During strategy formulation the team needs to set expectations and priorities as well as assign tasks and roles. When teams are unable to develop succinct plans for goal accomplishment performance is jeopardised, especially if complex and novel tasks are involved.
Mathieu and Rapp (2009) found that high-quality charters are beneficial during the transition phase of a team's life because they enable teams to coordinate their efforts and implement their strategy from the onset and, thus, to generate early success. A charter represents an agreement among members as to how the team will make decisions and share accountability for delivering quality products/services that meet user/customer needs in a timely and cost-efficient way. A team charter can be used, amongst others, for mission and primary stakeholder identification, goal and strategy formulation, and role allocation based on team members' strengths and weaknesses.
However, a very prescriptive charter can 'lock' team members into a very specific way of thinking and make the team highly resistant to change.