The Margerison-McCann team management wheel was developed by Dr. Charles Margerison and Dr. Dick McCann. Margerison – an author and psychologist – partnered with scientist and organizational behaviorist McCann to determine why some teams were effective while others with a similar skillset were not.
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Understanding the Margerison-McCann team management wheel
The Margerison-McCann team management wheel is an individual and team development tool focused on defined roles and personal evaluation.
The framework for which they are named is the result of countless interviews with managers and team members around the world. It is comprised of two components:
The Types of Work wheel – which defines the nature of work in a team, and
The four work preference measures – scales that represent key aspects of how individuals within teams prefer to operate in a workplace environment.
By adding the work-centric wheel to the people-centric scales, Margerison and McCann’s team management wheel clarifies what types of work people prefer to do (and the roles they prefer to play) whilst part of a team.
The Types of Work wheel
Nine factors were identified as key to successful teamwork in all types of industries. These segments, which are illustrated as segments of the wheel, include:
Advising – collating and dispensing information based on best practices to make superior decisions and deliver results.
Innovating – this means challenging the status quo.
Promoting – teams must persuade upper management of the merit of a project to secure the necessary resources to perform their work. Promotion also encompasses the marketing of products to customers and clients.
Developing – where ideas are molded and shaped to meet the needs of the user with respect to organizational constraints.
Organizing – with a core focus on action and goal-setting that is on time and within budget.
Producing – this involves delivering a product, service, or other output at consistently high standards.
Inspecting – to ensure these high standards are achieved, regular audits are necessary. This factor also incorporates various security, safety, and legal aspects.
Maintaining – where team performance is routinely reviewed to ensure effectiveness, and
Linking – a process where team members work collaboratively to become an effective and efficient team. Linking may involve people, tasks, or leadership.
The four work preference measures
Since it is not always obvious, four work preference measures provide clarity for employees on how they prefer to work.
Margerison and McCann adapted these measures from the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
Let’s look at the measures below, remembering that every individual exists along a scale between two opposing extremes.
Questionnaires can be handed out where employees score themselves based on how they like to work.
1 – How you relate to others
Extrovert – talks out ideas, enjoys meeting other people, can be impulsive.
Introvert – tends to think before speaking, dislikes interruptions, does not have a need to socialize with colleagues frequently.
2 – How you gather and use information
Practical – likes to work with tested ideas, is detail and fact-oriented, and prefers clearly defined problems.
Creative – becomes bored with routine work, is future-oriented, and tests new ideas.
3 – How you make decisions
Analytical – develops objective decision-making criteria, is often construed as clinical or logical, and prefers analysis and clarity.
Beliefs – develops subjective decision-making criteria, is resistant to change that contradicts beliefs, and may become over-committed to a particular point of view.
4 – How you organize yourself and others
Structured – loves order and will stick to a plan, is time conscious, and has a tendency to rush decisions before consulting available information.
Flexible – may procrastinate in search of information, is open-minded, can tolerate ambiguity, and can change their mind if new insights present themselves.
The team management wheel
To create the team management wheel, the results from the employee questionnaire are matched with the nine key factors to successful teamwork.
Margerison and McCann named each match to describe a specific preferred role:
Creator-Innovators – those who enjoy innovation also describe themselves as creative and enjoy the ideation process.
Explorer-Promoters – similarly, those who gravitate toward promoting the merits of a project tended to be always on the lookout for new opportunities.
Assessor-Developers – employees who enjoy developing plans and processes to suit the end user have a preference for testing the viability of new ideas.
Thruster-Organiser – natural leaders who like to organize individuals and resources and throw themselves into scheduling. They also readily define objectives.
Concluder-Producer – these are employees who work systematically from a plan to conclude projects.
Controller-Inspectors – detailed-oriented employees who like to audit processes and procedures by exerting control.
Upholder-Maintainers – employees who possess strong beliefs or principles and consider it vital to uphold or adhere to them at all times.
Reporter-Advisors – lastly, those individuals who enjoy sending or receiving information naturally fall into a reporting role in teams.
Key takeaways:
The Margerison-McCann team management wheel is an individual and team development tool with a core focus on defined roles and personal feedback.
Margerison and McCann identified nine factors that were key to successful teamwork in all types of industries. These include Advising, Innovating, Promoting, Developing, Organising, Producing, Inspecting, Maintaining, and Linking.
Four work preference measures also provide clarity for employees on how they prefer to work with each adapted from the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. They relate to employee relations, decision-making, organization, and information gathering.
Key Highlights
Origin and Purpose: The Margerison-McCann team management wheel was developed by Dr. Charles Margerison and Dr. Dick McCann. It was created to address the question of why some teams with similar skill sets were effective while others were not. The tool focuses on individual and team development through defined roles and personal evaluation.
Components:
Types of Work Wheel: This component defines the nature of work within a team and is the result of extensive interviews with managers and team members worldwide.
Work Preference Measures: Four scales derived from the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung help individuals understand their preferred work styles. These measures relate to how individuals relate to others, gather and use information, make decisions, and organize themselves and others.
Nine Key Factors for Successful Teamwork:
Advising
Innovating
Promoting
Developing
Organizing
Producing
Inspecting
Maintaining
Linking
Four Work Preference Measures:
Relating to Others: Extrovert vs. Introvert.
Gathering and Using Information: Practical vs. Creative.
Making Decisions: Analytical vs. Beliefs.
Organizing: Structured vs. Flexible.
Creating the Team Management Wheel:
By matching the results of the work preference measures with the nine key factors, specific preferred roles are identified:
Creator-Innovators
Explorer-Promoters
Assessor-Developers
Thruster-Organiser
Concluder-Producer
Controller-Inspectors
Upholder-Maintainers
Reporter-Advisors
Key Objectives and Benefits:
The Margerison-McCann team management wheel aims to provide a structured approach for understanding individual work preferences and how they contribute to team roles.
It helps in clarifying team member roles, enhancing teamwork, and promoting effective communication by aligning individual strengths with team needs.
Application:
The tool aids in understanding individual preferences and roles, helping individuals and teams play to their strengths.
It provides insights into how individuals relate to others, gather information, make decisions, and organize tasks.
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Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
