“Trust is knowing that when a team member does push you, they’re doing it because they care about the team.” Patrick Lencioni
We’ve been working a lot recently with teams who through building trust and relationships are arriving at a place of healthy, constructive conflict in service of maximising team achievement and results.
If trust is absent, many will either avoid putting their head above the parapet and openly disagreeing with others or pushing you harder, or will push in a way that is destructive and counter-productive.
By building strong relationships based on deep trust, it becomes okay to disagree or to push others – and yourself – harder, because there is a shared goal or purpose towards which you are working. And disagreement or a push is more likely to be viewed as ‘just another perspective’ rather than potentially destabilising when you know it’s because they just want the best for the team result.
How deep are the relationships and trust in your team? How do you know they are deep enough to allow healthy conflict? How do you encourage creative conflict so that people can have their say?
What are your experiences of the impact of trust – or its absence – in teams?