Patrick Leoncini in his book “Five Dysfunctions of a Team” talks about trust being the foundation for a well oiled team.  But, what I found interesting was that the typical definition for trust is not the kind of trust needed for a great team.  Check this out:

Typical definition of TRUST: assurance that someone can and will complete a task based on their past experience, performance or credentials.

Team definition of TRUST: believing that someone has the best interest of the mission at heart whenever they approach a task or engage in dialogue about the mission.

So, it has little to do with how you have performed in the past or your experience.   Sure, competence is important, but for a team to work well, there must be a foundation of trust amongst the members.  A trust that is based on each member knowing that the others are acting purely out of concern for the mission and not for themselves or any other political agenda.  Sometimes that means you have to shoot some dogs.

I love that!  We’re gonna build teams based on trust at Canvas.  We’ve got a mission to accomplish that is way too important to let be tainted with politics.