ššƒšš˜šš– š™·šš˜šš ššŠšš›ššDec 25, 2022
Dare Obasanjo

A lot has been written about how psychological safety leads to high performing teams.

A related characteristic I havenā€™t seen as much written about is trust. In fact, faith may be a better word than trust.

This is when you have absolute faith that a team member will handle a problem or problem area such that you donā€™t have to worry about it.

A key characteristic of high performing teams Iā€™ve seen is when everyone has faith in the competence and ability of their peers.

Itā€™s a great feeling.

Dec 25, 2022 at 9:10pmWeb
Show threadScott Hanselman šŸ‘øšŸ½šŸšŸŒ®Dec 25, 2022
@carnage4life love this reminder. Maybe time for you to come back on the podcast?
Show threadDare ObasanjoDec 25, 2022

@shanselman 15 years later? Time flies.

What would you like to talk about?

Show threadScott Hanselman šŸ‘øšŸ½šŸšŸŒ®Dec 25, 2022
@carnage4life given the theme of that show 700 episodes also - it might be interesting to revisit what you said and see if itā€™s all still true (very likely is!) https://hanselminutes.com/123/dare-obasanjo-on-social-networking
Dare Obasanjo on Social Networking

Scott sits down with Dare Obasanjo and they chat about the interesting problems that Social Networking sites face.

Show threadDare ObasanjoDec 25, 2022
@shanselman Iā€™ll take a listen after the holidays and let you know. I try to avoid activities that seem like media appearances to keep PR teams off my back. šŸ˜Š
Show threadlouisgrayDec 25, 2022
@carnage4life @shanselman one of my bigger regrets in blogging days was when I interviewed Dare at SXSW and due to network vs WiFi issues, the upload was corrupted and lost forever.
Show threadScott Hanselman šŸ‘øšŸ½šŸšŸŒ®Dec 25, 2022
@carnage4life lol Iā€™m under the radar. No one listens to my show
Show threadmodimoDec 25, 2022
@shanselman @carnage4life šŸ¤”
Show threadFrank X. ShawDec 26, 2022
@shanselman @carnage4life wat
Show threadMark Derricutt (talios)Dec 26, 2022
@shanselman @carnage4life we just watch your TikToks waiting for a dance :)
Show threadSteve SyfuhsDec 25, 2022
@shanselman @carnage4life wait, 2008 wasn't 15 years ago it was just la--ah boy.
Show threadMonica GiambittoDec 25, 2022
@carnage4life thatā€™s how I felt about my latest team. leaving them was really hard, I felt I had to worry about nothing because they would have my back.
Show threadDennis Faucher  Dec 25, 2022
@carnage4life Right on. At my company the HPT is a core tenet. That trust is built by hiring and retaining the right people, doing what you say you are going to do with quality and expediency, plus making sure that people "are in the right seat".
Show threadTim CarmodyDec 25, 2022
@carnage4life I wonder if we can explain why faith is a better word than trust. Is it because it goes beyond empirical evidence? Even if someone has a track record, your faith in them goes beyond that experience.
Show threadDare ObasanjoDec 25, 2022
@tim Thatā€™s exactly the reason. There are people who I donā€™t have to see evidence of them performing a task to be confident that they can.
Show threadAdiDec 26, 2022

@carnage4life @tim ā€œFaithā€ can also explain why people follow dum dums (right off the cliff sometimes).

Other times itā€™s dedication to the mission.

For instance, I bet there are tons of people at SpaceX & Tesla that know Musk isnā€™t as smart as people think he isā€¦. But they are dedicated to the mission of rockets or the environment/electric cars or whatever.

Show threadNick Tune šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡¦Dec 25, 2022
@carnage4life totally agree. Excellent observation.
Show threadAndy IdeDec 25, 2022

@carnage4life

Completely agree.

Show threadDiana LarsenDec 25, 2022
@carnage4life Yes. Totally. @tricia and I include it under resilience factor: ā€œcollaborative connectionā€ in our book, #LeadWithoutBlame; 1 of 4 resilient learning Team factors.
Show threadEric MainoDec 25, 2022
@carnage4life psychological safety and trust go hand in hand. Finding ways to establish both and then confidence, or faith as you call it, is so important. Uncertainty in an organization without trust, creates fear, however when trust exists uncertainty creates curiosity which often leads to innovation. Teams have to be willing to take risks without the fear of failure and trust is paramount to this.
Show threadDare ObasanjoDec 25, 2022
@ericmaino In retrospect, I think psychological safety is a consequence of trust and perhaps that is what should have been the major takeaway from the finding versus a second order effect.
Show threadcheesewzDec 25, 2022
@carnage4life @ericmaino I think that you nailed it. Safety comes from a foundation of trust. I've got a favorite movie scene that speaks to me about trust in teams: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-heck-does-outlaw-josey-wales-have-do-trust-teams-shawn-gorrell/
What the heck does The Outlaw Josey Wales have to do with trust in teams?

