PURPLE TEAMS
Stronger teams. Clearer roles.
Better collaboration.
Purple Teams helps organisations understand how people contribute, where collaboration gets stuck and how complementary strengths can improve team performance and resilience.
A service of Be Purple Consulting SRL, delivered by Belbin® Accredited Practitioners.
For companies, public administrations and NGOs – in Belgium and internationally.
The methodology
A practical research-based framework for understanding how people contribute, collaborate and perform in teams.
Belbin® Team Roles provide a practical language for understanding observable behaviour at work. The methodology identifies nine Team Roles – different ways in which people can contribute to team progress.
Rather than placing people into fixed personality types, Belbin focuses on behaviour in context. Self-perception can be combined with feedback from colleagues, helping individuals and teams recognise strengths, understand associated weaknesses and make better use of complementary contributions.
Behaviour in context
Focuses on observable workplace behaviour rather than fixed labels.
Complementary strengths
Helps teams understand which contributions are present, missing or over-relied upon.
Shared perspective
Combines self-awareness and, where relevant, feedback from colleagues.
The 9 Belbin Team Roles
Each role brings a distinctive contribution.
Most people have two or three roles they are most comfortable playing. No team needs nine people, and not every role is required at every stage of the work.
The nine roles are grouped into three clusters: Social, Thinking and Action roles.
Social roles
Social roles connect people and opportunities, strengthen collaboration and coordinate contributions around shared goals.
Teamworker
Helps the team to gel, using their versatility to identify the work required and complete it on behalf of the team.
Resource Investigator
Uses their inquisitive nature to find ideas to bring back to the team.
Co-ordinator
Needed to focus on the team’s objectives, draw out team members and delegate work appropriately.
Thinking roles
Thinking roles generate ideas, assess options and contribute depth of knowledge.
Plant
Tends to be highly creative and good at solving problems in unconventional ways.
Monitor Evaluator
Provides a logical eye, making impartial judgements where required and weighs up the team’s options in a dispassionate way.
Specialist
Brings in-depth knowledge of a key area to the team.
Action roles
Action roles create momentum, organise work and protect quality through to completion.
Shaper
Provides the necessary drive to ensure that the team keeps moving and does not lose focus or momentum.
Implementer
Needed to plan a workable strategy and carry it out as efficiently as possible.
Completer Finisher
Most effectively used at the end of tasks to polish and scrutinise the work for errors, subjecting it to the highest standards of quality control.
Complementarity, not perfection
Effective teams are not about making everyone equally strong in every role. They are about recognising different contributions, valuing complementary strengths and ensuring the team can cover what the work requires.
What we help with
Purple Teams supports organisations wherever collaboration, behavioural complementarity and team effectiveness matter.
Team effectiveness
Strengthen collaboration, clarify complementary contributions, identify gaps or overlaps and help teams work through recurring tensions or changes in how they operate.
Leadership & management
Support leadership teams and managers in making better use of collective strengths, improving decision-making, delegation, self-awareness and behavioural flexibility.
People & organisation
Use behavioural insight to support recruitment, onboarding, talent development, HR practice, higher education and wider organisational development.
Virtual & hybrid teamwork
Clarify contributions, communication needs and behavioural gaps that can become less visible when teams work across locations.
How we work
The format depends on the question, the people involved and the level of support required.
Individual report & feedback
Official Belbin® reports combined with a confidential accredited-practitioner debrief.
Team diagnostic & debrief
A structured view of team contributions, complementarity, gaps and working patterns, followed by facilitated discussion.
Workshops
Practical sessions that help teams understand and use the Team Role language in their everyday work.
Tailored programme
A combination of reports, workshops and coaching designed around broader leadership, team or organisational-development needs.
The organisational question comes first
We start with the challenge the organisation or team wants to address, then select the reports, facilitation and follow-up that best fit the context.
Why Be Purple Consulting
Experienced facilitation. Accredited methodology. International reach.
Purple Teams is a service of Be Purple Consulting SRL, a Brussels-based, values-driven consultancy supporting organisations in building more inclusive, effective and sustainable ways of working.
Our approach combines behavioural insight, facilitation and organisational experience with the Belbin® Team Role methodology. Services are delivered by a seasoned Belbin® Accredited Practitioner, working where appropriate with other accredited consultants.
Belgium is our core market, with delivery also available across the European Union and the MENA region.
Delivery formats
In person, online or blended
Working languages
English and French
Dutch-language support
On request
Primary client groups
Companies, public administrations, (I)NGOs, CSOs and higher education
Learn more about Be Purple Consulting SRL
Further information
For official information on Belbin® Team Roles, reports and research, visit Belbin Limited and its partner websites.
Belbin Limited (Original)- English
Official international website, research, reports, solutions and resources. Visit belbin.com
Belbin France
French-language partner website and resources. Visit Belbin France
Belbin Nederland
Dutch-language partner website and resources. Visit Belbin Nederland
Let’s discuss your team
Every team has a different starting point. Tell us what is happening, what you would like to improve and the support you are considering. We will come back to you to identify the most useful next step.
Prefer email? Contact us at teams@bepurpleconsulting.eu