#belbintest

Giorgia Menon

This is a very small and not really worth talking about work, but I still wanted to include this on the blog. This was also a way for me to put some of my soft and creative skills into action and I'm glad to have made it. I believe, as with everything else that I've produced, I left time and space for my teammates to have a say in what I was creating, therefore I feel like I made it easy for them to interact with me and my work. This way, everyone can be completely aware of the work that is being done, even behind the reflectors, and can agree on it recurring in an eventual overall satisfaction.

Finally, I wanted to write down some final reflections looking back at the work that I and the members of my group have done and focusing especially on group roles. In order to do this as transparently as possible, I've decided to share here the results of the Belbin test that I took at the beginning of the course.

According to my own perception of myself, I seem to have registered as an Implementer and Completer Finisher character. I must say that in normal circumstances I would most likely agree with these statements, however, this group project has brought into action slightly different dynamics in my opinion. Given that the project was mainly 3D-based and given my little to no knowledge of 3D software, it was almost impossible for me to have full control over the final output. On one hand, I knew I wanted to behave differently than normal, having received the results before the groups were even assigned, on the other hand, I knew I had to learn to trust my teammates and delegate work. This has been especially hard for me, given the fact that I usually prepare to not ask for any help and take care of my own work by myself, but this has been one of the precious teachings that I have received during the progress of this assignment.

As for Jung and Myer's test, I resulted in having an ENFJ personality type, which means Extravert(3%), iNtuitive(12%), Feeling(22%), and Judging(12%). I remember taking the same test in the past and receiving the same results...which means that I haven't changed much in these aspects over the years. Related to the teamwork environment, I can see myself described in a few lines that say that ENFJ people tend to see the bigger picture of things and can manage a group of people. Even though I'm not a big fan of this trait, I can see myself being slightly "manipulative" sometimes, as the test suggests. This of course doesn't happen on purpose, but it's just a direct consequence of behaving as a helper/enabler as I aim to be for my group. I can also see myself neglecting my own feelings/personal time to finish a task, as describes in the explanation of the test. However, over the years I tried working a lot on this specific aspect of my personality and I believe I have come a long way... nonetheless, I believe it's always going to be part of my persona in a way.

Thinking back at the first class, during the "egg exercise", I can see myself putting into action the theory that is listed above. While for the first experiment (the one where we had to cut sheets of paper), my group seemed pretty confused and we didn't perform that well, I believe that with the second exercise, we did well! Even though that day one group member was missing, therefore the dynamics were slightly different than what the actual group was going to look like later on, I remember observing my group mates during the first few interactions. Having addressed a lot of shyness and the majority of people not wanting to take charge, I decided I would. Knowing myself, I know that I like following rules and that I want to perform well... for myself and others. And this is exactly what I wanted to do for this assignment as well. First of all, I remember making sure that we were not surpassing any of the indications given by the professors, given that we could start to outline a plan for the building of the structure. I recall pushing everyone to express their initial ideas and thoughts, resulting in a few confused ideas. I remember feeling slightly bad for having to reject some ideas to reach a communal agreement. Again, I took it upon myself to "reject" the ideas that I though didn't have much future. It's kind of dirty work but it needs to be done, for the sake of the group and the project. Even though I didn't really enjoy this aspect of the process, I always tried to come across as respectful and relaxed. During the actual "making of" the structure, I remember delegating the work among the people around the table. Looking back at it I might have come across as too "bossy", but at the same time, I thought that the group needed to move in the same direction. Until that point everyone was kind of fixating on their own idea and I believed that in that way we were not going to complete the assignment the best way possible. Eventually, the assembly of assets started coming together, and the anxiety levels of the group started rising together with the countdown of the remaining time. The last few actions around the egg were complete chaos. I remember seeing members of my group deviating from the main idea and focusing too much on specific details, without noticing that we hadn't used all the materials offered. Therefore, I had to start redirecting them and reminding them of the time passing by. I'm not sure how we did it, but we finished as the time went out. During this whole experience, I remember trying to communicate with the teammate who was absent that day. Communication was definitely hard given the loudness of the classroom, the black camera on the other side of the phone, and the impossibility of inclusion in the process. Either way, I believe we made him as participative as possible, with the time and energy that we had.

I believe this first interaction was essential for the creation of the actual subsequent project that we made in the following three weeks. I think that that day, we kind of understood our roles in the group and we kept them up during the whole development of the project. This resulted in a very enthusiastic and attentive group, that had the interest and the skills to work together around a deadline. Everyone was really creative and willing to put their technical abilities into action for the creation of a type of work that none of us had every done before.

References:

Belbin (2022). Free Belbin test - looking for a free Team Roles test? [online] www.belbin.com. Available at: https://www.belbin.com/resources/free-belbin-test-looking-for-a-free-team-roles-test.

Butt, J. (n.d.). ENFJ: Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging. [online] www.humanmetrics.com. Available at: https://www.humanmetrics.com/personality/enfj.

Humanmetrics Inc. (2024). Personality test based on Jung and Briggs Myers typology. [online] www.humanmetrics.com. Available at: https://www.humanmetrics.com/personality.

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