There is a concerning downward trend in the workforce that’s hindering team and culture performance.
Employees’ trust in leadership and their belief the organization cares about their well-being each hit lows in 2024, according to Gallup.
While the concepts of trust and well-being aren’t typically linked in organizations, they are in fact, interconnected.
In developing the 5Cs model, we discovered Connection is at the heart of team cohesion and culture. Connection reflects the level of connection everyone feels with each other. It encompasses the subfactors of trust and well-being. These two aspects allow teams and organizations to build into every single layer of the model.
The 5Cs tool is an evidenced-based model that captures the five critical elements to create high performing teams and thriving cultures. The elements are: Connection, Candid Communication, Clarity, Collaboration and Contribution. In a series of five posts, I’ll dive into each element in depth, starting with Connection.
Our research results highlight trust and well-being are foundational for teams and organizations to reach their full potential. Working in environments where we trust and care holistically for each other boosts all other areas.
Unfortunately, organizations often struggle by not having a roadmap or knowing where to focus to move the needles on these areas, as demonstrated by the declines in both trust and well-being.
Here’s an overview of the status quo organizational approaches to trust and well-being:
- Trust: Research has consistently shown trust is foundational for team performance. While building trust is a well-known component to foster high performing teams, leaders don’t always know what to focus on to improve trust or how it impacts other aspects of performance.
- Wellbeing: In contrast, there are gaps in the research on measuring well-being’s impact on teams and organizations. Sadly, the majority of businesses have ignored the importance of human well-being for too long. Wellbeing is considered completely separate from the organization’s strategy or leadership—it is typically approached with one-off “Corporate Wellness” programs.
However, organizations don’t need to remain at the status quo and can improve these foundational aspects of teams and culture with the 5Cs Model. It starts with the importance of Connection.
Overview of the Connection Element of the 5Cs
What it means: Connection within a team and organization reflects the ties that everyone feels with the entity’s ethos and with their colleagues. Connection encapsulates a deep sense of mutual trust that goes beyond mere association or involvement, and well-being that includes the physical, mental, and emotional health of members of the team and organization.
The Subfactors:
- Wellbeing is a measure of the emphasis placed on physical, mental, and emotional health by the team or organization.
- Trust refers to the trustworthiness and mutual trust that is fostered and reflected within the team or organization.
Our research results reveal Connection is the superpower to improving team cohesion and culture. The key reasons why:
- Connection is the most important ring of the 5Cs.
- The Connection ring impacts every other ring more significantly than the others.
- Connection is the individual element most predictive of job satisfaction, though all 5Cs combined are more predictive.
In the 5Cs tool, the Connection dimension measures how well employees feel connected to each other. The tool provides detailed insights on how teams and organizations are performing on the Connection subfactors of trust and well-being so leaders can focus on targeted solutions to improve.
Challenges when Connection is Low:
Low Connection environments don’t allow teams and organizations to produce the maximum level of results. People often feel isolated or disconnected from their peers or the organization’s culture. Overall, it creates an environment where all other elements of the 5Cs suffer—it’s not possible to reach high levels of the other elements.
Low levels of trust have physiological implications and actually changes our brain chemistry. Low trust is linked with being in a state of increased fear, where we feel threatened, act reactively, don’t have access to think clearly and create silos. It’s not an environment where people can do their best work or lean on each other.
When well-being is low, individuals don’t feel like the organization adequately supports their well-being. People don’t feel like they are cared about as a whole person, that self-care is valued, or that their mental health is supported. Low levels of well-being can impact an employee’s overall satisfaction and performance. It creates a negative environment, adversely impacting individuals, teams and the organization.
Benefits when Connection is High:
Environments of high trust and care create an upward spiral of openness and engagement. To the outside, it can look like teams are accomplishing the impossible. Magic happens where what teams and organizations can accomplish is much greater than the sum of its parts.
High Connection is the heart of how organizations accomplish all aspects of what they want to achieve.
High performing teams work effectively together, lean on each other and get into positive cycles for their own growth.
In a high trust environment, people feel safe, collaborate and have access to their full cognitive abilities. In The Neuroscience of Trust HBR article, Paul Zak discovered through his research: “People at high-trust companies report: 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, 40% less burnout.”
When well-being is high, everyone demonstrates they care about people mentally, physically and emotionally, which allows teams and organizations to progress to the next level of performance. Gallup found when employees believe their organization cares about their overall well-being, they are over 4 times more engaged, 7 times more likely to recommend their organization, 73% less likely to feel burned out at work, 53% less likely to be looking for a job and 50% more likely to thrive in life.
How to focus on each subfactor
1. Trust
Developing strong, connected relationships is the basis for building trust. Start by adding meaningful check-ins to the beginning of conversations by asking how people are doing or feeling. This is not about asking surface questions like what’s your favorite ice cream flavor. Instead, it’s an opportunity to connect on a deeper level as human beings, which develops trust. Examples include:
- How is everyone feeling on a scale of 1-10?
- How is your energy: green, yellow or red?
- What brought you joy recently?
2. Wellbeing
To acknowledge and show care for the whole person, create a dialogue around well-being and be open to speaking about it. I encourage leaders to share their own journeys and well-being. When they do so, they model caring for their well-being and give permission for the team to do the same. It doesn’t mean you need to expose your personal life. It does mean we can care about each other more holistically than our productivity.
Leaders could open a conversation with: how are we caring for ourselves and each other as a team, as humans?
If a team or organization has low or moderate results on the Connection ring of the 5Cs, it is the place to start to build a strong foundation for high performing teams and culture. Focusing on improving Connection will positively impact all other elements of the 5Cs— Candid Communication, Clarity, Collaboration and Contribution.
Ultimately, the Connection element emphasizes bringing greater humanity in the workplace. We must place trust and well-being at the center of how organizations operate and integrate both aspects into how we approach improving leaders, teams and organizations.
