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Write a one-page 'how we work' for your team

By Michael Shreeves · 24 September 2026 · Leadership & Management · 3 min read

Background

Every team has rules nobody wrote down. Use the shared drive, not email. Ask in the channel before you message someone. Anything over a certain amount needs a second signature. Don't send anything to a customer on a Friday afternoon.

New starters find these out by getting them wrong, which is a slow and slightly embarrassing way to learn. People who've been there for years but only work with your team occasionally have the same problem.

A one-page "how we work" fixes most of it. Think of it as the page you'd hand someone on their first morning and say, "read this, then ask me anything".

Setup

What goes on the page

Keep it to about a page. Seven headings are enough:

  1. What we do. Two sentences, for someone from another department.
  2. How to ask us for something. The channel, the form, the inbox. What to include. How long it usually takes.
  3. Where things live. The three or four places that matter, with links.
  4. Our rhythm. The regular meetings and what each is for. When the team's all online, and when it isn't.
  5. How we decide. Who decides what, and what needs a second opinion.
  6. What "done" looks like. For the kinds of work you do. "Checked by a second person" or "logged in the tracker".
  7. When things go wrong. Who to tell, how quickly, and what we do first.

Write it from what really happens

Don't write how you wish the team worked. Ask three people how they'd explain it to a new starter, and use the overlap. The disagreements are worth a conversation of their own.

An AI prompt to get you started

Give the model rough notes, and let it do the structure.

Below are rough notes from three people on how our team works. Turn
them into a one-page "how we work" document with these headings: What
we do; How to ask us for something; Where things live; Our rhythm; How we
decide; What done looks like; When things go wrong.
Plain English, short sentences. Where the three people disagree, don't
pick one. List the disagreement under "Needs a decision" at the end.
Where something's missing, write "[TO FILL IN]".

Notes: [PASTE]

Keep it alive

Once it exists, it needs the same things as any other team document: one home, a named owner and a review date. Documentation your team will read and trust covers how to do that, and it applies to this page as much as any.

Link to it from the welcome note and ask every new starter, at the end of week one, what was missing. Add that.

Edge Cases & BCP

  • Nobody agrees on what's true. That's useful information. Settle the biggest disagreement first, then write it down.
  • It turns into a policy. If it's longer than a page or two, split it. You should be able to skim it in five minutes.
  • Sensitive details. Passwords, personal data and anything private stay off it. Point to where those are kept.
  • Teams that depend on yours. Share the page with them. They'll find out things about how you work that you'd forgotten to mention.

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