How to Build a Great Team, 2nd Edition

TEAM FUNCTIONS

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project leader to help these three work smoothly together. When you

start to put your ideas into practice the Implementer is vital, along with

the Team Worker – especially if things are getting at all difficult or

fraught. By this stage you may find that the drive of a Shaper becomes

important in moving the project along, and as you progress a Completer

becomes vital to see the task through.

So different roles are important at different stages, and these can vary

according to the project. Some people can even be a liability at certain

times. You may find, for example, that your Plant is constantly trying to

find ways to adapt and improve ideas beyond the point and after the

date when changes are helpful. In this case it might be wise to distract

the Plant with a new problem to solve, for example, so as to keep them

out of the way while the rest of the team completes the current project.

Balancing team roles is, of course, less crucial for a team whose princi-

pal function is to operate a more or less steady and continuous process

with little change over the years. But if the team operates in areas of

rapid change in terms of the workforce, manufacturing techniques,

products, markets or costs; or if their work is largely project orientated;

or if there is competition, pressure and the need to make fast decisions,

then it becomes vital to have all the different team skills available.

Working with smaller teams

Suppose you’re running a team of four people. Which team roles are

you supposed to manage without? Well, none of them necessarily.

Everyone can play at least one secondary role, so you should be able to

manage. And many teams don’t need certain roles. If your team is effec-

tively a think-tank, for example, you probably don’t need a Completer.

Many teams can manage without a Specialist. But beyond that, the

types tend to divide into four whose preoccupation and orientation is

to the world outside the team, and five who are chiefly concerned with

what goes on inside the team: