Trust between members of a virtual team emerged as one of the strongest themes in my research and a constant challenge for virtual teams of all sizes. It is of particular concern in newly formed teams and situations where people are finding themselves in unusual situations, such as suddenly working from home after a career of co-location as is happening increasingly as organisations navigate the COVID 19 situation.



Trust was seen in virtual teams, as in the rest of life, as slow to build, easy to maintain with the appropriate behaviors on all sides yet so easy to break through even the simplest and seemingly innocent actions. It is a difficult and challenging matter in a more traditional virtual team and in this new world of work from home, the risks to trust between personnel is probably even greater.



Even a seemingly innocent email that is very blunt and out of context can begin to erode a trusting relationship, making the recipient begin to feel defensive and to withdraw their level of commitment, so, as an opening comment, be careful how you communicate!



Forms of trust



Trust is generally formed in a working situation through one of three mechanisms:



* Transactional trust – This is the most common in most workplaces. The trust is developed over time based on performance of both parties. The person delivering the work shows that they can be trusted to deliver the work by delivering on time, to the anticipated quality and with no surprises, the person receiving the work establishes their side of the trust relationship by working in a predictable manner, not surprising the person doing the work and allowing them to work without excess supervision.* Relational trust – This is a less common way of forming trust though still applicable in the environment where companies are suddenly fragmenting their workforce into a work from home regime. In relational trust the trust is established through the enjoyment of working with colleagues. In this situation personnel develop a trusting bond with people they enjoy working with and through this are more inclined to trust the work performed, the person performing the work and the person for whom the work is being performed.* Group trust – In group trust, team members are inclined to trust one another because of common backgrounds, experiences or relationships. It is particularly common in cultures where different social groups feel a strong sense of internal cohesion. This form of trust may actually be quite important in organisations suddenly moving from co-located to work from home as the common experiences being faced, such as the sense of being in this situation together, may lead to a greater feeling of social cohesion.



Each of these three forms of trust will impact an organisations workforce when they find themselves working from home differently, transactional work must still be maintained and delivered on time without the emergence of unnecessary levels of micromanagement, relationships must be maintained or if possible strengthened, this can be challenging when physically separated but, with the social media and communications tools now available (see my first post in this series), it is relatively easy to at least stay in touch, and a sense of group cohesion emerging from everyone being in this situation together and all trying to make the most of what they have may strengthen that mechanism.



Maintaining trust when working from home



So how does all this discussion of trust relate to a work from home scenario. Essentially, trust is the glue that will hold a team together as well as the lubricant to getting work done productively.