The Resource-Investigator is probably the most immediately likeable member of the team. They are relaxed, sociable and gregarious, with an interest that is easily aroused. Their responses tend to be positive and enthusiastic, though they are prone to put things down as quickly as they take them up.
The Resource-Investigator is the member of the team who goes outside the group and brings information, ideas and developments back to it. They make friends easily and has masses of outside contacts. They are rarely in their office, and when they are they are probably on the phone. This type of person is the salesperson, the diplomat, the liason office, always exploring new possibilities in the wider world outside. Their ability to stimulate ideas and encourage innovation by this activity wuld lead most people to mistake this type of person for an ideas person, but they do not have the radical originality this distinguishes the Plant: for all that, the Resource-Investigator is quick to see the relevance of new ideas. Without the stimulus of others, for example in a solitary job, this type of person can easily become bored, demoralised and ineffective. Within the team, however, this type of person is a good improviser, active under pressure, but can over-relax when it eases. The Resource-Investigator can fail to follow up tasks they undertook in one of their frequent bursts of short-lived enthusiasm. Their range and variety of outside interests can lead the Resource-Investigator, like the Plant, to spend too much time on irrelevancies that interest them: nevertheless theirs is the most important team role to preserve the team from stagnation, fossilisation, and losing touch with reality.