Anyone who manages a team needs to learn these theories

Can’t get your team on song? These teamwork theories may help you understand why

It is hard to think of a workplace in which teamwork doesn’t form at least a part of the dynamic among employees. Even activities that appear solitary, such as academic research or writing, usually require cooperation with other people at some time or another.

The trouble is that teamwork isn’t always straightforward. Without clear expectations, complementary skills and effective communication, it can sometimes be a recipe for disaster.

Everyone knows the old clichés about working in teams: there’s always someone who doesn’t pull their weight. Then there’s the overbearing wannabe leader who always has to be in charge. And then you have the quieter team members whose ideas may be overlooked because they are less inclined to speak out.

Rather than simply viewing these differences as problems, however, managers can use them to better understand how individuals contribute to a team.

If team members understand each other’s strengths, preferences and ways of working, it can become easier to allocate responsibilities, manage differences and develop more effective working relationships. The important point is not to label people too rigidly: individuals can take on different roles depending on the task, the circumstances and the needs of the team.

Belbin’s Team Roles at Work

One useful framework for understanding teamwork is Dr Meredith Belbin’s “Team Roles At Work” model. It focuses on the different ways people tend to contribute when working as part of a team.

The framework describes nine team roles, including generating ideas, finding opportunities, coordinating people, challenging decisions, evaluating options, supporting colleagues, putting plans into practice and ensuring work is completed effectively.

The value of the model is that it can give managers and team members a simple way to discuss strengths, preferences and contributions within a team. It can also highlight areas where a team may be missing an important type of contribution.

By studying your team at an individual and collective level, it’s possible to identify the mix of “roles” at play. That’s a helpful starting point to encourage collaboration, and also enables managers to identify the specific contribution each team member is likely to make.

Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development

Of course, understanding the makeup of your team is one thing, but getting it to function effectively is quite another. It’s so often the case that frustration creeps in when a team doesn’t seem to be on song. But, actually, it’s all a part of the natural order of things, as another team-working theory explains.

This theory is associated with Bruce Tuckman, an American psychologist who published his “Stages of Group Development“ in 1965. Tuckman proposed that groups commonly move through a number of stages as relationships and ways of working develop.

The original model identified four stages:

Forming

This is the initial stage, during which team members tend to be fairly gentle with each other. Everyone is getting to know everyone else, working out their place in the group. It’s not a hugely productive period, but it lays the foundations for subsequent stages.

Storming

At this stage, the gloves are off. People’s idiosyncrasies are starting to grate, and the differences between team members lead to conflict and disagreement. Belbin’s typology can help now, by giving every member of the group a deeper insight into the others’ personalities and preferences. The advice at this stage is to hang in there. Things will get better.

Norming

By enhancing mutual understanding in the team, you facilitate a process of shared becoming, during which group members learn to work with the grain of each other’s personalities, establish friendships and build trust.

Performing

With the team dynamic shifted from positive to negative, the group enters its final phase: delivering on its promise. A team that is performing is a joy to behold: productive, creative and highly efficient.

By using Belbin and Tuckman, teams and their leaders can find ways of dealing with conflict. These theories, which are grounded in observation of the realities of team working, also help teams to persevere through hard times. They’re invaluable in helping groups deliver, whatever the context.

As ever, greater understanding yields positive outcomes for everyone. It shows the value of theory in driving business success.

By Ernest Richardson

If you enjoyed this article, you may like:
How to create the perfect team-building exercise
Five ways to make your people more creative

If team members understand each other’s strengths, preferences and ways of working, it can become easier to allocate responsibilities, manage differences and develop more effective working relationships.

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