Change change change...

A case study

We recently worked with an international membership organisation and asked for feedback on their experience of working with us to build High Performing teams.

"I first heard of Belbin as a result of online research. A Director wanted to work with his team during a period of intense change. He needed to understand where people would be best suited and how to ensure that they felt valued in their work at this particularly challenging time.

We also needed a tool that would bring harmony to the team and make individuals feel good about their work – we’d tried other tools before and not had great results in the feedback so we really needed to be confident in whatever we chose to utilise next.

I got in touch with Belbin and explained that we had very specific objectives. They wanted to know more about them – to make sure that their offering was going to meet all of our needs. This made them stand out in relation to the other businesses we’d spoken to – their attention to detail was impressive.

We had a training day with a Belbin trainer. From the start to the end of the day, he was engaging, appraised our team and their dynamics accurately and had the attention of the room.

Attendees left talking about their experience and we soon had people from other teams asking about how they could access the learning opportunity. We needed someone who could keep pace with our team and heard nothing but compliments about him on the day and in post training feedback.

We describe ourselves and our teams as being quite ‘different’ so measuring the effect of Belbin on our work was interesting. We can see the effect in the fact that the language is used frequently in ongoing conversation but it’s in the one to one catch ups that we really feel the impact.

Managers spend much less time managing interpersonal relationships because team members are aware of their own strengths and allowable weaknesses.

Each team member has spent time having in depth conversations with their colleagues about their respective reports. They are now able to understand each other and their behaviours at work properly, without the pressure of feeling that they’re being critical or making statements that reflect on a person’s personality.

There’s also a collective team awareness – feeling like they really belong together. This tempers the frustrations that were felt previously and enables everyone to move towards the collective, agreed goals in a much more focused way.

The whole process was repeated across the leadership team. They found Belbin to be a hugely positive experience. They are proud to talk about their roles. The leadership team are now talking about their allowable weaknesses with pride because they can also talk confidently about their strengths. Pre Belbin, this would not have happened. Belbin has enabled a whole new level of conversation about how we can all best work together.

The process of working with Belbin has been excellent. Every person who answers the phone is unfailingly helpful. When I’m apologizing for needing to ask a question for the third time, they are patient and supportive. Their logistical management is great. When the trainer is on site with us, everything runs smoothly and gives attendees a real sense of confidence. When we need additional materials the Belbin office team are quick to help.

In fact, it’s all worked so well that the next group are lined up. We’re looking forward to repeating the process. The Director is enthused and wants the same experience for his team as others have had. We can’t wait to get going."

We would love to hear about, and share, your experiences using Belbin. Please get in touch.

If you would like to discuss how a Belbin Workshop could benefit your team, please fill in the form below