Teamwork

Last post for this term and I want to talk about something we covered in school for once.

Over all I would say that teamwork has come in to play this term more than the first one, which is a good thing because I’ve noticed we have a lot of room for improvement in that part of the professional skills. We worked with the Belbin system where you learn what defined role you serve in a team based on your personality, characteristics and talents. It was interesting to see our year divided by our personalities and how accurate it was in some cases but there is one small remark I would like to make when it comes to the Belbin system, or any system for that matter.

Even though it can be very useful to understand your own strengths and what shortcomings you have so you can learn the value of a strong and diverse team it is easy to start adopting the role and start acting it out so to say. I observed people who supposedly had strong leadership  skills try to enforce their opinion simply because they felt entitled to call the shots. I saw people lean back and leave certain tasks to others because according to Belbin that’s the way they behave…
What I’m trying to say is that to me it seems logical that as a professional you should be able to take on any of the label’s Belbin created. Be versatile, show the ability to adapt to situations instead of staying in your comfort zone.

The best way to develop yourself with the Belbin system is to fully understand the philosophy behind it and apply this to other situations you might encounter in your professional life. Don’t limit yourself because according to a test you have certain limitations, work on those to improve them. This goes for all systems really, whether it’s the exercises we do during Creativity and Lateral Thinking or any other professional skills development classes.