You’re trying to build a culture of trust. What’s the best way to get started?

A culture of trust depends on the belief that colleagues will consistently act in a dependable and predictable manner. These behaviours need to be modelled throughout the organisation. To get started the team needs a common understanding of what trust is and why it’s important. Measures for trust are complex but a quick start poll on the level the team is at (from “nest of vipers” to “a secure harbour of allies”) provides a snapshot. This can be brought to life with examples of behaviours that have promoted or detracted from the building of trust. Recognising individuals that demonstrate the right behaviours provides reference points. Creating a safe environment promoting openness, candour, empathy and mutual respect is key to starting up.

Paul Zak, a neuroeconomist, proposes a model of trust built on the hormone oxytocin, nicknamed the "trust molecule." His model is based on: 1. Oxytocin and Trust: When someone trusts another, their brain releases oxytocin, fostering feelings of connection and empathy. This creates a feedback loop, encouraging trustworthy behavior and further trust. 2. Building Trust: Managers can create a trust-based culture by: * Recognizing excellence. * Inducing "challenge stress" (healthy pressure). * Granting autonomy and discretion. * Enabling job crafting (personalizing work). * Sharing information openly. * Building genuine relationships. * Facilitating personal growth. * Demonstrating vulnerability.

My colleague Kevin Vaughan-Smith, and I have just completed a book on trust for the Economist. In it, we defined trust between people in work as having three dimensions: clarity - a shared ambition; character - behaviours that build or destroy trust; and capability - the degree to which shared competencies are synergised to create far greater value together. Critically, we say that because trust is the key determinant of mutual value creation, it is important to be intentional about designing a high trust relationship with clients, colleagues and partners. My work is to help leaders and rainmakers do exactly that.

La cultura de la confianza debe empezar por la apertura de todos los miembros al feedback constructivo, la toma de decisiones teniendo en cuenta los puntos de vista de todos. Ser transparente y generoso con el Equipo, trasladar toda la información que sea necesaria para realizar su trabajo. Y por supuesto, reconocer el trabajo realizado, valorar la importancia del trabajo de todos, fomentar la autonomía, y prestar apoyo y atención emocional cuando la cosa se complica. Evitar la caza de brujas cuando las cosas no funcionan, y evaluar conjuntamente el curso de acción.

To build a culture of trust, start by fostering open communication and transparency within your team. Encourage team members to share their thoughts and concerns without fear of judgment. Lead by example: be honest, reliable, and consistent in your actions. Acknowledge mistakes and learn from them, showing that it’s okay to be vulnerable. Recognize and celebrate team achievements and contributions, which reinforces positive behaviour and teamwork. Implementing these practices will create a foundation of trust that can lead to a more collaborative and productive work environment.

Listening is key! And asking questions. And creating safe spaces for people to come together to share their feelings honestly. Start small and build, trust can't be earned overnight. Finding common ground on non-work related things, like the cuteness of your cat or a mutual love of Succession can be easy places to begin conversations.

Creating trust requires listening, empathy, and transparency. In listening it is important to ask questions that will help get the answers you're seeking. Particularly for those in power, asking questions like: What am I missing? How might you look at this differently? Are there other perspectives? And then waiting for answers without shutting down conversation can build trust. Empathy is closely tied to listening, but is also about understanding how those around you feel. Lastly, transparency around expectations can build trust so everyone feels like they are working within the same rules.

A leader shows trust by motivating others to express their perspectives, share their experiences and by asking them how they perceive things changing, eg in the market place. By taking these seriously into account, people know they are truly part of how the organization develops, even when things turn sour, markets go down, etc. People must be enabled to express themselves with the urge to have 'perfect solutions' but also express doubts (innovation starts with doubting the status quo), half-baked thoughts, and mere observations. Ie. to speak up to the extent they can, ie feel safe in doing so, trusted that what they offer is sufficient. This gives them the confidence to speak up, without holding back, because they feel trusted.

When we are listening to others, it does not matter if we think we are listening and understand what we need to know. Trust is built when the other person has the experience of being heard and understood. Too often we think we already know or we already understand, completely missing that the other person or group has only confirmed their suspicion that their perspective, grievance, or concern is not valued and that their needs will not be met (further eroding trust).

Actively listening can involve conducting regular satisfaction surveys to gather feedback from employees about the work environment. Demonstrating empathy, a leader can acknowledge the concerns raised in the surveys and take steps to address them, showing employees that their voices are heard and valued. This not only strengthens trust within the team but also improves the organizational climate, fostering a more positive and productive work environment.

We have lived and worked in a competitive environment for a long time. However, the future of work is about collaboration and creating trustworthy team environments where people help each other to achieve success. Unfortunately, most companies have built their reward system based on individual contributions instead of collective responsibilities. Therefore, we need to rethink how we encourage engagement through an inclusive work environment where trust is central to our innovation, performance, and results as a team.

