Friday, February 09, 2007

Team work, where do I fit?

This week’s blog entry is a little bit different from usual, I am going to analyse where I feel my position would be if I were to be put into a team working situation.

I feel that several of my personality traits would fit into the criteria for a selection of the different team-roles stated on the Belbin website (
www.belbin.com). One of the positions that I thought I may have fitted into was the “Teamworker” role. I felt this because I think that I am a quite mild person and like to avert friction wherever possible. However one weakness of a “Teamworker” is that they are indecisive in crunch situations, I feel that in the past this may have applied to me a little bit but the recent timed tasks that we have been doing have made me become much more focused. I am now beginning to decide on my design choices much quicker and easier without mulling things over.

Another section which I felt I may fit into was that of an “Implementer”. This is because the traits of an “Implementer” are that they are disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. I feel that I have improved on all of these areas since I started on the course due to the fact that amongst other things we have to plan and complete 16 hours of self study each week. This has forced me to be much more disciplined and reliable so I believe that this certainly applies to me. Again however I did not feel that the weaknesses of an “Implementer” applied to me, one weakness was that they are slow to respond to new possibilities. I don’t feel that this applies to me because I tend to relish and look forward to new possibilities whenever they arise.

The section that I felt most suited me was that of a “Completer Finisher”. I feel that almost all of the traits of a “Completer Finisher” apply accurately to me. Two things that I consider myself to be quite strong at are the ability to deliver on time and to be quite conscientious. These are two criteria which fit into the “Completer Finisher” role along with being painstaking, anxious and someone who searches out errors and omissions which I also feel applies to me, I am aware however that I need to improve on the latter if I am going to cut out on silly little mistakes. I also feel that one of the potential weaknesses applies to me which is that I am inclined to worry unduly. This is something which has been one of my traits for as long as I can remember and although I do get myself in a bit of a panic over the littlest of things it can also be of benefit sometimes. Because I do tend to worry I occasionally feel that I over prepare for things and do too much but I would much rather be like that than under prepare and not do enough!

My previous experience of working as part of a team was when I worked as a Claims Handler last year. This was because we all used to work in little teams. This was very different to what I expect team working will be like in this industry though as everybody all had the same job and just got on with their own work.

One recent little group task that I have done was to plan and perform a short presentation about a recent trip to The Design Mechanics in Huddersfield. I did this with Drew, Craig A and Craig B and overall I thought that this turned out to be quite a success. I felt that this was because we all fit into different sections of the “Team-Role Descriptions” and each have something different to offer. Even though it was only a short task I feel that Craig A took the role of a “Resource Investigator”, Craig B took the role of a “Co-ordinator”, Drew took the role of a “Implementer” and I took the role of a “Completer Finisher”. I think if we were to work in this group again we would be able to do a good job. I also feel that I would be quite happy to work with anyone within the group because everybody seems to get on well and should be able to work well together.

2 comments:

DREW said...

I had a look at that site to see what you were saying about me.

Disaplined, reliable, conservative and efficient... thanks, but are you thinking of somebody else.

Though I must say I think I did turn ideas into practical actions with my email frenzie!

Craig Burgess said...

Haha, we're obviously not going to fit each criteria perfectly.

If we did, that would be quite scary.

Apparently I offload personal work...