Ceos Trust

ceos-trust

Facilitate the 10 Trust Builder exercises from the EOS Toolbox, progressing from low to high vulnerability. Acts as a facilitation guide — providing instructions, timing, debrief questions, and recording outcomes — rather than trying to replicate exercises digitally. Teams typically do one exercise per quarter, building deeper trust over time. Drawn from Patrick Lencioni's "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" framework.

Not for: People evaluation (use ceos-people), organizational health assessment (use ceos-checkup), or performance conversations (use ceos-quarterly). The Trust Builders are team-level exercises focused on vulnerability-based trust, not individual assessment.

When to Use

• "Build team trust" or "trust building exercise"
• "Run the next trust exercise" or "facilitate trust builders"
• "What trust exercise is next?" or "trust exercise schedule"
• "Show trust exercise history" or "review trust progression"
• "Personal histories exercise" or any specific exercise name
• "How is our team trust?" or "trust level check"
• "Quarterly trust exercise" or "team bonding exercise"
• Any discussion about vulnerability-based trust, team bonding, or the EOS Trust Builders

Context

Finding the CEOS Repository

Search upward from the current directory for the .ceos marker file. This file marks the root of the CEOS repository.

If .ceos is not found, stop and tell the user: "Not in a CEOS repository. Clone your CEOS repo and run setup.sh first."

Sync before use: Once you find the CEOS root, run git -C <ceos_root> pull --ff-only --quiet 2>/dev/null to get the latest data from teammates. If it fails (conflict or offline), continue silently with local data.

Key Files

The 10 Exercises

Vulnerability Levels

Exercise Record Format

Each completed exercise is a markdown file at data/trust/YYYY-MM-DD-exercise-slug.md with YAML frontmatter:

date: "2026-02-16"
exercise_number: 1
exercise_name: "Personal Histories"
participants: ["Brad Feld", "Daniel"]
facilitator: "Brad Feld"
duration_minutes: 35
vulnerability_level: low
status: complete

File naming: YYYY-MM-DD-exercise-slug.md — date prefix for chronological ordering, exercise slug identifies the type.

Exercise Slug Reference

Process

Mode: Facilitate

Use when guiding the team through the next Trust Builder exercise. This is the primary mode — one exercise per session.

Step 1: Determine Which Exercise

Read all files from data/trust/ via Glob("data/trust/*.md"). Parse YAML frontmatter to find completed exercises by exercise_number.

Determine the next exercise in sequence (lowest number not yet completed).

• No exercises completed: Start with #1 Personal Histories.
• Some completed: Recommend the next in sequence.
• All 10 completed: "All 10 Trust Builder exercises are complete! Consider starting Cycle 2 — repeating exercises builds deeper trust each time. Recommend starting again with #1 Personal Histories."

Display the recommendation:

Next Trust Builder: #N [Name]
Vulnerability level: [low/medium/high]
Time box: [N-N] minutes
Last exercise: #[N-1] [Name] on [date]

Ready to facilitate?

Step 2: Check Readiness

For medium or higher vulnerability exercises (3+): "This is a [level]-vulnerability exercise. Ensure the team has completed the earlier exercises and the environment feels psychologically safe."

For exercise #2 (DISC/Kolbe Profiles): "Note: Participants should have completed their DISC and/or Kolbe assessments before this exercise. Has everyone taken their assessments?"

For exercise #5 (Feedback Round): "Note: This exercise involves giving and receiving direct feedback. Remind the team that feedback should be specific, actionable, and delivered with positive intent."

For exercise #7+ (Medium-High and High): "This exercise requires a foundation of trust from earlier exercises. If the team hasn't built that foundation, consider revisiting exercises 1-6 first."

Step 3: Read Participants

Read data/accountability.md to identify leadership team members. Suggest them as participants.

"Who is participating? (Default: leadership team from Accountability Chart)"

Allow the user to confirm or modify the participant list.

Step 4: Provide Facilitation Guide

Display the exercise-specific facilitation guide based on the exercise number. Each exercise follows this structure:

Purpose → Setup → Steps → Time Management → Debrief Questions

Exercise 1: Personal Histories

Purpose: Break down barriers by sharing personal backgrounds. This is the foundation — it humanizes teammates beyond their work roles.

Setup: Gather the team in a comfortable setting. No notes needed. Go around the table.

