Trust – what teams are built on
A couple of weeks ago, I had to take a CT scan – no worries, the purpose was to get clarity on an earlier finding and the result was in my favor. However, the experience taught me something interesting. To begin with, I was told that I only needed to take an oral contrast liquid but out of the blue, I was also given an injection. Coincidentally I had recently read an article about the risks associated with contrast liquids and felt a tad nervous. Just before administering the injection, the nurse told me that I would feel a burning sensation in my entire body. At that point in time, I was already lying on the scanner, and it was too late to step off.
At that moment, something struck me. I just needed to trust these people. They are professionals who do this all the time. So, I gave in, surrendered, let go of the momentary doubts. Not without a tiny prayer, I will admit. When I look back, I realized that the only thing that calmed me down in that moment was the need to trust others. They were people I did not know, whom I would most likely never see again. They were experts in their field but did not tell me the details of what they were going to do next.
I have seen many posts from people about the vaccination as they make statements about medical procedures and try to draw parallels.
But I don’t think it is the medical procedure that is the core problem of those doubting the vaccination, it is instead the fact that they have lost trust. They have lost trust in the institutions that are promoting vaccinations. Trust in their governments, trust in big pharma providers, trust in the independence of mainstream media. Since my article series is centred on the theme of teams, it brings me to a pertinent question - what is the correlation between trust and teams in the professional environment?
A team comprises people who may not know each other entirely. But to function as a cohesive unit, they need to trust each other. They need to have belief in each other’s abilities and judgement to achieve a common purpose. Trust is quoted to be one of the core elements of healthy company cultures and tops the list whenever I ask people what they consider important for their company ethos. So, what makes some companies more trustworthy than the others? Research shows that top-performing companies report higher levels of trust than less-successful teams. Trust seems to be the foundation and precondition for team success.
What does it take to build trust between team members? Let’s reserve that for the next article. In the meanwhile, do share your thoughts or experiences on learning to trust those you might not know. How important is trust for you?
