Design the team you need to succeed using Belbin's team roles
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|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. | |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. |
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|'''Co-ordinator (CO)''' | |'''Co-ordinator (CO)''' | ||
Revision as of 14:52, 15 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. [5] 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 traits:
|
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 plants in the initial phases or if a project is at a standstill.
Too many PLs in an organization may be counter-productive as they tend to spend their time reinforcing their own ideas and engaging each other in combat. |
| 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 traits:
|
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. |
| Co-ordinator (CO)
|
Noget | Noget 2 | Noget 3 |
| Shaper (SH)
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| Monitor Evaluator (ME)
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| Team Worker (TW)
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| Implementor (IMP)
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| Completer Finisher (CF)
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| Specialist (SP)
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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
- ↑ 2014 Belbin. A Comprehensive Review of Belbin Team Roles
