Belbin Australia Representative - The Team Role of RESOURCE INVESTIGATOR
The warm and generally extroverted Resource Investigator has an infectious enthusiasm for new opportunities and is useful at keeping a team connected with what’s going on outside, especially if a team becomes inward looking and too task focused.
They can sometimes be confused with a Plant because they are another form of “ideas person” but an RI will tend to get their ideas from elsewhere, bring them back and then embellish or champion them. RI’s love the cut and thrust of inter personal brainstorms and interacting with others to generate ideas.
A Plant on the other hand tends to get their ideas from the recesses of their own mind in self imposed isolation from others.Their allowable weakness comes from their love of the new “shiny thing” and that once the initial shine of the new venture has worn off, they may lose interest and move off to chase the next shiny thing without properly following through or consolidating the last one.
They can also be overly optimistic about a new exciting opportunity to the point of ignoring the risks or some of the less enjoyable realities.
Their Non Allowable Weakness is failing to follow up at all on what they may have agreed to do and letting down team members or clients external to the team.
RI is a Socially oriented role.