ABOUT SMART TEAMS
Smart Teams exists for one purpose: to build sustainable Belbin capability in the people who deliver it.
We are the capability-building division of Smartt Strategies and the world’s first Belbin Preferred Partner. Our work is not focused on running workshops or delivering sessions to intact teams. It is focused on developing trainers, consultants, and internal practitioners who must apply Belbin with confidence, rigor, and professional judgment.
Smart Teams was created to answer a clear market need: accreditation alone is not enough to ensure high-quality Belbin practice. Capability must be developed, observed, coached, and sustained.
Expertise Leadership
Experience That Shapes Professional judgment
Smart Teams is led by senior Belbin practitioners whose expertise has been developed through decades of applied work across industries, sectors, and organizational systems.
Our leadership team brings:
Long-term application of Belbin in complex environments.
Experience developing and mentoring trainers and consultants.
Global project, leadership, and organizational consulting backgrounds.
Deep partnership with Belbin as an organization.
This experience informs every Smart Teams capability pathway — from accreditation through advanced application and mastery.
OUR TEAM STRUCTURE
Core Leadership and Associate Expertise
Smart Teams operates with a deliberately structured team model designed to balance consistency, depth, and specialist expertise.
Core Leadership
DeeDee Smartt Lynch and Mike Lynch provide strategic leadership, governance, and capability oversight for Smart Teams. Together, they shape methodology, credentialing standards, and professional rigor across all Smart Teams offerings.
Associate Experts
Smart Teams is supported by a select group of associate experts who contribute specialist capability, research-informed practice, and applied experience to trainer development.
Cody M. Clemens, Ph.D., serves as a senior associate consultant, supporting Belbin capability-building through his expertise in leadership communication, experiential learning design, and evidence-based practice.
This structure allows Smart Teams to maintain high standards while flexing expertise to meet the needs of different trainers, sectors, and development contexts.
Belbin insight is widely available. Belbin expertise is not.
DeeDee Smartt Lynch
President, Smart Teams | Belbin® Preferred Partner
DeeDee Smartt Lynch leads Smart Teams with nearly two decades of deep, applied Belbin® experience. One of the leading Belbin Team Roles experts in the United States, DeeDee’s work focuses on developing sustainable capability in trainers, consultants, and internal practitioners — ensuring Belbin is delivered with integrity, confidence, and consistency.
A recognized innovator in Belbin application, DeeDee has developed numerous tools, exercises, facilitation scripts, and learning resources to support high-quality Belbin delivery. She co-designed the Belbin Hold ’Em Team Role card deck and co-authored the Belbin chapter in The Handbook of Communication Training: A Framework for Assessing and Developing Competence (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2019).
Her experience spans extensive work with the Department of Defense and NAVAIR, as well as private-sector, nonprofit, and government organizations. A Texas native and graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, DeeDee brings a diverse professional background in economic development, event management, and state government—experience that informs her practical, system-focused approach to developing sustainable team effectiveness and expanding professional-grade Belbin capability across the U.S. — moving practitioners beyond accreditation into mastery.
Mike Lynch
Chief Operations Officer & Chief Shaper
Mike Lynch brings more than four decades of applied Belbin® experience, grounded in leadership of complex, high-stakes projects across Europe and the United States. His career in the nuclear industry — including executive responsibility for multi-billion-dollar programs — informs Smart Teams’ emphasis on operational discipline, evidence-based practice, and scalable application.
First introduced to Belbin early in his project management career, Mike has applied balanced team roles as a practical system for sustained team performance throughout his professional life. Within Smart Teams, he shapes capability standards and supports trainers and consultants as they learn to apply Belbin with rigor, judgment, and credibility.
Mike is co-author of the Belbin chapter in The Handbook of Communication Training and author of Smartt Strategies’ Project Manager’s Guidebook.
Cody M. Clemens
Ph.D. / Senior Consultant & Resource Investigator/Specialist
Dr. Cody M. Clemens strives to help organizations understand how they can better promote and encourage well-being in the workplace, as well as strengthen team culture and development.
In November 2014, Cody became a certified Belbin trainer with hope of helping teams achieve success. He also co-authored the “Belbin Chapter” for The Handbook of Communication Training: A Framework for Assessing and Developing Competence (2019, published by Routledge/Taylor and Francis).
Dr. Clemens is a faculty member at Ohio University (Athens, OH) in the College of Business where he teaches courses on business communication, leadership, and training and development. Most recently, Cody worked for Marietta College (Marietta, OH) as a McCoy Assistant Professor of Health Communication. While at Marietta, he was awarded the John G. and Jeanne B. McCoy Endowed Professorship of Teaching Excellence (2024) and the Edward G. Harness Outstanding Educator Award (2023). Prior to his career in higher education, Cody worked for Target Corp., where he was an Executive Team Leader of Logistics in Pittsburgh. He assisted in managing a team composed of 158 employees in a store that produced $42 million in annual revenue, and he was responsible for overseeing the entire logistics process.
Cody earned his Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Communication/Public Relations from Marietta College, his Master of Arts in Corporate Communication from Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), his Master of Business Administration from Youngstown State University (Youngstown, OH), and he earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Media and Communication from Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH). Dr. Clemens also holds a Certificate in Leadership Studies from Marietta College and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from Bowling Green State University.