As we continue our series on roles, it’s time that we take a deeper look into how roles function specifically within the workplace. A lot of time and money has been spent over the years trying to determine what makes a team great. Over my years of research and experience I’ve come across several theories and methods, but there’s one that stands above the rest (as far as I’m concerned) when it comes to identifying team roles – Team Roles Theory.
Team RolesTheory was developed by a British management expert and Cambridge scholar by the name of Meredith Belbin. His work (along with that of Deming, and a few others) serves as the base for much of what we know about the functionality and practicality of team work environments. Here at Tate’s Day Camp we have even created and crafted an independent team role model that works well for our environment. Team functionality is important to us around here – it’s what truly frees us up to work the Tate’s Camp magic.
What’s important to note is that these roles (all nine of them) are present in each and every workplace team. If the team is fewer than nine people, individuals will play multiple roles; if the team is larger than nine people, you will have more than one person in a role. Neither of these things is inherently good or bad. Much of what is depends upon the people in the team. For example, it is likely that you will encounter a problem when you have an innovator, who is great with big picture thinking, in the primary role of a finisher, whose job it is to sift through the fine details. Most likely this person will either perform poorly in their job, or will experience often and recurring burnout because the energy required to function in this position is much greater for them than for someone who fits the position “naturally.” On the other hand, you may have people suited perfectly to their positions and still have problems because the members of your team don’t communicate well with each other; or perhaps there’s a lot of stress because of a big deadline coming up; or the person causing issues is simply a jerk; etc. You can see how complicated workplace team dynamics can truly be! So without further ado…
Now that you’ve seen the chart, take a few minutes to think it through. You can see how each role has its own strengths and weaknesses…which of them sound most like you? Which of these roles do you currently hold in your work environment? Of the stress that you experience at work, how much of it do you believe is tied to the fact that you are functioning in roles that do not come naturally to you? All in all, a team roles inventory is a great way to see which roles naturally fit your skillset.
Lastly, team roles are particularly interesting in the world of psychometrics. The inventories for this assessment focus strictly on workplace behavior, and seek to explain the role in which people best function. Though this type of assessment doesn’t measure workplace satisfaction, it goes a long way to helping it come about. Purpose and skillset are closely tied together – people who are happy in their job are so for many complicated reasons; a large part of which is that they feel that they make a difference for those they work with by using their specific skillset to help accomplish the mission.