A workbook for leadership teams of four to ten, for the decisions, handoffs and working arrangements that shape an ordinary week.
A decision can leave the room with several meanings. A piece of work can pass between functions while the following up belongs to nobody. This book gives a team ways to see those arrangements, talk about what needs attention, and choose a small change it can return to.
The Third Field is what forms among the people: how you decide, disagree, hand off work and follow through. Workload, incentives and life beyond the office shape it too. Begin privately and choose what to share.
Look at the work: where decisions become unclear, functions protect different goods, or a handoff loses its following up. Each member can describe what they see without rating a colleague.
02
Choose something you can practice.
Draft a small working agreement or one line for an Alignment Charter. Keep proposals, decisions and personal commitments distinct. A leader’s decision is recorded as the leader’s.
03
Return to what you chose.
The charter holds what was decided and by whom, who owns what next, and what is still open. Brief weekly checks and a quarterly return keep those lines available to correct as the work changes.
A taste of the book
Begin with one useful question.
Try these three short adaptations from the book. Start with a useful working moment, follow one handoff, then consider a next step you might offer. The full workbook includes the separate steps for bringing a team together and making its shared records.
For voluntary reflection, not employee assessment. Use shared exercises only where people are free to decline; keep confidential work details private. Personnel disputes, safety and legal concerns belong with the appropriate support or formal process.
The Team Alignment Charter · Selected exercises · Paul Mola · thethirdfield.com/books/teams
For voluntary reflection, not employee assessment. Use shared exercises only where people are free to decline; keep confidential work details private. Personnel disputes, safety and legal concerns belong with the appropriate support or formal process.
Adapted from Part 07 · 07-B · How I work best with others
01
When working together goes well
Start with one ordinary working moment that went well. Notice the conditions that helped you contribute. Your account can be useful without becoming an account of what everyone else needs.
Think of one recent piece of work that went well with others. What helped you do your part?
For work that needs thought, what helps you: advance notice, quiet, or someone to talk it through with?
Before a decision, what helps you contribute: time, numbers, a conversation, or something to read?
What is one practical thing you would like to preserve about how you work together?
If you choose to share: Offer one line about what helps you work well, if you want to. Others can ask a question to understand. Each person speaks for themselves; nobody is asked to explain private circumstances.
Adapted from Part 03 · 03-C · Where handoffs drop
02
Follow one handoff
When work changes hands, the doing may pass across while the noticing, planning, following up or fallback is left unclear. Choose one ordinary example and look at the arrangement.
What is one piece of work that crosses two or more functions and has gone wrong at least once?
What path does it take? Describe the functions or stages, without naming colleagues.
At one handoff, which function do you currently understand to hold each part: noticing, planning, doing, following up, and having a fallback?
Where are you unsure, or where might a part have no clear holder? What would you need to check?
If you choose to share: Bring the handoff or the question you are willing to discuss. Ask others how they understand the arrangement. Different answers are something to check together; your note does not assign work or establish fault.
Adapted from Part 08 · 08-C · Who owns what next, with 01-E, 08-A, 08-D and 10-B
03
Propose one next step
A charter line can be small: a piece of work, an owner, a date and a way to know it is done. Begin with something you might be willing to carry. This page is a draft to consider, and can stay proposed.
What is one small piece of work I would be willing to own that could help with this handoff?
By when could I do it, and what would let the team know it was done?
Whose decision would this be? Use a role here. What authority, time or support would need to be confirmed?
What date would I propose for looking again, and what would we need to learn at that return?
What is still open? Would I offer this next step, make it smaller, or leave it undecided today?
If you choose to share: Keep the line marked proposed until the relevant decider has decided and its owner has said, in their own words, what they will carry. A leader’s decision is recorded as theirs. A working agreement is the team’s only when every member says yes to the same draft. Silence is not consent or commitment.
Paul Mola led Roswell Biotechnologies and global initiatives at Life Technologies. He saw how results depend on what teams can say and how decisions become action. He wrote the Charter to help teams act together, with room for the lives they carry beyond work.
The book and the practice
A book to use on its own.
The workbook stands on its own and is included in Director-led team workshops. Your questionnaire helps select the session focus; other workbook areas are optional to explore afterward. The book awaits release; edition and delivery are confirmed before booking. A standalone Team Map requires no book purchase. Trying these pages does not start a service or give permission to use your writing.
