The police detective enters the room to question the first of two suspects. “Your buddy in the other room is going to have a chance to speak, just like you. If you confess you both did it, you’ll both get a minor sentencing. But… if you stay silent and your buddy talks… you’re going away for a long time and your buddy will go free.”

This is a classic psychological problem called the prisoner’s dilemma. There have been research studies simulating this predicament to study how humans tend to react. The situation causes the mind to begin speculating about the future, your trust level for the person in the other room, and it can generate many emotions.

In one of our workshops on building teams we simulate the prisoner’s dilemma with a game we call Red / Blue. We split the class into two groups and place them in two different rooms. They’ve been told to “achieve the highest score” based on our scoring system but we never mention anything about winning or losing. What we want them to achieve is the highest combined score. It’s always interesting.

Here are three observations I’ve made from the prisoner’s dilemma…

1. Confusion causes a lack of trust

When the two teams are confused with the game and what exactly they’re supposed to be doing, their lack of trust is magnified and projected. They begin to think I shouldn’t be trusted. We play with small red and blue cards they select for each round. Team players will say to me, “Empty your pockets! Do you have your own deck of cards? Are you really taking our cards to them? Are you showing them our card before they have to pick a color?”

Instead of asking me more questions to clear up any confusion, their minds run away with speculation based on a lack of trust. They don’t trust the other team and they don’t trust me. Later in the game, they will even show a lack of trust in their own team members.

Lesson learned:  If you’re confused, ask questions to clear up the confusion.

2. Competition is assumed when we’re divided

I don’t even say anything about competing against each other. In fact, I actually tell them when we begin the game, “You are representing two divisions of the same company.” But, they still assume, “If we are in two groups and there’s a scoring system, then we need to beat the other team!”

When we are placed into different business units of a company, we need to drop the attitude that it’s okay for another department to suffer as long as we’re hitting our department goals. When one department hurts… the entire company hurts.

Lesson learned: Teams need to support each other. When one suffers, we all suffer.

3. Communication always helps

After each round I ask the team before I exit their room, “Do you have any questions for me?” By the 4th time I’m asking them this someone in the group usually asks, “Are we supposed to have questions for you?” I usually pause for dramatic effect, then I say “Yes” as I exit the room.

We play 8 rounds of each team selecting a colored card and we offer an opportunity for the leader of each group to have a summit after round 3 and round 6. The idea is to get the two teams talking to each other to help build trust between the groups. When one team feels like they have more points, they usually reject the meeting. “Why should we talk to them? We’re winning!”

I force the two leaders to speak after round 6 whether they want to or not. It’s amazing how civility and trust immediately begin to build when they meet face to face. Their separation allows their minds to speculate and assume the worst of the other team.

Lesson learned: Communication will always help build trust and positive outcomes.

What does it all come down to?

While this is just a game based on psychology, it teaches everyone a powerful lesson about trust. Stephen M. R. Covey has written in his book The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything that “As trust goes up, speed goes up, and costs go down.” Keep the lines of communication open if you want to build trust throughout your organization. Your Income Statement and bottom line will thank you.

I’m still working on taming my speculative mind,
Russ

Books referenced in this post:

The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything, by Stephen M. R. Covey