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• FAQ

  FAQ

  • What is the purpose of Start Smart?

    What is the purpose of Start Smart?

    The purpose of Start Smart is to give the team a strong and structured start to their collaboration. Start Smart helps clarify what the team will be working on, what personal strengths and competencies each member contributes, and how the team will work together – both in terms of tasks and relationships. Start Smart helps align expectations and build psychological safety.

    An equally important purpose is to produce a concrete working tool: the team contract. It is essential to understand that Start Smart is not a traditional team-building activity, but a structured working session with a tangible outcome that the team will actively use over time. The real value of the workshop lies largely in what happens afterwards – in the ongoing use of and follow-up on the team contract.

    Note: Managing expectations in advance is critical. Clear communication about what Start Smart is – and what it is not – increases the likelihood that participants engage meaningfully and that the workshop delivers lasting impact.

  • How many participants can take part in a Start Smart workshop?

    How many participants can take part in a Start Smart workshop?

    Start Smart was originally designed for six participants, but is flexible. We recommend between 2 and 8 participants. For groups of more than 8, we suggest dividing the team into smaller groups. A team of 12 could, for example, be divided into three groups of four, with each group completing each section separately before a representative shares the key points in plenary. Keep in mind that more participants means more time – extend the schedule or adjust the content accordingly.

    Practical experience from seasoned facilitators shows that groups of more than 10–12 participants require additional adaptations. The "personal user manual" element in particular works poorly in large groups, as the individual sharing becomes too time-consuming and loses depth. For these groups, structured parallel activities are recommended: each participant shares their full user manual in a smaller subgroup (2–4 people), ideally with those they will work most closely with day-to-day, and then briefly shares one strength, one weakness, and one need in plenary – the things most relevant for others to know in order to collaborate effectively.

    The short version (approx. 1.5 hours) is often used in practice for shorter-term projects or when time is limited, but experience shows it tends to require more follow-up work. Always consider the time frame in relation to group size and ambitions for the workshop.

  • What do we do if new members join the team who were not part of the original Start Smart workshop?

    What do we do if new members join the team who were not part of the original Start Smart workshop?

    We recommend running a shorter version of Start Smart when new team members join. A good approach is to ask the new members to read and comment on the existing team contract, so they can offer their input and ideas on how they would like to contribute and whether anything should be changed. It is particularly valuable for everyone to share their personal user manual, and for the new members to have the opportunity to present theirs.

    It is important to be aware that new team members often feel comfortable asking questions and seeking clarification, but may find it more challenging to express disagreement – particularly within an already established group. This underlines the value of actively using the team contract when welcoming new members, and explicitly inviting them to take ownership of it.

  • Does the whole team need to participate?

    Does the whole team need to participate?

    Yes – for the workshop to have its full effect, everyone should participate. The purpose is to build a well-functioning team where all members have had the opportunity to contribute to how the collaboration should work, what each person brings, and what they expect from one another. Full participation creates ownership and commitment to the team contract.

    Absent participants can weaken this effect, both because important perspectives are missing and because not everyone will feel equal ownership over the agreements reached. To ensure full attendance, we recommend communicating clearly about the purpose of the workshop well in advance, and having the team leader actively reinforce its importance.

    If someone is genuinely unable to attend, the leader or facilitator should have a brief conversation with that person afterwards and give them the opportunity to comment on and take ownership of the team contract.

  • How does Start Smart create an engaging workshop experience for participants?

    How does Start Smart create an engaging workshop experience for participants?

    In our experience, some participants may be hesitant about team development exercises and group activities. However, feedback on Start Smart is consistently positive: the tool is experienced as concrete and useful, requires little preparation, and is easy to get started with. It stands apart from more abstract or game-like team activities.

    A recurring observation is that participants often feel a little apprehensive beforehand – especially about the personal user manual. This is actually a good sign: it means the exercise feels meaningful and a little exposing, rather than a routine obligation. Facilitators report that it is precisely this slight discomfort that leads to genuine conversations and real openness in the workshop.

    The personal user manual is consistently highlighted as the element that generates the most energy and has the greatest impact on the team.

  • How can I use Start Smart as a new leader?

    How can I use Start Smart as a new leader?

    As a new leader, Start Smart can help you kick-start your leadership of the team in a structured and trust-building way. We recommend carefully considering whether to use an external or internal facilitator for the first session.

