PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit

Balancing your
Project Core Team
Roles Workshop
Project Management (EUTOPIA) 2021

Project Management: Roles Workshop

 Agenda
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit

● Why some teams are successful and others fail?

● Belbin’s profiles
● Test yourself
● Is your group well-balanced?
● Look for complimentary profiles to improve your team

Project Management: Roles Workshop

 Why some teams are successful and others fail?
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit

M. Belbin
1. We can predict the roles to be played
by each member of a team
2. It is not a matter of intellect
3. It is a matter of behaviour and
diversity in individual behaviours
4. To manage diversity in a team is part of
the success
5. Nine patterns of conduct have been
identified
6. The combination of roles in a team
maximizes its impact

Project Management: Roles Workshop

 Nine profiles (I)
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit
Resource
investigator
Uses their inquisitive
nature to find ideas to bring
back to the team.
Outgoing, enthusiastic.
Explores opportunities and
develops contacts.
Might be over-optimistic,
and can lose interest once
the initial enthusiasm has
passed.
Project Management: Roles Workshop
Team worker Co-ordinator
Helps the team to gel, using Needed to focus on the
their versatility to identify the team's objectives, draw out
team members and
work required and complete it delegate work
on behalf of the team. appropriately.
Co-operative, perceptive and Mature, confident,
diplomatic. Listens and averts identifies talent. Clarifies
friction. goals.
Can be seen as
Can be indecisive in crunch manipulative and might
situations and tends to avoid offload their own share of
confrontation. the work.
 Nine profiles (II)
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit
Plant
Tends to be highly creative
and good at solving
problems in unconventional
ways.
Creative, imaginative,
free-thinking, generates
ideas and solves difficult
problems.
Might ignore incidentals,
and may be too preoccupied
to communicate effectively.
Project Management: Roles Workshop
Monitor evaluator
Provides a logical eye, making
impartial judgements where
required and weighs up the
team's options in a
dispassionate way.
Sober, strategic and
discerning. Sees all options
and judges accurately.
Sometimes lacks the drive and
ability to inspire others and
can be overly critical.
Specialist
Brings in-depth knowledge
of a key area to the team.
Single-minded,
self-starting and dedicated.
They provide specialist
knowledge and skills.
Tends to contribute on a
narrow front and can dwell
on the technicalities.
 Nine profiles (III)
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit
Shaper
Provides the necessary
drive to ensure that the
team keeps moving and
does not lose focus or
momentum.
Challenging, dynamic,
thrives on pressure. Has
the drive and courage to
overcome obstacles.
Can be prone to
provocation, and may
sometimes offend people's
feelings.
Project Management: Roles Workshop
Implementer
Needed to plan a workable
strategy and carry it out as
efficiently as possible.
Practical, reliable, efficient.
Turns ideas into actions and
organises work that needs to
be done.
Can be a bit inflexible and
slow to respond to new
possibilities.
Completer finisher
Most effectively used at the
end of tasks to polish and
scrutinise the work for
errors, subjecting it to the
highest standards of
quality control.
Painstaking, conscientious,
anxious. Searches out
errors. Polishes and
perfects.
Can be inclined to worry
unduly, and reluctant to
delegate.
 Self-declaring your profile
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit

Declare the roles that better match on your

behaviour when working in teams Role Select
Resource investigator
Choose a maximum of three roles
Team worker
Co-ordinador
Plant
Monitor evaluator
Specialist
Shaper
Implementer
Completer/Finisher

Project Management: Roles Workshop

 15-20 min to test yourself
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit

Open this spreadsheet template and make a copy with your name.
Then, follow the instructions:

Project Management: Roles Workshop

 Balancing your team
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit

Overload of some roles aim to create conflicts in your team:

Too many Plants in a team can also be problematic because each of them will be more
concerned with their own ideas than working together to get an idea forward and get results.

If there are too many Team-workers in a team, while the team is likely to get along, there is a
risk that the pace of work will slow down, delaying or preventing important decision-making to
safeguard people's feelings.

If there are too many Implementers on a team, there is a risk that the team will simply continue
on its way and not respond to stimuli that demand change and threaten the status quo

etc.

Project Management: Roles Workshop

 Analyse your team
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit

Draw the joint punctuations from your

team members:
● Excess of some profiles?
● Lack of specific profiles?
● Expected problems during
performance?
● Strong points from your team?

Write one-page statement with the Belbin profiles of your team and
advance potential sources of conflict or bad-performing. How would
you balance your team?

Project Management: Roles Workshop

 Wrap up
PROJECT MANAGEMENT - EUTOPIA Learning Unit

● 9 profiles to perform in teams according to Belbin’s

experiments
● Identify and analyse your profile
● Analyse the balance in your team
● Identify potential sources of conflict
● How to balance your team?

Project Management: Roles Workshop