Solid, liquid, gas, and plasma: we all know these states of aggregate. But have you heard about suprafluidity? In nature, suprafluidity only occurs in helium and lithium. In companies, alas, it is just as rare. Suprafluidity describes particles that are in a frictionless state: they are in a perfect equilibrium. In a team, such a suprafluid state has been achieved when it is well balanced and able to work in full flow without being hampered by conflicts or points of friction. To reach such a state, every team member has to fulfil the role that is most suitable to them and ideally complements the other team members’ roles. “In recruiting, we often talk about tasks, competences, and functions. Very few HR managers and recruiters fill team positions based on which social role is missing in a team,” Helga Pattart-Drexler, Head of Executive Education at the WU Executive Academy, explains. This is a mistake as social roles in a team are just as much a part of the “periodic table of leadership” developed by Helga Pattart-Drexler and her team as hard and soft skills, methodological competence, and the ability to lead. The fact that this periodic table is very successfully applied in tailor-made corporate executive and team trainings bears proof to the viability of the system.

The Role is Key

When projects fail, it is often not due to a lack of expert knowledge but poorly planned, ineffective workflows and implicit conflicts of interest within a team. Among the potential causes for failure, the social roles (often unconsciously) adopted by team members are frequently overlooked and rarely analyzed by executives. In the 1970s, the British researcher Raymond Meredith Belbin developed a method for leading teams, in the process of which he identified various roles within a team. In this model, it is crucial that roles are staffed by suitable people who, as a result, can optimally exercise their talents in the position. Each role has specific strengths and weaknesses. It is key that also managers identify their own role and optimally contribute to the team according to their strengths and create the space needed for all team members to live up to their potential.

A pitfall managers should be careful to avoid is mixing up a person’s role with their personality. Roles are altered when the group makeup or conditions change as members unconsciously adopt new roles or adapt existing ones. The more consciously a team deals with its allocation of roles, the more effective it will be with regard to both roles and tasks distribution. If there are tensions and conflicts, they should be taken seriously as potential indications that there might be a serious problem with the group or its makeup. It is thus not advisable to blame individual team members as it is not unlikely that they are simply unable to use their talents in the role assigned to them.

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