Team Building

10 Elements of Trust in Teams

May 26, 2008 12:00 PM
Most business leaders agree that without trust, teams lack the fundamentals to deliver phenomenal results.

In his article, 8 essential elements for trusting teams

Blaine Collins asserts that "One of the most telling predictors of a team’s success is the extent to which it builds trust among team members."

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."
- Henry Ford

What makes a trusting team? Following are 8 essential elements that set apart teams that possess a strong trust factor.

Social Exchanges or Rapport

Social exchanges are critical in the early stages of team building, and continue to be important throughout the team’s existence. Discussions of family, weekend activities, and personal interests help team members understand the values and priorities of one another and build strong personal bonds. When companies hire, especially in small business, a big part of fit comes down to what people's personal passions are and where they are at in their lives. One of the most cohesive companies I've ever witnessed, hired all musicians, and religiously every afternoon, the CEO blew everyone away at Halo (a video game) on weekends, there were jam sessions, but most importantly, mornings were reserved for getting down to business. This company has twice been on Profit Magazine's list of Canada's top 100 fastest growing privately held companies.

Showing Enthusiasm

I have to agree with Mr. Collins on this one - nothing gets teams rolling like positive energy. In IC. Maxwell's book, best-selling book "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership," Maxwell's Law #16 is "The Law of the Big Mo" which is short for momentum:

"Momentum is capital. With every success, you build momentum that makes the next success easier. Take something small and use its success to do something bigger."

When it comes specifically to team building events, this paints a pretty clear picture of how we succeed with a change issue, product launch or other challenge: get everyone excited then leverage that with momentum!

Encourage Each Other's Ideas and Reserve Judgement

Everyone has sat at the boardroom table and bit their lip, just dying to share that great idea, or propose a simple way to solve a daunting problem, but held back because someone in the room would kill the idea before it could take flight.. If you haven't, congratulations, your team is in pretty good shape! Some people even go as far as researching the heck out of their idea for their own vindication, but never quite muster up the courage to get crucified by their supposed teammates - can you blame them!!  What a tragic waste!!

Here's a neat little ditty: in the most abusive theater of opinion: high school, I had a teacher intro his entire class with a simple slide: "Leave Your Ego at the Door" he then asked everyone what he thought it meant..

He finished the class with an interesting slide: "There is Only One Grade for this Class.. if one of you Fails, you all Fail"

It was an outdoor ed class, and I'm sure had it been math class, that teacher would have been eaten alive by a jury of his peers at the PTA meeting.

Moral of the story: our class got an A+, so if a bunch of high school students can do it, why can't adults who are paid to perform.. Don't despair, the expectations need to change a little, but amidst the right "enthusiasm, and the right expectations," ideas can thrive. If it only took a slide and a 20 minute speech for a high school group to get it, I think a group of adults can figure it out.

Great teams encourage each other to contribute ideas, without judgement open mindedness and encouragement. Proof is in the pudding: www.salesforce.com has the highest growth and the highest P/E ration on the NYSE. Why is this?? One reason: creative cooperation! This company has 100,000 people involved in it's product development and marketing! They engage customers, employees and partners in a very transparent dialogue with their Idea Exchange about how to make things better. Similar to Digg.com, salesforce.com allows anyone to contribute and idea, and fellow users add votes to it. The top issues have as many as 100,000 votes.

Trusting Your Colleagues Means Skipping the Blame Game

Teams with strong foundation of trust don't need to point fingers, because they know everyone's there for the right reasons. Mistakes still happen, but the team treats them as just what they are: mistakes.

Strong teams deal with this issues by ensuring it won't happen again, getting what learning is needed and most importantly, move on without getting hung up on the past. Great teams make mistakes, learn and move on quickly - sans finger-pointing and wasting energy on the blame game.

Reward Initiative and Risk Taking

Jack Welch's Rule # 8 - Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example

What most people are so impressed about with Welch is that he appears to have revolutionized a culture that would have taken GE the way of the dinosaur very quickly. He instead has made risk-taking an expectation.

"Too many managers urge their people to try new things and then whack them in the head when they fail. And too many live in not-invented-here worlds of their own making. If you want your people to experiment, set the example yourself. And when you try something new and fail, take responsibility, but don't beat yourself up. Be light-hearted, and even humorous about it - others will catch the drift that they are free to try and fail, too." - Jack Welch

Mistakes are Great Learning, not a Reason to Hang Someone!

Regular Communication

Trusting teams communicate with a great deal of regularity. Proactive communication keeps everyone in the loop and not wondering what each other are working on.

Timely, Relevant Feedback

Providing feedback is an essential activity for trusting teams. Timely feeback allows for two things: 1. the person can improve or adapt 2. the person giving feedback does not need to 'fester' and in an inevitable eventuality, gossip to others.

There is a great saying for managers that helps get buy-in "conflict because you care" if teammates take the same approach, the feedback will be accurately and appropriately shared, and will be well received.

Individual Initiative

Members on trusting teams take the initiative to offer solutions, rather than simply identifying problems or issues that need attention. Because of high trust, team members feel safe enough to suggest alternatives even when they lack proof that their solutions will work.

Task Orientation

Trusting teams take the time to establish procedural norms and expectations in the early stages of team formation. Once these are in place, however, trusting teams shift their focus to the tasks at hand. This shift implicitly acknowledges that the procedures and rules are created to support progress toward team objectives. Team processes are a means to an end rather than an end themselves. Thus, trusting teams recognize that norms can be adapted during the course of projects, as needed and agreed upon by team members. A task orientation allows process to fall into the background as productivity takes center stage.

Managing Pressure

Trusting teams have an incredible threshold for pressure, because they feel like teammates are equally committed to seeing things through, and that they will pull their weight.

Related posts:

So Now that we know it's important.. How can I build trust in my organization??

Great events, and annual meetings are an opportunity to set the tone for cultural change.. Most companies use a team building event or speaker as a way to encourage creativity, break down barriers, and build excitement for the year to come.

Download a complete whitepaper on 10 steps to create a great team building event

Posted by James Carter at May 26, 2008 12:00 PM

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