Team Dynamics and Business Growth

Management theory boffin Dr. Meredith Belbin has identified the key roles which different personality types assume in the workplace that dictate team dynamics.

Dr. Belbin's team-dynamic research studies have revealed patterns of behaviour that help characterise a person's effect on another team member.

The value of Belbin team-role theory lies in enabling an individual or team to benefit from self-knowledge and adjustment according to the demands being made on them.

For over nine years, Dr Belbin and his team of researchers in team dynamics, based at Henley Management College, England, studied the behaviour of managers from all over the world.

Managers taking part in this team dynamics study were given a series of psychometric tests and put into teams of varying composition, while they were engaged in a complex management exercise.
Their different core personality traits, intellectual styles and behaviours were assessed during the exercise by the researchers, who closely monitored the various team dynamics.

As time progressed different clusters of behaviour and team dynamics were identified as underlying the success of the teams.
These successful clusters of behaviour were then given the following names: Co-ordinator, plant, monitor-evaluator, implementer, completer-finisher, resource investigator, shaper,

According to Dr Meredith Belbin a team role can be boiled down as being is: "A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way

Leap Plc, a market leader in providing motivational coaching, corporate events and workshops which aim to help workforces grow and develop, places special emphasis on the Belbin school of thought when it comes to issues of team dynamics.

LEAP is now also registered as a provider for the Government's Train to Gain scheme and also boasts a healthy portfolio of clients including DIOR, Estee Lauder, The European Central Bank, Sun Microsystems, O2, Vodafone, Deutsche Bank, HBOS, some of the GBR Olympic sailing squad, professional footballers and golfers.

The emergence of these systems of interpreting human behaviour in pursuit of good team dynamics is a clear indicator that business theory is more scientific than at any time in the past.

Find out how Leap could improve Team Dynamics within your organisation!