Building Trust In Teams

Building strong teams and establishing greater trust within those teams are essential steps to building a Culture Of Accountability, where people effectively collaborate and focus on achieving Key Results. Of course, this requires avoiding ineffective Below The Line actions and attitudes that are defensive, blame-oriented, and very unproductive. Such Below The Line tendencies render people and teams ineffective, lead to dangerous mistakes, and compromise end results.

A large military contractor applied accountability and alignment principles to build trust and strengthen the team’s ability to deliver on their Key Results of refurbishing over two hundred C130 airplanes and two-dozen P3 Submarine Reconnaissance planes. Not only were they able to successfully execute on this aggressive initiative (a 20% increase in workload over the previous year), they did it with zero defects. The onsite General Manager had this to say about the journey: “There was a visible display of employee dedication and commitment…and a recognized increase in teamwork, cross-functional communication, and management commitment to process improvement and customer satisfaction.” As the team pulled together and delivered on their promises, trust soared.

When people effectively communicate with one another about what they are accountable to achieve and then follow-up in positive, principled ways, trust levels always increase. To learn more about how to establish a foundation of accountability that fosters trust and builds effective teams, join the Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com, where you can review actual client case studies.

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