Whether remote work began recently or you are already part of a long established distributed work team, it takes a measure of trust to let your employees work from home. Trust is the main ingredient along with transparency, openness, and making sure that the remote setup actually works. As an example, Microsoft engineering teams are dispersed all over the globe and across all time zones. They have a single goal of getting a product designed, developed, and released. How does that work? According to John Elliott, Principal Architect for Microsoft Teams, success is sustained through trust with the colleagues on your team. Elliott says you know you have the right people when you have confidence they will fulfill their commitments even when you’re in Seattle and they’re in Prague, Bangalore, Sunnyvale, or New York City.
As we strive to better understand how people want to work together, we have discovered that most workers want transparency in their organizations and want to know more about how decisions are made. Attracting top talent requires an open culture of communication and collaboration because people want a deeper partnership with decision makers and stronger bonds with colleagues. We have learned that integration within the team results in synchronization and organizational agility. Overall, this agility contributes to good organizational health which, research by McKinsey defines as the ability to rally around a common vision, execute effectively, and create a culture of innovation. Optimally healthy organizations deliver roughly three times better returns to shareholders.
“Hire mature, self-starting employees, and support them to do the best work of their careers. We’ve found that if you celebrate your employees, and trust them in their remote work, they will do an excellent job in return.”
--Wiktor Schmidt, CEO Netguru Is the Future of Workplace Remote?
To further improve your work environment, make room for reflection and new ideas by curating what you read and listen to. There is a myth that pervades our modern mindset that we can pay attention to several things at once. Don’t believe the hype. Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience at MIT, says that we simply can't focus on more than one thing at a time. What we do instead is switch our attention from task to task extremely quickly. Since time is not unlimited, use it wisely. Choose your sources wisely, and pick ones you can trust to inform you with facts and a balanced view.
A bonus gem from from HBR.org: Harvard Business Review has opened up free access to all of their resources for leading and working through coronavirus. Harvard Business Review
Trust Building Tips
Assemble a Tactical Team
Assemble a small trusted team and give them enough leeway to make rapid tactical decisions.
- Lead Your Business Through the Coronavirus Crisis. Harvard Business Review
Foster a Culture of Honesty
...virtual teams, like traditional ones, can only succeed if all the members of the team—from the leadership to the most junior member—feel like they can be candid. People need to feel empowered to speak openly in service of the team and its mission and each other—even when it's risky to do so.
- ‘Virtual’ doesn’t have to mean second best. Your remote team can outrun traditional ones. Keith Ferrazzi. Fast Company.
Create Psychological Safety
If you create a sense of psychological safety on your own team starting now, you can expect to see higher levels of engagement, increased motivation to tackle difficult problems, more learning and development opportunities, and better performance
-High Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety Here’s How to Create It. HBR.org.
Ice Breaker Questions
Type: Real-time, just for fun, do it regularly
Time: 5 minutes
Tools required: Videoconferencing
Even though our team has been working together for a couple of years and feel pretty connected already, there are always more interesting tid-bits to learn about each other.
Some of our team’s favorite questions include:
Who was the last artist you searched for on your music streaming service of choice?
Put these morning routine items in order: breakfast, coffee/tea, open up your laptop
What was something that always frightened you as a child?
If you were to change your name, what name would you adopt going forward? Why?
What item, that you don't already have, would you most like to own?
If you could choose one hobby, what hobby would you take up and why?
Free Download
Download our list of Ice Breaker Activities, from our Better Teams workshops.
Starting meetings with a 10 minute ice breaker is a small step in building bridges and cultivating trust. Through ice breakers you could discover that your seemingly shy colleague is an experienced improv actor who can organize the next company celebration.
Fill out the form below to download this free tool to use with your team!
Resources
We have bookmarked, tagged and saved hundreds of resources from our favorite sources. Here are a few that are resonating and inspiring us right now:
Podcast:
Work Life with Adam Grant
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant takes you inside the minds of some of the world’s most unusual professionals to explore the science of making work not suck. From learning how to love criticism to harnessing the power of frustration, one thing’s for sure: You’ll never see your job the same way again. Give it a Listen
Video:
How to Build Trust on Your Virtual Team
Harvard Business Review
Keith Ferrazzi, CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight, offers four tips for unifying and strengthening globally dispersed teams. Watch the Video
Articles:
Trust, Tools, and Teamwork: What Workers Want
Slack
A root cause of resistance to change is that employees identify with and care for their organizations. People fear that after the change, the organization will no longer be the organization they value and identify with — and the higher the uncertainty surrounding the change, the more they anticipate such threats to the organizational identity they hold dear. Effective change leadership has to emphasize continuity — how will what is central to “who we are” as an organization be preserved, despite the uncertainty and changes on the horizon. Read the Article
Do You Really Trust Your Team and Do They Trust You?
Harvard Business Review
Trust in Performance: 1) How much do I trust my team members to follow through? 2) How much do I trust my team members to bring good judgment? 3) How much do I trust team members to represent me and the organization?
Trust in Principles: 1) How much do I trust my team members to practice an appropriate level of discretion? 2) Do I trust my team members to respect the psychological safety of others? 3) How much do I trust my team members’ underlying intentions and motivations? Read the Article
Ten Ways to Build Trust On Your Team
Forbes
1. Build trust in your organization by talking about fear and trust as business topics. 2. Build trust in your organization by stepping away from the philosophy of blaming and shaming employees for mistakes. 3. Build trust in your culture by reviewing your employee handbook and policies. 4. Build trust in your culture by getting your executives in front of employees often and in informal settings. 5. Build trust in your culture by valuing your employees as people instead of as production units. 6. Build trust in your culture by modeling appropriate leadership. 7. Build trust in your culture by admitting when you or the company makes mistakes. 8. Build a trusting culture by using human voice in your communications with employees. 9. Build trust in your culture by asking employees how they're doing, what they think and what they'd like to see at work -- all the time. 10. Build trust in your company by being honest. Read the Article
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