"A team is not a bunch of people with job titles, but a congregation of individuals, each of whom has a role which is understood by other members. Members of a team seek out certain roles and they perform most effectively in the ones that are most natural to them."
Dr. R. M. Belbin
The NINE TEAM ROLES
1.Plant. The role was so-called because one such individual was “planted” in each team. The tended to be highly creative and good at solving problems in unconventional ways.2. Monitor Evaluator was needed to provide a logical eye, make impartial judgments where required and to weigh up the team’s options in a dispassionate way.
3.Co-coordinators were needed to focus on the team’s objectives, draw out team members and delegate work appropriately.
4.Resource Investigators provided inside knowledge on the opposition and made sure that the team’s idea would carry to the world outside the team.
5.Implementers were needed to plan a practical, workable strategy and carry it out as efficiently as possible.
6.Completer Finishers were most effectively used at the end of a task, to “polish” and scrutinise the work for errors, subjecting it to the highest standards of quality control.
7.Team workers helped the team to gel, using their versatility to identify the work required and complete it on behalf of the team.
8.Shapers,Challenging individuals, provided the necessary drive to ensure that the team kept moving and did not lose focus or momentum.
9.Specialist emerged. In the real world, the value of an individual with in-depth knowledge of a key area came to be recognized as yet another essential team contribution.
Strengths and ALLOWABLE weaknessesAs well as the strength or contribution they provide, each Team Role also has an associated allowable weakness: a flipside of the behavioural characteristics, which is allowable in the team because of the strength which goes with it.
- Plants could be unorthodox or forgetful
- Resource Investigators might forget to follow up on a lead
- Monitor Evaluators could be overly critical and slow moving
- Co-ordinators might over delegate leaving themselves little work to do
- Implementers might be slow to relinquish their plans in favour of positive changes
- Completer Finishers could be accused of taking their perfectionism to the extremes
- Teamworkers might become indecisive when unpopular decisions need to be made
- Shapers could risk becoming aggressive and bad-humoured in their attempts to get things done
- Specialist may have a tendency to focus narrowly on their own subject of choice