Tidal ConsultingThe 6 Team Pacts
All pacts

Pact 5 of 6 · Relational Investment

Trust Pact

Agenda PDF unavailable

The agreement to invest deliberately in the relationships that make candour, risk, and repair possible.

Overview

Trust in senior teams has two components: confidence in competence and confidence in intent. The Trust Pact addresses both, and asks whether the team invests in relationship deliberately rather than hoping it accumulates.

Vulnerability-based trust — the ability to say 'I don't know', 'I got that wrong', or 'I'm struggling' — is the enabling condition for every other pact.

Repair matters more than the absence of rupture. Teams that have addressed a breach directly are usually more trusting than teams that have never tested it.

Signs of strength

  • •Genuinely strong relationships beyond the functional
  • •Deliberate, meaningful investment in connection
  • •Breaches of trust addressed rather than absorbed
  • •Safe to admit error, ignorance, or strain

Signs of strain

  • •Relationships purely transactional
  • •Connection activities experienced as performative
  • •An old rupture still shaping behaviour
  • •Intent routinely questioned in private

Questions worth asking

  • “Who on this team do I know least well, and what has that cost us?”
  • “Where has trust been damaged and never repaired?”
  • “What would I need to say to be fully honest here?”

Workshop agenda

Half day to full day

This agenda is currently being updated and is not available to run or download. It's shown here for reference only.

Outcome: Shared personal histories, one repaired relationship conversation, and an agreed connection rhythm.

  1. 0:00

    Frame & data walk-through

    Review Trust Pact scores; distinguish competence trust from intent trust.

  2. 0:25

    Personal histories

    Each member shares formative experiences that shaped how they work and lead. Uninterrupted.

  3. 1:20

    Break

    15 minutes.

  4. 1:35

    What I need from you

    Structured pairs: each states what they need from the other to work at their best.

  5. 2:20

    Repair conversation

    Where a specific rupture exists, work it with facilitation. Otherwise, run an appreciation and impact round.

  6. 3:05

    Designing connection

    Agree a realistic rhythm of investment — what, how often, and who convenes.

  7. 3:25

    Commitments

    Each member names one relationship they will invest in before the next session.

Materials

Personal history prompts · Paired conversation guide · Connection rhythm planner

← All pactsPrivileges Pact →