This week for the first time since I began the course (which seems like an eternity ago now), we were asked to think about teams. What kind of people would you like to work with? What kind of person are you when stuck in a team situation? What would you like to be when stuck in a team situation?
Well, I do think there has to be a variety of people in the team. That goes without saying really, because if you were to have four people all wanting to lead the way then you'd have a team that are more than likely to go nowhere. There needs to be some kind of balance. I think that there does need to be a team leader of some semblance, but I'm not big on the idea of a team leader that doesn't chip in with any of the designing ideas. I think if you're going to lead your team especially in a design situation, you need to be as close to the project as possible. Even it just means helping out with ideas generation at the very beginning, you've been part of something then. If you're just telling people what to do and when to do it, then you don't necessarily need a designer in that role. It could be the manager of a toaster company and they'd be able to do just as good of a job as the designer. Maybe that's the reason for having the person you pick in that leadership role, because maybe they aren't as good at the creative stuff as everyone else.
To help out trying to figure out the whole team roles and what they mean, I've been having a little look around Belbin's website, and to be honest I find a lot of the trying to categorise what kind of person you are wholly unhelpful. I think to be an effective member of a team you should be able to do most jobs. It's going to be impossible to have a team of four multi-talented people in our situation, mainly because there's going to be so much to do when building a website. Sure, some people are going to be better than others at certain things - that goes without saying - but everyone should at least have the core skills there to be able to chip into everything if need be.
If were to have a four man team to build a website, I think first and foremost you need a team leader. Someone to rally up the troops so to speak, and someone to keep everyone's enthusiasm in the project high. So naturally the leader would have to be enthusiastic, and someone who is well respected. I think it would also be someone who would be able to lead by example, and have a good ability to visualise where the project is going. I suppose I'd like a leader a bit like a Shaper from those team roles of Belbins. Then of course you need a good designer. Someone who is really creative, and who is good at bouncing ideas around and communicating them. Ideally they'd be good at interpreting other people's ideas too, but that's going into an ideal world. The lead designer absolutely has to be a Plant in my eyes.
I think then I'd like a Coordinator as an admin person. Someone mature, definitely confident, and very good at doing all the little jovs that people usually forgets - reminding people about meetings, setting agendas, taking minutes, those kind of things. And then for the final person I'd love to just have someone who is multi-talented. It isn't any of Belbin's team roles, I just think that one more person who can do all the in-between jobs would be really helpful. Ideally I'd my team working a lot more fluidly anyway, with few specialised jobs and lots of little jobs split in between four people.
For me, the more jobs you can do and the more muli-talented you are, the more useful you are in a job situation.
Well, I do think there has to be a variety of people in the team. That goes without saying really, because if you were to have four people all wanting to lead the way then you'd have a team that are more than likely to go nowhere. There needs to be some kind of balance. I think that there does need to be a team leader of some semblance, but I'm not big on the idea of a team leader that doesn't chip in with any of the designing ideas. I think if you're going to lead your team especially in a design situation, you need to be as close to the project as possible. Even it just means helping out with ideas generation at the very beginning, you've been part of something then. If you're just telling people what to do and when to do it, then you don't necessarily need a designer in that role. It could be the manager of a toaster company and they'd be able to do just as good of a job as the designer. Maybe that's the reason for having the person you pick in that leadership role, because maybe they aren't as good at the creative stuff as everyone else.
To help out trying to figure out the whole team roles and what they mean, I've been having a little look around Belbin's website, and to be honest I find a lot of the trying to categorise what kind of person you are wholly unhelpful. I think to be an effective member of a team you should be able to do most jobs. It's going to be impossible to have a team of four multi-talented people in our situation, mainly because there's going to be so much to do when building a website. Sure, some people are going to be better than others at certain things - that goes without saying - but everyone should at least have the core skills there to be able to chip into everything if need be.
If were to have a four man team to build a website, I think first and foremost you need a team leader. Someone to rally up the troops so to speak, and someone to keep everyone's enthusiasm in the project high. So naturally the leader would have to be enthusiastic, and someone who is well respected. I think it would also be someone who would be able to lead by example, and have a good ability to visualise where the project is going. I suppose I'd like a leader a bit like a Shaper from those team roles of Belbins. Then of course you need a good designer. Someone who is really creative, and who is good at bouncing ideas around and communicating them. Ideally they'd be good at interpreting other people's ideas too, but that's going into an ideal world. The lead designer absolutely has to be a Plant in my eyes.
I think then I'd like a Coordinator as an admin person. Someone mature, definitely confident, and very good at doing all the little jovs that people usually forgets - reminding people about meetings, setting agendas, taking minutes, those kind of things. And then for the final person I'd love to just have someone who is multi-talented. It isn't any of Belbin's team roles, I just think that one more person who can do all the in-between jobs would be really helpful. Ideally I'd my team working a lot more fluidly anyway, with few specialised jobs and lots of little jobs split in between four people.
For me, the more jobs you can do and the more muli-talented you are, the more useful you are in a job situation.
4 comments:
When I first thought of a 'Plant' I imagined something completely different. I thought that they would be lower and a little less useful, but when you read Belbin they seem to be the harder workers so my team was a Co-ordinator and several Plants.
I personally would be a half plant..
If you were pushed to choose a certain role for yourself Craig, what do you think you'd choose? I never actually saw anywhere you mentioned that fact.
I think that the form is very generalised and nobody is going to fit perfectly in one of the groups. I felt that I could quite easily have fit into 3 or 4 of the roles stated on the website. Even though I decided that I would suit the role of “Completer Finisher” most effectively I certainly don't feel that all of the strengths and all of the weaknesses of that role apply to me. It does help as a rough guide though if you needed to try to identify which role you feel suits you most.
Craig:
I didn't really want to pigeon-hole myself at all, but I suppose if I really HAD to choose, I'd say I might be good at Co-Ordinator.
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