All of you who have been on the two-day retreat as a part of building great teams have done the trust walk. My favorite part of that exercise is not the first part when there is no talking; it’s not the second part where you can talk but the one person is still blindfolded. My favorite part is where we debrief what we learned from the exercise about leadership and building great teams. I really enjoy hearing the takeaways people have. And these never cease to amaze me. Below are my “Top 10” takeaways that I have heard from YOU about that exercise:
Top 10 Trust Walk Takeaways
1. Following well (and leading well) requires trust. There is a fairly obvious reason why it is called a trust walk—TRUST! The leader needs to trust the one she is leading, and the one being led needs to trust the leader. The title of the book The Speed of Trust by Steven Covey captures this well. You simply can’t lead any faster (or follow any faster) than the level of trust allows. On the rare occasion where someone hits their head on a branch or stumbles on a step during the trust walk, doubt immediately inserts itself. Anxiety in the system almost always slows things down!
2. Leading is harder than following…and following is harder than leading. It is genuinely different for different people. For some it was a relief not to have to be in control (being blind and led in silence). For some the burden of leading well and ensuring safety of their follower made leading more difficult. Following was easier. For others, leading was the easier part of the exercise—they trusted their own leadership.
3. Leaders rarely overcommunicate. The sighted, talking people who are leading always think they are overcommunicating and the blinded people being led never feel that way. This is fascinating to me and a great insight. Leaders may feel like they are overcommunicating and it is SELDOM received that way!
4. There are different ways to lead. And different people prefer different styles of leadership. One size does not fit all. Some were successful by leading from out front, some were successful by leading from behind, and others were successful leaders by leading alongside. Some even switch their leadership style mid-walk because they found another way was more effective!
5. What people hear you say is often very different than what they see, even when you are being very clear. When the blindfolds came off, it is always enjoyable to hear the followers expressing how different things actually look from what was verbally described. This was a great reminder to communicate in different ways (7 times/7 ways).
6. It is difficult to avoid the pace pressure. The pressure to speed up or slow down based upon those who are ahead and those who are behind you was often big. For those who are leading the trust walk, the awareness that the pair in front of them or behind them were going at a different pace often pressured them to slow down or speed up.
7. Non-verbal communication is powerful. So much of the trust walk exercise involves non-verbal communication. Combine that with the fact that those being led are still taking in sounds that they are processing, and we get a great picture of how our own non-verbal communication, combined with the other things people are hearing, greatly influence those we lead.
8. Threats in people’s minds can be greatly exaggerated from what is the actual reality. Ponds become enormous, the threat of squawking birds can seem imminent, a small incline can feel like a cliff—you get the picture. People develop pictures in their minds of things they believe are threatening,which may not reflect reality well at all.
9. Trying to physically make people do things externally is much harder than helping them to make good internally motivated decisions. In the pairs with a high level of trust, that strong internal motivation quickens the pace and heightens the enjoyment. When all a leader can do is physically and externally push another, things rarely go as well.
10. You have to allow a leader to lead. Those who you lead have an enormous amount of power to fight progress. When a direction a leader is leading is being resisted, it rarely goes well. The trust walk went best when you relaxed and followed the lead.
I hope you look back with fond memories of your two-day retreat! And I hope you continue to value the lessons learned about building great teams—including some of these great lessons from the trust walk.
Lead on!
Jeff
Image by blindfields. Used under Public Domain Dedication.
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