Design the team you need to succeed using Belbin's team roles
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|Resource Investigators are good at exploring and reporting back on ideas, developments, or resources outside their immediate group. They are the natural people to set up external contacts and to carry out any subsequent negotiations. | |Resource Investigators are good at exploring and reporting back on ideas, developments, or resources outside their immediate group. They are the natural people to set up external contacts and to carry out any subsequent negotiations. | ||
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[[File:teamworker.png|100px|]] | [[File:teamworker.png|100px|]] | ||
|Teamworkers possess a mild and sociable disposition and are generally supportive and concerned about others. They have a great capacity for flexibility and adapting to different situations and people. TWs are perceptive, diplomatic, and caring and tend to be good listeners. Because of these qualities, it is hardly surprising that they are popular with their colleagues. | |Teamworkers possess a mild and sociable disposition and are generally supportive and concerned about others. They have a great capacity for flexibility and adapting to different situations and people. TWs are perceptive, diplomatic, and caring and tend to be good listeners. Because of these qualities, it is hardly surprising that they are popular with their colleagues. |
Revision as of 11:50, 16 February 2021
As complex as projects can be, the people that need to solve them can be equally or even more complex and that is why there in recent years has been an increasing interest in how highly efficient teams can be designed. This task falls upon the project manager, who oversees the design and leads the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives. [1] The beginning of a project is one of the project managers’ most important times, as the foundation of the project is laid by designing the team that he/she needs for the project to succeed. [2] A tool that can help the project manager with this task is Belbin’s team roles, which can identify personal traits and help to create balanced teams based on behavioral contributions rather than job titles. [3] The Belbin team roles were developed by Dr. Meredith Belbin with collaboration from Henley Management College in England. It contains 9 different team roles, that each has its core competencies and limitations. These can overlap but are equally important to create synergy and efficiency in a team. The model is used by over 40 percent of the top 100 companies in the UK, the United Nations, the World Bank and thousands of organizations throughout the world to enhance individual and team performance. [4]
This article will describe the when, why, and how you should design your team using the 9 Belbin team roles, the gains, limitations of the method and give a few examples of team synergies.
Contents |
Background
The Belbin team role concept was first described in the book Management Teams - Why they succeed or fail written by Dr. Meredith Belbin in 1981. A Team Role was defined as: “A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way”.[4]
A human’s personality steers him or her towards particular team roles, where psychometric tests can be a good tool to get an idea of the direction. However, personality traits are not the only factor and the others can have a bigger impact. One of these is the intellect which can be measured, and people with a higher IQ are more inclined to change their behavior if they sense a need compared to people with a lower IQ.[4] Other factors are experience and role adaptation which also can have a favorable impact on the behavior so that it becomes possible to survive even the most complex social environment. [6] Behavior in its widest sense is according to the Belbin study the most important ingredients in collaborative work. The Belbin team analysis is made to map observed behavior in a given context and translate it to a personal team role profile, which highlights the person’s impact on the team.
The 9 Team Roles
Each team role has its strengths and allowable weakness. The strengths are a description of the positive properties that contribute to the teamwork, where the allowable weakness covers smaller less appropriate behavior which can come to show when the person works under stress.[3]
Team Roles | Characteristics | Allowable weakness | Function |
---|---|---|---|
Resource Investigator (RI) | Resource Investigators are usually enthusiastic extroverts and can naturally communicate and negotiate with people. They are adept at exploring new opportunities and develop contacts. RIs are not a great source of original ideas but are effective when it comes to picking up others’ ideas and promote them. They have the ability to think on their feet and probe others for information.
Verbale characteristics:
|
RIs are generally relaxed people with a strong inquisitive sense and a readiness to see the possibilities in anything new. However, unless they remain stimulated by others, their enthusiasm can rapidly fade. | Resource Investigators are good at exploring and reporting back on ideas, developments, or resources outside their immediate group. They are the natural people to set up external contacts and to carry out any subsequent negotiations. |
Teamworker (TW) | Teamworkers possess a mild and sociable disposition and are generally supportive and concerned about others. They have a great capacity for flexibility and adapting to different situations and people. TWs are perceptive, diplomatic, and caring and tend to be good listeners. Because of these qualities, it is hardly surprising that they are popular with their colleagues.
Verbale characteristics:
|
Their concern about creating harmony and avoiding conflict can make them indecisive when faced with having to make difficult solo decisions. | The Teamworker may be legitimately compared to the lubricating oil in a car engine. They are not always appreciated how important it is until they are not there. Because of their ability to be able to resolve interpersonal problems, TW’s come into their own when situations are tense, and people feel uncared for and not appreciated. |
Co-ordinator (CO) | The distinguishing feature of Co-ordinators is their propensity for helping others to work towards shared goals. Mature, trusting, and confident, they delegate readily. In interpersonal relations, they are quick to spot individual talents and to use them in pursuit of group objectives.
