Drawing the Lines - Setting Your Team's Boundaries

Most team development specialists would agree that defining a set of team rules, or a team charter, is one of the steps in a successful team's development. Step 2 in our 8-Step Model for high team performance is to develop a set of ground rules. I see this as a very important step in the team development process, and it is not merely focused on rules around attendance, dress code, attendance at meetings or production of reports. It is much more than that: defining your ground rules is about establishing the laws, or boundaries, by which your team will live every day.
Boundaries and standards - one and the same?
Boundaries and standards are different. Standards are levels of behaviour that you set with your team and make yourselves honour - in other words, how others experience working with your team. Examples of standards could include quality, punctuality, accuracy, attention to detail, and so on.
Boundaries, on the other hand, are more inwardly focused and describe the lines that you draw in order to be treated as you would wish. These could include such things as courtesy, respect, listening, positivity or honesty - there is no limit and no 'correct' list.
You might refer to these types of behaviours as 'values'. I prefer the concept of boundaries because for me the word conjures an image of lines; lines that I draw around myself and my team; lines that should not be crossed under any circumstances.
Why so important?
We all have our personal boundaries. Think of them as filters by which we allow people into our lives or not. These filters contribute towards defining us and shaping our personal brand. In the same way, the boundaries that we apply within our teams help to define our team brand; that is, how people see and experience us as a team of people.
Once you define your team's boundaries, you must apply them both internally and externally. This means that you make them real, both in terms of how you treat one another within the team and how you allow yourselves to be treated by others.
The former is usually easy: we agree how we will behave towards one another and, if those rules are broken, we openly call it out and deal with it. Applying your boundaries outside the team can test your mettle somewhat more, but the benefits are huge.