An agreement is a written form of social contract between two or more people. Agreements can take many forms—policies, processes, norms, experiments, roles, charters, decisions—but in all cases they clarify what we expect from each other.

A proper agreement is:

• Proposed by one or more individuals
• Consented to by all participants with a decision right, or by their delegates
• Accessible to everyone who is impacted by it
• Time-Limited by a reasonable expiration date
• Changeable at any time via proposal, consent required

Who can make an agreement?

Any group of two or more people can propose and craft an agreement together. However, participants may only consent to a particular agreement if they have decision rights in that area.

For example, two colleagues can make an agreement about how they want to give each other feedback. By contrast, they cannot govern a Remote Work Policy for the entire company unless everyone with decision rights in that area is included in the proposal process.

If you wish to make a proposal, but feel you're not the right person to represent it, you may simply share it with someone better suited, and ask them if they're willing to propose it on your behalf.

In any community, decisions have to be made about how the community operates.

Let’s call these decisions “agreements.”

This is one of them.

How do we develop these agreements?