The Invisible Net, Trust and the Joy of Work

‘How did the parts go, for your test?’

I was deep in my thoughts, with a cup of coffee in my hand. Stepping away from the screen for a few minutes always gave me the space to clear my mind and find patterns. That voice brought me back to the coffee machine, where a tall man in a workshop vest was standing beside me, peering through his round glasses with a smile.

‘I made them the other day during the late shift and I knew they were important’, he added.

‘Yes, all went very well, many thanks for that’, I replied. I was genuinely grateful that everything came together at the right point in time and we had managed to extract important information from the test, thanks to the great work done for making the parts on time and that well. Time was limited, and, as usual, pressure was high: in racing, you cannot postpone a race weekend.

I wasn’t aware of who exactly had machined the parts, I was relatively new, but he must have known that I was coordinating the tests, either through the designers or because he had asked around. In a team of that size, not knowing everyone personally was normal, but an invisible thread connected us anyway. That thread was part of something larger, a reminder — and a lesson — of how good the team was at that point, when an invisible net tightly connected everyone and activated when something important had to be implemented in a short time.

The net made people aware of the importance of some actions and triggered the right interactions to ensure that every detail was fit for purpose. He was not looking for recognition, he was genuinely making sure that he had done his best part for the final outcome.

This way of working was not a lucky coincidence, it was the outcome of years of development of the team. Great teams, as we know, take time to develop, time over which the invisible net is woven. People work together, build trust, care about a shared outcome and, crucially, tune the interactions for the best results.

To a certain extent, organizations develop so that form follows function, much like in nature, architecture and engineering, where structures evolve to serve their purpose. The demands of the environment shape how the organization must develop, connect, communicate for best result.

But what are the conditions driving the invisible net? Can the formation of it be accelerated by leaders?

Paul J. Zak’s work (2017) points to a fundamental principle: trust. Trust enables collaboration, without trust the invisible net cannot exist. Zak identifies ‘eight management behaviors that foster trust’, from recognizing excellence to showing vulnerability, from sharing information broadly to giving people discretion in how they work. Inducing ‘challenge stress’, intentionally building relationships and facilitating whole-person growth are also on the list.

Trust, moreover, strengthens over time: when rewarded, it becomes stronger and compounds over repeated interactions (Bartling, Fehr, Huffman & Netzer, 2018).

But is trust enough to create the invisible net?

The machinist at the coffee machine didn’t just trust me, he understood how his work connected to mine. He could see the whole picture beyond his own task and he cared about our shared outcome enough to seek me out.

The invisible net is woven over time, from three main threads: trust, understanding how the pieces connect and genuine investment in the shared purpose. Nurturing these three elements accelerates how quickly the net forms.

This is not different from how a football team operates: the clear shared purpose, mutual understanding of roles and work, and deep trust in teammates to make the right passes at the right moment. You could clearly picture how the lack of one of these three elements can undermine the entire game, and how the effects compound over time.

When all three threads are strong, something else emerges. Zak’s findings show that joy emerges from doing purpose-driven work with a trusted team, suggesting that at work ‘Joy = Trust x Purpose’. Joy then reflects in higher productivity and innovation, lower stress levels and stronger employee retention.

The machinist finished his coffee and smiled, acknowledging the positive outcome, before walking back to work. I walked back to my desk as well, thinking how many seemingly impossible things had become possible thanks to the invisible net.

References

Bartling, B., Fehr, E., Huffman, D., & Netzer, N. (2018). The Causal Effect of Trust. IZA Discussion Paper №11917. Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn.

Singer, T., & Fehr, E. (2005). The Neuroeconomics of Mind Reading and Empathy. IZA Discussion Paper №1647. Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn.

Zak, P.J. (2017). The Neuroscience of Trust. Harvard Business Review, January-February 2017, 84–90.

Zak, P.J. (2017). Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies. AMACOM.