Steps:

1. Each person shares (3-5 minutes per person):
   • Where did you grow up?
   • How many siblings do you have?
   • What was your first job?
   • What's a unique hobby or interest?
   • What's something most people don't know about you?
2. After each person shares, allow brief reactions (no extended discussion)
3. Complete the full round before moving to debrief

Time Management: 3-5 min per person + 10 min debrief. For a team of 6: ~40 minutes total.

Debrief Questions:

1. What surprised you about someone's background?
2. Did you discover something in common with a teammate?
3. How does knowing this personal context change how you might work together?

Exercise 2: DISC/Kolbe Profiles

Purpose: Understand each other's working styles to improve communication and reduce friction.

Setup: All participants must have completed their DISC and/or Kolbe assessments beforehand. Print or display results.

Steps:

1. Each person shares their profile (3-5 minutes):
   • Their dominant DISC style (D, I, S, or C)
   • Their Kolbe MO (if available)
   • "Here's what this means about how I work best..."
   • "Here's what might frustrate me or slow me down..."
2. After all have shared, discuss as a team:
   • Where do profiles complement each other?
   • Where might profiles clash?
   • What accommodations could help?

Time Management: 5 min per person + 15-20 min group discussion.

Debrief Questions:

1. Which profile differences explain past friction?
2. How can we use this knowledge to communicate better?
3. What's one thing you'll do differently knowing your teammates' styles?

Exercise 3: Lifeline Exercise

Purpose: Build deeper understanding by sharing the significant events that shaped who you are.

Setup: Give each person a blank piece of paper. Draw a horizontal line (the lifeline) from birth to present. Mark significant events above the line (positive) and below the line (negative/challenging).

Steps:

1. Silent preparation (5-10 minutes): Each person maps their lifeline
2. Each person presents their lifeline (5-8 minutes):
   • Walk through the major events chronologically
   • Explain why each event was significant
   • Share how it shaped who you are today
3. After each presentation, team members may ask one clarifying question (optional)
4. No judgment, no advice — just listening

Time Management: 10 min prep + 8 min per person + 10 min debrief.

Debrief Questions:

1. What common themes did you notice across lifelines?
2. How does understanding someone's life journey affect your empathy for them?
3. What did it feel like to share? What did it feel like to listen?

Exercise 4: One Thing

Purpose: A quick exercise to build on existing trust by sharing something new and personal.

Setup: Simple round-table format. No preparation needed.

Steps:

1. Each person shares one thing the team doesn't know about them (2-3 minutes each)
   • Can be personal, professional, quirky, or meaningful
   • The "one thing" should feel slightly vulnerable — beyond surface-level facts
2. Brief reactions allowed after each share
3. Keep it light but genuine

Time Management: 3 min per person + 5 min debrief.

Debrief Questions:

1. What was the hardest part about choosing your "one thing"?
2. Did anyone's share change your perception of them?
3. What does this exercise tell you about the team's comfort level?

Exercise 5: Feedback Round

Purpose: Practice giving and receiving honest feedback in a structured, safe format.

Setup: Each person will give feedback to every other team member. Prepare by thinking about one strength and one area for growth per person.

Steps:

1. Go person by person — one person is the "focus" at a time
2. Each team member shares for the focus person:
   • "Your greatest strength that helps the team is..."
   • "One area where I think you could grow is..."
3. The focus person listens without responding (except to say "thank you")
4. After all feedback is given, the focus person may ask ONE clarifying question
5. Move to the next focus person

Time Management: For a team of N, each round takes ~3 min × (N-1) people giving feedback + 2 min transition. Total: roughly 5-8 min per focus person.

Debrief Questions:

1. What feedback surprised you the most?
2. Was it harder to give or receive feedback?
3. What's one piece of feedback you want to act on this quarter?
4. How can we make giving feedback a more regular practice?

Exercise 6: Strengths Spotlight

Purpose: Reinforce what each person does best and ensure the team leverages individual strengths.

Setup: Each person prepares a list of their top 3-5 personal strengths before the session.

Steps:

1. Each person presents their self-identified strengths (2-3 minutes)
2. Team members respond:
   • Validate: "I agree — I see that strength when you..."
   • Add: "I'd also add [strength] because..."
   • Reframe: "I'd describe it slightly differently as..."
3. Record the final agreed-upon strengths list for each person

Time Management: 5-7 min per person + 10 min debrief.

Debrief Questions:

1. Were your self-identified strengths aligned with how the team sees you?
2. What strength did a teammate identify that you hadn't considered?
3. How can we better leverage each person's strengths in our daily work?

