Trust Building Exercises

Maria Edgeworth said, 'the human heart, at whatever age, opens to the heart that opens in return'. This may be a love quote, however the same holds true while building trust. In order to lead or to be led, you have to open both, your heart and your mind, to trust your colleagues. The rate of success is directly proportional to the trust you have with your work subordinates. To enhance the levels of trust, it's essential that the participants work together. Trust building activities are great help in building mutual trust, respect, empathy and understanding towards each other. Conducting trust building exercises will break down cultural and social barriers amongst people in your organization. Here are some trust building activities and team building activities that will help your organization to foster the asset of trust with cumulative appreciation.

Mine Field
Mine field involves trust and communication. Amongst most of the trust building exercises, mine field can be played by persons of all ages. To play this game, make pairs of two and scatter the things all around the place. Blind fold one person and let the other person guide him/her to pick up a list of scattered items. Among the scattered items, place a few 'mines', which the blindfolded person must avoid, while picking up the list of items. This can be a good team building activity too.

Wall Crash
When we say 'I trust you', we also mean, that we feel safe when we are with that person. Amongst most of the trust building exercises, wall crash is designed in such a way that it helps in building that 'secure' feeling. Have the whole group line up in front of a wall (obviously a few meters way from the wall). Make two of the members stand next to the wall with a net in their hands. Blind fold everyone standing in the line. One by one, let each person walk into the wall. The other two, standing next to the wall with a net are supposed to grab the persons before they hit the wall. Let people walk into the walk in the first round. As you increase the number of rounds, increase the speed of walking too, till members are running fast.

Conveyor Belt
While trusting a person, we are sure of the fact that no matter what, the person will be there. In other words, there is a guarantee that the person will be responsible. Playing conveyor belt will teach the members to be responsible towards each other. To play this game, make two lines of the members and make them stand in front of each other, facing one another. Preferably, have people with equal height stand in front of each other. Make one person lie down and let the first pair lift the person and pass him/her along the line, as though a parcel being passed through the human conveyor belt. At the end of this, place the person down. To get the most out of the game, ask the person to close eyes.

Control Tower
In this game the members get to choose their own partners. Play this game, in a known environment for better implementation. Create an obstacle course within the room or wherever you are playing the game. Out of the pairs formed, blindfold one person, while the other person, shows the way through the instructions. In between the obstacle course, let the other person put on the blindfold. Quickly rearrange the items and continue the game with a role reversal. At the end of the game take a review of feelings of those who played. Compare the feelings and take a note of who trusts whom and how much!

All the trust building exercises require the person to be blindfolded. That does not mean, you should trust the person blindly! The reason doing the trust building activities blindfolded is to see with our beyond what our eyes let us see. Its to hear and feel. Listening to the other person goes a long way in building trust and strengthening relationships. As the aforementioned quote goes, trust building is really about listening with your open heart.