Teams and The Social Contract

Summary

• A team social contract is a shared agreement about how members work together, promoting clarity and collaboration.

  
  

• Without explicit agreements, teams often default to unspoken norms that limit trust and performance.

  
  

• Research shows most teams lack accountability, open feedback, and shared focus – key reasons they underperform.

  
  

• High-performing teams define and commit to clear behaviours that support candour, ownership, and growth.

  
  

• Belbin Team Roles help teams understand individual contributions, making it easier to develop meaningful social contracts which enable more effective collaboration.

A team social contract spells out how people agree to work together, making collaboration smoother and communication clearer.

But for it to work, it needs to be explicit. Without clear, agreed behaviours, teams fall back on unspoken “rules” that often hold them back.

These invisible norms – like avoiding conflict, sticking to silos, or keeping quiet around managers – can kill trust and stifle performance.

Making expectations visible is the first step toward psychological safety, accountability, and a high-performing team.

The figures are clear

According to the Greenlight Research Institute:

• 71% of team members aren’t committed to elevating one another by offering feedback on professional capabilities, business practices and performance;

  
  

• 71% don’t believe that their team collaboratively engages in the most important business problems across the organisation;

  
  

• 74% don’t agree that their team is accountable for shared goals;

  
  

• 81% say that their team is not operating anywhere near its full potential.

  
  

• For leaders and teams that seek higher performance, innovation and growth, commitment to an explicit social contract is essential.

"To achieve breakthrough performance, teams should commit to a new social contract that emphasises candour, collaboration, accountability and continual improvement."

– Harvard Business Review

Innovation, decision-making and growth come from addressing team behaviours

HBR describes how a global consultancy helped a multinational producer of automated test equipment to shift focus from leadership competencies and top-down control to rediscovering "what it means to be a great team".

In effect, this meant transforming teams – fostering a culture of trust and faster, collaborative decision-making, in order to accelerate innovation and growth.

To do this, teams addressed their essential team behaviours and decided which were serving the team and which were not.

Are you asking the right questions?

In order to establish the status quo, teams can ask:

• Do we avoid conflict? Do we challenge one another and speak openly about problems, even when it is difficult or when it falls outside our immediate area of responsibility?

  
  

• Do we often work in silos or do we collaborate? Do we create shared value from those collaborations?

  
  

• Do we operate under a hierarchy? Or do we build authentic relationships with stakeholders?

  
  

• Do we meet our goals and commitments? Do we hold each other accountable? Are we willing to do whatever it takes to ensure shared success?

  
  

• Are we engaged? Are we constantly searching for ways to grow? Do we coach one another to get there?

  
  

• Are we committed to other team members? Do we celebrate each other’s achievements and express gratitude?

  
  

• Are we achieving our full potential as a team? Are we able to innovate and transform as a result?

The most effective teams don’t just focus on what they’re doing. They’re clear on how they work together.

Analysing your team’s behaviours with Belbin

Once the team has established that members have the desire to make changes, they can begin to explore which behaviours can make the biggest difference to performance. Once changes are evident, they can begin to expand this to more practices.

This is where Belbin comes in. Belbin Team Roles are clusters of behaviour which were shown to be effective in facilitating team progress.

Understanding our own Team Role strengths, those of others in the team and the overall Team Role culture can help teams navigate the conversation around useful team behaviours.

How would you describe your team?

This is a great question to start the discussion.

The Belbin Team report - produced once all the team members have completed the Self-Perception Inventory and Observer Assessments - is a useful guide.

One page of the report provides a list of words and phrases which characterise the team, according to its members.

When considering existing behaviours (and what a social contract might look like), this list can be useful in identifying those behaviours which do, and do not, serve the team.

What does your team culture look like?

The Belbin Team report also gives an overview of the team’s prevailing Team Role culture.

This enables teams to identify the most common behaviours (which might be contributing to the implicit social contract) and those which might be in short supply and therefore need special attention.

For example, a predominantly Implementer team is likely to value efficiency and methodical working. They may be resistant to change, so may find that individuals are reluctant to challenge the status quo.

By contrast, team members who share Shaper behaviours might have no problem in challenging one another, but might struggle with political infighting and supporting one another.

The Team Roles which feature lowest on the graph can help the team to identify characteristics which are rarer in the team and should be valued and promoted to ensure behavioural diversity, which is shown to enhance team performance.

For example, a team with lots of Monitor Evaluator influence and one strong Plant might want to include in their social contract the notion that ideas should be valued and analysed judiciously, not treated with cynicism or dismissed out of hand.

Individual contributions

Part of the social contract discussion involves everyone understanding the behavioural contributions they need to make, and when to make them.

Alongside our functional role, we each bring a combination of Team Role strengths that shape how we behave, contribute, and interact within the team.

The Belbin Individual reports help to understand the Team Role contributions the team needs us to make. Sharing this information with the rest of the team is vital. 

It gives permission to contribute and helps to build collaboration and mutual accountability. And of course, it helps to build trust and psychological safety.

How will we work together?

A simple 2-minute exercise to work out how to work together, using the Belbin Individual reports.

"Without team-specific coaching and development, the work is indeed harder than it needs to be, and collaboration is less effective – so workloads become even heavier, making people feel even more overwhelmed and less able to pursue development and growth."

– Ferrazzi Greenlight

How we can help

The Belbin language, reports and framework facilitate the conversations your teams need.

By focusing on behaviour, not personality, Belbin provides data, insights and advice on how teams work best.

How can you use Belbin within your organisation?

It starts with a conversation. Get in touch - we'd love to work with you, and your teams.

T - 1300 731 381

E - Team@Belbin.com.au