Trust is not your team’s problem.

“If trust is an issue for team members, the task is too easy.”

I’ve coached, led, participated in and observed work teams for 20 plus years. During that time, I estimate the word ‘trust’ has surfaced more than 10,000 times.

There's nothing wrong with the term. In many cases, it’s an apt description. The problem is that in 9,900 occasions the word leads to no change.

The problem with the term, trust, is that when probed, people can’t explain what they really mean. There’s no doubt they feel something. That feeling is not pleasant. There’s little doubt that the feeling leads to suboptimal outcomes. But, when interrogated, the phrase ‘trust’ tends to fall short.

Teams bias towards using it as a ‘catch all’. The team has conflict, ‘we lack trust’. The team has performance issues, ‘we lack trust’. The team lacks respect for the leader, ‘we lack trust'.

Many of us can relate. We know what trust means, but we also know why it’s fraught.

• What if the person least trusted is the team leader?

• What if lack of trust means that whatever is expressed publicly is then used against that person?

• What if the feeling is there, but it is truly difficult to articulate the behaviours and consequences that make it up.

Here’s a reframe.

Take the element of trust out of the equation.

There is one cluster of teams that don’t surface trust much, if at all. Teams that are focused on a problem no individual can solve on their own.

To be clearer, the primary reason the world needs teams. If individuals can do something faster and at better quality, give the problem to those individuals. If AI can so something faster and at better quality, engage the AI solution.

Teams exist for one purpose only. To solve the problems that no one individual can solve on their own.

Trust surfaces often because most teams are not really teams. They’re working groups of individuals. They’re manufactured to align to spans of control. Often constructed to accommodate remuneration bands and job descriptions.

There’s a simple response to this dilemma. It’s a response that doesn’t require a re-organisation and job spills. It definitely doesn’t need consultants.

Simply set more difficult goals for the team. (NOT THE INDIVIDUALS).

The team must share the one goal and purpose. There must be inter-dependence. Each member must feel vested in the efforts and skills of the other members. This team task must be impossible for even the most ‘talented’ in the team.

There are so many terms out there that are used, re-hashed, amplified. Some of them, like empathy and trust, hold extra clout. They sound worthy of consideration and contemplation. They carry a weight that deserves attention.

Don’t get sucked in. They are just words for now.

My response to the word ‘trust’.

1. Is this really a team (or a mock team)?
2. Is this team owning and working towards a difficult goal or task?
3. Is this team interdependent on each other?
4. Does the leader treat the team as a team or a combination of individuals?

And only then, will I factor in that there might be something more going on with team dynamics. Until then, I’ll assume that there is simpler answer to the problems this team faces.