One of my most-loved movies is The Outlaw Josey Wales, which was directed by and starring one of my favorite actors of all time - Clint Eastwood.  A short synopsis of the film from Wikipedia is as follows:  "The film tells the story of Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered by Union

Show threadDare ObasanjoDec 25, 2022
@cheesewz @ericmaino I love that example of teamwork from a classic Clint Eastwood movie, thanks for sharing.
Show threadcheesewzDec 25, 2022
@carnage4life @ericmaino You're welcome:) I've been one of your silent followers from the bird site, and I appreciate your perspectives.
Show threadIF FritzscheDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life That is very true and well put!
Show threadOmar Shahine Dec 26, 2022
@carnage4life This is the main thesis to ā€œThe Five Dysfunctions of a Teamā€ https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756
Amazon.com

Show threadDare ObasanjoDec 26, 2022
@omar This resonates a lot. Psychological safety is a consequence of trust which is the foundational characteristic of high performing teams.
Show threadOmar Shahine Dec 26, 2022
@carnage4life Yep. Lots of connected stuff. Be aware of contempt. Contempt is death. Contempt results in divorce, wars, murder, and bad stuff at work.
Show threadJustin Ribeiro, Ph.D.Dec 26, 2022
@carnage4life It's a growing
(and interesting) stream of research to be sure. Ana Costa has a integrative review that's worth a read (I recently stumbled upon it in my own research). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/job.2213
Show threadJarnoVirtanenDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life It was #2 item on the Google's research: https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/
re:Work - The five keys to a successful Google team

Pod. Work group. Committee. Autonomous collective. Whatever you call it, youā€™re part of one at Google and probably wherever you work: a team. So if we know what makes managers great, why donā€™t we know what makes a team great?

Show threadJames Clarke He/HimDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life @shiftkey agree
Show threadramuunsDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life funnily enough the inverse is also very much true - the worst team I was ever on that caused me to go into a burnout? One where I had no faith at all in any of the other team members.
Show threadWil ShipleyDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life Biggest and happiest surprise when I took my first-ever job last year (at Apple) was my manager was always there to support me. Doing the best work of my life now.
Show threadCecilie šŸ§™ā€ā™€ļøDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life So... if you keep other/higher standards than the team norms to how problems should be handled, it would erode trust? šŸ˜³
Show threadź«€į¦” į§źŖ–į„…į„“ź«€Ęŗ Dec 26, 2022
@carnage4life @mattedgar trust, faith and value. Strong teams value each other and their different contributions. The places and times Iā€™ve been least happy have been with ā€˜leadershipā€™ look to standardise and focus value on conformity. IMO the different opinions, approaches and contributions that people bring are worth their weight in gold :)
Show threadChrisDec 26, 2022

@carnage4life trust is the foundation in the model described in 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.

I've been using the model for a few years now and it's focus on trust both builds rock solid teams and weeds out people that for some reason or other do not have the capacity to trust colleagues. Absolute recommendation.

Show threadvarx/techDec 26, 2022

@carnage4life Absolutely. An example of this: I can leave minor feedback on someone's merge request and then approve it, knowing that they'll 1) fix the things I pointed out before merging, 2) do it well, and 3) let me know if they disagree, rather than just ignoring me. Think of how much slower we'd have to work if I had to come back to re-approve before they could merge!

And similarly, I know that I can give feedback without people getting pissed off and defensive, so the code ends up in better shape. And vice versa, of courseā€”I think people know that I'm not going to bite them for pointing out a mistake I made or suggesting a better solution, or even just asking for clarification. There's sufficient humility on all sides.

I've only once had a coworker who got defensive and ghosted me when I suggested that something wasn't secure. It sucked. And yet I sometimes hear from people who work on entire teams that are like that! šŸ˜±

I think I'd still call it trust, not faith, but whatever you call it... it's critically important.

Show threadvarx/techDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life I guess I'd also break it down a little further. "Trust" in someone commonly has two meanings: Trusting in their competence, and trusting in their intentions. I wonder if "faith" in this context has the same breakdown, for you?
Show threadJeff GoldschrafeDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life The way I phrase this to my coworkers, talking about job roles, career ladders, team makeup and support functions, is that these things combine to set expectations for everyone on what they *don't* have to do, or become experts in, day to day
Show threadAdam FieldsDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life https://hachyderm.io/@fields/109479114758487812
Adam Fields (@[email protected])

Iā€™m coming around to the conclusion that the single most telling factor in whether an organization is functioning or not is whether people follow through on things.

