Previously in I Love It When An Archetype Comes Together (1) & (2) …

I’ve tried to show how the idea of a perfect team consisting of ‘ideal types who fulfil set function’ is hardwired into the human mind.  Maybe you’ve found it interesting.  But what does it have to do with business?

Whether you work for a small business or as part of a project within a larger company, teamwork is necessary.  It can’t be avoided, even by the most archetypal hermit.

Usually, though, team leaders and project managers have to blend the best of what they inherit, often within limited timescales.  In better organised situations, they could try to get a balanced mix of skills, experience and achievements in their people.  From this, they can allocate team roles, preferably ones that don’t overlap and are sufficient to complete the task at hand.

But here’s my point.  Roles need to be based on preferred ways of operating, on a person’s signature strengths and thinking/communication styles.  These kinds of factors will affect how anyone works within a team environment.  Partly they are based on personality, and so can be detected by the instruments, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram of Personality.  The Enneagram in particular lends itself to archetypal analysis, although Myers-Briggs derives from Jung too.  Go here for an insightful attempt to compare the two.

My point is that roles within a team or group must be discovered rather than imposed.  I would like to give two suggestions models for this role discovery.  The first of these is based on the work of Meredith Belbin, and is already well known in business circles.  He argued that “an effective team has members that cover nine key roles in managing the team and how it carries out its work. This may be separate from the role each team member has in carrying out the work of the team.”  The roles are: Plant, Resource Investigator, Coordinator, Shaper, Monitor-Evaluator, Team Worker, Company Worker-Implementer, Completer Finisher, and Specialist.  Read a good explanation of each role and how they work together here.

Another example is the work of Carol Pearson, author of a celebrated book on archetypal self-development called The Hero Within.  She has applied her psychological insights to marketing and leadership.  She has also created asssessment instruments for organisational dynamics and team cultures.

Real teams are not accidental; they are designed.  Real roles are not externally imposed; they flow from within.

When this happens, when your team is properly formed, then, like the man says, you are on the jazz!

Image credit: Army.mil.