01
Everyone is busy, nobody is aligned
People work hard on their own priorities. Without shared goals and a clear picture of success, effort pulls in different directions and the same problems come back.
Camderson Academy · CA-LM-003
Turn a group of capable people into a team that performs.
A practical, self-paced course for team leaders and department heads. Diagnose how your team really works, set shared goals and a charter together, make roles and decisions clear, cut the meetings that waste time, build trust and real debate, and make accountability mutual.
About 7 hours · 18 lessons with video · Intermediate · Self-paced · Certificate of completion · 30-day money-back guarantee
Most teams do not fail for lack of talent. They fail for lack of clarity.
02
The work routes around a few people
Roles overlap, decisions bounce back to the leader and one or two experts end up in the middle of everything, so work waits and they burn out.
03
Problems stay quiet until they are expensive
Meetings fill the week without settling much, people hold back concerns and agreements fade, so issues surface late and the leader ends up chasing.
Learning outcomes
What you will be able to do
Eight practical outcomes, each practiced in an exercise and checked in the final assessment or the capstone.
- Explain what separates a high-performing team from a working group and diagnose your team's conditions and dynamics with the Team Health Check.
- Build shared direction with your team: a team purpose, specific team goals and a one-page Team Charter written together.
- Choose and track a small set of result and driver measures on a Team Scorecard.
- Clarify roles, decision rights and working agreements with the Role Clarity Map and the Decision Rights Grid.
- Design a team operating rhythm, audit meetings so they earn their time and run Look Back, Look Forward reviews.
- Build psychological safety and trust through specific, repeatable leader and team practices.
- Turn disagreement into productive debate and build mutual accountability with the Debate Protocol and the Commitment Log.
- Diagnose a stalled team, decide whether the issue is the team system or one person, and sustain performance with a Team Playbook.
The Camderson method
Teaching tools for teams that perform
The Team Health Check and the Team Charter
Purpose and goals · Roles and decisions · Rhythm and meetings · Trust and safety · Debate and conflict · Accountability
Score how the team really works across six dimensions, then write a one-page charter with the team: why it exists, what it will deliver and how it will work.
The Role Clarity Map and the Decision Rights Grid
Steps · One owner · Backup · Done means · Decides · Input · Informed · Escalate when
Name an owner for every outcome and handoff, and agree in advance who decides what, so work stops waiting on the leader or one overloaded expert.
The Meeting Audit and the Team Rhythm Map
Keep · Fix · Merge · Cut · Weekly planning · Monthly review · Quarterly reset
Test every recurring meeting against its purpose and cost, then build a rhythm where each meeting has one job and the team gets its time back.
The Debate Protocol and the Commitment Log
Frame it · Write first · Argue the other side · Decide out loud · Commit · Who · What · By when · Done means
Run disagreement so it ends in a decision people back, then track team commitments in the open so accountability runs peer to peer.
Clear direction. Real trust. Shared accountability.
Curriculum
Inside the course
Six modules, 18 lessons with worked examples and video
01
What Makes Teams Perform
What separates a team from a working group, diagnosing your own team with the Team Health Check, and how teams form, stall and reset.
02
Shared Direction
A purpose and team goals that pull people together, a one-page Team Charter you build with your team, and a Team Scorecard that measures what matters.
03
Roles, Decisions and Ways of Working
The Role Clarity Map for owners, handoffs and gaps, the Decision Rights Grid for who decides what, and working agreements the team writes and keeps.
04
Team Rhythm
Designing the team's operating rhythm, the Meeting Audit to keep, fix, merge or cut every recurring meeting, and Look Back, Look Forward reviews.
05
Trust and Productive Conflict
What psychological safety is and is not, trust-building practices that work week to week, and productive debate with the Debate Protocol and the premortem.
06
Accountability and Sustained Performance
Mutual accountability with the Commitment Log, deciding whether a stall is the system or one person, and a Team Playbook that keeps the gains.
What is included
Everything you need to build a team that performs
- 18 lessons, each with a written lesson, worked examples and diagrams, and a narrated lesson video, at your own pace
- A running example from Sablewood Software, a fictional software company where a newly merged 11-person onboarding team works through six months of rebuilding how it works together
- A fillable Workbook with Try it and Reflect pages for every lesson
- A Team Toolkit (Word) with 14 templates, including the Team Charter, Role Clarity Map, Decision Rights Grid, Meeting Audit, Debate Protocol and Commitment Log
- A Team Health Check and Scorecard spreadsheet with live formulas you can run with your own team
- Quick reference cards, the Sablewood case pack and a Team Playbook template
- An optional visual companion PDF with the course diagrams
- Knowledge checks for every module and a 20-question final assessment
- A Team Playbook capstone for your own team or a fictional public library team, reviewed by a person
- A Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion when you pass the final assessment and the capstone
- Access to the Camderson Academy community
Is this course right for you?
