Categories
Life(style)

Belbin

For the ILM accredited leadership and management course that I’m on, we’ve been asked to submit Belbin profiles again – interestingly slightly different to December when we did this as a CODEC team.

belbin

 

My results (using Wikipedia definitions):

Resource Investigator

The Resource Investigator gives a team a rush of enthusiasm at the start of the project by vigorously pursuing contacts and opportunities. He or she is focused outside the team, and has a finger firmly on the pulse of the outside world. Where a Plant creates new ideas, a Resource Investigator will quite happily appropriate them from other companies or people. A good Resource Investigator is a maker of possibilities and an excellent networker, but has a tendency to lose momentum towards the end of a project and to forget small deta

Co-ordinator

A co-ordinator is a likely candidate for the chairperson of a team, since they have a talent for stepping back to see the big picture. Co-ordinators are confident, stable and mature and because they recognise abilities in others, they are very good at delegating tasks to the right person for the job. The co-ordinator clarifies decisions, helping everyone else focus on their tasks. Co-ordinators are sometimes perceived to be manipulative and will tend to delegate all work, leaving nothing but the delegating for them to do.

Teamworker

A Teamworker is the oil between the cogs that keeps the machine that is the team running smoothly. They are good listeners and diplomats, talented at smoothing over conflicts and helping parties understand one another without becoming confrontational. Since the role can be a low-profile one, the beneficial effect of a Teamworker can go unnoticed and unappreciated until they are absent, when the team begins to argue, and small but important things cease to happen. Because of an unwillingness to take sides, a Teamworker may not be able to take decisive action when it’s needed.

Categories
Life(style)

Belbin

belbin-logo

So, in our team meeting today, we looked at Johari, which I’ve not heard of before, as wasn’t too convinced by, and then moved onto Belbin, which I’ve never done, but have always been interested in the possibility of doing.

My outcome:

1) Teamworker

2) Resource Investigator

3) Coordinator and Implementer

Read the team-role summary descriptions.

Categories
Life(style)

The Myers-Briggs Test: Totally Unscientific?

So, this is my current Twitter bio

Life Explorer, HE/learning, Christian, cultural history, WW2 posters: Keep Calm & Carry On, digital, ENFP,   

which you’ll notice includes the Myers-Briggs personality type ‘ENFP’, and I’ve always been fascinated by personality tools that can help understand how I can make the most of myself, and understand others better. In chatting with others, there’s a strong feeling that Myers-Briggs is little better than horoscopes … although I’ve always thought ‘well, at least it’s not randomly assigned to the month that you’re born’ … but I’m fascinated by this Guardian piece (H/T @revpamsmith) in which Dean Burnett indicates that the Myers-Briggs tests is too binary – too black and white … and that most people fall in places along the scale. I have to say I’ve always thought that, but I still, in general, can find Myers-Briggs and other tests give me something to think about .. I’m rarely looking at them (or anything else) for the magic bullet! Fascinating!

I personally feel it’s more to do with people’s tendency to go for anything that offers an easy solution. People will always go for the new fad diet, thealternative remedy, the five dollar wrinkle trick that makes dermatologists hate you for some reason. For all that it may be well-intended, the MBTI offers a variation on that. People are very complex, variable and unpredictable. Many users of the MBTI believe that a straightforward test can simplify them to the point where they can be managed, controlled and utilised to make them as efficient and productive as possible. It’s no wonder businesses are keen to embrace something like that; it would be the ideal tool if it were guaranteed to achieve this. Read full article.

myers_1

P.S. Check out this diagram!

Categories
Life(style)

[MBTI] Which Harry Potter Character Are You?

Fascinated to see this test come up in my Facebook feed… I’m Ron, apparently… ‘Geeks Are Sexy‘ site suggests that you take this test and then compare the results!

hp-test

Categories
Academic

Quiet: The Power of Introverts

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain.As a definite extrovert, found sight of this book interesting:

Michael Mack, reader in the department of English studies, Durham University, is reading Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking (Viking, 2012). “A fascinating book that counters our society’s obsession with groups. Cain does not take issue with extroverts as such, but with how being extrovert and gregarious has become a normative standard. An oppressive research climate now dictates that academic work must be done collaboratively, but Cain shows how lone researchers are more innovative and beneficial to society.”

Take from Times Higher Education.