Building Your Team
Building Your Team
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Building Your Team
Open from learners' everyday experience of teamwork: most people have seen both effective and ineffective teams, so the lesson begins by making sense of why those differences happen.
Learning goal
To be able to use practical models of team roles, team development and team performance to understand how teams succeed in my own setting.
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One word or phrase linked with effective teamwork
Use this as an activation after the learning goal. Invite responses from learners' own good or bad team experiences, then connect common themes such as trust, communication, clarity and shared purpose to the upcoming models.
What makes a team effective?
An effective team is not just a group of capable people.
It combines clear purpose, shared responsibility, useful communication and complementary strengths so that people can achieve more together than alone.
Link to participants' own good and bad experiences of teamwork. Emphasise that team effectiveness depends on how people work together, not only on individual talent.
Signs of good and bad teamwork
Effective teamwork
clear goals
trust and mutual support
roles used well
disagreement handled productively
progress towards results
Ineffective teamwork
confusion about priorities
duplicated or missing work
poor communication
unresolved tension
weak follow-through
Use this slide to help learners classify their own experiences. Keep the focus on observable behaviours rather than personality judgements.
From experience to models
Personal experience shows what teamwork feels like.
Team models help explain why teams work well or badly, and give a shared language for improving practice.
Position the models as practical tools, not rigid labels. The lesson now shifts from experience to frameworks learners can apply.
Belbin team roles
Belbin suggests that people tend to make different kinds of contributions in a team.
The value of the model is that it helps teams notice how people add value, not simply what job title they hold.
Avoid presenting Belbin as a test that fixes identity permanently. Frame roles as useful patterns of contribution.
The nine Belbin roles
Plant - produces new ideas and creative solutions
Resource Investigator - explores opportunities and contacts others
Coordinator - clarifies goals and brings people together
Shaper - drives progress and maintains momentum
Monitor Evaluator - judges options carefully and logically
Teamworker - supports relationships and cooperation
Implementer - turns ideas into practical action
Completer Finisher - checks detail and quality
Specialist - offers deep knowledge in a specific area
If needed, remind learners that a person may show more than one role and that context influences which role appears most strongly.
Which role are you?
Most people have preferred roles, manageable roles and less natural roles.
A useful reading of Belbin is not, 'What box am I in?' but, 'What strengths do I reliably bring, and where might I need support from others?'
This addresses the 'which role are you' part of the session without turning the slide into an activity. Encourage self-awareness rather than self-labelling.
Using Belbin in practice
Belbin can support practical team decisions:
balancing a project group
spotting missing contributions
understanding friction between styles
allocating tasks more thoughtfully
developing individuals without expecting everyone to do everything
Give a workplace example if useful: a team strong in ideas but weak in follow-through may need stronger Implementer or Completer Finisher contributions.
What Belbin does not do
Belbin is a guide, not a rulebook.
It should not be used to limit people, excuse poor behaviour or ignore skills, experience and organisational needs.
Important safeguard slide. Learners at this level benefit from seeing both the usefulness and the limits of a model.
In Belbin, what does the model mainly help a team notice?
Job titles
How people add value
Formal seniority
Technical grades
Directly checks the distinction between contribution and job title from slide 6.
Using Belbin well
Belbin suggests that people make different contributions in a team. Most people have preferred roles, manageable roles and less natural roles. In practice, the model can help teams spot missing contributions, allocate tasks more thoughtfully and understand friction between styles. It is a guide, not a rulebook.
Reinforces both uses and limits of Belbin from slides 8 to 10.
How could Belbin help you improve one real team?
Expected elements: answers should apply Belbin practically, for example balancing a project group, spotting missing contributions, allocating work more thoughtfully, or using the model to understand friction without labelling people permanently.
Tuckman model
Bruce Tuckman's model explains how teams often develop over time.
Instead of expecting instant cohesion, it shows that teams usually pass through recognisable stages before they perform well.
Make clear that the model describes a common pattern, not an exact timetable. Teams may move back and forth between stages.
The stages of team development
Forming - people join, look for direction and test the situation
Storming - differences appear, priorities clash and conflict may surface
Norming - ways of working become clearer and trust grows
Performing - the team works effectively towards shared goals
Adjourning - the team or project ends and members move on
Some versions leave out adjourning, but include it here because it matters in project-based and temporary teams.
Why storming is not failure
Conflict at the storming stage does not automatically mean the team is broken.
It often means members are negotiating priorities, roles and influence. What matters is whether the team can move from tension to clearer agreements.
