Ask a team what it exists to do, and you will usually get a fluent answer. Ask the same team where AI helps, and you will get a less fluent one. Ask where the team has decided to stay deliberately human, and most teams have no answer at all.
The team charter for augmented work is the second artefact in The Augmented Us framework. It is a one page document. It takes about three hours to draft and an hour a quarter to maintain. Its function is to make explicit the three commitments that, in most teams, are currently implicit.
The three sections
The charter has three sections, each addressing a question that the team has typically been avoiding.
Section one: what we exist to do. Two or three sentences. Not the corporate purpose statement, not the function's annual goals, not the project brief. The actual work the team has been formed to do, in the team's own language, that any member could repeat without looking at the document. If the team cannot agree on this section, the rest of the work is premature.
Section two: where AI helps. A list of the categories of work where the team has decided that AI partnership is the default. For each, a sentence on what good looks like and what the limit is. "AI drafts our weekly client updates. We edit for tone, accuracy and the relationship context the model does not see. The client never receives the model's draft directly." This section gives the team permission to use AI without having to make the judgement call afresh every time.
Section three: where we stay deliberately human. A list of the categories of work where the team has decided that AI involvement is either prohibited or restricted to a specific supporting role. For each, a sentence on why. "Our quarterly performance conversations are conducted without AI involvement at any stage. The judgement and the relationship are the work, and we do not believe a model can do them well." This section is the section most teams find hardest to write, and it is the section that does the most identity work.
Why the document matters
It matters because, in the absence of the document, the three commitments are still being made. They are being made by individuals, in the moment, without consultation, and with no record. The team does not know what its own policy is. Different members operate under different assumptions. New joiners infer policy from what they see, which is rarely consistent.
The document also matters because, when it is written down, the team can argue with it. A live document the team can argue with is healthier than an unspoken assumption that the team has never tested.
The document matters most when something goes wrong. A model produces an output that embarrasses the team. A client is upset by an AI assisted decision. A team member is accused of having let a tool do the work that should have been theirs. In each case, the team that has a charter has a starting point for the conversation. The team that does not has to invent the starting point under pressure.
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How to draft the charter
The drafting session takes three hours. It is best run by an external facilitator, ideally one who can ask the awkward questions that internal facilitators struggle to ask.
The first hour produces section one. The team writes the purpose statement together, on a single sheet, in front of itself. The team is not allowed to copy any existing corporate document. The wording must be the team's own.
The second hour produces section two. The team lists every category of work it does in a typical month. For each, the team decides whether AI partnership is the default, the exception or excluded. The team captures the rationale for the exclusions in a sentence each.
The third hour produces section three. The team identifies the work that, on reflection, it wants to defend from AI involvement. The conversation is not technical. It is about what the team believes its judgement, its relationships and its standards are for.
Maintenance
The charter is reviewed once a quarter. The review is short. The team reads each section aloud, asks whether it is still accurate, and amends what needs amending. Drift is the principal threat. The quarterly review is the principal defence.
Try this
Before you draft the full charter, write section three first as a private exercise. List, on a single sheet, the work in your own role that you have decided to keep deliberately human. Notice how short the list is, and how quickly you can defend each item. The exercise is the most useful preview of the value the team charter will produce.
Get the full framework. This article draws on The Augmented Us white paper, the evidence based primer with the full six stage practice, the four practitioner artefacts and the research base. Download the white paper or take the team diagnostic.