Workshop facilitators

The Belbin International Team Conference: Workshops & Facilitators

Building Resonance: Emotional Intelligence with Belbin Team Roles

Pearl D'Souza McKenzie

Director, PrePearl Training Development Pvt. Ltd, Belbin Regional Representative, India

This workshop brings together the Belbin Team Roles and the Daniel Goleman framework of Emotional Intelligence. This has been an important module in the core leadership journey of one of India's largest steel manufacturing organisations. 

Pearl has led widescale Talent Management Projects in Tata Business Excellence Group, Larsen & Toubro IDPL, Tata Motors, Chola Mandalam Finance, Hexaware, Emcure Pharmaceuticals. Her research papers have been published in the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Journal of International Business Education. She has been a visiting faculty for courses at the Xavier’s Institute of Management and Research (XIMR), Mumbai and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.

Team Psychological Safety: The Team Role Contribution

Dr Philip Merry

Regional Representative, Singapore; founder and CEO, Philip Merry Consulting Group

Team Psychological Safety (TPS) improves engagement and decision-making, and fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Since Google identified it as the most important contributory factor to their team success, it has become a "must-have" emerging skill for team leaders and team coaches. 

Philip will cover the seven elements of TPS: dealing with mistakes, confronting difficult issues, working with diversity, taking risks, offering mutual support, asking for help and giving appreciation. He'll link each to Belbin Team Roles, as well as exploring the history of TPS and how it helps build high-performing teams.

Dr Philip Merry is a is a senior United Nations and global, cross-cultural team facilitator. A team leadership coach, trainer of team coaches, consultant, trainer, speaker and change specialist, he has conducted coaching, keynotes and training in 63 countries for 41 years. Philip has lived and worked in Asia for 32 years and has been the Belbin Regional Representative in Singapore since 1996.

Belbin and The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team

DeeDee Smartt Lynch and Mike Lynch

President and COO of Smartt Strategies

Belbin Team Roles enable a common language to discuss the impact of behaviour on a team, whereas The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team utilise concepts of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results to create high-performing teams. Join DeeDee and Mike to learn how the symbiosis of these methodologies can have a transformative effect on team performance and behaviours.

With over 15 years of experience in using Belbin, DeeDee has worked with clients in the private sector, military, non-profit and government organisations, from small teams to large teambuilding events. She holds numerous leadership and team development certifications.

Before joining Smartt Strategies, Mike was a senior project manager and design engineer in the nuclear industry. AS VP for a $2.4B project, Mike attributes much of his record-setting project teams' success to understanding Belbin Team Roles.

DeeDee and Mike co-authored the Belbin Chapter of the Handbook of Communication Training: a Framework for Assessing and Developing Competence (Routledge/Taylor and Francis, 2019).

Belbin: the Key to Organisational Diagnostics

Hongyun Lin

Chief Consultant, Belbin China; founder of Learnmart

Lin will be discussing how to use Belbin reports in organisational diagnostics, solving problems by focusing on people and teams, rather than on systems, structures and processes.

Lin is the representative of BELBIN China and works with the likes of Alibaba, Sanofi and Astra Zeneca. Over the past ten years, Lin has accredited over 1000 consultants in Belbin within China.

Prior to joining Belbin, she served as the Deputy General Manager of one of the top three management consulting firms in China. Lin is experienced in organisational development practice, receiving awards from HROOT (Most Valuable Professional in the HR field in China) and HRTech China as one of the top 100 influencers of 2022.

Case Study: Using Belbin with a Major Contractor to the US Department of Energy

Dr Chris Burrows and Tony Burrows

Chris Burrows Consulting LLC

Father and son team, Chris and Tony Burrows, outline the process, challenges and opportunities of working with more than 25 teams for a major client, along with key findings and lessons learnt from their work.

They will be looking at the application of Team Roles to challenges within organisational culture, and employee and team engagement, as well as combining Belbin with Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team methodology.

With over 60 years' combined senior management and executive experience, Chris and Tony have taken 30 teams through the Belbin process since becoming accredited in 2023 and are passionate advocates of Belbin. The Belbin methodology has had a transformative effect on their business, changing its focus to Executive and Senior Management Coaching.

