Building Effective Teams

Tips and Guidance for Team Effectiveness

  1. Trust and believability are synonymous. We need both together, neither alone will do. What few people realise is that trust and believability are processed in the pre-conscious area of the brain – in particular the limbic area – which serves as a gateway to cognition. The limbic system processes information 80 000 times faster than the conscious cerebral cortex. The conscious mind can process only 126 bits of info per second and only 40 bits of human speech per second. Our senses can receive 10 million bits of input per second. The limbic area gives us an instantaneous reading on believability and trustworthiness.
  2. Trust is an emotional strength that begins with the feeling of self-worth and purpose. When we trust ourselves, we can extend this trust to others and receive it in return. Trust becomes a conductor for positivity. Michael Hammer, a business strategist says: “The overheads of distrusting or wary relationships are enormous”; and Tom Peters states that “Technique and technology are important. But adding trust is the issue of the decade”. Charles Handy asks us “How do you manage people whom you do not see and whom you cannot control or fire – because they may not be your employees?” The answer is short and strong: “By trusting them.”
  3. When we reach out to strangers and acknowledge them in some way without expecting anything in return, this trust, in most cases will pay off in one way or another. Trust is something Bill Gates believes in, he says that “if you trust yourself and those around you so much that you give away 70% of what you own, it can only translate into profit.”
  4. It is obvious that there are many dimensions to building and sustaining trust. Each dimension as important as the next. When people don’t trust each other, when they ignore feelings and alter facts or anticipate ideas it may increase their vulnerability for misunderstanding and erroneous assumptions dramatically. There is evidence to suggest that business trust depends first and foremost on making emotional contact with one another.
  5. How to build trust:
    1. Be relax and present during interactions. Sit down while interacting with others.
    2. Don’t make any ‘time-urgent’ movements such as looking at your watch or cell to indicate that you are concerned about time or disinterested.