Case Study: Using Belbin Team Roles in a GP Practice

Objectives

Enable a team of general practitioners to understand their strengths and weaknesses in order to support succession planning.

Outcomes

Participants found the session to be a positive and stimulating experience. The team now has a much more structured understanding of their strengths, and greater insight into ways to work together and improve team performance.

Introduction

Fernville practice, based in Hemel Hempstead, serves 17,000 patients. One practice manager, who joined the practice after a long career in industry, wanted to introduce Belbin to this setting in order to enhance colleagues’ understanding of their own, and others’, strengths.

Challenge

The GP practice wanted members of the leadership team to work more effectively together by gaining a structured understanding of their strengths and applying this knowledge to the issue of succession planning.

Solution

The practice manager designed a programme to help members of the leadership team better understand their strengths and value the contributions made by others.

Process

The leadership team (comprising of 6 partners, 5 salaried doctors, a nurse manager and 3 practice managers) completed a Belbin program designed by one of the practice managers. They completed Belbin Individual and Team reports, and were able to access the relevant support materials online. The surgery was closed for one morning to allow the group to discuss the findings.

Results

The leadership team found the experience a positive and stimulating one, as both a teambuilding exercise and for the purposes of succession planning.

The team were able to identify their strengths in a more structured way, and gained insights into how to work together to use their strengths more effectively in combination.