Building Trust in Transformation Teams

I’m LA working with a transformation client. I often find the people doing the work will give you half a chance if you listen before you talk. If you lead with trust but verify.

We talk meet with people individually. If they have cross functional teams, whole teams. We assure them we are assessing the system and what helps and doesn’t help them get their work done. That their leaders want to know what to do differently/ better and that we understand it is on the leaders to follow through. That we are here to help make that happen.

We try to get a large enough sample to create some anonymity. We ask permission to share what we learn. That we will do so without attribution. We give them an opportunity to read and give corrections and concerns before we share anything with leadership.

Our team of six did 30 interviews in 3 days. A lot to take in and very little sleep but immersion isn’t a bad thing if you do it with a talented, collaborative assessment team of differing perspectives and the requisite skill sets. If you dive in with a sense of joy and urgency. If you love learning. And are energized when people pleasantly surprise you.

That is, truly embody a high performing team.