Pre-Job Brief Mastery

#13 What Is A Team

“A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other.” Simon Sinek

Merriam-Webster defines trust as the “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something”. When social scientists talk about trust, they often define it as “a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions or behavior of another.”

In more simple terms, if I expect that another person will be honest and reliable and if I believe that person has the ability to follow through on their positive intentions, then I am more likely to trust them.

Trusting another person is a big deal, because it’s risky. I could be wrong about that trust, and if I’m wrong, I could get hurt, be embarrassed, or lose something that’s important to me. Trusting someone makes me just a little bit vulnerable.

But trust is essential to an interdependent safety culture. If I trust you to do your job and that trust is well-placed, then the time I would have spent checking in, micro-managing, or even just doing it myself, I can spend instead on other tasks and responsibilities. If you trust me to respond well to unpleasant information, then the time I would have spent figuring things out on my own and back tracking to fix problems, I can spend following through on the plan we created. Trust turns a group of coworkers into a team, and working with a team is more productive, more safe, and more enjoyable.

While there are many ways to lose trust, there are fewer ways to build trust. One way to build that trust is by engaging your coworkers during the pre-job brief. When people have the opportunity to contribute their thoughts, ask their questions, and showcase their own expertise, they feel more confident and more valued. They can trust that you’re actually aware of what’s going on and that you can be counted on to hold up your end of the plan.

<< Previous

Next >>