The Belbin Questionnaire

This week, we began looking at something called the Belbin Questionnaire. This is a questionnaire which is used to identify strengths and weaknesses in regards to teamwork; the Belbin Team Roles.

Below is a table displaying my results from the questionnaire. The questionnaire had 7 sections, with answers A-H to choose from. In each section, you could select more than one answer, so long as your choices added up to 10 points.

e.g.

• 5 points to sentence G
• 3 points to sentence H
• 2 points to sentence A

Role	Function	Points
Co-Coordinator (CO)	Co-ordinates efforts, social leader	2
Shaper (SH)	Outgoing, dominant, task leader	3
Plant (PL)	Ideas person, creative, intelligent but potentially shy	8
Resource Investigator (RI)	Finds out where to obtain resources – the ‘fixit’ person	5
Monitor Evaluator (ME)	Assesses how valid suggestions are, analytical	7
Implementer (IMP)	Practical organiser	29
Team Worker (TW)	Maintains group needs, supportive	7
Complete Finisher (CF)	Checks details – conscious of task deadlines	9

Here is my summary of the results:

"I believe that for the most part, the result of the Belbin questionnaire was accurate. The highest score appears in the IMP section. I would consider myself to be an Implementer above all other roles. I’m punctual, thorough, and can work on my own initiative. If necessary, I will take on extra work if needs be, to meet or exceed targets. At the same time, I don’t consider myself to be inflexible, which is a prominent weakness in Implementers.

Complete Finisher, the second highest scoring role, is another thing I believe myself to be. It ties in with my aforementioned point about being thorough; being a perfectionist to make certain of the accuracy of work.

Co-ordinator being one of the lowest scoring roles is relatively accurate. I am able to delegate effectively, but it isn’t something that I’ve put into practice a lot, due to it only coming into play later on in my last place of employment.

I also agree with the Shaper role being one of the lowest scoring roles. I don’t see myself as a “whip cracker”, and instead look for the equal team-effort, having everybody involved. That could be perceived as a slight contradiction.

Being an effective communicator, and being able to work with a variety of people, I was surprised to see the Teamwork role scoring in the middle ground. I see teamwork as being one of my strongest qualities, so do not agree with this result."

They are here!

We're getting into week 6 of uni, and I've been handed my first 2 assignments, both in PCDS (which this blog is for) and Web.

This is the time I'll have to keep on top of my work, and again learn how to prioritise effectively my workloads, so I can avoid late nights!

In PCDS, I'm currently creating a brand new CV for myself, improving on the few templates I've had over the past 7 years, which is proving to be a big benefit, because it already looks better that the ones I've had. I'll also be creating a covering letter for a mock job advertisement, as well as preparing for a mock interview, all for my first assignment. Life experience should stand me in good stead for when that comes around! I've had a fair few interviews, both formal and informal.

Research and practice will have to be done before I start with my first essay within the next few weeks. It's been a while since I've written an article on my website, and it's been a lot longer since I did an actual essay. I'd like to think my journalism has helped with standards and structure.

Ted Talks

Last week, leading on from our discussions regarding employability and key skills, we took part in a group activity which aimed to engage us all in collaboration, prototyping and facilitation.

The activity is called the marshmallow challenge, and the objective was to plan and sketch a prototype structure, made from spaghetti sticks, which would be able to hold a marshmallow at the very top. The tallest, free-standing structure was the winner. The planning and erection of the structure was all to be done against the clock.

This was a good exercise to gain experience of teamwork in a pressurised scenario for the people who perhaps haven't experienced pressure in a workplace. Depending on the job, a person will for the majority of time be working to either meet or exceed targets on or before a deadline. However, even for the people with experience of pressure in a workplace, such as myself, it was still very challenging, and was certainly a help to brush up on my collaborative skills. 

The video below is taken from Ted Talks, where the challenge aims are explained in more detail.

Emerging, Emerged & Strengths

In our third week of PCDS, we focused on our skill-sets, and how they can be applied in a job application and/or interview to give us our USP's (Unique Selling Points), in order to stand out amongst others.

We also had a group discussion about transferable skills, which are relevant skills which can both help you get the job you're applying for, and to perform well in that role. 

Using a 3-column table (Emerging, Emerged, Strengths), we listed our key transferable skills and categorised them into an appropriate column.

- Emerging - skills and/or experiences at a basic level of understanding

- Emerged - capable skills and/or experiences which can be taken to the next level

- Strengths - accomplished skills and/or experiences  

Here is the table I created: