Team Culture: More Than a Buzzword

Team culture becomes more than just another buzzword with Belbin.

The term “team culture” often gets tossed around as a trending concept—something nice to have, like casual Fridays or the table tennis table in the corner of the office. But team culture is far more than a buzzword; it’s the invisible but very real force that shapes how a team communicates, collaborates, and ultimately performs.

So how do you begin to understand something as intangible as team culture?

A strong, healthy team culture doesn’t just happen by accident—it’s best to intentionally understand, cultivate and refine a team’s natural culture over time as it develops. Using an evidence-based tool is essential, something robust that can take into account both the art and the science of teamwork.

That’s where the framework and tools of the Belbin Team Role Model come into play. Developed by Dr. Meredith Belbin, the model identifies distinct team roles — behavioural clusters —that people naturally gravitate towards. Each role brings strengths and allowable weaknesses, and understanding these dynamics gives teams a language and lens to reflect on their behaviours and contributions, and importantly the culture of their team. 

Whether a team has a balance of behavioural team roles, or too few or too many of some roles, will strongly influence the team culture that is present.

When teams use Belbin Reports, they gain data-driven insight into how individuals actually operate within the team and how the overall team is functioning. Are roles balanced, or is there overlap and conflict? Is the team too focused on ideas and not enough on implementation? Are people playing to their strengths, or are they forced into roles that don’t suit them? These are critical questions that Belbin helps answer.  As opposed to trying to artificially contrive or project a culture into a team, Belbin will identify the culture that is naturally present and then advise how to work it.

Importantly, Belbin isn’t just an academic exercise. Once you understand your current team culture through Belbin’s lens, you can start to make small yet strategic changes. These might involve adjusting responsibilities, reassigning tasks to better-suited individuals, or even just raising awareness of underused strengths and how to better communicate. Over time, these incremental shifts can significantly enhance both the health and performance of the team and working relationships between pairs of people within a team.  As Meredith Belbin once said ‘teams succeed or fail one relationship at a time’.

Belbin reports can also be usefully undertaken over time to track how a team is managing its strengths and weaknesses and adapting behaviours to suit the needs of the team, the project and the organisation. Teams can hold themselves accountable for their own KBI (Key Behavioural Indicators) by using the reports and language of Belbin.

What makes the Belbin Model particularly powerful is that it promotes genuine psychological safety. It allows team members to discuss behaviour and performance in a non-personal, constructive way.

Healthy team culture isn’t something that should remain abstract or unattainable—it can be seen as measurable, actionable, and incredibly impactful. With the right tools and mindset, like those offered through Belbin, any team can move from default behaviours to intentional, high-performing dynamics.

To find out more contact us:

T – 1300 731 381

E – Team@Belbin.com.au