A quick Google search reveals over 1,480,000,000 books have been written on the topic of teamwork. That's a lot of interest in studying how we work together! From Alden Mills’ Unstoppable Teams to General Stanley McChrystal's Team of Teams or even Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the message is clear: when we share a common purpose, when we know where we are headed, and when we trust one another we have the potential to operate as a high performing team!

Sounds great ... but how do we measure whether or not a team trusts one another?

At PointNorth, we have been operating as teams within teams since 2020. Our IBR team works together every day, on the same project, with the same teammates. Our non-IBR teammates move from clients and projects (often times multiple per day!), not always staying together on the same team. As a small firm, we are agile and we adjust to fit the client needs, our team capacity and the budget. But, it has left me wondering ... are we a team? Are we one PointNorth team? Do other organizations struggle with this dynamic too?

We continue to grow as our workload grows and the intense pressure of meeting deadlines becomes heightened. Growing our team has also created an opportunity to add new talent!

And, it has become clear, as in any new relationship, trust takes time to build.

In 1965 Bruce Tuckman developed the five stages of group development: forming, storming, norming and performing. (Later he added the fifth, adjourning). Do teams assess where they are in the group process? Do they establish working agreements to define how we will work together? How many teams create and operationalize expectations for how they will work together? That’s something that’s held us together as a team at PointNorth throughout the years. No matter who’s on the team at any given time, we all work according to a set of agreements, with the foundational one being,

I will do what I say I am going to do, when I say I will do it.

While it may be challenging to commit to a set of agreements it can incredibly powerful for a team to define how they will hold themselves and their teammates accountable as culture keepers! I was recently part of a team experience where we built our Safety Net. This began with each of us answering the question: what do I need to respectfully say what needs to be said. Powerful. Give this a try and see how it works with your team. Follow up with these questions to build your own team agreements:

• What can I commit to?

• What do I need from my teammates to build trust?

• How will I demonstrate I trust my team?

The foundation for all high-performing teams is trust so build a culture that recognizes and measures how we trust one another!