To create the space for collaboration requires the leader to go first - being willing to be more open than the rest, be more vulnerable - to model the behavior that they would like to see in the group and be willing to risk pushback. By going first and sharing openly and transparently, others see that they will not be penalized for stepping outside their comfort zone, taking a risk, or making a mistake.

Growth happens when we step out of our comfort zone and try new things. However, it's essential to have trust and feel psychologically safe to create a culture of learning and growth. Often, we challenge others by responding with "yes, but..." which can inhibit constructive growth. Instead, we should use collaborative language that encourages individuals and teams to collaborate and build on each other's ideas. By unlocking the power of pausing to listen, ask questions, and reflect, we can create a more trusting environment where people feel safe not to know everything and instead use Yes-And" phrases and ask "What else...?" to continue the conversation and expand our collective knowledge.

It is important that leadership creates the structures for teams and groups go through a learning and development process together. One easy way is to use work projects as intentional vehicles for growth, training, and development. In addition to doing the work of a project, leadership can create opportunities for the team to build new skills together that improve team work, resiliency, and trust building "on the court." This allows the lessons to be internalized and incorporated naturally and built upon in the future.

Trust is also accepting that things can go wrong. Everybody makes mistakes. Nobody is flawless. Consider it as an opportunity to learn. With failure you can not improve. You will be living on Mount Stupid with overconfidence and not accepting change.

In our experience, resolving breaks in trust requires leadership embracing radical candor from its stakeholders (employees, customers, investors, etc...). Unless the affected parties can openly address the "elephant(s) in the room," have their issues addressed openly and transparently, breakdowns in trust (and the side-effects) will continue. In order for trust to be built, individuals and groups need to experience that their needs, concerns, grievances, etc.... are being met with authentic interest and commitment for remediation.

Mediation and escalation may only serve to further comprise trust depending on how these are handles and the circumstances that these create. What's sometimes helpful is to Bury The Dead Cats (if you want to know more about this deeply reconciliatory process, reach out to me)...

The best way to review is to have great communications governance or “DataComms” systems. Good fences help create good neighbors, so start by clearly defining when and where what types of communication happen. This communicates to others where they can go to observe and participate within top down, bottom up, and middle-out communications. A mix of slack, teams, intranets, anonymous polls, and team meetings is where you can go to evaluate sentiment and psychological safety (the ability to speak up without fear of rejection or ridicule) and volume of various curiosities or types of commentary shared. Also check out Spotify’s Team Health methodology to quickly take a team temperature to determine overall dynamics health.

The contributions here generally relate to employee/employer/team trust. They should apply equally to how you engage with customers/stakeholders/partners/suppliers/future and past colleagues. The culture you build internally should align with the culture you want to be seen as externally. How often do we see a response to upsetting external parties handled defensively or aggressively - which with today's rapidly generated responses via social media can quickly spiral into brand damage that will take years to repair.

Be trustworthy. (That’s enough - but Linkey Dink insists on at least one hundred and twenty five characters hence this padding).

In all the rhetoric around trust, I rarely see 'it' grow unless there is an increase in openness and risk taking as people disclose more of themselves. That often means revealing the assumptions and stories we have constructed about others, taking a risk that in sharing these we might find out we are wrong. In fact I'd go so far as to say taking risks is core to (re-)building trust: without that, all parties get to sit around righteously believing they are right in not trusting others. Lurking in here is conflict - or fear of it. What is often forgotten is that on the other side of conflict lies contact, if worked through. My sense is often we think trust can grow without discomfort; sometimes yes, often it requires useful discomfort.

A great leader once told me, you have to invest into "the bank of trust". He described it as a bank account. And, like a financial account, if we make withdrawals without investing first, we go bankrupt. When I asked him what he invests (he doesn't invest money), he said, "They know I've got their best interests at heart. That's why they trust me".

Trust is a skill that evolves with time and stems from a combination of factors. It is the balance of your actions with the promises you make. By entrusting others, you cultivate a sense of reliability. When you embrace diverse viewpoints, even those opposing your own, and demonstrate empathy, people feel valued. These are some pillars we should consistently be asking ourselves and looking for in those around us: 1. Am I dependable? 2. Am I sincere? 3. Is my conduct aligned with my values? 4. Can I understand and share the feelings of others? 5. Do I take responsibility for my actions? All of these ultimately develop respect & trust, it’s important to consider that you don’t always have to like someone to respect and trust them!!

Doing what you say you are going to do is something I feel engenders trust. Following through on commitments even if it is difficult so the other person sees that they matter. Equally it could be about not doing something, ie not divulging a confidence. Trust loss in these situations is not easily regained.