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TRust isĀ built in the trenches

6/18/2025

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The truth about team building nobody tells you: Trust isn't built during retreats, it's built when everything is falling apart.

I watched a senior leadership team spend thousands on luxury retreats with ropes courses and trust falls. Two weeks later, they were back to undermining each other in meetings.

Why? Because real trust isn't built on mountaintops or over cocktails.

It's built in the trenches.

In my decade plus of working with executive teams, I've noticed a pattern:

The moments that truly bond teams aren't planned. They're when:
💥 Someone admits they don't have all the answers
💥 A teammate covers for someone during a family emergency
💥 The team pivots together when a project fails
💥 Someone says "yes, and" to an idea instead of shutting it down

Last month, I was facilitating a workshop with a tech company's leadership team. For months, they'd been stuck in a cycle of perfectionism and blame.

During an improv exercise, their CTO hesitated before sharing an incomplete idea. Instead of the usual eye-rolls, their CMO immediately built on it.
"Yes, and what if we also..."

The energy shifted instantly. By the end of the hour, they'd solved a problem that had stalled them for weeks.

That's when it hit me: Trust isn't an event. It's a practice.

Companies spend billions on orchestrated team-building, but miss the daily micro-moments that actually create psychological safety:
👉 Supporting half-formed ideas
👉 Acknowledging contributions
👉 Demonstrating reliability in small ways
👉 Responding constructively to failure

These everyday behaviors create trust far more effectively than any retreat.
The most cohesive teams I've worked with don't wait for scheduled bonding. They've embedded trust-building into their daily interactions through specific communication practices.

Want to build genuine team trust? Stop scheduling it and start practicing it.

I've compiled a few of the most effective daily trust-building exercises from our improv-based workshops into a free guide for HR leaders and team managers.

What's your experience? Has a formal team-building event ever created lasting change in your organization?
If not - contact us - we can help. Contact


#TeamDevelopment #OrganizationalTrust #LeadershipCommunication #PsychologicalSafety#ImprovMindset

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Hamlet

6/3/2025

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“…there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” 
Hamlet, act 2, scene 2.


I had a chance to see Eddie Izzard’s one person Hamlet. It is an amazing performance, watching her do every character at once, sometimes simultaneously. 

I have read, performed and studied Hamlet for years. About 30 to be exact. Every time, I hear something new. Perhaps it is because I am in different stages of my life, and different parts resonate with me now that didn’t at other times.

This one got me thinking:
         Act 2, Scene 2
         “…there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

In my work, we talk a lot about emotional intelligence. All I could think of was Jack Canfield’s theory:
          Situation+ response =experience

The situation is what it is. We can’t control it. What we can control, is how we respond to it. THAT is what shapes our experience. 

How we think about something, and choose to respond is what makes a situation good or bad. It is our thinking that makes it so.
​
Thank you Shakespeare for the eternal lessons of life.

If you're leading a team, managing change, or navigating conflict, how you think about challenges shapes how you respond—and how your team grows.
Through engaging, interactive workshops, I help professionals develop emotional intelligence and an improvmindset, and practice communication skills drawn from 30 years of performing and being an actor.
Want to bring these lessons to life for your team?

Let’s connect. Reach out to book a workshop that transforms mindset into action.
#LeadershipDevelopment #TeamWorkshops #EmotionalIntelligence #ImprovMindset 

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Mission: To create interpersonal environments where humans learn to be fully present in their possibilities, communicate in more authentic ways, and experience their limitless opportunities for innovation. 
Values:
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 - Believe all things are true and possible. Even opposites.
 - Service; free yourself through service to others.
 - Be present and willing to create a solution for this specific moment.
​ - Be true to yourself and your own feelings, giving others the permission to do the same.


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