Do you watch The Apprentice? As
it happens I don’t, but I know that a new series started on BBC1 last week
(week commencing 13 October 2014). I know this because I read a very
interesting review of the programme by Michael Deacon in the Daily Telegraph.
You can read it here
if you want. If you don’t want to read the whole thing I’ll give you the gist
of what Deacon had to say. He suggested that some of the things said by the contestants
are so absurd that they make David Brent sound moderate. Here’s a little nugget
from Deacon’s article:
“…a sample gem from Daniel Lassman, one of its (The Apprentice’s)
contestants. “There’s no ‘i’ in ‘team’,” he advised the camera, exactly as
Brent used to do. “But there are five in ‘individual brilliance’.”
I can imagine how toe-curlingly,
cringe-makingly embarrassing that might have been for you had you watched it.
That was the thing about watching The Office; you’d start by thinking “what’s
he (Brent) going to say”; then Brent opens his mouth and you start to think “oh
God is he really going to say what I think he’s going to say”; and when he said
it you just wanted to curl up and cringe.
And yet as cringe-worthy as
Daniel Lassman’s quote to the camera might have been; when I was his age (I’m
guessing he’s in his twenties or thirties) I’d have agreed with what he said. I
really used to think that the best teams were made up of individually brilliant people. But now I’m not so sure. I think I’m now inclined to the view that
a great team may not necessarily contain the most outstanding individuals.
George Best and Sir Alf Ramsey
Something very special happened
on July 30 1966: England won the football world cup by beating West Germany by
four goals to two. It’s been almost fifty years since that day and during that
time the nation’s team has not managed to reach those soaring heights of
footballing excellence again.
Mention the names of any of those
England players from 1966 to England football followers of a certain age and
you are met with the wistful, glassy eyed look of one lost in fond nostalgic
remembering. There was, however, one player who did not play that day. George
Best was ineligible to play for the simple reason that he was from Northern
Ireland.
In the opinion of many, Best is
regarded as one of the most outrageously gifted individuals ever to grace a
football field. When the Manchester United club scout, Bob Bishop, saw the
teenage Best play for the first time, he told the United Manager, Matt Busby,
that he thought he had found a genius: and he had. And yet it is highly debated
whether Best would have been chosen to play for England even if he had been
eligible.
Sir Alf Ramsey, the England
manager at the time, firmly believed that you do not necessarily pick the best
players available for your team; you pick the best team from the available
players. This is all about achieving the right balance in your team. There may
be better individual performers who will not perform as well in your team as
less gifted individuals. Watch the following video from about 1:45 as Jack Charlton explains why Ramsey chose him to play for England.
Belbin’s Team Role Theory
When I first heard it said that
Ramsey might not have chosen Best (had he been able to) I thought there were few sporting debates
more ridiculous. However, as I have spent more time in management my views have
changed. I think Ramsey, on the whole was correct. Everything in a team is about
balance. This is what Belbin’s team role theory is all about.
Anyone who has
been involved for even the shortest period of time in the process of recruiting
staff will know that successful recruitment is far from an exact science.
Experienced recruiters will tell stories of how they were absolutely convinced
that a particular candidate was a perfect fit for the job only to be left
bitterly disappointed by the same candidate’s actual job performance.
Team role
theory is simple, appealing and feels intuitively correct. No individual has
all the qualities a good manager needs. The ability to select the right people
relates to how well a team achieves its goals. Many would agree that although a
degree of homogeneity is important, a good team needs a combination of
differences.
Belbin
developed his theory at the staff colleges at Henley and Melbourne. He
suggested eight, later revised to nine, team roles that successful teams
require to be occupied. Belbin found that the best performing teams in business
games were those that had an optimal balance of the roles.
The nine team roles are: The
Coordinator, or Chair, The Plant (for creativity), The Resource Investigator
(to explore opportunities), The Shaper (for challenge and drive), The Monitor
Evaluator (for judgment), The Teamworker (for co-operative working), The
Implementer (to get things done), The Completer (to deliver on time) and The
Specialist (for knowledge and expertise). In some cases, one person may carry
out more than one team role. To determine a person’s preferred team role,
Belbin developed a questionnaire, The Belbin Team Role Self Perception
Inventory (BTRSPI).
Belbin’s team
role theory is not a magic bullet that will give you the ability to predict how
well a candidate will perform in your organisation. It does, though, offer an
extra recruitment tool that can provide a little more information about
prospective candidates.
In Conclusion
I would once have agreed with Daniel
Lassman from The Apprentice. I truly believed that to put together the best
team you just found the best individuals. But not anymore. Whilst I will never
believe that there would be no place for the genius of George Best in England’s
1966 team, I do believe Ramsey’s team philosophy was just about spot on.
Sir Alf Ramsey
was an astute football tactician. He changed the way the game was played. He
also knew a little about selecting team members. Whether he would have left out
of his teams the sublimely talented Best is a debate that will continue. What
is beyond doubt is that, Ramsey’s Belbin type selection system brought him
success at the highest possible level in his profession. What might Belbin do
for you?
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