This week in my Principles of Usability class we had to think about and discuss 7 team roles, rating ourselves in the roles and comparing those scores to our classmates’.

Here are the 7 roles, summarized:

• Organize others’ work
• Continually search for information
• Coordinate different activities and make sure everyone has a job
• Carry out team decisions
• Make sure everyone feels good on the team
• Use force to push the team forward
• Create ideas

One of the questions asked was why knowing these roles are important. My answer was that it helps things get done on time, on budget, correctly and thoroughly with everyone happy at the end. My biggest realization with this answer is how similar the roles are to the DISC Assessment. The DISC Assessment categorizes people by their strengths: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness.

If you put two or three people on a team who are high Cs (conscientiousness) you’ll end up with a project that is done perfectly and is really well organized, but comes in past deadline because it had to be done perfectly and be really well organized – or it never gets done.

If you put two or three people on a team who are high Ds (dominance) you’ll end up with a project that is done before deadline, but it’s done wrong because the Ds pushed to get it done before deadline – and they argued about it the whole way.

The best teams not only have a balance of people with different strengths, but also people who have been tasked in the area of their strengths. Putting a D on research is an awful idea, but putting a D as the team lead will help the team the most.

I was able to categorize the 7 roles into the DISC:

Dominance – relating to control, power and assertiveness

• Use force to push the team forward
• Create ideas

Influence – relating to social situations and communication

• Make sure everyone feels good on the team

Steadiness – relating to patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness

• Coordinate different activities and make sure everyone has a job
• Carry out team decisions

Conscientiousness – relating to structure and organization

• Organize others’ work
• Continually search for information

The DISC really helped me understand people’s work style and how to work with different types of personalities when I took it years ago. If you ever get a chance to take the assessment, it’s very worth it.