What do a 23% increase in profitability and 51% lower turnover have in common (Gallup)? A strong and positive team culture. Think of it as a driving force that improves internal communication and collaboration across departments, and positively impacts employee engagement. Yet many leaders still treat culture as a side element, hoping team morale forms on its own. However, the truth is, it does not.
In this guide, you will find answers to 3 key questions: What is team culture? How do you build it? What are the steps to turn it into a competitive advantage? Let’s dive in and explore all the ins and outs of this topic.
What Is Team Culture?
Team culture is the shared set of values, behaviors, and norms that shape how team members interact with one another, make decisions, and handle tasks. While it forms organically over time, it has to be intentionally designed. When approached right, the culture helps support clarity, accountability, and a healthy work environment that motivates employees to show better performance results.
Example: A remote product team can define its culture around asynchronous communication, autonomy, and mutual trust. It helps bring clarity into workflows and remove micromanagement, improving employee satisfaction.
Why Does Team Culture Matter?
You can treat culture as an invisible infrastructure. When it is strong, it reflects how decisions are made, how managers respond to setbacks, and how quickly employees adjust to changes. It keeps execution structured and goals reachable even in chaotic situations. A poor culture, on the other hand, often creates confusion, delays important changes, and makes employees feel isolated.
However, what exactly does this look like in practice? Let’s take a closer look at what effective team culture impacts:
- Speed and quality of the decision-making process
- Alignment with company goals and accountability
- Trust between leadership and teams
- Employee resilience during growth or downturns
- Employee retention and knowledge sharing
Often, you only notice the impact of team culture when it breaks or when it helps the company grow faster than its competitors. The question is: How do you make it beneficial for your organization?
Core Elements of a Strong Team Culture
The key to creating a positive team culture is to base it on strong pillars and ensure it guides employees daily, rather than just existing on paper. In this section, we will examine 5 key elements that create a work environment that inspires engagement and long-term success.
Shared Values and Purpose
Shared values are a compass for every decision professionals make. When they see their work aligned with a bigger goal, engagement and accountability rise. The key is to translate broad company values into daily employee behaviors and help people see how they work in practice.
Example: If “innovation” is a core value, define it as “share one new project idea per sprint.” If the company targets cross-team collaboration, try “host one educational session for colleagues per quarter”.
Psychological Safety and Trust
Did you know that only 3% of employees are at risk of quitting when psychological safety is high (BCG)? When team members feel safe voicing concerns and asking questions, they are more likely to share ideas and contribute to the company’s success.
In case you are uncertain about where to start, here are a few tips on how to build an atmosphere of trust and safety:
- Encourage managers to admit mistakes and ask for employee input
- Replace blame with constructive feedback loops
- Recognize contributions publicly to foster mutual respect.
Clear Communication Norms
Another component of a strong team culture is clear communication. When it lacks structure, professionals often face misalignment, make repeated mistakes, and experience emotional fatigue. Clear norms, on the other hand, ensure that every employee knows where, when, and how to communicate.
Example: Use Microsoft Teams for quick team syncs, Sembly for meeting summaries and notes, and shared Google Docs for brainstorming sessions.
Recognition and Feedback Loops
Effective feedback loops work both ways: leaders recognize employee achievements, and professionals feel safe to share their ideas or concerns. The key is to make recognition specific and timely. Try to replace vague phrases, such as “Great job,” with “Your proactive client update prevented a [Name of the Issue].”
This way, performance discussions become a continuous and impactful dialogue that motivates teammates to show improved results.
Opportunities for Growth and Development
8 in 10 professionals state that learning creates a sense of purpose in their work (LinkedIn). In this case, growth opportunities mean progress. Mentoring, upskilling, and cross-functional learning can help employees connect personal goals with organizational success.
Tip: Link development program to business outcomes. For example, connect sales training to conversion rates or leadership workshops to retention metrics. This way, employees see the immediate impact of their learning efforts.
How to Build and Maintain Team Culture
Now that you understand the team culture definitions, I suggest that we move to the next step and discuss how to bring culture from Notion documents to life. After all, the main challenge lies in sustaining the culture, not creating it on paper.
1. Define and Document Your Culture
Define what your team stands for, how their actions support these values, and how you can translate them into daily work. Include behavioral examples, decision-making principles, communication & meeting norms, and guidelines on how to resolve conflicts.
The key is to treat your teamwork culture like a living system: regularly revisit it and improve existing principles using feedback from employees.
2. Hire and Onboard with Culture in Mind
The next step is to hire people who align with your values and onboard them accordingly. You can create a checklist of organizational culture touchpoints, include some questions in recruiting interviews, and use onboarding to explain how your team works together.
You may have heard of Zappos, which offered new hires $2,000 to quit if they felt the company was not the right cultural fit (CultureMonkey). Considering the company’s success, the approach proves to be effective.
