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Ground Rules are guidelines that are agreed upon by the Team Members at the beginning of each meeting. These guidelines are a list of the team’s expectations of acceptable behavior during the meetings.

The Facilitator and Team Members use Ground Rules to keep the meeting on track during a meeting. Ground Rules protect Team Members’ ideas and help the Facilitator lead the meeting.

Establishing Ground Rules for the class or for a team is a good way to model the meeting facilitation process. The Ground Rules are to be reviewed at the beginning of each meeting to ensure team members understand and are willing to follow them throughout the meeting. The team may add new Ground Rules whenever necessary, with the agreement of all Team Members. Each team may have as many Ground Rules as they see fit.

Here are examples of some common ground rules and how they might look on a flip chart.

Page # Date

Ground Rules

1. Let’s respect each other

2. It’s OK to disagree

3. Listen to others

4. Everyone participates; no one dominates

5. Honor time limits

6. All ideas are good ideas

7. Stick to the agenda (stay on task)

8. Keep an open mind

9. Be on time

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