And so I was sent the "Team Ground Rules" list....

....randomly from a former co-worker.  She found it on a conference room table at her office.  I'm sure it was left behind by some gung-ho project manager kicking off some fabulous new effort.  I'll give him/her credit for the spirit in which it was intended, but I had to roll my eyes a bit when I read it.  I wish I could sit down with this PM and give him/her my thoughts on each of the "rules!"

Team Ground Rules - (Thought Bubble: First of all, who are you to give anyone rules?  Aren't we all professionals here?)

• Show respect to all other team members at all times - includes punctuality - (Thought Bubble: I can't remember the last time a meeting there started on time)

• Encourage contributions from all team members - (Thought Bubble: No.....this is also why meetings never finish on time thus ensuring the next meeting starts late)

•  Be open minded to new ideas and approaches -(Thought Bubble: This is one of the ways to ensure your project never finishes on time or budget) 

•  There are no 'dumb' questions -(Thought Bubble: PMs will say this but it isn't what they are thinking.  They do expect that folks on the project team actually know their job)

• Address the process/product/idea/issue and not the person/people -(Thought Bubble: Sometimes the problem is the person - what then?)

•  Stay in formation; no renegades -(Thought Bubble: HA!  Doesn't this go directly against encouraging contributions and being open minded to new ideas and approaches?)

•  Communicate to appropriate team members and always copy the program manager -(Thought Bubble: I've never met a program or project manager that wants to see every communication between a developer and another developer or a developer and a tester - this really should say communicate appropriately and copy the program manager where appropriate such as issues, escalation)

•  Email for information -(Thought Bubble: That place runs on too many emails and ST chats.  Whatever happened to picking up the phone and talking? Oh that's right, someone might see all the eye rolls and looks of disbelief)

•  Meetings - 24 hours advanced notice minimum; if shorter follow up with phone notification -(Thought Bubble: Good PMs have scheduled status meetings and should be allowed to call last minute meetings for their projects - are you going to decline and say "I didn't get 24 hours notice?")

•  TLAs are always welcome (three letter acronyms) -(Thought Bubble: This is where dumb questions will come up - there are too many acronyms at this place - how are folks supposed to learn them if they can't ask what they mean)

•  Are you committed to making this team a success -(Thought Bubble: This isn't a rule - it is a question and if you have to ask this of adult professionals, you have worse problems on your project than I thought)

• Have fun! -(Thought Bubble: Fun can take many forms and this could conflict with some of the rules so make up your mind)