How to rebuild trust in a team after a restructure.

A restructure changes the org chart overnight, but not how people feel about each other. Five practical ways to rebuild trust.

Lucy McGibbonFounder and CEO, TeamscapesOctober 2026 · 5 min read

In short

After a restructure, trust drops because people don’t yet know how the new team works, or each other.
Rebuilding it takes honest conversation, shared experience and small promises kept.
It’s a journey, not a single day, but a good first step changes the direction.

On paper, the restructure is done. New reporting lines, new teams, new responsibilities. In practice, people are still working out who they can rely on. Some have lost colleagues they trusted. Others have inherited people they barely know. Trust doesn’t transfer with the org chart.

When Veolia’s HR Commercial team was split into two units after a period of change, collaboration became hard, negativity crept in, and the two halves didn’t really understand each other. Here’s what we’ve learned helps.

Five ways to rebuild trust

1. Name what’s changed

Pretending everything is fine slows recovery. Give people a structured, safe space to say what the change has meant for them. Acknowledging the disruption is often the moment the tension starts to ease.

2. Help people understand each other’s roles

Much post-restructure friction comes from not knowing what the other team actually does, or what pressures they’re under. Time spent on “how we value each other” pays back quickly.

3. Create a shared experience

Working through a challenge together, outside the usual meetings, gives people something in common and shows them how colleagues think and act. It builds familiarity faster than months of emails.

The focus on teamwork created an excellent environment for open and honest communication among team members.
Keeley Jones · Head of HR – Commercial, Veolia

4. Agree a few specific commitments

Trust grows when people do what they say they’ll do. End with a small number of commitments, owned by named people, and make them easy to check.

5. Keep it going

A single day can start the shift, but trust is rebuilt over weeks, through repeated experience. A short follow-up keeps the commitments alive and lets the team see progress.

While we acknowledge that our team-building journey is ongoing, this experience was undoubtedly necessary and instrumental in breaking down some of the existing barriers.
Keeley Jones · Head of HR – Commercial, Veolia

If you only do one thing

Ask each person in the new team one question: what do you need from the others to do your job well? Share the answers. It’s often the first honest conversation since the change.