What people characteristics need to be present for a team to function effectively? Meredith Belbin (1981) has been researching this question for a number of years. The purpose of his research was to see whether high and low performing teams had certain characteristics. He looked at team members and found that in the higher performing teams, members played a role or number of roles. Any teams without members playing one of these roles would be more likely to perform at a lower level of effectiveness. Of course different situations require certain different emphasis.
He identified the following roles.
The Chairman: coordinates the working of the team towards its objectives, using his or her communication and people skills. Quite people focused.
The Shaper: focuses on task achievement. Attempts to bring shape and structure to the team’s direction, using enthusiastic and proactive attitude.
The Plant: generates ideas for the team using imagination and intelligence, working at a high level rather than with the detail.
The Monitor-Evaluator: has the ability to see how things are going. Takes in information, collates, interprets and evaluates data and progress.
The Company Worker: is quite the pragmatist. Able to translate ideas into tangible actions. Aims for stability and agreed courses of action.
The Resource Investigator: has the ability to go out and ensure the necessary resources are obtained through his or her networking and interpersonal skills and positive attitude.
The Team Worker: focuses on the team’s well being by being able to read the signals of the team dynamic and arbitrate, mediate and facilitate the team through difficult emotional terrain.
The Completer-Finisher: keeps working to meet deadlines. Very detail conscious and disciplined in his or her approach to task completion.
STOP AND THINK!
What team role(s) are you likely to use?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of the eight roles?
Belbin concluded that if teams were formed with individuals’ preferences and working styles in mind, they would have a better chance of team cohesion and work-related goal achievement. Teams need to contain a good spread of Belbin team types.
Different teams might need different combinations of roles. Marketing and design teams probably need more plants, while project implementation teams need Company Workers and Completer Finishers. Likewise, the lack of a particular team type can be an issue. A management team without a Chairman or Shaper would have problems. An implementation team without a Complete Finisher might also struggle.