Developing Trust

Trust is developed when people learn that the others will not take advantage, will keep your interests in mind, and are trustworthy in general.  They do what they say they will do when they say they will do it. Most people are vulnerable in two areas in interdisciplinary collaborations:

  • Whether they know what they should know, meaning that people are not keeping key information from them, and
  • That they will get credit for the work that they have done.

Consequently, many have found that it is important to set expectations about communication and credit sharing by writing, each a link to a full description:

  1. Collaborative Agreements
  2. “Welcome to the team” letter
  3. Language to put in to an offer letter
  4. Possible language to describe collaboration contributions for consideration for promotion and tenure
  5. Other things that foster trust among team members