Lack of trust between team members is one of the key dysfunctions that prevents high team performance. Here are three effective ways of helping a team build trust.

1. Becoming Vulnerable

Instructions to the team:
Becoming vulnerable is a critical component of building enduring trust. Take a few minutes to reflect on your past history and, in particular, on experiences that had a major effect in shaping the person you have become. Think also of times when you have experienced the greatest joy and the greatest sense of loss.
Choose one formative experience and one time of joy or loss to share with team colleagues. Note: you only have to share what you want – it’s OK to be just a little vulnerable at this stage in the team’s development.

Instructions to the team coach:
Personal disclosure of this kind may be something some or all members of the team aren’t used to. They may feel very uncomfortable about opening up in this way. So letting them decide what they want to reveal is vital.
This is one occasion where your own examples aren’t helpful. Disclosing your personal vulnerabilities to the team can be seen as intrusive and distracting – the intimacy required needs to be focused inwards, within the team. They may also need you to appear strong and invulnerable at this moment, to give a sense of close-by security.
Thank people for the honesty and openness of their stories and encourage them to thank each other. Insist that everyone allows the presenting member space and time to talk in their own way. Don’t allow questions, but do permit comments of support.
When everyone has had a turn, ask them to reflect for a couple of minutes. Then ask:

  • What did you learn about yourself?
  • What did you learn about your colleagues?
  • What did you learn about this team?

Encourage everyone to join in the discussion. Finally, ask one person to sum up on behalf of the team.

2. Making Each Other’s Life Easier

Instructions to the team:
Put in an envelope one thing you will do to make life easier for a colleague. Do the same for all members of the team and hand out the envelopes – not to be opened until you meet again a few weeks later.
When you do meet, have the conversation: What do you think I wrote in your envelope? Then open the envelopes.

Instructions to the team coach:
The covert objective of this exercise is to raise team members’ awareness/mindfulness of how helpful colleagues are, and to pay less attention to minor irritations or failures.
When the envelopes are opened a common reaction is “Oh yes, and you did that as well!”

3. Trust Networks

Instructions to the team:
Write down for each colleague two or three expectations about working with them. Have a mix of positive and negative, if possible, but with the emphasis on the positive. For example:

  • I can always rely on X for…
  • I can usually rely on X for…
  • I can’t rely on X for…

Share these in pairs to build a picture of your trust networks – who trusts you and who you trust, for what. Try not to be defensive – this is a great opportunity to use feedback to boost your influence within the team.
Collate the information into a team-wide trust matrix. Discuss how you will use this information to build greater trust within the team.

Instructions to the team coach:
This exercise can be a bit chicken-and-egg. It can be very powerful in building psychological safety; yet it demands psychological safety for people to open up sufficiently. So it’s essential to have permission from the team to step into this emotion-laden territory, and for the team to understand what will be involved.
A useful metaphor is: How much trust are you prepared to invest now, in order to gain a much higher level of trust later?
Be clear about the ground-rules. For example:

  • Everything is done with goodwill (settling old scores is not permitted)
  • If you feel defensive, shocked or angry, ask for some space (time out) to come to terms with the feedback and regain your equilibrium
  • Make a point of saying thank you – and meaning it
  • In giving someone bad news, you must take shared responsibility for helping them deal with it and working out ways in which they can inspire greater trust
  • Nobody can be trusted to deliver on everything!

© David Clutterbuck, 2015