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Building Trust in Diverse Teams:
Concise version
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Tool 1: Appreciative inquiry
Learning objectives
Gets team members to use real life examples of trust having a positive impact to build trust now
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Overall time required |
40 minutes |
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Group size |
8 + |
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Relevant trust Criteria |
Any, depending on the activity results |
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Resources required |
Copies of the ten criteria for trust for facilitator reference Flip-chart paper and marker pens (to pre-write instructions and record stories) Notepads, pens, and pencils Tape or blu-tack to post the flip-charts around the room |
Facilitation tips
Use this tool at any time in the life cycle of a team to develop trust between team members.
It’s particularly useful with teams that have already established a working relationship. When using this tool remember the following:
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How it works
1. Introduce the objectives of the session and the ideas behind appreciative enquiry:
- Focusing on positive experiences of things that work
- Getting team members to talk about their own experiences o Story-telling
- Identifying common themes the team can use to build trust o Generating a healthy and lively debate
2. Show the following on a flip-chart and ask everyone individually to think about it for a few minutes:
Describe a time when you were part of a team that had a high level of trust and respect among its members and from those outside the team. How were trust and respect built and communicated? What made it possible to establish trust in this group?
3. Split the participants into pairs, make sure that, as far as possible, pairs are mixed
(e.g. national and international, younger and older, male and female).
4. Ask each pair to share the experiences of high level of trust they have had in previous teams and take notes of the main elements on a flipchart.
5. If they need some help you could suggest the following questions to work around:
- What did you and the other people do to create a sense of trust?
- What was it about the situation that allowed trust to be high?
- What role did the leader or leaders play in building trust?
- What was it about the team’s task that helped them to build trust?
- Did a high level of trust help the team in performing its task?
- What were your feelings when you worked in that team?
- What was the team’s relationship with its environment (e.g. other teams, the organisation etc.) and how did this contribute to trust within the team?
6. Now ask some of the participants to summarise the story they have been told by their partners.
7. Now give everyone time to read all the different flipcharts and split them into 2 groups.
8. Ask each group to use the key themes from their past experience that have been identified on the flipcharts to prepare a proposal for how this team could work together.
9. As facilitator you may have to help the teams with their suggestions. Use the following criteria to judge whether each idea is useful:
- Does it challenge us? Is it different?
- Will people get passionate about it?
- How is it written – does it stress the positive and look forward?
- Is it what we need and want?
Remember: avoid abstract statements, always have a real example to support an idea or suggestion and make sure the plans are rooted in the real, lived experience of the whole team.
10. When all the suggestions are completed on the flip charts, hang them around the room and ask different people to read out all the statements – with enthusiasm.
11. Encourage the team to promote these suggestions to others and to make them visible so they will remember what they decided to do.
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