    The leader's role in the workshop presents an important dilemma: if you facilitate yourself, you cannot participate fully as a workshop participant. You will have more to manage and think about during the session, and participants may also be more influenced by what you as a facilitator emphasize, rather than forming their own views. For example, if you are quick to share your opinions, this may limit others' contributions, as they may perceive that the leader has "already decided".

    If you do facilitate yourself, we therefore recommend that you emphasize in the introduction how important it is to hear everyone's perspective – including views that differ from your own – and that this diversity of input is exactly what makes for a strong team from the start. It can also be wise to be among the last to share your sticky notes, with one exception: for the personal user manual, the leader can go first. This signals openness, a willingness to be a little vulnerable, and sets the tone for the rest of the group.

    The value of the team contract lies in consistent follow-up over time, and the leader plays a central role in this – completing the workshop is not enough.

  • We have a challenging team environment – can Start Smart help us?

    We have a challenging team environment – can Start Smart help us?

    Start Smart is not a quick fix for team conflict. The tool is designed to prevent and clarify – not to resolve conflicts that are already entrenched. It can serve as part of a "restart" for a group that has had a difficult beginning, but this requires that a minimum level of psychological safety already exists within the team.

    In situations where conflicts are already apparent, we recommend combining Start Smart with other interventions and engaging an external facilitator with specialist expertise in conflict management. Unclear goals and unresolved roles are often underlying causes of conflict – Start Smart can help with these, but only as one part of a broader development process.

  • Should the Start Smart workshop ideally be facilitated by a facilitator, or can the team leader run it?

    Should the Start Smart workshop ideally be facilitated by a facilitator, or can the team leader run it?

    Both are possible. In practice, Start Smart is run roughly equally often by internal facilitators, external facilitators, and team leaders – all three approaches can work, but each involves different trade-offs.

    The advantage of an external facilitator is that the team leader can participate fully in the workshop without having to manage the process. The advantage of an internal facilitator is lower cost and better contextual knowledge. If the leader facilitates, they should be aware that participants may pay particular attention to what the leader says and how they react – which can affect what others feel comfortable sharing.

    One important principle regardless of who facilitates: the facilitator should not summarize on behalf of the group. If the facilitator takes over the room and puts words to everything, the team risks losing ownership of the process and its outcomes. Ownership must remain with the group – the facilitator's role is to create the conditions, not to own the result.

  • Is it possible to adapt the Start Smart tool?

    Is it possible to adapt the Start Smart tool?

    Yes, it is entirely possible to adapt Start Smart to your context. Experienced facilitators typically do this – adaptation is the norm, not the exception. You can select the elements most relevant to your team, adjust the order, and tailor the timing.

    Some well-established adaptations include:

    • Starting with the personal user manual rather than purpose and goals – particularly effective in groups where participants already know each other, as it warms up the room and provides a better foundation for the subsequent discussions.
    • Using the short version (1.5 hours) when time is limited – but be prepared for more follow-up work.
    • Adjusting the number of collaboration norms each participant contributes (e.g. 2–3 per person), to make it easier to arrive at a manageable set of agreed rules.
    • Adding a question about interfaces: which other teams or departments does this team need to collaborate with in order to succeed?

    We do recommend against omitting elements for the sake of convenience, particularly strengths/weaknesses and the personal user manual. These are central to establishing psychological safety and mutual understanding within the team.

    If you make adaptations, we encourage you to continue crediting NHH and AFF as the developers of Start Smart. Start Smart is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which means you may copy, share, and adapt the material as long as you provide attribution. For example, you may include the following: "This tool is based on 'Start Smart', developed by NHH and AFF, and has been further developed/adapted by [organisation/name]. The original work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

  • Which types of teams can use Start Smart?

    Which types of teams can use Start Smart?

    Start Smart is suitable for teams that work towards a shared goal and are mutually dependent on one another to achieve it. This includes project teams, departments, leadership teams, boards, professional groups, and other working groups – the key requirement is that there is a genuine need for collaboration and communication about tasks and solutions.

    For international and multicultural teams, it is important to note that Start Smart was developed in a Nordic context and is built on Nordic values such as openness, equality, and low power distance. For such groups, more than translation is required – the tool needs cultural recontextualization, additional framing work, and potentially supplementary activities to create a sufficiently safe environment for open sharing.

