The Ultimate Framework to Build Trust in Your Team: the "Waterline Concept"
Image credits: Josiah Weiss / Unsplash
Building trust within your team is essential. Trust isn’t built overnight, and it requires more than just camaraderie or communication. It’s about setting the foundation for a culture where every team member feels responsible, and accountable for their decisions.
What Is the Waterline Concept?
Imagine your business as a ship. On any given day, team members are constantly making decisions. Some decisions are minor, easily adjusted if they go wrong—like steering the ship slightly off course but easily correcting it later. However, some decisions are more critical, ones that can threaten the stability of the ship, or worse, sink it. These critical decisions usually involve irreversible or very hard-to-reverse outcomes, such as making a bad hire, investing large sums of money, or diversifying into new service lines without the proper strategy.
The Waterline Concept provides a clear framework for managing risk in decision-making by distinguishing between routine and critical decisions, and ensuring the right people take ownership of the right decisions.
Why Your Top Talent Should Manage "Below the Waterline" Decisions
In the waterline framework, all team members share the responsibility for decision-making. However, when a decision can make or break the business—or “sink the boat”—your top talent should take charge. These individuals have the experience, insight, and strategic mindset to handle decisions that have long-term, high-impact consequences.
Here’s why this approach is so powerful:
Trust is Fostered Across the Team: Every team member is empowered to make decisions “above the waterline,” where the risk is manageable. This builds trust within the team as they see that their input and responsibility matter. For decisions that carry more weight, top talent steps in, not to micromanage but to safeguard the ship. Everyone knows who is steering when the stakes are high.
Reduced Risk of Catastrophic Failure: By ensuring critical decisions are handled by those with the most expertise, you protect your organisation from the kind of missteps that could be hard to recover from. You minimise the likelihood of making decisions that could have severe, long-term consequences.
Promotes Team Accountability: By adopting the waterline concept, you create a culture of accountability. Each team member becomes aware of the impact of their decisions, large or small, and the trust between management and employees deepens. People begin to operate with a heightened sense of responsibility.
Encourages Leadership Development: Delegating decisions based on risk helps nurture your emerging leaders. As they grow in experience and skill, they can gradually take on more below-the-waterline decisions. This creates a natural leadership pipeline, where talent is developed in a risk-conscious, safe environment.
How to Implement the Waterline Concept
Define Critical Decisions: Identify which decisions are “below the waterline” in your business. These typically include irreversible decisions such as hiring, long-term investments, major strategic shifts, and significant product launches. Document and communicate these to your team.
Empower Decision-Making Above the Waterline: Empower your team to make decisions above the waterline without fear. For these routine decisions, even if a mistake is made, it can be corrected without long-lasting consequences. Let your team know they have the autonomy to act in these areas.
Designate Ownership for Below-the-Waterline Decisions: Make it clear who in the organisation is responsible for critical decisions. Ensure your top talent is in these positions to steer the ship when needed. But remember, it’s not about shutting down others' input—it’s about protecting the business.
Create Feedback Loops: After a decision is made, above or below the waterline, review its outcome. This builds transparency and trust while ensuring continuous improvement in decision-making across the team. It also allows those making above-the-waterline decisions to learn from the expertise of those managing below-the-waterline scenarios.
The Waterline Concept is a powerful framework that does more than just prevent risky decisions from sinking your organisation. It empowers your entire team, creating a shared sense of responsibility and building trust from the ground up. By delineating decision-making roles in a way that minimises risk while maximising engagement, you create a culture where both your top talent and the broader team can thrive—together.
In short, the Waterline Concept helps your business navigate both the calm seas and stormy waters with minimal risk and maximum trust. This is how you transform a good team into a great one.
