Building trust through better thinking

The number one area for teams to improve performance is to increase the level of trust in the team. When there is high trust in teams there is no fear of retaliation, better sharing of ideas and experiences and better productivity. Trusting people to do what they say they will, communicate honestly and with authenticity is the basis of a more productive and engaged team. So how do you build better trust with your colleagues? Thinking underpins trust, when you consider peoples different perspectives you are on the road to build better trust. Use these questions to acknowledge peoples ideas and build trust:

Try to view the situation or problem from their point of view, ask them to clarify things for you, e.g."I heard that you said..."

Before jumping in to comment check to see if you have understood properly and have all the information. Perhaps say, "that was a lot of information, let me play that back to make sure I understand."

Use non judgemental language in assessing ideas, "I like what you've said, how can we expand on that?"

Be inclusive, question if you have everyone's input, "have we tested this idea with others?"

Be engaging, find out how to add actions to ideas "do we have plan or pilot that we can review?"

Trust is a word that we use alot, building real trust in teams means discovering, exploring, participating and engaging with each other and using all the teams thinking to achieve the goal.