Summary

  • The Belbin Arrow is a visual model showing how different Team Roles make contributions at different stages of a project – from idea generation, through co-ordination and delivery, to final execution.
  • Imbalance in those stages (too heavy at the start, or overloaded at the end) leads teams to miss their target – either lacking fresh ideas or unable to deliver.
  • Mapping the dominant Team Roles in a team helps to reveal where the gaps are: which phases are strong, which are weak, and how that impacts focus and co-operation.
  • With insight from the Arrow model, teams can adjust composition, behaviour or culture to become more balanced, more co-operative, and more likely to “shoot straight” – i.e. perform with stronger alignment, execution, and innovation.

Introducing the Belbin Arrow

Imagine a project team not as a fixed set of individuals, but as a path from imagining to doing.

That path is the Belbin Arrow: a way of showing how different Team Roles contribute at different points as a project moves from idea through planning to delivery and finishing touches. It’s about how the mix of roles influences what the team can really achieve.

Let's look at the arrow in a little more detail.

 

 

Where did the arrow come from?

In Norway, Anders N. Reichborn and his colleagues were working on a cross-unit project. They mapped the Belbin Team Roles across multiple teams and raised awareness of roles at an individual level.

They found that even when individuals understand their strengths, cultural differences between teams make it hard to co-operate and achieve balanced performance.

To address this, Anders introduced the Belbin Arrow – a tool he learned from an HR Director (Mr Bjoerneby) – to shift the focus from individuals to the collective and to help teams see where their strengths and gaps lay.

What the Belbin Arrow shows

Opening up

At the early phases, you need innovative, inquisitive roles (Resource Investigators, Plants) to generate ideas and push possibilities.

Narrowing down

Then, Monitor Evaluators and Specialists help assess options, weigh expertise, decide which paths to follow.

The engine

Co-ordinators, Shapers and Teamworkers are critical here – keeping everyone moving, keeping the task and people side balanced and ensuring progress towards the goal.

Sharpening (finishing strong)

Implementers and Completer Finishers work at the sharp end – making plans real, fixing details, ensuring no errors slip through, delivering final polish.

Putting the Belbin Arrow into practice

Using this model, Anders and his colleagues set about analysing the Team Role composition of two teams.

They marked the two strongest Team Roles for each member by filling in the small circles, then used these to apply ‘weight’ to the arrow.

Armed with their findings, they gathered two of the teams in the same room.

Team 1

Team 1 was a very dynamic and lively team.

When represented on the arrow model, they were extremely ‘tail heavy’. They generated and evaluated new ideas, but had no means to co-ordinate their efforts or implement their solutions.

In other words, they were shooting high into the clouds and had trouble landing a bullseye.

Belbin arrow 2.jpg
Belbin arrow 3.jpg

Team 2

Team 2 was very focused and excelled at digging deep into operational issues and fine details, but had a dearth of original ideas or anyone able to narrow down options through wisdom and expertise.

On the arrow, they were very ‘nose heavy’.

They were shooting straight towards the ground and had trouble lifting up to view and hit the target.

Outcomes

Using the Arrow model, Anders and his colleagues helped both teams recognise their imbalances. They could see where to add capacity (people, behaviours, mindset) to “lift” or “ground” the arrow so that their trajectory became more balanced – achieving all phases of performance: from ideas through to planning, delivery and final polish.

Co-operation improved, conflicts (especially culture clashes) reduced, and performance aligned more closely with goals.

The power of the arrow

The power of the Belbin Arrow is that it shifts attention away from just celebrating individuals toward understanding the shape of a team’s performance – where it starts strong, where it trails, and where it could pull back or push forward.

Achieving good team performance isn’t about having the best people; it’s about having the right mix at the right time.

When that happens, your team doesn’t just have ideas – it lands them.

Next steps

Are your teams hitting the target?

We'd love to help you help your teams – using the Belbin Individual reports as your starting point.

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