The science of building trust, collaboration and teamwork

In his recent article “The Neuroscience of Trust” in the January-February edition of the Harvard Business Review, Paul Zak, professor of management, economics and psychology at Claremont Graduate University in California, concluded that certain management behaviours have a direct effect on the production of the hormone oxytocin in the body. 
Oxytocin is a brain chemical that facilitates collaboration and teamwork by reducing the fear individuals have of trusting strangers. In short, the more oxytocin employees produce, the greater potential to create a work culture of trust, collaboration and teamwork.
Zak goes further by assessing the impact of a high-trust business environment on business performance. What he discovered was that in high-trust work environments, performance excelled. For example, individuals self-reported they felt more engaged, were more productive, and exhibited a greater willingness to work with others. Moreover, these individuals felt more loyal to the company and aligned with its purpose.
So what behaviours produce oxytocin in people and lead to a culture of greater trust, collaboration and teamwork? According to Zak, there are eight management behaviours. They are: Giving recognition, setting challenging goals, empowering, letting people define their roles, sharing information, building relationships, enabling personal growth, and showing vulnerability.
Paul Zak’s work resonates with what I have found working with management teams here in Asia and around the world. Moreover, not only do they stimulate the production of oxytocin and other neurochemicals that create trust and teamwork, I believe they enable individuals to gain more control over their environment and feel more competent. 
This is important in today’s ever-changing world, where people often feel disoriented and lack confidence about what they need to do to succeed. 
Let’s explain each behaviour briefly and shed some light on how they work. Giving recognition. Neuroscience studies verify the benefits of positive reinforcement: Recognition motivates people and has a significant impact on trust. This is especially true when the recognition is given by peers immediately after a job well done.
Setting challenging goals. Setting challenging objectives and measuring progress inspire team members to focus and work together. If goals are unrealistically high, however, they can have the opposite effect.
Empowering. Giving capable people the authority to plan, structure and own how they execute their work fosters trust and teamwork. While it is important to oversee accomplishments periodically, it is counterproductive to micromanage.
Letting people define their roles. Not surprisingly, when people are able to select the projects they want to work on and to define their roles, they feel more trust and feel more accountability for results.
Sharing information. Individuals who are kept in the dark about a company’s strategy and how their jobs fit in experience high levels of anxiety. Informing people of how their work contributes to the big picture offsets this feeling.
Building relationships. Nurturing meaningful relationships at work has a huge benefit on building trust. Too often organisations focus only on accomplishing tasks without emphasising social bonding and the impact camaraderie can have on trust. 
Supporting personal growth. In organisations where career development and exploring how individuals can develop their potential are taken seriously, there is greater trust. When an organisation is committed to an individual’s growth, the individual reciprocates.
Larry Chao is managing director of Chao Group Ltd, an organisation-change consultancy helping |clients align and perform since 1995. He can be reached at [email protected].