Building Trust in Diverse Teams: A Concise Facilitation Handbook

*Updated 2010

What is trust? Why it is important in team performance? What increases or decreases the level of trust in a team? How can leaders build high levels of trust and maintain those in a team?

The answer, in short, is that without trust a team cannot function effectively – wherever they are and whatever they are doing. A lot has been written on what trust means in a wide range of contexts and situations, until now, there had not been a concerted effort to create a body of knowledge about trust as it specifically applies to diverse teams.

This Toolkit is a collection of exercises that could be used to develop trust in a team and/or increase its levels. it contains an explanation of the values, behaviours and characteristics that will help managers and team members recognize trust in action and the development of trust between team members. It also contains an explanation of why trust matters in teamwork; and a set of tools to help team managers and team members to build and measure trust in a team.

This toolkit provides any team member, manager or external facilitator with exercises they can use to develop trust in a new team or develop trust later in a team’s existence. It is for anyone who wants to build trust in their team or help a team to build trust between them.