This course is for you if
- You lead a team of roughly 4 to 15 people in any function, as a team lead, department head, director or small business owner
- Your people work hard, but goals blur, roles overlap, meetings eat the week, problems surface late or follow-through depends on you chasing
- You know the management basics and want the team to work as a team (CA-LM-001 First-Time Manager Essentials is a good foundation)
It is not the right fit if
- You mainly need to manage one person's performance or behavior (CA-LM-002 Leadership Communication & Difficult Conversations covers that conversation)
- You need to mediate an entrenched conflict between two people (a later Camderson course, Conflict Resolution in the Workplace, covers that)
- You need legal or HR advice for a specific situation (the course points you to your HR team, a qualified HR advisor or an employment attorney)
Your instructor
Meet your instructor
Ruben Tejada
MA, MS, PHR
Managing Partner · Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness
Ruben Tejada is a strategic advisor and organizational leader whose career spans healthcare, public service, human resources, operations, and learning and development. He has advised executives and leaders on leadership development, talent development, employee experience, culture and succession planning, and has led initiatives to strengthen leadership accountability and build workforce capability. That work gives him a practical view of why capable people can still add up to a struggling team. In this course he helps you build the clarity, rhythm, trust and accountability that let your team perform without you holding it together.
About
About Camderson Academy
Camderson Academy is the education division of Camderson Advisory Services. Camderson helps leaders build organizations that work without them in the room. Everything we teach has been used in a real organization first.
Training a team?
We offer group enrollment for leadership teams and HR partners who want every team leader to diagnose, organize and run their teams with the same tools and language. Email connect@camderson.com to talk through your group.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to have taken First-Time Manager Essentials?
No, but it helps. This course assumes you already handle one-on-ones, delegation and feedback with individuals. It points back to CA-LM-001 First-Time Manager Essentials where that course covers a topic in more depth, and teaches the team-level system here.
What size and kind of team is this for?
Teams of roughly 4 to 15 people in any function: operations, service, sales, technical, professional and public sector teams. Small business owners who lead their whole staff as one team will find it fits too.
How long do I have access?
Your access does not expire. We review the course regularly, and any updates are added for you at no extra cost.
How long does it take?
About 7 hours in total, including the written lessons and their videos, the Try it exercises, the knowledge checks, the final assessment and the capstone. Everything is self-paced, and many of the exercises are meant to be done with your team.
Do I have to use my own team for the capstone?
No. You can build your Team Playbook for the fictional Halverson County Library team using the scenario brief included. If you use your own team, leave out names and anything confidential, and leave out health, pay or disciplinary details about real people.
Is this legal or HR advice?
No. This course is general education about leading teams, not legal, HR or mental health advice. Employment laws and company policies vary by location and employer. Follow your organization's policies, and when an issue involves discipline, a complaint of harassment or discrimination, health, leave, accommodations, pay, safety or a possible legal issue, involve your HR team or, if there is no HR team, a qualified HR advisor or employment attorney.
Is the certificate accredited, or does it carry professional credit?
Neither. You receive a Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion after passing the final assessment and the capstone, a Team Playbook that a person reviews. It is not an academic credential and does not carry continuing education or other professional credit.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes. You are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. If the course is not right for you, email connect@camderson.com within 30 days of purchase and we will refund you in full. No questions asked. Your course access ends when the refund is issued.
What tools do I need?
A spreadsheet program that opens .xlsx files (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers or LibreOffice Calc), a word processor that opens .docx files and a PDF reader. All templates and practice files are included as downloads.
Clear direction. Real trust. Shared accountability.
Self-paced, about 7 hours, with a Workbook, a 14-template Team Toolkit, quick reference cards and a Team Health Check and Scorecard spreadsheet to help you diagnose your team, set direction together, clear up roles and decisions, earn back meeting time and build accountability that lasts.
Backed by our 30-day money-back guarantee.
This course earns a Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion. It is not an academic credential and does not carry continuing education or other professional credit. This course is general education about leading teams, not legal, HR or mental health advice. Employment laws and company policies vary by location and employer. Follow your organization's policies, and when an issue involves discipline, a complaint of harassment or discrimination, health, leave, accommodations, pay, safety or a possible legal issue, involve your HR team or, if there is no HR team, a qualified HR advisor or employment attorney.