While many teams focus on building trust to improve performance, it's actually clarity that needs to be addressed first.

Research shows that teams need clear roles, goals and processes before they can effectively build trust and collaborate. This represents a significant shift from traditional thinking about team development, and the data shows that improving clarity drives up trust results, whilst working directly on trust doesn't impact clarity scores.

In this episode, Squadify’s Chief Data Officer, Juliet Owen re-joins Dan and Pia to discuss the role clarity plays in driving team performance.

This episode will help you

• Build team trust by first establishing clarity around roles, goals and processes rather than focusing directly on trust-building exercises
• Create effective one-page team documents that capture why the team exists, their collective goals, and non-negotiable behaviours
• Drive better team performance by shifting from individual KPIs to collective team goals that encourage collaboration rather than competition

Episode highlights

• [00:09:34] How teams are coping with change today
• [00:15:30] What we mean by trust
• [00:20:03] The trust gap
• [00:26:29] Case studies on building trust
• [00:33:12] What can you do?
• [00:34:59] Pia and Juliet's media recommendations
• [00:37:24] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
• You Can’t Ask That – Pia’s mdia recommendation
• The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley
• Connect with Juliet via LinkedIn
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note

Humans are crucial to AI adoption. While AI technology continues to advance, its effective implementation in business depends on people working with it rather than being replaced by it.

Inclusive AI means finding the right balance between technological advancement and human insight, rather than seeing AI as a simple push-button solution to complex knowledge work.

Susi O’Neill is a consultant, author, and speaker on frontier technology. She helps organisations implement AI effectively, analyses AI trends, and distills insights in her newsletter.

Three reasons to listen

• To move past the hype and see how humans will continue to be essential in an AI-enhanced workplace
• To start implementing an effective approach to AI adoption in your organisation
• To develop a more balanced perspective on technological change than the one propagated by Silicon Valley

Episode highlights

• [00:05:19] The nebulous nature of AI
• [00:11:17] Change is the constant
• [00:16:06] The falacy of the competetive advantage
• [00:18:16] Inclusive AI
• [00:26:18] How do we use AI responsibly?
• [00:29:05] Squadify's AI governance
• [00:33:06] Take your first step into AI
• [00:37:41] Suzi's media recommendations
• [00:40:32] Takeaways from Dan and Pia

Links

• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note
• Connect with Suzi via LinkedIn
• Rethinking the Hype Cycle – Suzi’s newsletter
• Women Leaders in Tech Outpace Men Counterparts in Generative AI Adoption
• Channel 4 Corporate AI Principles
• Supremacy, by Parmy Olson
• Threads (1984)
• Offal

Leaders who are respected are 12x more likely to be seen as effective than those who are simply liked. This is because respect is tied to competence, fairness, and consistency.

Respect in leadership isn't about titles or status, but about treating team members as capable adults rather than children. This helps avoid learned helplessness among teams, and creates environments where people feel safe to take risks, speak up, and even fail without fear of punishment.

Robyn Djelassi is a Chief People Officer, non-executive director, and coach. She runs her own HR consultancy working with organisations across Australia, with a focus on helping organisations achieve business results through their people.

Her approach to HR is a little different from the warm-and-fuzzy cliché that has permeated the industry, but is done with heart.

Robyn’s ADULTS leadership framework

• A: Accountability over approval. Don’t lead to be liked; lead to be trusted.
• D: Debrief, don’t rescue. When mistakes happen, resist fixing them for your team.
• U: Uncomfortable is useful. Don’t smooth the edges; people grow through the stretch.
• L: Let go of control. Ask “Have I made it clear what success looks like?”
• T: Trust before proof. Trust people before they’ve earned it.
• S: Say less, ask more. Use questions to help people think for themselves.

Episode highlights

• [00:09:03] What new leaders think leadership is
• [00:10:37] The "cool mum" approach to leadership
• [00:14:12] What we mean when we talk about respect
• [00:15:39] We're getting psychological safety wrong
• [00:20:07] Findings from Google's Project Aristotle
• [00:23:43] How to garner respect as a new leader
• [00:24:39] Robyn's ADULTS framework
• [00:30:32] Robyn's media recommendation
• [00:31:57] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• Connect with Robyn via LinkedIn
• We Used to be Journos – Robyn’s podcast recommendation
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note