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The Team Trust Index (also see, Do You trust your teams?, HBR, 2019) measures the degree to which team members perceive the behaviors that build trust and the values that support them, and for the team to achieve its goals & objectives.
Developing team trust can be thought of as “the work before the work,” meaning the mutual effort needed to build effective communications and relationships. Without it, other tasks get done less efficiently and effectively. It is often built slowly and can be eroded rapidly, so it makes sense to use a framework to help make discussion more productive & effective.
This tool will precisely help pinpoint the phase in which the team is currently in – a ideal, high functioning, low functioning or a disintegrating unit on the scale of team trust – this from the observed behaviors displayed by the members. The result is reflection of the phase, along with general intervention & nudges to salvage/improvise from there on.
The followup to this tool is to get to the science of building high performance teams – consisting of 9 core elements, the presence of which, leads to elevated consciousness, performance, & synergy; making the members travel from a group phase to being a high performance team.
The Science behind it – Trust is the foundation of all fruitful relationships ! (click to expand)
Building up the team trust to better experience & outcomes
Relationships are formed as trust develops. When trust diminishes, relationships become more distant, often leading to conflict. Getting team members engaged and committed to the team’s purpose, values and vision requires a high level of trust.
At the same time, being Trustworthy is Not Enough Everyone knows that trust is important, but being trustworthy does not necessarily build trust. It is behavior that builds trust, team members can be trustworthy, honest and ethical, and yet have other team members not trust them because of differences in behavioral style and different strengths and weaknesses in the behaviors that build trust. To increase effectiveness in building trust, team members need to take personal responsibility for their behavior and understand how it can affect the levels of trust other team members have for them.
Collaborative teams generate better ideas, have increased efficiency, share the workload and have a higher level of trust. When the teams have a higher level of trust, have mutual respect, open and honest conversations, effective decisions become the norm for team meetings.