How Enterprises Build Healthy Organisations in Complex and Changing Environments

Lv Yanping

Head of Learning & Empowerment Centre, Takeda China; former National Business Operations Training Director, Sanofi

In a VUCA environment, organisational health is a key consideration for enhancing organisational capabilities, improving efficiency and achieving performance goals.

Ms. Lv will be exploring how to use the Belbin Organisational Diagnostic Tool to help organisations to collaborate and allocate work more effectively, fully leveraging Team Role strengths. She will be sharing intervention measures and practical case studies, and will be discussing how to implement, promote, track and evaluate the impact of Belbin in this context.

Ms. Lv has been in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years, working for Pfizer and Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. As well as being Belbin Team Roles accredited, Ms. Lv is an IAOL certified team coach, organisation coach and leadership coach, and a Certified Performance Technologist.

Effective Decision-Making in Recruitment

Campbell Urquhart

Managing Director, White Cube Consulting / Belbin Scotland

Effective recruitment is key to team performance. Campbell will be exploring how to enhance the quality of the recruitment and selection decision-making process using Belbin reports. He'll look at how to increase the probability of an effective hiring outcome.

Campbell has more than thirty years' experience delivering a broad range of people-based consultancy services and has led and delivered HR consultancy projects worth over £50 million in value, in 18 different countries across four continents.

He loves helping people, teams and organisations to improve through the effective recruitment, management and development of talent.

How the China Talent Market Transformed from a 'Best Individuals' to a 'Perfect Team' Talent Strategy

Quinli Chen

HR Business Partner Leader (Former Bilibili Senior Director)

The pandemic has seen a major shift in the talent strategy of Chinese hi-tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent. Instead of purchasing expensive individual talent, the focus has moved to building the perfect team to boost productivity and increase market share.

Quinli will demonstrate how Belbin can change company perspectives on talent strategy and facilitate this shift.

Quinli studied and worked in the UK for eight years, before returning to Shanghai. As an HR professional in China and overseas, she has worked closely with business leaders in e-commerce, live broadcasting, new retail, market search, and the video and content industry. More recently, she has moved to the hi-tech sector, witnessing considerable transformation in this arena.

Leading Authentic Teams: Transforming Teams by Playing to Your Strengths, Together

Lindsay Lalla

Belbin North America

There's no one way to be an effective leader … but we can use a strategic approach to discover our own authentic leadership style. Lindsay will look at how to play to your strengths in your leadership style, and how each of your team members can add to team collaboration. Using a three-part model, she’ll focus on developing coherence, versatility, and ability to learn.

Lindsay is a skilled facilitator, and runs the Belbin Accreditation classes for North America, where she certifies others in the Belbin method.

Lindsay's formal education is in instruction and performance. Combined with her 17 years of adult education experience, she brings a depth of understanding in how to deliver the experiential workshops that are a hallmark of the Belbin North America approach to education and organisational development.

Elevating Team Performance: a Multidimensional Approach

Bruce Herbert

Owner and Principal, Team Alchemy System

In the changing landscape of organisational development, the emphasis on team performance and its measurement has never been more critical.

The Team Alchemy System is a statistically robust and pragmatic approach for measuring and developing workplace teams. In this workshop, Bruce will delve into a comprehensive approach that leverages the strengths of Belbin Team Roles, Team Alchemy, and Systemic Team Coaching, offering participants insights into achieving measurable performance improvements within their teams.

Bruce is an experienced facilitator and team coach who works with clients across many industry sectors both in New Zealand and internationally. He is a Certified Practitioner in Team Coaching (ICF, ITCA EMCC) and is a faculty member of the Global Team Coaching Institute. Bruce works directly with clients and supports the international Team Alchemy network of facilitator-coaches.

Teamopoly - Unveiling the Power of Team Dynamics

Christer B Jansson and Inger Melkersson

Belbin Sweden

This dynamic and interactive workshop will use Teamopoly, a unique business simulation designed to expose the intricacies of team composition and the impact on business strategy and culture.

Christer and Inger will explain how to use this powerful tool for Belbin practitioners and anyone seeking to enhance their understanding of team dynamics and effective collaboration.

Case Study: Belbin for Organisational Mentor Development

Ravi Sundaram

Regional Representative, India & Sri Lanka; Director, CERT Team Development (India) PVT Ltd

Ravi is a Founder and Director of CERT Team Development (India) Pvt. Ltd., headquartered in Bangalore, India. He is also Managing Director of Mercuri Goldmann (India) PVT Ltd, part of Mercuri International, the world leader in Sales Performance Improvement and is the largest Sales Performance Consultancy in the world.

