Norming: codify agreements in writing

What the team has figured out informally needs to become explicit so it survives personnel changes.

Why it works

Norms that live only in the team’s shared memory are fragile — one person leaving or one new hire joining can reset them. Writing working agreements transfers the learning from people to the team’s documented culture, making the Norming stage durable.

How to do it

1. At peak Norming, run a working-agreements session: "What have we learned about how we work best?"
2. Write the agreements in the team’s shared space (not in meeting notes that get buried).
3. Review and update them at a set cadence, so they stay alive rather than archived.

Evidence

Organizational memory research shows explicit documentation of group process norms improves continuity and on-boarding, especially in teams with turnover. The mechanism is preserving implicit learning in an explicit form. (mechanistic)

Direct studies of written team norms and performance exist but are sparse; the codification logic is mechanistically sound and consistent with broader knowledge-management research.

Common mistake

Letting the norms stay implicit because "everyone knows them" — until a new member joins and doesn’t, or a veteran leaves and takes them.