Improve Team Culture Workshop

Most teams don’t talk about culture until something goes wrong.

Someone quits unexpectedly. A project drags on with no clear reason. Meetings feel tense or too quiet. Trust dips, but no one knows exactly when it happened.

This workshop is designed to give teams a way to catch that earlier. To take team culture seriously while things are still working, not just when they start breaking down.

Here’s what I’ll walk you through: a simple, structured team workshop based on The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle.

It focuses on the three things that shape team culture the most.

Safety, vulnerability and shared purpose.

And helps your team explore all three in just two hours.

Why does that matter? Because those three ingredients aren’t “nice to have” values.

They’re the difference between a team that plays it safe and one that works well together.

The problem is that most teams try to improve culture through abstract values, vague goals, or one-off surveys.

None of that changes how people act with each other day to day.

Culture comes from behaviours, not posters.

And that’s what this workshop targets.

Here’s something I believe strongly:

You don’t need a full reset to change your team culture. You just need the right conversations.

This workshop gives your team space to have them.

After this workshop, participants will:

• Understand what makes people feel safe or guarded in a team setting.
• Experience how vulnerability builds trust (when done right).
• Reflect on what motivates them as a group, not just what they’re told should.
• Identify simple habits that support a stronger culture.
• Walk away with shared team commitments they believe in.

The full workshop outline is below, along with tips if you’d like to run it yourself.

You won’t fix culture in two hours. But you can shift the atmosphere. You can make space for better conversations.

And you can start building the kind of culture people want to be part of.

Let’s get into it…

Improve Team Culture: Safety, Vulnerability and Purpose in Action

Duration: 2 hours

Audience: Teams of any size (ideal for 6–20 participants)

Workshop Objectives

1. Experience how small behaviours shape culture
2. Reflect on how safety and vulnerability show up in their team
3. Strengthen trust through open dialogue
4. Align around shared purpose and values

Materials Needed

• Flipchart or whiteboard
• Sticky notes and markers
• Handouts with definitions of the 3 key ideas from the book
• Timer
• Post-it voting dots (optional)

Workshop Plan

Welcome and Set-Up (10 min)

• Introduce the purpose: build culture through awareness and shared experience.
• Share three key ideas from The Culture Code:
  • Build safety
  • Share vulnerability
  • Establish purpose
• Set ground rules: listen deeply, suspend judgement, speak from experience

Safety Check-In (15 min)

Activity: "Belonging Signals"

1. Ask everyone to silently reflect: When have you felt safest in this team? What created that feeling?
2. Go around in a circle: each person shares one moment or behaviour.
3. Flipchart common patterns (e.g. being heard, honesty, being backed up)

Facilitation Tip: Watch for tone—keep it warm, not clinical. Encourage short, real examples.

The Vulnerability Loop (30 min)

Activity: "What I Need Help With"

1. Introduce Coyle’s idea: trust grows when people share vulnerability, especially when others respond with support.
2. Each person writes down one thing they’re struggling with or unsure about at work.
3. In pairs:
   1. Partner A shares their challenge
   2. Partner B asks: What would help most right now?
   3. Then switch
4. Regroup and reflect:
   1. How did it feel to ask for help?
   2. What made it easier or harder?

Stories of Purpose (30 min)

Activity: "Best Team Moment"

1. Everyone writes down a time when they felt proud to be part of the team.
2. In small groups, share stories.
3. Discuss:
   1. What values show up across these stories?
   2. What do they say about what matters to us as a team?
4. Capture keywords on sticky notes.
5. Group together on wall or board to find patterns.

Culture Commitments (20 min)

Activity: "One Thing We’ll Do"

1. Ask: Based on today, what’s one small habit we want to commit to as a team?
2. Brainstorm in small groups
3. Share suggestions
4. Vote or agree on 1–2 shared commitments
5. Optional: write them on a visible card or poster to keep

Close and Reflect (10 min)

• Final round: each person shares one word or sentence about what they’re taking away
• Encourage appreciation or shout-outs for anything that felt meaningful

Facilitation Tips

• Keep energy balanced: make space for reflection but keep the pace moving.
• Model vulnerability yourself. Especially early on.
• Acknowledge emotions that surface without fixing them.
• Keep it focused on behaviours, not personalities.
• Create visual takeaways to reinforce change.

Conclusion

You don’t need to overhaul your whole organisation to improve team culture.

You just need to start with how people treat each other in the day-to-day.

This workshop isn’t a magic fix.

But it gives your team a real chance to pause, reflect and reconnect.

To notice the things that are working. To name what’s getting in the way. And to take a few small steps that actually stick.

Because culture isn’t a plan, it’s a pattern.

It’s what we do when we show up.

And when you give a team the space to practise safety, vulnerability and shared purpose, you set that pattern in motion.

It doesn’t need to be flashy. It just needs to be real.

If that’s something your team needs right now, this is a good place to start.

See you next week.