RACI Template.  See Appendix B for example templates.
• Outline the key tasks relevant to the team down the left side of the matrix; be sure to clarify terms that may be interpreted by team members differently.
• Complete a RACI by Role matrix by entering the team roles along the top of the matrix (Note: roles may be different than operational position).  For each task/function and roles enter an R, A, C, or I to indicate the expectation for the role and the task/function.
• Alternatively, complete a RACI by Responsibility matrix by entering R A C and I in the column headers at the top of the matrix.  Under each column, for each task/function enter the role or roles that belong in the column.
• Determine if multiple roles can be responsible and accountable (it is generally recommended to limit accountability to a single role).

3.  Regularly review and adjust.

• The team’s RACI should be assessed and adjusted when new team members are onboarded, when tasks or roles change, and when role conflict is identified.
• If reviewing the RACI does not resolve the role conflict, consider the team engagement and experience to assess if other role clarity tools and exercises, such as Team Role Discovery or Work Agreements, are more appropriate.

Next Steps

Save your completed RACI matrix to a location accessible by all team members and revisit as needed or when the team situation changes.

Complement your RACI matrix with a Work Agreement.

Role Responsibility Discussion Ice Breaker

Why use the Role Responsibility Discussion Ice Breaker 

Role expectations should be discussed to avoid misunderstandings. However, sometimes individuals within a team are uncomfortable bringing up role clarity issues and discussing role responsibilities.

When to use the Role Responsibility Discussion Ice Breaker

Use ice breaker exercises to help a team get comfortable being uncomfortable and better prepared to discuss this complex topic.  Ice breaker tools can also aid in deciphering operational and personal work differences that should be included in a Work Agreement discussion.

How to use the Role Responsibility Ice Breaker

1. Create a list of emotional responses the team might feel when talking with others about roles and responsibilities.  Examples of emotional responses include Invigorated, Productive and meaningful, Educated and informed, Confrontational, Worthless and a waste of time, Frustrated, etc.
2. Write each emotional response on an individual index card.
3. Hand out the index cards with the emotional responses to the team (or if doing it remotely, assign each person one or more of the emotional responses).
4. Each person takes a turn holding up the card they received, and the rest of the team identifies if they agree or disagree with the listed response as something they feel or believe others feel when talking about roles and responsibilities.
5. Ask / encourage discussion between those who agree or disagree to explain why they feel that way.
6. Once the ice breaker is complete, proceed to team roles and responsibilities discussion.

Alternative Options

Other tools such as personality surveys can help team members understand and adapt better to each other’s styles for working together. Team members who know each other’s styles of working can better adapt to work more effectively together.

As a team activity, personality surveys, such as "16 Personalities", can be a fun and effective way of improving how teams operate and communicate.

How MAKE can help

Our operational excellence consultants have been in your shoes and have decades of experience navigating role clarity challenges.  Our experience and facilitation expertise can help you address role confusion within your organization and support these crucial conversations.

For more information visit our website at makesolutionsinc.com or contact Tamara Pomerantz, VP Client Operations, Tamara.Pomerantz@makesolutionsinc.com.

Appendix A – Example Work Agreement Questions

Appendix B – RACI templates