We’ve already discussed the benefits of having a good team culture. It was a nice piece of theory that is good to know. What’s next? Let’s dive into what is team culture and why is it important. Especially, some practical tools and learn how to improve the culture in your team and company. To know how to improve, we need to know what to improve, right? Let’s learn what the team culture consists of.

This article is your go-to guide to figuring out where your team stands and what to do about it. What we’re going to do is to dive into tools and techniques that are practical, relatable and backed by personal experience of mine ;)

Is Team Culture Even Measurable?

You bet it is. Think of culture like the air in the room: you can’t see it, but you can feel when it’s fresh - or when it’s downright suffocating. Measuring it means figuring out whether your team is coasting, thriving or drowning in bad vibes. Once you know that, you can take steps to lift them higher. 

The Tools: What Actually Works?

There’s no one-size-fits-all here. Some tools are great for massive companies with HR departments the size of small armies. Others are perfect for smaller teams where everyone prefers quick, honest chats over endless surveys.

For Bigger Teams

1. 360° Feedback: Get input from all angles - peers, managers and subordinates. You’ll get a holistic view of how people feel about working with each other.

2. Surveys and Questionnaires: Structured, yes, but they work. Use them to dig into how people feel about communication, collaboration and engagement.

3. Workshops and Check-ins: Great for opening up conversations and finding blind spots in your culture.

   
   

For Smaller Teams (or If You Hate Formality)

In my opinion, the tools above are great for big companies or when formal research is needed, but they can make things too complicated in smaller teams where people prefer a less formal communication style. And this is where I have a successful experience of using the following tools:

1. Silent Observation: Sit back during meetings and watch how people interact with each other. This includes both verbal and non-verbal signs. 

2. 1-2-1s: These are gold. When done right, personal chats build trust and let team members open up about what’s working and what’s not. During personal communication, people can relax and share their feelings and concerns. Of course, to achieve that kind of atmosphere, you have to make an effort to earn some level of trust before initiating 1-2-1s and then develop trust during those calls or meetings.

3. Public Reviews: Check Glassdoor or LinkedIn. The good, the bad, and the brutally honest feedback out there might surprise you.

What Are You Measuring, Exactly?

Now that you have your tools, let’s figure out what you’re looking for. Great team culture has a few essential ingredients: communication, collaboration, engagement, alignment with values and an overall positive vibe.

We will use the following categories to assess your team culture:

• Communication: Strong communication fosters trust, transparency and alignment across teams. Measuring both interpersonal and cross-team dynamics is crucial.

• Collaboration: Evaluates how well teams work together toward shared goals, resolve conflicts and support one another in overcoming inevitable business challenges.

• Personal Engagement: Assesses how individuals feel about their roles and their level of commitment to the company’s success.

• Alignment with Company Values: Determines whether the team understands and embodies the company’s values, while also ensuring team members feel valued, heard and satisfied in their work.

• Atmosphere in the Team: Bringing all the previous elements together, the overall atmosphere determines how well people work together toward common business goals.

Communication

Clear, open communication builds trust and ensures alignment across teams. Good communication isn’t just about sharing information. It’s about building trust, keeping everyone on the same page and even cracking the right kind of jokes.

Clarity and Openness

Does your team communicate clearly or is everyone constantly second-guessing what’s going on? 

Clarity and openness are the glue that holds great teams together. If your team struggles to share information smoothly, expect confusion, frustration and decision-making bottlenecks. On the flip side, clear communication builds trust, eliminates unnecessary guesswork and keeps productivity flowing.

Friendliness

How does your team feel when they’re working together - warm and collaborative or tense and distant? 

That’s your emotional climate at play. A friendly atmosphere makes collaboration second nature, reduces stress and boosts overall well-being. But if the vibe is cold or hostile, expect conflicts, disengagement and a team that dreads working together.

Transparency 

Does your team feel safe sharing ideas and concerns or do people hold back for fear of judgment? 

Transparency is all about trust. If team members feel safe enough to share ideas, voice concerns and provide honest feedback, your team will thrive. But if people hesitate before speaking up or keep things unnecessarily private, progress will stall. Lead by example - when leaders admit mistakes and share openly, it sets the tone for a culture of honesty.

Sense of Humor

Does your team laugh together - or do jokes fall flat and create awkward silences? 

Weird metric, I know. But if everyone laughs at the same jokes (and they’re not mean-spirited), it’s a sign of comfort and unity because humor isn’t just about cracking jokes - it’s about feeling comfortable enough to be yourself. 

Mutual Support

Do your team members lift each other up or is everyone just looking out for themselves? Mutual support is what separates strong teams from dysfunctional ones. Supportive teams collaborate freely, problem-solve together and navigate conflicts smoothly. But if people are overly protective of their work, it often signals fear of criticism or even insecurity.

