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Team Agreements: Embedding Inclusivity in Group Work
Dr Lorenzo Lotti, Associate Professor and Director of Education, Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, on how to help students to work effectively together.
20 October 2025
Why Team Agreements?
Group work is a cornerstone of higher education, preparing students for collaborative professional environments. Yet students often identify it as one of the most stressful aspects of their learning, citing unequal contributions, unclear expectations, or accessibility barriers. In 2022, I began tackling these challenges by revisiting the tools we use to structure group projects. Existing models of group or “teaching” agreements were typically lengthy and, crucially, failed to foreground inclusivity. To close that gap, I redesigned them into a more streamlined and accessible framework: the Team Agreement. How the Team Agreement was developed.
The first version was shared at Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources' (BSEER) inaugural Education Day, where colleagues from UCL Arena, Student Support and Wellbeing, and The Bartlett critiqued and refined the template. Based on their input, I piloted the Team Agreement across around 150 students in half of the department’s group-based modules.
The pilot revealed real benefits:
- Students felt more confident raising issues around workload, English proficiency, or caring responsibilities.
- Explicitly naming inclusivity helped normalise conversations about accessibility and fairness.
- Students with prior wellbeing challenges in group work found the agreement reassuring. One commented that “implementing a Team Agreement prior to commencement aligns the team’s expertise, interests, and communication styles, enhancing inclusive success for global interdisciplinary learning.”
Structure of the Agreement
The BSEER Team Agreement is organised into eight key categories:
- Accountability – Attendance, punctuality, and agenda-setting.
- Cooperation – Quality standards, inclusivity, and how to handle missed deadlines.
- Communication – Preferred platforms, response times, and reviewing tasks.
- Confrontation – Encouraging all voices and managing conflict constructively.
- Support – Helping members who are struggling or absent.
- Evaluation – A group statement of commitment and task division.
- Discussions – Ensuring critical but respectful dialogue.
- Decisions – Choosing consensus or majority voting.
Embedding and scaling the approach
Since the pilot, Team Agreements have been rolled out across BSEER and shared more widely. In 2024, I presented the framework at the UK Education Strategy Forum, where colleagues debated EDI challenges and developed their own mock agreements. In 2025, I was selected as The Bartlett’s representative on the Leading Change in Education programme, enabling me to expand the use of Team Agreements beyond my faculty in collaboration with Arena and other institutional bodies. Alongside this, I ensure that Quality Review Monitoring and Module Evaluation Questionnaires capture data on group dynamics, EDI, and wellbeing, so we can continuously refine practice.
Why it matters
A Team Agreement is more than paperwork. It’s a commitment to inclusivity, accountability, and respect. It helps prevent misunderstandings, supports fair workload distribution, and ensures that all voices are heard. Most importantly, it prepares students for professional collaboration in diverse, global teams.