Belbin Team Roles

Another lesson learnt from our Coniston trip was the importance of having a balanced mixture of roles within a team. Belbin (1981) defined team role as ‘a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way’. At the start of our trip we sat down as a group and completed the Belbin Report to see which team role we each were according to the 9 team roles identified by Belbin (1981). Each team role is associated with typical behavioural and interpersonal strengths. This was important as it improved our knowledge of ourselves and other members of my group. For example I came out as a ‘team worker’ which means I provide support and help the team bond, a strength of this team role is that shapers are cooperative and listen …show more content…
Group development is inevitable in order for the team to perform well, the group has to grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems and plan work, which will lead to results delivered. Tuckman and Jensen (1965) created a model of team development, this consisted of 4 stages which were: forming, storming, norming and performing. They suggested that groups go through these phases for team development and growth. These four stages were evident during our high ropes activity. At the start of the trip my group didn’t really know each other however we soon formed a bond to become a group rather than individuals, this is the forming stage. This stage has been described as the cautiously excited stage, in which group members explore the boundaries of acceptable group behaviour, all conflict is avoided. The next stage is storming, this stage involves group members showing some resistance to the task with fluctuations in attitude about the team's chances of success. This was evident during the high ropes course, in which one person had to complete the course whilst holding a jug of water in the quickest time possible without losing any water. During our first attempt we didn’t focus on helping the person with the jug of water causing arguments within our group, conflict arose and tension grew. Before our second attempt we came together as a group, reconciled our differences and …show more content…
To help understand the processes that occur in human behaviour to allow this to happen we used Luft and Ingham (1955) Johari Window Model. The Johari Window represents information in the form of feelings, experience, attitudes and skills that are within or about a person or can be in relation to their group. These are shown by four perspectives, otherwise known as regions. The first region is known as the open area, what is known by the person about him/herself and also known by others. At the start of our trip this area was small as we didn’t really know each other, however as the team members of our group becomes better established and known, the size of the open free area quadrant increased. The aim in any group should always be to develop the ‘open area’ as when working with others we are always most effective and productive when all members of the team know each other, this allows good communication to occur and be free from conflict or any misunderstanding. For example a high performing football team such as Liverpool would encourage the positive development of the open area as this will increase communication within the group and lead to better performance. The second region is the blind area and can be described as what is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know. The aim of a group should be to reduce this