Friendship against Other Departments 

Is your team’s humor lighthearted - or is it turning into an “us vs. them” mentality? Is your team’s humor lighthearted or is it at the expense of others? 

If inside jokes frequently target other departments, it’s not just “fun and games” - it’s a red flag. A culture of “us-vs-them” thinking creates silos and damages company-wide collaboration. Healthy teams respect and uplift colleagues across the organization rather than treat them as competition.

Reviews from Other Teams

Are other teams praising your group or do you hear more complaints than compliments? 

This one stands apart from “friendship against other departments” because reviews - whether positive or negative - can come from an entire team or just one particular individual. If negativity is concentrated in a single person, it tends to spread across different levels of the organization, whether within their immediate team or higher up to company management. This makes cultural improvements more challenging since the issue isn’t just about team dynamics but also about leadership intervention and company-wide communication. Addressing this requires a strategic approach, ensuring that feedback is handled constructively rather than fostering further division.

Collaboration

Collaboration is what turns individual effort into team success as it leads to shared problem-solving and higher team resilience.

Conflict Resolution Skills

Do disagreements turn into screaming matches or actual solutions?

The way a team handles conflict can make or break its effectiveness. When people know how to navigate disagreements constructively, problems get solved, relationships stay strong and the work environment remains collaborative. However, if conflicts escalate into tension and blame, team dynamics can quickly fall apart.

Time to Issue Resolution

Are problems dragging on or are they solved quickly and efficiently?

How long does it take to fix issues when they arise? If conflicts linger for too long, the problem might not be the team itself but inefficient processes or poor coordination between departments. Fast, effective resolutions show that the team works well together and proactively tackles challenges.

Active Listening in Cross-Team Communication

Are people truly listening or are they just waiting for their turn to talk?

This one evaluates whether team members genuinely make an effort to understand the needs and challenges of other teams or departments. Active listening builds mutual respect, strengthens collaboration and helps teams align better on goals and expectations.

Desire to Help

Does your team lift each other up or do they leave struggling colleagues to sink?

A strong team is built on mutual support.  When people willingly help one another, they shift the focus from individual success to collective success, fostering a work culture where everyone is invested in the company’s growth rather than just their own tasks.

Desire to Educate

Do the team members want to lift others up or are concentrated solely on their performance?

Closely tied to the previous metric, education is a proactive form of help. Instead of just solving a problem for someone, teaching them empowers them to handle similar challenges independently in the future. However, the key to effective knowledge-sharing is maintaining patience and resisting the temptation to act superior or dismissive because no one wants to be made to feel “dumb” for not knowing something.

Ability to Feel Relaxed in 1-on-1 Calls

How open and comfortable do team members feel during 1-on-1 conversations? 

The best conversations happen when people feel safe open and comfortable do team members feel during 1-on-1 conversations? The more relaxed they are, the more honest and productive these discussions will be. When employees feel psychologically safe, they’re more likely to voice concerns, share ideas, and collaborate without fear of judgment, ultimately strengthening team cohesion.

Trust

Can you rely on your teammates when it matters most? Can they rely on you?

This is the foundation of all successful collaboration. The more trust a team has, the more seamlessly they share information, rely on each other and work together to solve problems. High trust leads to stronger cooperation and efficiency, while low trust breeds suspicion, resistance, and even aggression, hindering productivity and teamwork.

Personal Engagement 

Engagement is personal, but it ripples out to the whole team. It’s about whether people show up just for the paycheck - or because they genuinely care.

Fear of Making a Mistake 

How safe do people feel in your team? 

When team members don’t feel psychologically safe, they tend to hide information, avoid responsibility and engage in blame culture instead of owning their work. But when mistakes are seen as learning opportunities rather than failures, people are more likely to take risks, share ideas, and drive innovation - all of which help the company grow.

Adaptability

How well does your team handle change? 

Constant shifts in priorities are inevitable. So the ability to adapt quickly makes a team more resilient and productive. When people struggle with adaptability, it often leads to resistance, slow progress and missed opportunities for innovation.

Job Satisfaction Level

Are people happy at work? 

When they are, they’re more engaged, actively involved in decision-making, and invested in the company’s success. On the contrary, low job satisfaction can signal burnout, disengagement and declining productivity, which can impact the entire team.

Motivation and Aspiration

How driven are your team members? 

Motivation fuels performance, collaboration, and overall team momentum. If motivation is low, progress stalls, engagement drops and productivity takes a hit.

Critical Thinking

Can your team analyze problems and find smart solutions? 

Strong critical thinking skills help team members assess situations objectively, challenge assumptions and solve problems effectively. Without this, teams are more likely to make impulsive decisions or struggle with problem-solving.

