Follow these steps to successfully launch a unit-based team:  

• Identify your sponsors. 
• Identify your co-leads. 
• If your department is so large that you need a representative unit-based team, identify its members. Who will represent the rest of the staff and physicians in your department?
• Hold a kick-off meeting. 
• Create your team vision, working agreements and a charter. 
• Complete a training assessment.

Primary UBT roles and responsibilities 

Just as important as the steps for launching a unit-based team are the three groups of employees who launch and then sustain it: its members, co-leads and sponsors. 

Each group has different responsibilities.

Unit-based team members are responsible for:  

• Supporting partnership principles. 
• Completing training. 
• Expressing their ideas. 
• Communicating respectfully with each other and their co-leads. 
• Participating in decision making.
• Implementing agreements. 

Unit-based team co-leads are responsible for:  

• Advocating for partnership success. 
• Preparing for meetings and huddles. 
• Communicating early and often.
• Keeping team records. 
• Troubleshooting. 
• Making off-line decisions when necessary. 
• Sharing information with the team. 
• Building relationships. 
• Sharing expectations with co-leads. 

Unit-based team sponsors are responsible for: 

• Supporting the partnership. 
• Keeping the UBT visible. 
• Supporting UBT success. 
• Authorizing and advocating for change.
• Allocating resources for success. 
• Walking the talk.