Need Better Team Results? Let’s Build Trust.

Trust lies at the core of team performance. Without it, everything suffers.

Teams avoid hard conversations. People nod along but don’t fully commit. Accountability slips. And instead of focusing on outcomes, individuals retreat to their corners.

Patrick Lencioni puts it plainly in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team:

“Trust is the foundation of real teamwork. And so the first dysfunction is a failure on the part of team members to understand and open up to one another.”

In his model, trust sits at the base of the pyramid. A lack of trust is not just one of the five dysfunctions - it’s foundational.

The truth is, nearly every team can benefit from increased trust. But do we really need expensive offsites and trust fall exercises?

WASHI is an app extension of Microsoft Teams and Slack that helps teams embed trust into their everyday work.

How? By providing the structure and psychological safety needed to work through challenges productively - and most importantly, together.

Washi guides your team through a consistent process:

• Frame issues as open-ended questions

• Contribute freely with alternative answers and pros/cons

- Everyone can see the ideas and build on them

- No one sees who said what

• View the team’s collective ranking of alternatives—with rationale

• Finalize a direction forward with shared context

• Commit - even if they disagree

• Reference the decision later to avoid confusion or rework

Why does this work?

Because when I use Washi, I trust that I’ll be heard.

I trust that my perspective matters.

I trust that I’m part of the process - and that decisions won’t just be “handed down” to me.

And when that kind of trust becomes part of the operating system, teams change.

They solve issues productively. They hold each other accountable.

And they get better results - together.

If you’d like to know more, check out our Team Intelligence Manifesto at www.washi.com/manifesto