Trust is an essential element in building high-performing teams and implementing Agile principles. It enables open communication, reduces bureaucracy, and strengthens collaboration. Authors like Patrick Lencioni, Simon Sinek, and Solomon & Flores emphasize that trust must be earned through consistent actions and cultivated by leadership. Without trust, organizations face hidden costs such as inefficiency, low morale, and poor teamwork. Ultimately, trust empowers teams to focus on collective goals and work effectively toward them.

One of the key assets you need to build with the teams you work with is trust! Difficult to measure and slow to establish, trust is a fundamental quality in highly productive teams. However, the time it takes to build this sentiment is inversely proportional to the time it takes to destroy it.

Drawing a parallel with the Agile Manifesto, trust is a key factor in practicing its values. The most efficient form of communication occurs when you leave your desk to talk to a team member directly. The principle of valuing individuals and interactions over processes and tools demands trust because, in the end, even after resolving issues with your colleague, you often hear the famous phrase: "Could you send me an email to confirm what we discussed?"

Today, the greatest competitive advantage you should prioritize is teamwork.

Returning to the Agile Manifesto, trust is essential for practicing its other values. In an environment where you collaborate with the customer and trust that the product will be delivered, excessive bureaucracy for negotiating contracts is eliminated. Similarly, your product will work, and changes will be respected without requiring extensive documentation to update requirements. In summary, a trusting environment eliminates unnecessary bureaucracy.

American consultant Patrick Lencioni, in his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, places trust at the base of the pyramid for teamwork. Lencioni states that dysfunctions are systemic and that trust limits the development of all other team qualities. Team members often have a hidden need to avoid showing their vulnerabilities, presenting themselves as invulnerable to others.

When trust exists, team members will engage in productive conflicts, which in turn increase commitment to group decisions, allowing members to hold each other accountable for agreements. A team with such characteristics will shift focus from individual egos to collective goals.

Lencioni explains:

The lack of trust among team members stems from the desire to appear invulnerable within the group.

Some characteristics of teams with low trust include:

• Hiding their weaknesses and mistakes from each other.
• Hesitating to ask for help or provide feedback.
• Reluctance to help others outside their areas of responsibility.
• Jumping to conclusions about others’ intentions and abilities without clarification.
• Failing to recognize or utilize each other’s skills and experiences.
• Wasting time and energy managing behaviors to make a good impression.
• Holding grudges.
• Avoiding meetings and finding excuses to avoid spending time with colleague

In the context of team-building, Lencioni defines trust as:

The certainty among team members that everyone has good intentions, with no need for defensiveness or reservations. Essentially, teammates should feel comfortable being vulnerable with one another.

Simon Sinek, another prominent author on this subject, argues that trust cannot be taught. Trust, like loyalty, is a feeling. It must be earned through a series of actions that prove we are worthy of it.

When joining or forming a new team, individuals initially do not feel a sense of belonging. Over time, as clients, traditions, and policies become familiar, small and consistent actions build trust. After 8–10 months, you may begin to feel part of the team. Trust cannot be commanded: "Trust me" or "Trust your colleague." Nor can it be given a deadline: "In 8 months, I'll trust you."

Sinek emphasizes that leadership is responsible for fostering an environment of trust. He explains:

When we don’t trust the people we work with, we become cynical, selfish, and paranoid. We act in self-preservation, which severely damages the organization’s culture.

Building Trust: Insights from Solomon and Flores

The title of this section shares its name with the book Building Trust by Robert Solomon and Fernando Flores, a key reference on this topic. The authors assert that once trust is lost in workplace relationships, people tend to give up on it entirely.

In today's organizations, most agree that trust is essential for strengthening corporate culture. However, many struggle to define what it means to have or lack trust. The authors describe a detrimental scenario they call "cordial hypocrisy":

A strong tendency in organizations, driven by loyalty or fear, to pretend trust exists where it does not. People maintain politeness in the name of harmony, while cynicism and distrust act as corrosive forces within the organization.

Solomon and Flores define trust as:

An option, a choice. It is an active part of our lives, not something innate or taken for granted. Trust requires skill and commitment, not just luck or mutual understanding. It often becomes evident only when it collapses. Trust is not something we possess but something we exercise.

The Cost of Distrust

Distrust is an invisible cost and a major challenge for leaders is bringing the invisible into focus for decision-making and daily operations. Leaders often focus on tangible, measurable aspects, overlooking hidden costs that don't appear in financial reports and are hard to quantify. Individually, invisible costs may seem insignificant but collectively, they can represent 20–30% of a company’s total expenses, as described by Antônio Augusto Moreira (2011). Other sources of invisible costs include:

• Excessive bureaucracy.
• High employee turnover.
• Weak controls over management-level expenses.
• Favoritism in hiring.
• Outdated technology and equipment.
• Low creativity among employees.

Henrique Santana, in the Systemic Leadership Course by Software Zen, explains:

The visible guides. The invisible drives.

Conclusion

Distrust limits our ability to act and collaborate as a team. Glenn Parker, in his book Team Power, states that a team agrees on a goal, recognizing that the only way to achieve it is through collaboration. Distrust makes this process slower, more expensive, and more complex, as underlying issues often remain hidden.

Trust enables people to work together with more freedom, without constantly questioning if they can rely on each other.

References:

1. Building Trust – Robert Solomon and Fernando Flores
2. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
3. Simon Sinek – Video
4. Invisible Costs – AMCHAM article
5. Team Power – Glenn Parker