Help the Team Members Build Trust

Stable teams can learn to build trust when they work together. Team members who focus on the work, who learn how to give and receive feedback, who can coach each other and receive coaching, can create trusting relationships. In Chapter 9, ​Create Technical Excellence​, I’ll talk about ways the team can focus on the work so they have a steady throughput.

If people are new to stable teams, they may never have worked at building trust with each other before. In Building Trust in Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life [SF01], Robert C. Solomon suggests people are trustworthy when they do the following:

• Deliver what they promise to deliver
• Are consistent in their actions and reactions
• Make integrity a cornerstone of their work
• Are willing to discuss, influence, and negotiate
• Trust in themselves and their colleagues

Agile approaches help teams and team members see what they promise to deliver. Being able to give and receive feedback and coaching can help people manage small problems before those problems become large. When people use technical practices that support ongoing work, they can create work that has integrity.

Interpersonal skills, by themselves, won’t guarantee the team can learn to trust each other. However, more team members can build trust when they have the interpersonal skills to manage their interactions.