Building Bridges: Strengthening Team Trust

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Produce an agreed list of practical team behaviors and individual commitments that support everyday trust.

Use it when: Use when an intact team reports hesitation to ask for help, poor follow-through, or guarded communication.

Skip it when: Skip during an active HR investigation, acute workplace conflict, or with a newly assembled group that has not worked together yet.

Group arrangement: Pairs, trios, groups of 4 (with one group of 5 if numbers require), and whole-group consolidation

Timing: Matches the 90-minute agenda sequence observed in WorkshopBank

Materials and tools

• Sticky notes (one pad per participant)
• Dark felt-tip markers (one per participant)
• Flipchart paper or large whiteboard space
• Blue painter tape for posting flipchart pages
• One countdown timer visible to the room
• Shared digital whiteboard and video meeting platform for remote or hybrid delivery; each hybrid participant needs an individual device, headset and quiet place to join breakouts

Before participants arrive

1. Write the title 'What Trust Means' on one flipchart sheet and post it on the wall.
2. Set up a second empty flipchart titled 'Barriers to Trust' and a third titled 'Team Trust Code'.
3. Replicate these three titled frames on a shared digital whiteboard if running hybrid or remote.
4. Distribute sticky pads and markers to all in-person seats.

Say this to open

Welcome. Today we are looking at how trust operates on this team. We will examine what helps, identify common stumbling blocks, and set clear rules for how we want to work together. Everything you share about your past is strictly your choice, and our focus is on behaviors, not personal blame. Let's begin with a baseline definition.

How to run it

1. Define trust baseline 10 minutes

   Open the session using the opening script. Ask the room: 'What does trust mean to you in a team?' Collect 5 to 7 brief call-outs and record key phrases directly on the flipchart. Read back the captured words and transition to pair discussions.

2. Share trusted team stories 15 minutes

   Pair participants. If there is an odd number, form one trio. Instruct each person to take two minutes to describe a past team experience where trust was high, noting what concrete actions made it work. Prompt a switch after each two-minute turn, then use the rest of the first ten minutes to compare the actions that built trust. Reconvene the full room for the final 5 minutes to gather 3 quick examples of shared success factors.

3. Brainstorm trust barriers 15 minutes

   Give participants 4 minutes of silent writing. Each person writes observed barriers to trust on sticky notes, using one clear behavior per note (for example: 'canceling meetings without notice' or 'not admitting mistakes'). Collect notes on the 'Barriers to Trust' board. Spend 8 minutes clustering duplicates with the group into observable themes without naming individuals.

4. Exchange personal histories 20 minutes

   Divide participants into groups of 3 or 4. Any remainder forms a single group of 5 (for instance, 13 splits into 4, 4, and 5). Post three prompts: 'Where did you grow up?', 'What was a challenging experience you faced growing up?', and 'Who was an early role model and why?' Members take turns answering. Remind everyone that personal disclosure is strictly optional; anyone may pass on any question without comment.

5. Draft team trust code 20 minutes

   Review the clustered barriers. In their small groups, participants draft actionable rules that prevent those issues (for example: 'Give 24 hours notice if a deadline will slip'). Each group shares one top proposal. Quickly test for consensus using thumbs up or down. Record agreed proposals on the 'Team Trust Code' chart until the room settles on 4 to 7 core operating rules.

6. Record individual pledges and debrief 10 minutes

   Ask each person to write one personal commitment starting with 'I will...' and add their name (for example: 'I will raise roadblocks within 24 hours - Alex'). Participants post their notes around the code. Choose 3 to 4 volunteers to read theirs aloud. Close by asking the room one selected debrief question to finish on time.

Debrief questions

• Which agreed behavior in our code will require the biggest adjustment in our daily work?
• What is our agreed process when someone unintentionally violates one of these agreements?
• How will we revisit these commitments over the next month?

Finished output: A posted Team Trust Code containing 4 to 7 behavioral standards, surrounded by individual signed pledge notes.

Remote

Run via video meeting with an interactive digital whiteboard. Use breakout rooms for the pair storytelling (step 2) and small group histories (step 4). In steps 3 and 5, use sticky note widgets for silent brainstorming and clustering. In step 6, participants type their signed pledges onto the digital canvas and take turns reading them aloud.

Hybrid

UWT hybrid adaptation: everyone joins the video meeting on an individual device with a headset in a quiet spot; turn off room-speaker audio. Form groups from the full roster regardless of location. In step 2, use pairs with one trio for an odd total. Use breakouts for two-minute story turns, compare patterns through minute ten, then return to plenary for five minutes. In step 4, form breakout groups of 3 to 5 using the full roster. Everyone enters barrier notes, proposed rules and signed pledges directly on the shared digital board; no paper-to-board copying is required. Before writing, explain that board contributions are visible to all participants and editing history or wording may identify authors. People may omit identifying details from barrier notes or pass. Keep the existing writing, clustering and reporting limits.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may pass entirely on the personal history questions or substitute a neutral work-related story.
• Participants may hand barrier notes to the facilitator folded for discreet collection. Explain before writing that notes will be posted and read on the shared board. Folding does not guarantee anonymity: handwriting, wording or context may identify a person. Participants may leave out identifying details or decline to submit a note.

If the session gets stuck

Participants start naming specific colleagues when listing trust barriers.

Intervene immediately and reframe the input into a general practice: 'We focus on the behavior, not the person. Let's rewrite this as the system rule we want to see.'

Someone shares an intensely distressing personal trauma during the history step.

Acknowledge their contribution calmly, ensure the group maintains respectful silence, and remind the room that everyone chooses their own depth of sharing without pressure.

Terms used here

• Team Trust Code: A short list of observable, agreed-upon behavioral ground rules designed to prevent misunderstandings and support reliability.