Sense of Ownership

Do people take full responsibility for their work? 

Ownership means seeing a task through from start to finish and feeling personally invested in delivering results. It’s also a key sign of engagement and collaboration since getting things done often requires teamwork.

Sense of Being Appreciated

Do team members feel valued? 

Recognition fuels motivation - when people know their work matters, they’re more likely to stay engaged, committed and proactive. A lack of appreciation, on the other hand, can lead to low morale and disengagement.

Alignment with the Company Values

Alignment with company values isn’t just about memorizing a mission statement - it’s about comprehending it and living it daily.

Understanding of Company Values

Does your team truly understand what your company stands for? 

This isn’t just about whether employees can recite your values - it’s about whether those values are clear in the first place. A strong understanding of company values ensures that daily behaviors and decision-making align with the organization’s goals, fostering a cohesive and consistent work environment. When people understand and connect with these values, collaboration improves, morale gets a boost and job satisfaction rises. But if the values are vague or poorly communicated, teams may struggle with misalignment, disengagement and a lack of direction.

Commitment to Values in Practice

Are your company’s values just words on a wall or are they guiding daily decisions? 

It’s one thing to understand what your company stands for - it’s another to actually live those values. This metric goes beyond verbal agreement to assess whether employees actively apply company values in their day-to-day work. When values truly shape behavior, they drive consistency, ethical decision-making and a strong company culture. If there’s a disconnect between stated values and real actions, it’s a sign that either the values aren’t resonating or leadership isn’t reinforcing them effectively.

Feedback Culture

Is feedback in your company a growth tool or a source of anxiety? 

A strong feedback culture isn’t just about giving constructive criticism - it’s about how feedback is delivered, received and acted upon at all levels of communication. Whether it’s peer-to-peer, manager-to-employee or leadership receiving input from the team, a healthy feedback culture drives continuous improvement. When leaders are open to feedback and actively encourage it, they set the tone for a company that values growth, trust and transparency. On the other hand, if feedback is met with defensiveness or fear, it can stifle innovation, limit progress and create a culture of hesitation instead of learning.

Atmosphere in the Team

The overall atmosphere sets the tone for everything - collaboration, motivation and performance. A strong team spirit fosters trust, resilience, and shared success. Stepping back helps identify areas to nurture for long-term growth and cohesion.

Team Spirit

Does your team feel like a tight-knit crew or a group of strangers just working together? Team spirit is the glue that binds a team together. When people feel a sense of belonging, share common goals and actively support each other, collaboration and resilience thrive. High team spirit leads to increased productivity, better problem-solving and an overall positive work environment. On the flip side, if people feel disconnected, team performance suffers - disengagement, tension and lack of cooperation become the norm.

Team Morale

Is your team feeling energized and motivated, or are they just going through the motions?

Team morale reflects the overall emotional and mental state of your team. High morale means employees feel motivated, engaged and satisfied with their work, leading to stronger performance, fewer conflicts and a healthier work environment. But low morale is a warning sign - it could point to burnout, workload imbalance, poor management or unresolved conflicts. Leaders who actively monitor and boost morale can prevent deeper issues before they escalate.

Openness to Change

How does your team react when faced with change - do they adapt or resist?

The ability to embrace change is crucial for growth and innovation. A team that is open to new ideas, processes and challenges is more likely to experiment, improve and drive the company forward. Without this adaptability, progress slows, stagnation sets in and growth opportunities are missed. Encouraging a mindset that sees change as an opportunity rather than a threat helps teams stay resilient and forward-thinking.

Celebration of Achievements

Does your team take the time to recognize wins or is it always onto the next task?

Acknowledging achievements - both big and small - has a direct impact on motivation and team morale. When hard work is recognized, employees feel valued and inspired to keep pushing forward. A culture of celebration strengthens bonds, reinforces collaboration and encourages continuous improvement. Without this, teams risk feeling unappreciated, which can lead to disengagement and lower performance.

Work-Life Balance

Is your team maintaining a healthy balance, or is burnout just around the corner?

A sustainable workload is key to long-term productivity and employee well-being. If your team is constantly stretched thin and expected to work overtime, it’s not just their performance that will suffer - retention rates will drop and your company’s reputation could take a hit. A balanced approach ensures employees stay motivated, engaged and productive without sacrificing their mental health.

What’s Next?

Generally, recognizing the dynamics within your team is just the first step to understand what is team culture and why is it important. In future posts, we’ll take a deep dive. First, we will start with how to interpret the result of your team culture measurement. After that, we will explore real-world strategies to create a workplace where people don’t just show up but get fully engaged. I promise you - your strongest team is yet to come!