Building trust in (remote) teams


Time to read:

5 minutes

We often think of trust as transactional and place it somewhere between autonomy and control. We strive to remove vulnerability from the equation as it feels too personal and intimate to use in a professional setting. Instead, we rely on accountability and predictability.

However, the data is clear: for your team to be creative, vulnerability and trust are essential. The extent to which you and your teammates feel comfortable enough to ask questions, admit mistakes, suggest something potentially stupid or make a suggestion for improvement without fear of criticism or rejection is a measure of psychological safety.

Amy Edmundson describes it as “the firm belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, asking questions, raising concerns, or making mistakes” or, in other words, the collective belief of a group that it is safe to take interpersonal risks.

Teams with strong psychological safety are far less prone to groupthink, more likely to achieve their goals and are much more creative overall. In fact, this is the most reliable indicator of team performance at Google.

What strategies are there to increase psychological safety and trust in teams?

Swift trust

At the beginning of team development, the most typical starting point is swift trust: a short-term, cognitive trust that team members need while working together towards a single goal, usually under time constraints. The main goal of this phase is to strengthen the team’s confidence in each other’s abilities.

Ways to promote swift trust:

  • Create an environment where the team can develop mutual reliance that comes with a solid understanding of the goals and purpose. A good mix of collaborative work and the opportunity to achieve short-term, clear and realistic goals will help build this kind of trust.
  • Encourage regular, clear and open communication between team members so that they understand each other’s goals, capabilities and expectations. Semi-structured meetings are good for overcoming initial fears and getting to know each other.
  • Focus on goals that offer the opportunity for collaboration, as this phase is about getting to know each other’s mindset. There’s no better way to build this kind of trust than by encouraging small shared successes.

How is working remotely different?

Let me illustrate that with 3 questions that are often trivial in an office context, but difficult in remote teams:

  • “Is this person angry with me or are they just being direct?” When working remotely, there are fewer cues such as tone of voice, body language and — most importantly, cultural, social, psychological or situational context. When everyone involved is confined to almost 2D heads and a smaller number of interactions, it can take more time to build a deeper understanding and consequently – trust.
  • “What phrase would you use to say that this is a stupid idea in your culture?” Teams working remotely also tend to have a wider range of cultural backgrounds. Even in countries that are geographically close to each other, people’s preferred ways of expressing themselves can be very different due to their different backgrounds. My favourite way to address this is to ask: How would someone in your culture say to a colleague or manager, “That’s a stupid idea”? You will be surprised how direct or nuanced the topic can be.
  • “How, when and where in this organisation do you say, “I’m afraid this isn’t working well, but I’m struggling to find a better approach”? Good teams are characterised by being able to express their ideas and concerns freely, without fear of judgement or the expectation of knowing all the answers. Hybrid or remote working is usually associated with less transparent and established norms and rules for communication. Structure and clarity around roles, goals and processes are therefore all the more important.

How do you promote trust in remote teams?

  • Set up significantly more meetings at the beginning, especially informal conversations within the team. If you already have a good level of psychological safety, asynchronous communication is fantastic, but it takes time to build.
  • Communicate team norms and expectations to the remote team. Make sure you clearly outline the structure and processes, including informal ones.
  • Set up a buddy system. Remember that your buddy should not be your your manager — their main function is to create a network of informal relationships and psychological safety, which may be easier for peers. Do not just assign roles to people, make sure the guidelines of the buddy system are clearly defined.
  • Create space to talk about communication styles before tensions arise. This is an easy way to raise awareness in group conversations and lower the threshold for understanding the impact of different communication styles in the event of conflict.
  • Anticipate misunderstandings and bring the team together often to voice their concerns or thoughts. Set the expectation that everyone will speak up and demonstrate how this works.

Bonus: leadership essentials

For teams to feel comfortable with risk-taking and vulnerability, you need to lower the threshold to admit mistakes, ask questions or offer new ideas. The framework is as follows:

  1. Set the stage by framing the work as a learning problem and normalising the opportunity to learn from mistakes. Make the complexity and uncertainty of the project transparent to increase team members’ confidence to speak up.
  2. Acknowledge your own fallibility: It is important that you set an example for your team and normalise vulnerability. This includes being respectful and receptive to feedback and having the courage to take risks as a leader.
  3. Be genuinely curious and show initiative: ask your employees directly: What do you see out there that I do not see? What ideas do you have? Be humble in your request for advice.
helen ebert Avatar


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