    Adaptations for leadership teams: Leadership teams use Start Smart to good effect, but often with adaptations to content areas and timing. The "roles and responsibilities" element is frequently less relevant, as roles tend to be predefined and clearly assigned. An external facilitator is strongly recommended so that the team leader can participate fully.

    Adaptations for boards:

    • Terminology: Replace "team" with "board" and "team members" with "board members" throughout.
    • Purpose and mandate: Start from the legal requirements of the Companies Act and the organization’s articles of association, and concretize what these obligations mean in your specific context.
    • Roles and responsibilities: Clarify the distinction between the board's collective responsibility and the managing director's operational responsibility.
    • Work methods: Adapt to board meeting structures, including decision-making processes and confidentiality requirements.

  • We have been a team for a long time – can we still run a Start Smart workshop?

    We have been a team for a long time – can we still run a Start Smart workshop?

    Yes – it is often highly valuable for established teams to run Start Smart, either as a review of existing ways of working or as a formalization of the informal practices the team has already developed. Established teams may have an advantage in that psychological safety has already been built up over time, making it easier to share openly.

    For established teams, the focus will typically be on using shared experience to sharpen the following elements:

    • Purpose: Do we still share a common understanding of why this team exists, and has our mandate changed?
    • Goals: Are our goals concrete enough, and is everyone pulling in the same direction for the next period?
    • Roles and responsibilities: Is the division of responsibility clear, or are there overlaps and grey areas causing frustration?
    • Work methods: What is working well, and what should we change?
    • Collaboration norms: Which norms do we want to keep, and which unwritten rules are holding us back?

    By making these points explicit, you move from a collaboration based on assumptions to one based on a shared and clearly articulated team contract.

  • In what way is Start Smart research-based?

    In what way is Start Smart research-based?

    Start Smart is grounded in approximately 10 years of research conducted by Vidar Schei and Therese Egeland at NHH Norwegian School of Economics. They have followed teams from their inception through observations and interviews to examine whether the start-up phase affects a team's long-term capacity for collaboration, and have conducted experiments to identify which elements should be discussed early for teams to function as effectively as possible.

    In addition, two recent master's theses from NHH (2024 and 2025) have followed teams using Start Smart over time. These studies confirm key assumptions underlying the tool – including that expectation alignment and team contracts help reduce ambiguity and build psychological safety – while also nuancing important aspects, such as the finding that follow-up is essential for lasting impact.

    For more information about the individual studies, see the articles listed under "Resources" on the Start Smart website.

  • How important is it that we reach agreement on the various elements in Start Smart, and how do we get there?

    How important is it that we reach agreement on the various elements in Start Smart, and how do we get there?

    In the workshop itself, it is not essential that you agree on every point. The most important thing is to surface everyone's perspectives. If there is significant disagreement, set aside time afterwards to work through it – use the "parking lot" to flag items for further discussion.

    An important clarification: agreeing on something in the workshop is not the same as finding it easy to practice in everyday working life. Research shows that the team contract provides a common language and reduces ambiguity, but does not automatically eliminate the social risk that can be felt when expressing disagreement in concrete situations. Agreeing on openness and honesty in the workshop is a strong first step – but it requires ongoing practice and reinforcement over time.

    Where disagreement remains, it is ultimately the team leader who makes the final decision, either during the workshop or afterwards. If the leader wishes to get a clearer sense of the group's priorities, they can ask participants to allocate 3–5 votes to the sticky notes or contributions they consider most important, by placing 3–5 marks on their preferred items.

    No later than one week after the workshop, the leader or a designated responsible person in the team should have drawn up a team contract based on the discussions. This contract should function as an active working tool – not a document that ends up in a drawer.

  • How important is it that we write down what we agree on in the team contract?

    How important is it that we write down what we agree on in the team contract?

    It is very important. We strongly recommend documenting what you arrive at, with different team members taking responsibility for writing up their respective sections during the session. Once the workshop is complete, it can be efficient to distribute the write-up of each section across the team. The leader should then compile and finalize the points into a coherent team contract that can be actively referenced going forward.

    A clearly written contract makes follow-up significantly easier, especially during the follow-up workshop. AI tools such as Copilot or Claude have proven to be useful for quickly summarizing and structuring the points from a Start Smart session (Note: always double-check that the AI has correctly interpreted what was written on the sticky notes).