Hachyderm.io
Show threadhellataDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life Shinya Yanagihara, who is not on Mastodon, posted excerpts of VMWare's psychological safety worship, and I was so "THIS!" about the pyramid that I redrew it into a work notebook.
In it, dependability is right next to psychological safety (although my main interest at the time were structure and meaning).
https://mobile.twitter.com/yanashin18618/status/1575280426356068353
Shinya Yanagihara on Twitter

ā€œ#VUCA and #PsychologicalSafetyā€

Twitter
Show threadClayton SlaughterDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life itā€™s really cool when you know a teammate will be honest and level that they need help or are overloaded because they proactively know whatā€™s on their plate and you get first warning of completion or trouble. Thatā€™s what I would connect with trust.
Show threadAllan ChowDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life "faith" may be a bit of a strong word to have as a core value tenent - "trust" already freaks some people out but it is so so important.
Show threadGeorge SudarkoffDec 26, 2022

@carnage4life @matthewskelton I love the trust => faith reframing for the particular aspect of trust youā€™re talking aboutā€”competence.

Do you think youā€™d still have faith if you knew the team sincerely cared for the cause and their teammates, and was generally reliable, but just needed to gain a bit more competence to solve the problem?

Show threadDare ObasanjoDec 26, 2022

@matthewskelton @sudarkoff Thatā€™s a good question. I think thereā€™s a level of trust that comes from people genuinely caring about a problem and wanting to collaborate without an agenda.

I think there is something transcendental when they are also competent enough you donā€™t have to worry about the quality of their work.

Itā€™s not like the former is bad, itā€™s that the latter is great.

Show threadGeorge SudarkoffDec 26, 2022

@carnage4life @matthewskelton agree! Trust is not all or nothing. I can trust someone in general, but also not trust that they can do a particular jobā€”like my kids cleaning their dishes šŸ¤£

Thatā€™s why I love your reframing!

Show threadAnn HDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life maybe a US/UK english thing but trust for me is based on demonstrated attitude and faith is belief where there is not yet experience. Trust is created in interaction, faith is held by an individual.
Show threadTimothy Schwinghamer (he/him)Dec 26, 2022
@carnage4life coming from the perspective of the federal public service in Canada, where I am a member of the Computional Analysis Research Support Unit, the "psychological safety" of our team is being founded more on our collective education regarding patriarchal white supremacist colonial cis-heteronormativity. We must be able to hear each contributor from their respective, particular experiences & we must be a safe environment in which we can ask questions & learn.
Show threadMichael HartleDec 26, 2022

@carnage4life I don't know; personally, as a non-religious person, the word "faith" does not click for me here.

In a good team, there is trust everyone gives their best ("prime directive") - by analyzing an issue / need, collecting possible solutions, weighing pros & cons and selecting the "most appropriate" one, implementing / testing / deploying it, ...; and always including other team members as appropriate, selecting by skillset, responsibility, ...

This trust can / needs to be gained...

Show threadMichael HartleDec 26, 2022

@carnage4life
...and cared for, which takes time and consideration, but ideally, no one is forced to do a "leap of faith".

I like the framing of the prime directive, as it allows to openly talk about what is required to perform as a team and build / retain that trust; maybe I could learn about X & Y to better help a team, or help coach a team member with sth. I know, etc.

Show threadarun sriniDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life totally agreed. And it reminds me of someone who extended the argument to UBI and universal healthcare- imagining a future where you don't always live in fear that bankruptcy is just two paychecks away, and how much more productive would the general populace become ?
Show threadBernd PorrDec 26, 2022
@carnage4life Trust, yes. Absolutely but I'd say able to admit mistakes and trusting the team members not to weaponise it. And that one can trust the team leader not to use it against one.
Show threadCheryl ADec 27, 2022
@carnage4life @shanselman if only there was a map to lead you to those teams.
Show threadPaul de RaaijDec 29, 2022
@carnage4life this is exactly why trust and psychological safety are two different things. At least, in the academic references Iā€™ve read.
Psychological safety is about how an individual feels about otherā€™s perspective on that individual. I feel safe to speak out, because I know others will be open and respectful about my opinion.
Trust is the confidence an individual has on others. That I can rely on them, etc.
In my view both concepts are distinct and complementing to each other.
Show threadEmily StarkMar 22, 2023
@carnage4life I think about this post of yours *all the time* since I read it. Do you have any thoughts on how to build faith/trust in a team? I can easily imagine various ways to improve psychological safety but when I see problems of low faith/trust I have no idea how to improve the situation.