BELBIN’S TEAM BUILDING TOOL
Business DNA periodically presents management tools to help CEOs, managers, and leaders in Afghanistan improve their organizations. Management gurus break organizations into three key Ps: people, product, process. It’s essential to strike a thoughtful balance among the 3Ps in order to build an effective organization. The first P, people, is the most challenging one that affects the rest. Companies spend tremendous time, resources, and energy to build effective teams. The list of challenges in building and maintaining a functioning team includes difficulty in identifying qualified talent, long, and most often, ineffective recruitment processes, high staff turnover, and unsatisfactory team performance, just to name a few.
A world-famous team-building tool is developed by Meredith Belbin, a British scholar and management consultant. He says, “members of a team seek out certain roles and they perform most effectively in the ones that are most natural to them.” He recommends organizations to take into account individuals’ natural talents before putting teams together. He identifies nine specific roles that make a team successful. See the table for the identified roles, their talents, weaknesses, and a short set of steps needed to make the model work.
Organizations should ensure to have these distinct roles in place at a balance. More of one and less of the other will challenge the balance that’s needed to help a team perform and deliver results.
Source: The Business Book, Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2014.