Many learners interpret conflict as a sign of poor teamwork. This slide reframes it as a developmental stage that can be managed productively.
How teams move forward
Forming → uncertainty about purpose and roles
Storming → tension over ideas, authority or ways of working
Norming → clearer expectations and stronger trust
Performing → coordinated effort and better results
Adjourning → closure, review and transition
Use the arrow notation here because the developmental sequence itself is the teaching point.
Using Tuckman in practice
The model helps leaders and team members read the situation more accurately.
Instead of asking, 'Why are we not performing yet?', they can ask, 'What stage are we in, and what does this team need next?'
Connect back to participants' settings: new teams, merged teams, student groups or project teams often benefit from this diagnostic lens.
Which Tuckman stage is marked by conflict over roles or priorities?
Norming
Adjourning
Storming
Performing
Distractors are all real stages, so students must distinguish the developmental meaning rather than just recognise a term.
Reading team development
In Tuckman's model, people often begin in forming, where they look for direction. During storming, differences and tensions may surface. If the team develops clearer expectations and stronger trust, it moves into norming, which can support later performance.
Uses the stage sequence and meanings taught across slides 11 to 15.
Why is storming not always a sign of failure?
Expected elements: strong answers should explain that storming can be a normal stage where priorities, roles and influence are negotiated, and that the key issue is whether the team moves towards clearer agreements.
Drexler Sibbet model
The Drexler Sibbet model focuses on the conditions that support team performance.
It tracks how a team moves from membership and purpose towards delivery, renewal and strong results.
Present this as a performance-focused complement to Tuckman: Tuckman explains development; Drexler Sibbet highlights what must be in place for effective performance.
The seven stages
Orientation - why am I here?
Trust Building - who are you?
Goal Clarification - what are we doing?
Commitment - how will we do it?
Implementation - who does what, when and where?
High Performance - wow
Renewal - why continue?
Use the familiar guiding questions because they show the practical concern at each stage. Keep the focus on what teams need to resolve.
What the model highlights
Drexler Sibbet draws attention to key performance conditions:
belonging and inclusion
trust between members
clear goals
commitment to action
defined responsibilities
continuous review and renewal
Emphasise that performance problems often come from weakness in one of these conditions rather than lack of effort alone.
A performance pathway
Orientation → people understand membership
Trust Building → relationships become safer
Goal Clarification → direction becomes clear
Commitment → agreement turns into ownership
Implementation → work is coordinated
High Performance → energy and results increase
Renewal → the team adapts, refreshes or refocuses
This slide summarises the model as a flow. Stress that renewal matters because even strong teams can lose focus if they do not adapt.
Using the models together
The three models answer different questions:
Belbin - how do people contribute?
Tuckman - how does a team develop?
Drexler Sibbet - what supports strong performance?
Together, they offer a fuller picture of team success.
This is the landing point of the lesson arc. It resolves the central question by showing that effective teamwork depends on contribution, development and performance conditions together.
Which question belongs to the Drexler Sibbet stage Goal Clarification?
Who are you?
Why continue?
What are we doing?
Who does what?
Checks whether learners can distinguish the signature question attached to each Drexler Sibbet stage.
Performance conditions
The Drexler Sibbet model highlights conditions that support team performance. These include belonging and inclusion, trust between members, clear goals, commitment to action and defined responsibilities. Together, these conditions help teams coordinate work and renew their direction.
Targets the main performance conditions named on slide 18.
Which model would be most useful first in a new team problem?
Belbin
Tuckman
Drexler Sibbet
It depends
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What is one idea from today you will use?
Reflection only. Encourage learners to name one model, stage, role or idea they can genuinely apply after the lesson.
Which part of the lesson felt most challenging?
Reflection only. Useful for identifying where future teaching or recap is needed.
Glossary
effective team - a group that works together productively towards shared goals
team role - a typical way a person contributes to a team's work
Belbin team roles - a model describing nine different patterns of team contribution
complementary strengths - different strengths that combine to improve team effectiveness
Forming - the early stage when a team first comes together
Storming - the stage when differences and tensions begin to emerge
Norming - the stage when shared ways of working begin to settle
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Glossary
Performing - the stage when a team works effectively towards its goals
Adjourning - the closing stage when a team or project ends
team development - the process through which a team changes over time
Drexler Sibbet model - a model describing stages and conditions that support team performance
goal clarification - reaching a clear, shared understanding of what the team is trying to achieve
commitment - shared agreement to act and take responsibility
renewal - reviewing and refreshing the team's purpose, energy or direction
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