Previous Dilemma: How can you develop trust in a distrusting team?

Somehow, the environment surrounding my team is a negative one, and no one trusts each other. I’m not sure how it happened, as it was like this before I took over the team. How can one create trust in a work team when the team members are suspicious of and mistrust each other? Have a meeting to discuss the issues? Send them to training?

— Julie

Summary of Advice Received

It Takes a Village to Build Trust

Repairing the broken parts of the team machine

by Meryl K. Evans, Editor, Professional Services Journal

I have a laptop — a secondary computer known as “Red” for its color — that stays as clean and empty as possible. My main desktop computer handles the bulk of my work. I don’t want to have to worry about losing stuff on the laptop, too.

Red has as few software applications on it as possible. Although I use it to test and review apps, I uninstall them as soon as I complete the testing. No matter how hard I try, I need at least three applications to maximize Red: One to protect it from viruses and malware. One to browse the Internet. One to share my files with the desktop. The point is that one application can’t do it all — make the most of Red while protecting it from the bad guys.

Building trust within a team doesn’t have one solution either, says a reader. Here are a few tools to use to repair the broken team and turn it into a stronger one:

• Combine meetings with a suggestion box.
• Motivate with competition.
• Gain mid-level management’s respect.
• Head out of the office.

Share your experiences and tips for melting away the distrust to create a supportive team environment, or ask your own question.

Combine meetings with a suggestion box

Obviously, one or two meetings with the team won’t be enough, not with this kind of discord. A reader recommends using a combination of meetings and a suggestion box:

1. Hold a short team meeting and let team members know you’ll have a suggestion box so they can share ideas to improve morale and share issues and things on their mind anonymously. This gives them a chance to vent, and you a way to ascertain the seriousness of the issues.
2. Meet every other week to discuss items from the suggestion box. Assign action items. This is the part where the team feels heard and empowered.
3. Identify the causes of the friction and try to resolve them by working with individuals and the team.
4. Show how teamwork makes a difference. Recognize employees who do something that exemplifies teamwork.

“Take every advantage in your meetings to discuss the positives before discussing the ‘opportunities,’ as you will have a more attentive audience,” the reader advises.

Motivate with competition

This suggestion may surprise some because competition also brings out the worst in people. Mike Kennedy, senior vice president, sales and business development at Panacea Healthcare Solutions, Inc. has seen competition with simple, inexpensive rewards improve morale and compel employees to work together toward a common goal. Kennedy encourages switching up team members in every competition so they all learn to work with each other at some point.

Kennedy says, “I have had success with competitions as simple as putting golf balls into a cup across the room, playing darts, going outside for a quick game of ladder-ball, even shooting baskets with a wad of paper and a wastebasket will work. And throw in a game of chance or mental skills to give everyone a chance to win.” This can work with non-work related activities and take an hour or less, one day a week. “Switching up the games can allow each member of your team to excel in an area where he or she might have skill.”

Gain mid-level management’s respect

While one solution won’t solve them all, a reader says that it all comes down to one principle, “Mutual respect between employees and management.” Here’s his story.

“I built a team from the ground-up that was tight-knit, and people would go to the ends of the earth for each other. As we grew, I introduced managers, in some cases by promotions from within. This had the opposite effect I had anticipated.

“Rather than continuing the camaraderie, the new management put a level of suspicion and mistrust between line employee and management. Line employees didn’t believe the mid-level managers had their best interests in mind because of management style changes implemented.

“If there could be one thing I put my finger on, it was that while a culmination of many things morphed the team to its former state, one foundational area that really degraded was respect for and from the mid-level management team.”

To solve this problem, the reader recommends the previously mentioned suggestions plus these to close the gap between employees and mid-level managers:

• Increase management-to-employee communications.
• Increase management engagement in day-to-day activities instead of only conducting management tasks (working managers). (Such activities include billing engagements, spending time with customers and collaborating with individuals and small teams.)
• Put less emphasis on the management structure and more on the mission.
• Coach managers to ‘work with’ employees rather than have them ‘work for’ the manager.

These actions help employees feel empowered to take initiative and feel like they have control in their work.

Head out of the office

Sometimes a break from the environment and daily work can melt some of the dissension. A reader recommends doing this by going someplace that’s fun and casual where they need to complete a task. “This could be as simple as volunteering at a soup kitchen, packing up a school library that’s moving to a new location, something that puts all team members in a new environment where they need to identify what to do together and complete the task in a defined (short) time period.”

You may have heard about those teambuilding activities where facilitators assign a task to teams that require them to reach a single shared goal. These activities can be fun and lead to laughter. Some teams simply go do something fun without a task, like visiting an amusement park where most of the activities are more fun in pairs or in a group setting.

What other ways can you bring a team together? Have you been in this situation? How did you manage it? If you face other work challenges, ask a question.

About the editor

Meryl K. Evans is senior editor at InternetVIZ and the content maven behind the Connected Digest, IT Solutions Journal and Professional Services Journal. Follow her on Twitter @merylkevans.