All too often we have a conversation that goes a bit like this:

Person A:    "Oh, I've done Belbin, and I use it on training sessions."

Us:    "Great! Do you use the Belbin reports?"

Person A:    "No, I just talk about the theory."

Us:     "Do you explain how the theory can be used?"

Person A:  "No, I just go through the 8 Team Roles."

Us:    "You mean 9 Team Roles."

Person A:    "Oh, is there a new one? When was it added to the list - it must have been recently?"

Us:    "1993."

It's interesting that in the world of training and HR that a lot of us assume that a theory has remained static since it's first inception. Thinking about it, that's a strange assumption. You wouldn't lecture about Employee Law with all your notes taken from a book published in 1981. In fact I can't think of a profession where keeping up-to-date isn't verging on essential.

Perhaps we should all take a few hours to ensure that our knowledge - be it Belbin, De Bono, Tuckman etc is as current as it should be. I think those that attend our workshops, training courses and 1:1 sessions would thank us for it!

We are running a 'How to..." Session in Newcastle to help people get up to speed with not just their Belbin knowledge, but the practical application. In other words, the important bit. Come and join us. http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=518