Trust and Collaboration

25 Apr

Trust should be your first focus to improve collaboration but it is something most people struggle with. Does this sound familiar?

The Importance of Interpersonal and Competence Trust

You have built a relationship through consistently investing time and effort. This client relationship is valuable to you emotionally and for your work. You know your client may benefit from being introduced to one of your colleagues but you are forced to weigh up the risks versus benefits. Will your colleague respect your relationship and value the introduction? Will your colleague demonstrate a level of competence that ultimately helps your client or does the introduction become an unexpected source of friction. This can be a common but rarely spoken about barrier to collaboration.

The Motivation to Collaborate

Trust is a fundamental driver of collaboration, influencing whether individuals choose to work with others and how they engage in teamwork. The Wary – Trusting collaboration dimension defines a person’s natural inclination toward trust—whether they grant it readily or require it to be earned. Understanding trust and other collaboration behaviors can significantly impact the success of collaborative efforts.

The Psychology of Trust in Collaboration

A person’s tendency to trust others, whether colleagues or strangers, plays a key role in their willingness to collaborate (Kiffin-Petersen & Cordery, 2003). Trust is closely related to the personality trait of agreeableness, which influences cooperative behaviors (Wolff & Kim, 2012; Graziano & Eisenberg, 1997; Ashton et al., 1998). Trust can be categorized into two primary types:

Interpersonal Trust: A belief in others’ integrity, character, and intentions.

Competence Trust: Confidence in others’ abilities to perform tasks effectively without negative consequences.

The Role of Trust in Smart Collaboration

Dr. Heidi K. Gardner uses the terms Smart Collaboration and Smarter Collaboration to describe collaboration that brings together experts with diverse knowledge to create optimal solutions for complex challenges. Her research focuses on demonstrating that firms embracing collaboration generate higher revenues. Trust in this context of collaboration plays a pivotal role in determining whether individuals engage in collaboration and how effectively they contribute.

Understanding the Wary – Trusting dimension for Smart Collaboration

The Smart Collaboration Accelerator measures this dimension by assessing how individuals perceive and grant trust:

Highly Wary individuals require others to prove their trustworthiness before extending trust. They are analytical, data-driven, and cautious, particularly when collaborating with people they have not worked with before. Their objective approach helps ensure decisions are well-founded, reducing the risk of overconfidence in uncertain situations.
Highly Trusting individuals instinctively trust others’ competence and good intentions. They are naturally inclusive, quick to engage others in collaboration, and excel at bringing people together. Their ability to trust without requiring prior proof allows them to foster open and dynamic collaborative environments.

How Trust influences team collaboration

While trust is essential for collaboration, both Wary and Trusting individuals bring valuable perspectives. All collaborators have the potential to create psychological safety, enabling colleagues to contribute freely without fear of personal criticism. They help establish open communication and promote teamwork, even in remote work settings. This is key to developing a good ‘climate’ for collaboration. Whilst Trusting colleagues will tend to trust quickly and easily, Wary individuals bring a level of realism to collaboration. They prevent blind trust by ensuring decisions are backed by evidence, experience or in the absence of that - ideally creating a safety net in the case that the trust is misplaced. Their cautious approach can help teams navigate ‘people’ risks effectively.

For effective collaboration, teams benefit from a mix of Wary and Trusting individuals. Trusting individuals can recognize through their more Wary colleagues, the value of skepticism in ensuring sound decision-making. Wary individuals can become more open to trusting others based on demonstrated competence rather than withholding trust indefinitely.

Know the dynamic of trust in your team

Wary and Trusting people establish trust differently - you need to know the individuals’ perspectives in the team in order to know how to build trust effectively and efficiently.
Listen to those who are Wary. Managing their concerns could save you painful problems later.
Encourage people to be open about their lack of trust. Make sure the conversations are carefully managed to avoid personal attacks or criticism. Focus objectively on the issue and behaviour, not the person.
The Smart Collaboration Accelerator psychometric measures trust in teams.

References for research on trust in collaboration:

Ashton M, Paunonen SV, Helmes E, Douglas N. (1998). Kin altruism, reciprocal altruism, and the Big Five personality factors. Evolution and Human Behavior 1, 243–255.

Graziano W.G. and Eisenberg, N. (1997). Agreeableness: a dimension of personality. In Handbook of Personality Psychology, ed. R Hogan, R Johnson, S Briggs, pp. 795–824. San Diego, CA: Academic.

Kiffin-Petersen, Sandra & Cordery, John. (2003). Trust, individualism and job characteristics as predictors of employee preference for teamwork. International Journal of Human Resource Management. 14. 93-116.

Wolff & Kim (2012). The relationship between networking behaviors and the Big Five personality dimensions. Career Development International, 17(1), 43-66.