  • What is the difference between purpose and goals?

    What is the difference between purpose and goals?

    Purpose refers to the team's overarching ambition and reason for existing. It is visionary and answers the question: "Why do we exist as a team?"

    Goals are tied to the team's concrete deliverables and should ideally be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART goals). Goals answer the question: "What are we going to achieve, and by when?"

    In practice, purpose is the element that takes the longest to discuss and is most often confused with goals. It is perfectly fine not to land on a perfectly worded purpose during the workshop – what matters most is that the team has a shared sense of direction. Facilitators should communicate this explicitly, so that a lack of precision on purpose is not experienced as a problem.

  • What is the difference between work methods and collaboration norms?

    What is the difference between work methods and collaboration norms?

    Work methods refers to the concrete methods the team uses to organize its work – in other words, how you work in practice on what you are supposed to produce. Examples: How do we plan and follow up on tasks? What meetings do we hold, and how often? What tools do we use to communicate?

    Collaboration norms refer to how we behave together – the norms and expectations for interaction and team culture. Examples: How do we give each other feedback? How do we ensure that we feel safe with one another? How do we handle disagreement within the group?

    A common challenge is that collaboration norms end up too abstract and general – for example, "we have a high tolerance for openness" or "we are transparent with each other" – without it being clear what this actually means in practice. It is more useful to formulate behavioral collaboration norms that can be observed and verified. For example: "When we disagree, we say so directly to each other rather than raising it with others" is clearer and more binding than "we are honest".

    You are welcome to draw on what emerged during the personal user manual exercise – the similarities and differences identified there – as inspiration for crafting concrete collaboration norms.

  • What do "roles and responsibilities" mean in Start Smart?

    What do "roles and responsibilities" mean in Start Smart?

    In Start Smart, "roles and responsibilities" is about ensuring that all necessary functions are covered for the team to reach its goals. It is important to distinguish between the formal position a person holds in the organization and the role they take on within the specific team.

    Roles describe the "hats" team members wear: project lead, subject matter expert, note-taker, coordinator, and so on. A role defines the expectations others have of your function within the team. Responsibilities refer to the concrete tasks and outcomes associated with each role – who "owns" that a given task gets done?

    In established teams, the roles section can feel somewhat artificial, as roles are already well known. In that case, the focus should shift to competencies and expectations: "What can we draw on from what is already here?" rather than defining roles from scratch. Alternatively: "Do we see a need for any additional competencies or roles to meet the team's needs given our current goals?" The aim is to remove ambiguity and ensure that important tasks do not fall between the cracks.

  • What do we do after completing a Start Smart workshop?

    What do we do after completing a Start Smart workshop?

    Follow-up is the single most important factor in determining whether Start Smart delivers lasting impact. Research and facilitator experience are consistent: insufficient follow-up is the most common reason the effects fade. Start Smart and Start Smart Follow-Up are part A and part B of a whole – not two separate choices.

    Concrete recommendations after the workshop:

    • Summarize and document in the team contract: Note the key agreements. Keep it concrete and easy to use.
    • Make the team contract accessible and alive: Share it with everyone, agree on where it is stored, and who is responsible for updating it. Use it as a regular reference in meetings or as a starting point for brief team check-ins.
    • Assign responsibility explicitly: Do not leave follow-up to chance. Clarify during the workshop who owns this – the leader, a designated team member, or a rotating responsibility. Ambiguity about ownership is one of the most common reasons follow-up does not happen.
    • Schedule the follow-up date during the workshop itself: This is one of the most effective steps you can take. Adding a calendar invitation then and there creates a commitment that is difficult to ignore. Groups that have maintained the contract in the interim report that the follow-up workshop itself goes faster and more smoothly.
    • Link follow-up to something the team already does: Retrospectives, OKR meetings, departmental meetings, and so on. The easier it is to integrate, the more likely it is to actually happen.

    Tip: Some teams send out a brief survey based on the team contract ahead of the follow-up meeting. This prepares participants and makes the discussion more focused.

  • I need to talk this through with someone who knows it well – who can I contact?

    I need to talk this through with someone who knows it well – who can I contact?

    Please get in touch with AFF via the contact persons listed on the Start Smart website. They can provide guidance, facilitation support, and advice on adapting the tool to your specific context.