Building and Maintaining Trust: Trust Building

Trust Building Activities (5 and 6)

5. Share Leadership and Power:

   While each team has a single leader to guide team actions, there may be times when that leader asks another team member, with expertise in a given area, to take charge and guide team actions and progress. While this is not a relinquishing of the overall team leadership, it does draw upon a team member's expertise and skill. It will encourage information sharing and allows others to develop leadership abilities. Sharing information and power are key trust building elements.

6. Build and Update Portfolios:

   As a team building activity, team members should decide what information is important to share on a team portfolio. While contact information, experience and skills are pretty standard, teams may decide to include a picture, non-work activities, hobbies, and beliefs as part of the portfolio. It may include a humorous story or as story of triumph over struggle or adversity. It needs to be things team members are willing to share. The portfolio should be a living document where it is updated and changed. It may be part of a team wiki, webpage, Google doc or Facebook group. It may be used to have one team member introduce an international team member in an effort to get to know everyone. However, care should be taken in deciding what information to share as personal and cultural preferences may not encourage such openness. It is also important to consider who has access to the information. More than one person has lost a job or been embarrassed by a Facebook post that was open to all.