Trust in Teams

How important is ‘trust’ in international relationships? Most people instinctively see it as essential but elusive. It can act both as the lubricant, which brings out the best in team co-operation, as well as the glue, which binds the whole group together across time, distance and cultural diversity. Research indicates that there are clear links between levels of trust within a team and the team’s overall effectiveness, levels of innovation, communication and creativity, and readiness to adapt and accept change.

The meaning and understanding of the concept of ‘trust’ is not universal so we may conclude that people from other cultures are untrustworthy simply because we have grown up giving different emphasis to a range of trustworthiness signals.

One of the key challenges for international teams is the establishment of an atmosphere of mutual trust. The ‘International Team Trust Indicator’© developed by WorldWork Ltd is a structured process for measuring the size and nature of the ‘trust gap’ within international teams and identifies behaviours required to build trust in a specific context.

How does it work?

Each team member completes a questionnaire which identifies the behaviours and attitudes they need from their colleagues if they are to trust them, and also what they themselves are actually experiencing in this respect. These individual results are pooled to provide an overall report, which identifies the trust gaps or deficits within the team.

The Benefits

The ‘International Team Trust Indicator’© can be used to support and enhance the development of Multicultural Team Building Programmes. Results can be used by the trainer to address specific issues and concerns, by including cross-cultural explanation and the development of individual and team strategies to overcome any difficulties, within the programme design.

For more details about any of our programmes please contact Customer Services at info@farnhamcastle.com.

© WorldWork Ltd