3. Lead Employees by Example
Employees observe leaders far more than they listen to speeches. When managers reward transparency, take ownership of their mistakes, and prioritize trust, professionals mirror these actions. However, when words do not align with reality, the team culture feels forced. As a result, employee trust declines, and people are more likely to quit before voicing their concerns.
Example: If “growth mindset” is part of your culture, as an HR, you can encourage managers to share one learning moment per quarter and highlight a teammate who has done the same.
4. Create Daily Rituals That Support Values
Would you like to make your team culture visible? Align your daily rituals with the chosen values. These routine actions help to connect employees and guide their behavior. Whether it’s a 30-minute all-hands, a feedback sync, or a huddle in Slack, rituals set the tone for the team and reflect the culture in reality.
Here are a few examples for your inspiration:
- A remote team uses Monday syncs to share weekly priorities and one personal update.
- A cross-functional team does “Retro Fridays” to review what went wrong/right, and what helped/hurt collaboration.
5. Collect Feedback and Assess Culture Regularly
The culture changes as your team does: new hires, growth phases, leadership transitions, or external factors can affect it. It is generally recommended to monitor your culture in the way you would your marketing metrics. Regular employee feedback helps you find gaps, and timely audits show how the values are reflected in practice.
Here are the key teamwork culture elements to measure with questions to ask your employees:
- Trust levels: Do you feel comfortable raising concerns with your manager? Can you rely on team members? When senior leadership makes decisions, do you trust that they are fair and transparent?
- Feedback health: Do you regularly receive constructive feedback from coaching staff? Do you feel safe giving upward feedback to your manager? Is feedback in our department clear and focused on improvement?
- Alignment of values with actions: Do you see our core values in daily behavior? Do team decisions align with the organizational goals? Are people held accountable when their actions contradict our values?
- Psychological safety: Do you feel included and respected regardless of your role or background? Do team leaders encourage open dialogues?
These questions will help you assess corporate culture and ensure a positive employee experience.
How Culture Varies Across Different Types of Teams
There is no universal team culture that fits every company and industry. The way teams operate (remotely, in-office, or hybrid) shapes their workplace culture. The key? As an HR professional or a manager, you need to align your approaches to building values with how your team works.
Let’s assess how types of work culture differ depending on the team type.
Office-Based Teams
In office environments, culture is often shaped through in-person rituals, visual cues, and spontaneous interactions. Hallway chats, desk drop-ins, or casual conversations during lunch are examples of how employees can connect with one another. However, the problem is that they rely on informal systems that may not scale.
Here are some tips on how to maintain office team culture:
- Make behaviors visible: Encourage leadership to reflect organizational values in their daily actions. For example, feedback sessions, team meetings, or one-on-ones.
- Structure feedback: Use structured and comprehensive reviews to assess employees’ performance and avoid informal syncs to stay objective.
- Balance formal & informal activities: Try pairing informal team-building activities with structured mentoring or coaching sessions.
Fully Remote Teams
Unlike office employees, work-from-home professionals cannot rely on physical proximity. Instead, they need intentional systems to build connections and create a sense of trust and transparency. Online culture is shaped by 3 “Hs”: how communication is organized, how work is tracked, and how teams celebrate their wins.
I suggest that we take a closer look at the best practices for remote teams:
- Document information: Record your company values, communication norms, and feedback practices. On remote, undocumented information often equals forgotten or lost.
- Prioritize asynchronous tools: Consider shared documents with live collaboration and commenting, recorded project updates, and meeting summaries to stay aligned.
- Create a sense of belonging: Celebrate milestones, reward contributors, and host informal daily rituals such as virtual coffee breaks or quick-sync Fridays.
Hybrid Teams
Hybrid teams get the best of two worlds: the possibility of in-person collaboration and the flexibility of remote work. This structure enables employees to choose the preferred way of working without sacrificing team alignment. However, flexibility comes with a challenge: hybrid models often divide in-office and remote professionals. Without clear systems, these gaps can grow, and team culture becomes fractured.
Here are some strong culture tips hybrid employees can benefit from:
- Standardize communication channels: Ensure every team member has equal access to shared documents, meeting information, and tools.
- Optimize meeting activity: Switch speakers to ensure both offline & online professionals actively participate in calls, use collaborative tools, and clear agendas to include all voices.
- Balance formal and informal connections: Mix strategic rituals with informal, engaging, or motivational meetings.
Evaluate your culture gaps by role and location. Ask yourself: Are in-office employees getting promoted faster? Are remote team members missing out on mentorship programs? If the answer is positive, your team culture likely depends on employee location.
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How Sembly AI Can Help Build and Maintain Team Culture
In every team, whether remote, in-office, or hybrid, culture is reflected in the quality of conversations. However, when critical moments go undocumented or misunderstood, core values start to erode. The solution? An advanced AI meeting assistant such as Sembly. It captures the essence of your team’s discussions, strengthening your culture and reducing friction.