This workshop will explore how CERT India worked with a global organisation to build a mentoring culture. Following a robust, guided six-month programme, participants were able to see and approach mentoring in a unique, scientific way. They recognised and appreciated how Belbin is a powerful framework to both select the suitable mentors and for the mentors to sharpen their skills, approach and process of mentoring.

Ravi has over 46 years of experience in training and consulting, business and organisation building. He has been accrediting HR, L&D and other professionals in Belbin Team Roles for more than two decades.

Teams of the Future - A New Zealand Perspective

Candice Collier

Director of teamhub at Belbin NZ & Pacific

As we look toward 2050, technological progress, demographic changes, and societal shifts are poised to redefine teamwork within organisations.

Through a focused lens on New Zealand, paralleled with global trends, this workshop will outline the crucial role of cultural competency amidst the growth of Māori, Asian, and Pasifika populations in New Zealand. Candice will look at tools for future-proofing teams and explain how the Belbin framework can support and evolve alongside these trends. Attendees will gain insights into the synergy of technology and humanity, and strategies to foster resilient, adaptable future teams.

Candice is an advocate for diversity in team dynamics and sustainable growth. Her passion lies in empowering individuals and teams to harness their unique strengths and confidently contribute to their collective success. Her experience spans over two decades across not-for-profit sectors, local government, and the corporate world in the UK and New Zealand, during which she developed a profound appreciation for people-oriented and impactful work.

Selecting the right team member by gaining clarity on behaviours for success

Gary Hewins

Director, Teams Unlimited & Visiting Lecturer University of Chester

Gary started his career in the nuclear industry and was an early adopter of Belbin Team Role theory. He went on to profile staff and volunteer teams in the CIPD, then within academia, the green energy industry, businesses, and pre-University students. He has over thirty years of experience using Belbin.  

When recruiting, interview panel members often have their own view of what they are looking for in a candidate, which can be significantly different from each other. How can you select the right person, if you do not have a meeting of minds? Gary will explore how having a common understanding of the behavioural requirements for selecting the right person for the job is essential for successful selection.

He will show how using a simple facilitated process that achieves a common understanding of the characteristics needed, and which compliments the Belbin Job Requirements Inventory, can help you to select the right person.  

"Key to Me": using Belbin Team Roles to unlock your full potential

Gary Shewan

Retail Learning & Development Business Partner, Legal & General

Ewan Henesy

L&D Facilitator / Senior Instructor, Bowles Rocks 

Gary is a highly skilled and motivated facilitator, coach, trainer and consultant with a wealth of experience in the world of Learning and Development. Ewan has many years experience facilitating in Learning & Development and specialises in experiential education at Bowles Rocks. They have worked together on programmes including practical activities, designed to help unlock potential using Belbin team Roles.

Attendees of this workshop will be taken through “Key to Me", an accessible and effective activity that uses Belbin profiles and produces grounded and measurable outcomes to implement at work.

At the end of this session, delegates will understand how by sharing preferred working styles and knowing what does and doesn't work for your colleagues, you can gift your team the power to work alongside one another as their most authentic selves. 

Beyond formal learning – creating Persons of Tomorrow

Chris Jackson and Georgiana Els

Belbin Accredited Team Coaching Lead and Team Coach

Chris and Georgiana share an interest in academic learning facilitated through the team coaching process, based on the Finnish Tiimiakatemia model of ‘learning by doing’.

Drawing on years of experience, they have co-created and led programmes exploring how individuals and groups can become effective teams, working together for a common purpose.

Using the international language of Belbin Team Roles, they engage with learners on a journey which goes beyond formal subject learning and prepares them to function in a complex world.

In this workshop, they share what they have discovered.

Chris Jackson is an experienced entrepreneur, mentor, educator and team coach. He is currently Team Coaching Lead on the Belbin Accredited Team Coaching programme and runs Jarra CIC, which promotes organisational learning in the Third Sector.

Dr Georgiana Els is an Associate Professor at the University of Lincoln International Business School where she lectures in tourism, events management, and team learning. Georgiana is also a Team Coach on the Belbin Accredited Team Coaching programme.