Take on a role
Quite often in study situations we are asked to work with a group of people we have not met before and with whom we may seem to have very little in common. The group, which may be labeled a ‘team’, could be tasked to organise or produce something about which some of the members may know more than others. After a period of initial awkwardness perhaps, the group members start to find out more about each other and attend to their task. It is quite likely that each of the members will then tend to settle into (or start playing) a particular role for the group based on a mixture of their skills and character traits.
For example, someone might offer to go away and find some essential information, another might draw up a schedule, checklists or an inventory, while another might start to suggest some different ways of tackling the task. There will inevitably be some vying for particular roles, or conflict amongst those members who have differing priorities. A number of writers have analysed these situations and some have developed sets of descriptions for the typical roles people play in them. One of the most widely quoted of these was developed by UK academic R. Meredith Belbin (1981) who developed a framework of team roles.
He identified 8 types of role in a team, and identified the characteristics of people who played them. Why not: Try this. What is your team role?