Team Workshop

Role Analysis

Improve Role Clarity by analysing
40-60 minutes
3-10 people
Remote & on-site

Background

For an employee and for a team member, it is massively important to perceive role clarity. That means that, for example, employees feel certain about how much authority they have, they know what their responsibilities are, what is expected of them and that they have divided their time properly. Overall, perceived role clarity has the greatest influence on the satisfaction and commitment to the company of that employee.

Team workshop instructions

Preparation

  • Pen & paper


Check-In (5 minutes)

  • Welcome the team and introduce the workshop.
  • Explain to the team why analyzing roles in a team is so important.
The following four steps are based on the “Role Analysis Technique”, in short “RAT” (Schermerhorn, Osborn, Uhl-Bien, and Hunt, 2012).


Step 1 (5-10 minutes)

  • Each team member thinks about their own role and writes down how they perceive it.
As a guideline or structure to do so, you could give the team members instructions to reflect on: “Your role in completing our task. Your role as a team member”; or more generally, “Your role in reaching our goal.”


Step 2 (5 minutes)

  • Each team member writes down their perceived expectations of each of their fellow team members.


Step 3 (10-15 minutes)

  • Now, the team discusses each individual’s roles, focusing on where expectations match and differ. Go through the team member by member, giving everyone the chance to speak.
Tip: You could also draw a matrix for this with all the team member’s names in there, if the team is not too big. Then you will have a complete overview of roles and expectations.


Step 4 (10-15 minutes)

  • Now it is time to reach consensus regarding the roles and responsibilities of each team member. Each employee writes down their own role for themselves, (now hopefully clear to them).
  • To see if their views match the expectation, everyone presents their results to the whole group and final suggestions are made.


Ending (5 minutes)

  • A profile should be created for each role analyzed. Just like the team norms, it is a living organism and open for regular reflection. But it should serve as a great start and guideline for the coming teamwork.
The implementation of this role analysis exercise should result in role clarification that improves the efficiency of your team massively – depending on how clear your roles have been before.

First Aid ⛑🩹

  • People don’t know how to start Present a random example of a role or explain yours as instructor for this workshop.

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