Deep-dive : Stop Making Brilliant Engineers Into Mediocre Managers

The Big Idea

In this longer deep-dive (55 mins) episode Ian Banner and Mariya MacCloud explore one of the most counterintuitive findings in organisational science: why teams full of brilliant people consistently fail.

Drawing on Dr Meredith Belbin’s pioneering research at Henley Management College in the 1960s and 1970s, Ian guides Mariya through the discovery of the Apollo Syndrome—the phenomenon where teams assembled from the brightest individuals often fail to win. Through rigorous experimentation involving thousands of managers playing business simulation games, Belbin identified nine distinct team functions that determine effectiveness.

This isn’t another personality assessment. It’s evidence-based science showing how teams actually work. Ian and Mariya discuss each of the nine functions—from Shapers who drive direction to Completer Finishers who ensure quality—and explore how modern organisations repeatedly make the Apollo mistake by hiring for talent rather than functional diversity.

They tackle practical application questions: How do you use this framework without pigeonholing people? Where does it apply in career progression? Can AI agents fill missing team functions? Mariya pushes back on the “do more with less” mentality pervading tech organisations, using functional intelligence to expose why that mathematics fails.

Whether you’re assembling leadership teams or trying to understand why your brilliant people aren’t delivering brilliant results, this conversation provides the scientific framework you’ve been missing.

Takeaways

* Understanding team dynamics is crucial for effective collaboration.

* Meredith Belbin’s research provides a framework for team roles.

* Each team member may excel in different roles, impacting team performance.

* The Shaper role is about providing direction and leadership.

* Completer Finishers ensure quality and attention to detail.

* Specialists bring deep knowledge but may lack a big-picture perspective.

* Monitor Evaluators assess team progress and can be overly critical.

* Plants are creative thinkers who generate innovative ideas.

* Implementers turn ideas into actionable tasks and can resist change.

* Team Workers build trust and resolve conflicts but may avoid tough decisions.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Team Dynamics and Belbin’s Theory

05:32 Exploring Team Roles: Shapers and Completers

11:26 The Importance of Balance in Team Roles

17:35 Specialists and Their Impact on Team Performance

23:33 Creative Innovators: The Role of Plants in Teams

29:27 Applying Belbin’s Theory in Leadership and Team Settings

30:47 The Evolution of Team Roles

33:13 AI’s Role in Team Dynamics

34:48 Understanding Team Functions

38:06 The Resource Investigator Role

41:22 The Team Worker Role

44:16 Empathy in Organizational Roles

45:54 Capacity and Specialization in Teams

51:09 Balancing Expectations in the Tech Industry

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