The idea that balanced teams can be more successful is well understood in management but the take-up of the idea has been slow in the design professions and construction industry. Would balancing a design team, in terms of both professional expertise and team role, improve performance?

What are the qualities needed in your work? You might need to be imaginative and creative. You probably need to be self-motivating, with a mind capable of analysing complex problems. You have to be a good project manager – good at organising your time and capable of meeting deadlines. You might need to be good salesperson, able to generate business. It also might be useful, especially in dealings with clients, if you possessed a certain gravitas, that natural authority and charisma that people expect from professionals. Finally, in today’s mad world, you need to be able to cope with stress, remaining unflappable in crisis and undaunted by feelings of impossibility at the start of a project. Does this paragon of virtue exist?

In most organisations, all that is relevant in forming project teams is expertise and availability. But can we do better than this? Maybe you need a different mix of people at different stages in the project. Maybe some people spark off each other more than others and perhaps some groupings are better at delivering a contract satisfactorily.

We need a tool to help us identify these personality traits. This is what Dr Meredith Belbin provided when he published his book Management Teams in 1981. And it was his research that provides the basis of the card game we designed called Teams, published by Gower, that our consultancy is based on.

Teams Consultancy

CAR consultants can provide one-hour to half day training sessions in team building. We can also analyse existing work groups and provide expert advice about recruitment strategies.