Exercise 7: Conflict Norms

Purpose: Establish explicit agreements for how the team will handle disagreement, preventing unhealthy conflict patterns.

Setup: Whiteboard or shared document. This is a group discussion, not individual sharing.

Steps:

1. Discuss current conflict patterns (10-15 minutes):
   • "When we disagree, what typically happens?"
   • "What works well about how we handle conflict?"
   • "What doesn't work?"
2. Brainstorm conflict norms (15-20 minutes):
   • How do we raise disagreements? (In the room, not in the hallway)
   • How do we ensure everyone speaks? (Round-table before open discussion)
   • How do we resolve impasses? (Leader decides after hearing all views)
   • What's off-limits? (Personal attacks, relitigating decided issues)
3. Agree on 5-7 specific norms (10-15 minutes)
4. Write them down — these become the team's conflict agreement

Time Management: 45-60 minutes for the full exercise.

Debrief Questions:

1. Which norm will be hardest for the team to follow?
2. What will we do when someone breaks a norm?
3. How will we revisit these norms to make sure they're working?

Exercise 8: Accountability Partners

Purpose: Create peer-to-peer accountability relationships that supplement the formal meeting structure.

Setup: Pair team members. Consider pairing people who don't work closely together or who have complementary strengths.

Steps:

1. Discuss the concept (5 minutes): Accountability partners check in between L10s to help each other stay on track with Rocks, To-Dos, and personal development
2. Form pairs (5-10 minutes): Each pair commits to:
   • A weekly 15-minute check-in (phone, video, or in-person)
   • What they'll cover: Rock progress, To-Do completion, one personal goal
   • How they'll hold each other accountable (direct, constructive)
3. Each pair shares their plan with the team (2-3 minutes per pair)
4. Set a review date (e.g., end of quarter) to assess whether the partnerships are working

Time Management: 30-45 minutes total.

Debrief Questions:

1. What do you hope to get from your accountability partner?
2. What makes you nervous about this level of accountability?
3. How will you handle it if your partner isn't following through?

Exercise 9: Team Effectiveness Debrief

Purpose: Honestly assess how the team functions as a unit — what's working, what isn't, and what needs to change.

Setup: Each person independently rates the team on 5 dimensions (1-5 scale) before the session:

1. Trust — Do we feel safe being vulnerable?
2. Conflict — Do we engage in productive disagreement?
3. Commitment — Do we align behind decisions?
4. Accountability — Do we hold each other to standards?
5. Results — Are we focused on collective outcomes?

(These map to Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions pyramid.)

Steps:

1. Share individual ratings (go around, no discussion yet) — 10 minutes
2. Identify the biggest gaps (where ratings diverge most) — 10 minutes
3. Deep-dive on the lowest-scoring dimension:
   • What specific behaviors drive the low score?
   • What would a "5" look like?
   • What's one thing we could change this quarter?
4. Repeat for the second-lowest dimension if time allows
5. Agree on 2-3 team commitments

Time Management: 60-90 minutes. This is the most substantive exercise.

Debrief Questions:

1. Were you surprised by anyone else's ratings?
2. Which dimension do you personally need to work on most?
3. What's the single most important thing we can improve as a team?
4. How will we measure whether we've improved by next quarter?

Exercise 10: Vulnerability Circle

Purpose: The deepest trust exercise — each person shares a current struggle, fear, or area where they need support.

Setup: This exercise requires strong existing trust. Ensure exercises 1-9 have been completed. Set the tone: "This is a safe space. What's shared here stays here. Our only job is to listen and support."

Steps:

1. Set ground rules (5 minutes):
   • No fixing, no advice (unless asked)
   • No judgment
   • Confidentiality — nothing leaves this room
   • It's OK to pass (but encouragement to try)
2. Each person shares (5-8 minutes):
   • "The thing I'm struggling with most right now is..."
   • "What I'm most afraid of is..."
   • "Where I need help from this team is..."
3. After each share, the team responds:
   • Brief acknowledgment: "Thank you for sharing that"
   • One supportive statement (optional): "I relate because..." or "I want you to know..."
4. Complete the full circle before debrief

Time Management: 5-8 min per person + 15 min debrief. For a team of 6: ~50-60 minutes.

Debrief Questions:

1. How did it feel to share at this level?
2. What did you learn about the team's capacity for support?
3. How has our trust level changed from Exercise 1 to now?
4. What do we want to commit to as a team going forward?