With Postgraduate students
Our Postgraduate students complete their own Belbin Self Perception Inventory (SPI) before they arrive each September.
We run a Belbin workshop at the start of the year to enable students to get to know each other in their teams. Students learn about the Team Roles, including their own combinations of preferred Team Roles.
We teach them how to use their knowledge to not just understand how different Team Roles are important at different stages of a project, but more importantly, to really understand themselves and other people.
We find that this increased awareness of themselves and others enables students to do their best work and be part of a more engaged team.
They can see where there is a gap – where someone needs to step up.
In doing this, in addition to having a better student experience, Belbin supports their academic performance. This makes them engaged and take the process seriously.
For me personally, this workshop is one of my favourite sessions to deliver. It takes just two hours and students are engaged from start to finish.
I run a workshop for each Postgraduate programme that I support and it’s a great way to get to know everyone.
Academics really value Belbin being embedded within their classes because it significantly reduces the number of students knocking on their door with complaints about group dynamics – students know each other and can manage difficult conversations without their input.
This is one of the greatest benefits of Belbin – it allows students to experience working with different people and their different working styles in a non-confrontational way. They learn to appreciate conversational triggers and quickly learn to manage working relationships. They can avoid making assumptions based on cultural stereotypes and work efficiently.
It’s so important to give students an appreciation of the fact that people work differently – to see the reasoning behind why you may not always like your team mates! Students tell us that they have really enjoyed the experience, which of course reflects well on their time with us overall.