The Trust Discovery Canvas

The Trust Discovery Canvas is a team tool for aligning  and getting a common understanding of what trust is for us and what is not.

It is a visual simple way to collect and discuss patterns and stories of trust and mistrust behaviours.

What is the Trust Discovery Canvas?

The Trust Discovery Canvas is Business Model Canvas for teamwork. It is a free tool for teams, Scrum-Masters, change agents and facilitators to organize trust alignment meetings and bring team members on the same page. Why you need the canvas:

• Teach the team to level the playing field in a situation of trust/distrust. 
• Speak, align and level out mutual expectations.
• Work out a possible trust development  plan.

How to Use the Trust Discovery Canvas

Before you get started, download the template in PDF format or get the Mural template.

The Trust Discovery Canvas is conditionally divided into two parts. The first positive part is connected with trust and help to discover trust fostering examples and patterns. The second one is connected with mistrust and aims to discover distrust patterns and traits. 

The work with canvas consists of three common steps:

Step 1: Let’s begin from exploring the area of team trust. Fill in the left part of the canvas (except the central part) together with the team in this order: 

• Situations. Describe situations in which trust is demonstrated.
• Patterns. Common patterns of behavior in trust situations.
• Personal traits. Describe the personal qualities of someone you can trust.
• Emotions. Describe the feelings you feel for someone you trust.

Use the hint of the description on each block, what you need to investigate together with the team.

Step 2: Then truy to explore the area of mistrust. After filling in the left part, focus on diagnosing the distrust part: 

• Situations. Describe situations in which distrust is expressed.
• Patterns. Common  patterns of behavior in situations of distrust.
• Personal Quality. Describe the personal qualities  of the person you can’t trust.
• Emotions. Describe the feelings you feel for someone you do not trust.

Step 3: Let’s move to the action part. The final step is to search  and discuss possible actions that can help the team to foster and develop trust and overcome mistrust.  Choose the most interesting ones and transform them into a plan or team rules.

Tips:

• Use the possible options: the whole group works on the one canvas/ two groups work separately on the positive/negative part. 
• Try several mini-commands to work effectively.
• Cross combinations are possible – one command fills in the left part, the second one fills the right part. The both teams present the result together at the end. 
• Use combinations of Liberating Structures to work more efficiently. 

The Trust Discovering Canvas  is available in the following languages:

1. IN ENGLISH The Trust Discovering Canvas Eng
2. IN RUSSIAN The Trust Discovering Canvas Rus