Team Playbook
Twelve lessons that turn any team activity into growth.
Every team — a robotics squad, a cast, a roster, a club — moves through the same four phases: it forms, it plans, it does the work, and it ends. Each phase has its own predictable dynamics, and each is a place where young people can actually develop, if someone is paying attention. The Team Playbook names twelve of those moments and gives you something to do with each. Use them in sequence for a new team, or pull a single lesson when the moment calls for it.
For mentors
Want the full lesson, not just the map?
This page is the overview. The Team Playbook — the complete facilitation guide — gives you every lesson in full: timings, materials, a 15-minute express version, facilitation notes, and the research behind each one. Free to download and use with your team.
12 lessons · 4 phases
Formation
becoming a teamThe project is the playground. Who you become is the point.
Develops
If the purpose of naming is unity, the process should create unity.
Develops
Implicit norms cause conflict when they’re violated unknowingly.
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The story we tell ourselves is almost always uglier than the truth.
Tool The Ladder of Inference
Develops
Planning
before the work beginsConstraints aren’t the enemy — ignoring them is.
Develops
Yes to this means no to something else.
Develops
The Work
while the work happensHard on the problem + soft on people = growth.
Framework OIR — Observation, Impact, Request
Develops
Failure is information, not identity.
Tool After-Action Review (AAR)
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Almost everyone is struggling alone with something someone else could help with.
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Every task has one name.
Principle Match tasks to strengths; commit visibly
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Conflict avoidance isn’t kindness — it’s information suppression.
Framework Us vs. the problem, not me vs. you
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Completion
ending wellHow you end determines what you carry forward.
Practice Reflect · Extract · Honor · Transition
Develops