What makes Sembly different? It adapts to every type of team:
- Remote teams: Sembly automatically joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or Webex calls and creates transcripts in over 45 languages, summaries & notes, as well as tasks.
- Office-based teams: Sembly supports microphone mode and file upload, letting professionals record offline conversations.
- Hybrid teams: The app stores all meeting information and lets managers share details with their team members.
With Sembly, every important word is captured, and complex conversations are distilled into actionable highlights. As a result, no more repetitions, miscommunications, or misunderstandings. If your company culture is built on transparency, Sembly is the best solution.
Team Culture Mistakes to Avoid
Now that you know the best practices, how about common mistakes to avoid? A strong team culture does not break overnight; it crumbles slowly. What begins as a series of small missteps often goes unnoticed by leaders and HR teams. However, over time, these actions can negatively impact trust and values, and turn your workplace into a performance liability.
I suggest that we briefly review the top 3 typical mistakes to avoid and check some practical examples, so you know exactly what you are dealing with.
Limiting Feedback to Performance Reviews
Do you still rely on annual performance reviews to correct behaviors? It may be the right moment to change the approach. The truth is, if feedback is only provided during annual assessments, your culture often lacks real-time input from employees. Without it, performance stalls, and people feel unappreciated.
Tip: Set a feedback framework that includes biweekly 1:1 calls for minor discussions, team meetings for major projects, and a shared document for achievements across the organization.
Covering Cultural Gaps with Perks
Companies using happy hours or free snacks to cover gaps are another common issue you may come across. However, these perks are merely a gesture from the organization to its employees and cannot serve as a foundation for the team culture. When professionals do not feel safe, respected, or heard, no perk can convince them to stay.
Tip: Reallocate the perks budget to mentoring programs, regular growth check-ins, and internal professional development paths to help employees succeed within the company.
Overlooking Inclusion, Equity, and Unconscious Bias
When leaders or HR professionals ignore inclusion and equity, only specific employees are heard. One of the other common mistakes when building team culture is assuming that equal opportunities exist because they are written in a policy. In reality, without addressing unconscious bias, companies risk limiting the diverse development of leadership.
Tip: Add inclusive practices into every meeting by rotating speakers or gathering input from silent participants. Encourage bias-awareness training for executive leaders and hiring managers.
Wrapping Up
Think of the team culture as a system that is reflected in how professionals make decisions, resolve conflicts, and hold each other accountable. It’s either your biggest competitive advantage or the reason behind employee disengagement and turnover. What is the key to building a team culture that works? Focus on clarity around values, consistent leadership, systems for feedback, and inclusive communication.
In this article, we have reviewed team culture examples, their core elements, common mistakes to avoid, and steps to build and maintain organizational values. I hope from now on you will navigate this topic with confidence. Good luck!
FAQ
What are the types of work culture?
Here are the main types of work culture:
- Collaborative culture: It prioritizes teamwork, transparency, and shared goals.
- Culture focused on performance: It targets high achievements, accountability, and metrics.
- Learning culture: Encourages innovation, experimentation, and continuous development.
- Control culture: Focuses on structure, policies, and risk mitigation.
- Supportive culture: It is built on empathy, trust, and employee well-being.
How to build a team culture for remote teams?
Here are the recommendations on how to build a team culture for remote teams:
- Document your culture: Define how decisions are made, preferred communication channels, and what feedback & ownership look like in action.
- Use the right tools: Try Sembly to record and summarize meetings, store takeaways in a shared document or task board, and use Loom, Notion, or async video updates for visibility.
- Build psychological safety: Create a culture where employees feel safe to ask questions, admit mistakes, and challenge ideas.
- Make recognition and development visible: Start a recognition channel, tie culture to development (track mentoring engagements, share learning wins, and align feedback with company values).
- Audit team culture: Track feedback frequency and tone, participation levels across roles and locations, retention trends, promotion data, and well-being surveys.
Can you change a team culture?
Yes. However, it requires intentional leadership and consistency.
To change an ineffective team culture, you need to start with the following steps:
- Identify what’s not working
- Define new core values and behaviors
- Align performance systems and communication habits to new values
- Hold leaders accountable for modeling and reinforcing the change
What are examples of a toxic team culture?
Here are the common examples of a toxic company culture:
- Blame is often used instead of feedback
- Poor communication across teams and departments
- Inconsistent recognition or biased leadership
- Burnout is disguised as “high performance”
What are some examples of good team culture?
Here are examples of a strong team culture:
- Shared ownership: Everyone understands goals and contributes to the company’s success.
- Open communication: Feedback is welcomed, constructive, and frequent.
- Psychological safety: Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities.
- Visible leadership modeling: Leaders represent the company values, reflecting them in their actions.
- Celebrated wins and growth: Progress is noticed, celebrated, and shared.
- Multi-meeting chats
- AI Insights
- AI Artifacts
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