Building trust is the holy grail It is not surprising that in a global, virtual world, business people are developing an enormous interest in trust, says Niki Panteli, Director of the Center for Information Management at the University of Bath/UK.
In her article, "Trust in Global Virtual Teams" from the University's Ariadne web magazine, Dr.
Panteli states, "Trust enables cooperation and becomes the means for complexity reduction in situations where individuals must act with uncertainty because they are in possession of ambiguous or incomplete information.
" It is clear from other research as well that trust-based relationships eclipse power-based ones.
In Warwick Business School's white paper "The Outsourcing Enterprise 2," one of the seven key relationship lessons identified is: "For all but short-term arrangements, power-based relationships are poor substitutes for cooperation and trust building processes, given the high transaction costs of monitoring and of imposing sanctions, the negative orientations and behaviors adopted, and the limited goals that can be pursued by the parties.
" High-trust versus low-trust virtual teams Defining power as the capability of one party to exert influence on another, Dr.
Panteli's research includes a study of 18 culturally diverse, geographically dispersed virtual teams.
She and her partner in the study developed a table of factors that demonstrate the differences between high- and low-trust teams.
Among their conclusions are: High Trust Virtual Teams

• Shared goals - Awareness of shared goals, Time given to shared goals, Early and open debate of share goals, Primacy of team goals
• Power - Facilitator available, Focus on win-win scenarios, Knowledge recognized as power, Power differentials minimized
• Communications - Regular synchronous (e.
  g.
  phone & IM), Social interaction

Low Trust Virtual Teams

• Shared goals - No awareness of shared goals, Lack of shared goals, Opinions of others not considered, Primacy of individual goals
• Power - Power struggles, Coercion, Misunderstandings and conflicts of interest, Hierarchical power
• Communications - Irregular asynchronous (e.
  g.
  email), Little or no social interest

Power = responsibility Interestingly, Panteli and Tucker found that in high-trust teams, power moves to where the knowledge is on a team.
At Coherent Solutions, we have found this moveable power paradigm to help build trust on all sides.
In this model, power is equal to responsibility and team members tend to work together to develop both team and individual skills to shoulder their piece of a project's power/responsibility.
A model for building trust Trust cannot be meted out at the front-end of an outsourcing relationship.
It must be earned through day-to-day performance.
We believe the best approach is to use local project management and a four-stage outsourcing approach to build trust with clients:

• Open communication.
  Appropriate give-and-take accomplished via transparency with, and availability to, clients.
  Offshore team members should be treated as full members of the development team, and they should reciprocate by asking for clarification, challenge assumptions and offering suggestions.
  
• Commitment to Action.
  Clarity on which team members are responsible for what deliverables, combined with individual commitment to common objectives and priorities.
  
• Delivery accountability.
  A no-excuse environment in which team members hold themselves and each other responsible for deliverables.
  
• Focus on results.
  Outsourcing teams should track performance and celebrate individual and team successes.