How trust & teamwork are connected

The dysfunctions of a team

7 min readJul 22, 2014

Trust and the flow of music

In the late 90's I was working in a recording studio with artists every day. And I often wondered what factors were involved when some records turned out fantastic and some were banished to obscurity.

Many records that I worked on both had great songs and fantastic musicians playing on them, but often the end result seemed to be “less” than the sum of the individual parts when the musicians played and worked together to sculpt the music.

Creating music is at the same time a very collaborative and internalised process, it requires you to listen to musical cues from outside yourself (the other musicians). And add your own music (that you feel/hear inside yourself) to this.

What I saw over they years in the studio was that during the more successful recording sessions, the musicians playing had developed a strong trust for each others. And that this trust enabled them to play on an almost instinctual level with each others. This in turn enabled the music to flow during the recording-session.

What I saw was that in the recording studio trust between the musicians was a strong indicator for future success.

Trust as a social enabler

Outside of the recording studio issues of trust are familiar for all of us. It tends to not only be a concern at the more important and larger moments in life. Both at home and at work, issues of trust are a part of our days from the day we are born to the day we die.

The reason for this is that our minds didn’t develop in a social vacuum. And the human species evolved from primates living in social groups organised in closely knit communities. That means that the minds of our ancestors were sculpted by the challenges posed by living with others on whom they depended.

One of those challenges is the need to solve dilemmas of trust in the best possible way. And it’s precisely because of this fact that the human mind constantly tries to ascertain the trustworthiness of others while also weighing the need to be trustworthy itself.

The 5 dysfunctions of a team

One modern and quite simple model for how trust affects collaboration. Is the “five dysfunctions of a team” model that the american management consultant Patric Lenconi developed in 2005.

In this model trust is seen as the “foundational layer” of all human collaboration. And in this model each successive layer builds on the previous/lower one being fulfilled before the next one can be successfully utilised by a team.

The five dysfunctions of a team

#1: Absence of Trust

This base-dysfunction occurs because team members are reluctant to be vulnerable with one another and are unwilling to admit their mistakes, weaknesses, or ask for help.

#2: Fear of Conflict

Teams that are lacking trust are will also be incapable of engaging in unfiltered, passionate debate about key issues.

#3: Lack of Commitment

Without being able to deal with conflict, it is difficult for team members to commit to decisions.

#4: Avoidance of Accountability

When teams do not commit to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven individuals are hesitant to call their peers on actions and behaviours that may seem counterproductive to the overall good of the team.

#5: Inattention to Results

When succumbing to this dysfunction team members tend to put their own needs ahead of the collective goals of the team.

What is trust and absence of trust then?

In the context of this model, trust is the confidence that agendas among others in the team are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group. So in essence, all team members must be comfortable being vulnerable with one another.

The American psychologist David DeStono writes in his book “The truth about trust”:

“At the most basic level, the need to trust implies one fundamental fact: you're vulnerable. The ability to satisfy your needs or obtain the outcomes you desire is not entirely under your control.“

What Patric Lenconis model makes clear is that a solid base of trust to stand on is important for strong collaboration to emerge. As this trust will enable teams to successively deal with the other dysfunctions to get to the top of the pyramid in the model and become a truly high-performing team.

Some of the typical effects you can observe in a team that low trust are:

Team-members will waste energy and time managing their behaviours and interactions within the team.
They will dread team-meetings and avoid spending time together.
They will be reluctant to take risk.
They will be reluctant to ask assistance or offer assistance to others.
They conceal weaknesses and mistakes from others in the team.

Creating trust in a team

To get a team started with talking about trust I suggest you try these two simple exercises as a start for a discussion about trust and teamwork.

#1: Personal histories exercise:

Purpose of the exercise: To build trust by being more personal and showing vulnerability to each other through sharing personal stories.

Time required: Plan for about 3 minutes per person for this exercise.

Instructions: Visible to everyone, list these three questions:

Where did you grow up?
How many siblings do you have and where do you fall in the sibling order (oldest, youngest, etc)?
What was the most difficult, important or unique challenge of your childhood?

Share the ‘why’ of this exercise:

The importance of trust to enable teamwork.
A chance to get to know each other better.

Whoever you have start (I suggest that the leader be prepared to go first) make sure he or she shares something personal, honest and insightful about a challenge. How this person starts, sets the stage for everyone else.

If anyone shares something very personal or shocking, simply and quietly thank that person for sharing and move on.

#2: Team effectiveness exercise:

Purpose of exercise: To give team members a forum for providing one another with focused, direct and actionable feedback about how their individual behaviour is affecting the performance of the team.

Time required: One or two hours, depending on the size of the team and the skill of the facilitator.

Instructions: So that everyone can see, write down these two questions. And have all team members answer the questions about each member of the team other than themselves.

What is that person’s single most important behavioural quality that contributes to the strength of the team (that is, their strength)?
What is that person’s single most important behavioural quality that detracts from the strength of the team (that is, their weakness or problematic behaviour.)?

Share the ‘why’ of this exercise:

The importance of trust to enable teamwork.
A chance to give each others feedback on how our behaviors impact the team performance.

Also, make sure that everyone writes down their individual answers before hearing the opinions of the others. This is so that they are not tempted to change their answers based on what others have said.

When everyone have written down their feedback. Then, beginning with comments about the leader of the team, have all team members read their positive responses, one by one, until everyone has finished.

After this, ask the leader to respond to what people have said. (For example, “Any surprises? Any questions for clarification?”) Continuing to focus on the leader, have all team members read their negative responses, one by one, until everyone has finished. The continue with this sequence for every member of the team.

When all team members have received input from their peers, have each of them summarise aloud for the team the one or two key take-aways that they will work on individually.

The trust journey

In my own experience trust is indeed a key factor when building a high-performing team. And trust is something that you will have to work actively with building as well as respecting that it will take time.

Also, when trust is broken, we must be able to recognize that there is a problem, and we should work to make things right. Being honest when there is a problem and taking care of issues as they arise are good, solid ways to maintain existing trust on a team.

For those of you who just are starting to talk about trust and teamwork. The first simple steps to become a high-performing team is using the five dysfunctions model to discuss your teamwork, and also trying the two trust-exercises together!

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”
― George MacDonald