Shared comprehension
To comprehend is to understand.
When we are working together as a team, partnership or community, the first step is shared comprehension.
We must know together, in alignment and without dissonance, the purpose, the values and qualities we hold sacred, and why we are doing what we are doing.
Only when we have a shared comprehension can we create a strategy.
When we do not have shared comprehension, we will get infighting, disagreement, mission drift, and all the other distractive tensions that prevent us from achieving what we set out to do.
Shared comprehension is particular; it goes into the micro, the minutiae, removing any version of assumptions, unspoken expectations, visions and images. To achieve it takes commitment that few are ready to invest in.
These questions will help. Bring the team together to answer them collectively.
- What does it mean to trust each other? Exactly and specifically.
- What is accountability? How will you know when it is there? How do you handle it when people are not accountable?
- How do we handle minor and major upset?
- Who decides and how?
- What are the precise ingredients of a great team?
- How do we show up at work, and how do others respond when we bring a bad mood to work?
- How do we give feedback that is both rigorous and compassionate?
- What is safety and how do we create an environment of safety that includes being held to our very best?
This is not a full list of questions. However, if you start with these and create agreement, then live the agreements in action, you will be in far better shape as a team.
This is what we call the Trust Manifesto in Syntopic World.
Published May 25th 2026. Photo taken May 25th 2026
