No, you do not need your whole team fully committed before you start with Working With Me. The workshop itself works best with the whole team in the room for the day, but getting real value afterwards does not depend on every single person being fully engaged from week one. A few people going first, usually the leaders, is enough to start seeing the benefit, and the rest of the team tends to follow once they see it working.
This is written for an owner or manager who likes the idea but is holding back because they cannot promise total enthusiasm from everyone. That worry is common, and it is not a reason to wait.
Why this worry comes up
Most tools that ask a team to change how it works only pay off if everyone uses them. A shared calendar with half the team on it is not much use. A project board nobody but the manager checks is just a manager's to-do list with extra steps. Founders who have been burned by that pattern before reasonably assume any new way of working needs the same all-or-nothing commitment.
Working With Me is built differently, because the thing it produces, a working manual and a clear set of team priorities, has value the moment even one person has it, not only once everyone does.
What the workshop day itself looks like
The workshop day is a single session with the whole team in the room, where each person writes their own working manual and the team agrees its priorities together. Attending the day is straightforward to ask for, since it is one day, not an ongoing commitment. What people do with the manuals and priorities afterwards is a separate question, and that is where the worry about full adoption actually sits.
It helps to keep those two things apart. Turning up to a workshop day is a small ask. Whether every person then refers back to their manual every week, or reads a colleague's before a meeting, is a habit that builds gradually, not a condition that has to be met on day one.
Why leaders going first still creates real value
If a manager and a couple of team leads write honest manuals, agree clear priorities, and start referring back to both in ordinary conversations, that changes something real straight away. A one-to-one goes better because the manager already knows how that person prefers to receive feedback. A handover goes more smoothly because the priorities are written down and agreed, not remembered differently by two people.
None of that needs the whole team on board to happen. It needs the people using it to actually use it. The benefit shows up in the specific conversations and decisions those people are part of, well before it has spread any further.
How the habit spreads without forcing it
People tend to adopt a new habit at work after they have seen it help someone else, not after being told it will help them. Once a sceptical team member notices a colleague's manual saving a misunderstanding, or sees a decision made faster because the priorities were already agreed, that is usually what shifts them, not a policy memo. This is the same pattern covered in more detail in how to roll out working manuals across your company, which is the guide to reach for once you are ready to take manuals from a few people to the whole business.
What scepticism from part of the team actually means
Some people being unconvinced at the start is normal, and it is not a sign that the method will not work for your team. It usually means those people have not yet seen it solve a real problem for them specifically. That is fine. Nobody has to be talked into it on day one, and nobody's manual is written on their behalf if they are not ready to write one.
What matters more than everyone's enthusiasm on day one is whether the team's priorities are actually visible and being checked against real work. Our guide on tracking team priorities and capacity covers how to keep that honest as a team grows, whichever pace people join in at.
If you are weighing this up for your own team, the most direct way to see it is to start. Book the Working With Me workshop for the whole team, or book a call first if you would rather talk through where your team is starting from.
Common questions
Does everyone need to attend the workshop day
Ideally yes, since the workshop is a single team session for setting priorities and writing manuals together. That is a one-day ask, not an ongoing commitment, and it is separate from how quickly each person builds the habit of using it afterwards.
What if some people on the team are sceptical
That is normal and not a barrier to starting. Scepticism usually fades once someone sees a manual or an agreed priority solve a real problem for them, which tends to happen after they see it work for a colleague rather than before.
Can we start with just the leadership team
Yes. A manager and a few team leads writing honest manuals and agreeing clear priorities already changes real conversations, one-to-ones and handovers among that group, before the rest of the team is involved.
How long before the rest of the team feels the benefit
There is no fixed timeline, since it depends on how often the people using it refer back to it in real situations. What tends to spread it is a colleague noticing it help someone else, not a set date for wider rollout.
Can someone be made to fill in a working manual
No. A manual is a person's own honest account of how they work best, written by them. It only has value if they mean it, so nobody fills one in on someone else's behalf or under pressure.