Verbale characteristics:
|
The natural goal focus of CO’s can sometimes lead to them manipulating others to achieve their personal objectives. In some situations, they are inclined to clash with Shapers due to their contrasting management styles. | Co-ordinators are well placed when put in charge of a team of people with diverse skills and personal characteristics. They perform better in dealing with colleagues of near or equal rank than in directing junior subordinates. Their motto might well be "consultation with control" and they usually believe in tackling problems calmly. |
Plant (PL) | Plants are creative and innovative, which makes them a source for original ideas and proposals. They prefer to work by themself aside from the rest of the teams as they use their imagination and often work unorthodox. The plant tends to be introverted and react strongly to criticism or praise.
Verbale characteristics:
|
Their ideas are often radical and may lack practical constraints.
They do not always manage to communicate with other people who are on another wavelength. |
The team will usually need to use Plants in the initial phases or if a project is at a standstill.
Too many PLs in an organization may be counterproductive as they tend to spend their time reinforcing their own ideas and engaging each other in combat. |
Monitor Evaluator (ME) | Monitor Evaluators are serious-minded, prudent individuals with a built-in immunity for being over-enthusiastic. They are likely to be slow in making decisions preferring to carefully think things over. Usually, they have high critical thinking ability. They have a good capacity for shrewd judgements that take all factors into account. A good ME is unlikely to make intuitive and reckless mistakes.
Verbale characteristics:
|
They deal in facts and logic rather than emotion when considering options. MEs are often regarded as over-critical and can be seen to be slow and boring. | Monitor Evaluators are best suited to analyzing problems and evaluating ideas and suggestions. They are very good at weighing up the pros and cons of options. In a managerial position, their ability to make high-quality decisions consistently is likely to make them highly regarded. |
Specialist (SP) | Their main distinguishing feature is their love of learning. They see learning and the accumulation of knowledge as the main reason for their existence and their single-minded and resolute pursuit of this end is their main motivation. The SP is likely to be recognized by colleagues as an expert to turn to for help and guidance.
Verbale characteristics:
|
The SP will usually try to avoid being involved in unstructured meetings and discussions or those of a social nature. They may also be somewhat unyielding when challenged about the validity of their knowledge or field of expertise. | While Specialists may not be regarded as natural team players, teams will be wise to engage the SP as a means of providing in-depth research. As managers, they command respect because of their in-depth knowledge, and they can be used to mentor others to raise their technical expertise. |
Shaper (SH) | Shapers are highly goal and oriented people with great drive and energy. They push themselves and others and tend to overcome obstacles by sheer determination. They tend to be highly assertive and have very directive management styles. Shapers also tend to be competitive and like to win.
Verbale characteristics:
|
SHs are not noted for their interpersonal sensitivities and can be argumentative and even aggressive. | Shapers are generally perceived as ideal managers because they generate action and thrive under pressure. They come into their own when quick and decisive action is called for to overcome threats and difficulties or when progress towards goals and objectives is unacceptably slow. |
Implementor (IMP) | Implementers are characterized by their practical approach and possess higher than normal levels of self-control and discipline. They are prepared to work hard to ensure things are done as prescribed systematically. They are likely to be regarded as someone who will not seek personal agendas and self-interest.
Verbale characteristics:
|
They are likely to be regarded as someone who will not seek personal agendas and self-interest. On the downside, IMPs may be inflexible in accepting new ways of doing things, particularly if they are radical or impracticable. | Implementers are valuable in an organization because of their reliability and capacity for application. They succeed because they are efficient and because they have a sense of what is feasible and relevant. While many people might stray from favoring the tasks they like to do and neglect things they find not to be to their liking an IMP is more likely to do what needs to be done systematically and relentlessly. |
Completer Finisher (CF) | Completer Finishers have a great capacity for attention to detail. They constantly strive for perfection and correct errors. CFs are quite introvert and require less external stimulus than most people. The CF can be trusted to do work to the highest standard and to complete it on time.
Verbale characteristics:
|
The combination of striving for perfection and meeting deadlines often creates anxiety though and CFs are likely to be reluctant to trust others to do work to their own high standards. | The Completer Finisher is invaluable where tasks demand close concentration and a high degree of accuracy. The standards they set make them well suited to situations where precision and high standards are essential. CFs will also demand the same high standards from people around them and therefore create their micro-culture where the only standard acceptable is perfection. |
Important phases for success in the team
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Team Synergies
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Limitations of the Belbin analysis
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Applications
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References
- ↑ 2017 Project Management Institute, Inc. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge.
- ↑ 2016 J. R. Olsson, N. Ahrengot, M. L. Attrup. Power i Projekter og Porteføljer
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 2018 Belbin Associates. http://www.belbin.com/
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 2015 Belbin Associates. Belbin for Students
- ↑ 2016 Belbin Associates
- ↑ 2014 Belbin. A Comprehensive Review of Belbin Team Roles