Do you want to increase engagement and collaboration? Take a leap of faith and trust in people.

Have you come across teams and organizations that fell short of their potential for delivering results?

We certainly have.

In one example, people on all levels of the organization knew that the hierarchical and departmental mindset and behavior formed the critical obstacle to reaching results. It kept people from joining forces across functions and departments collaboratively.

Allegiance to one’s functional leader was more important for survival in the company than reaching out to other teams to deliver.

People were wary of being seen collaborating or joining in a collective effort with colleagues from other departments for fear of displeasing their ego-centered hierarchy.

There was a spirit of envying other departments their success.

There was no sense of being united in a shared purpose, of understanding how each department contributed their part to a larger common goal.

People and teams spent more energy competing against each other than working together to achieve results.

As a consequence, the organization underachieved.

Business objectives were not met: project budgets were overrun, product launches delayed, sales targets were not met.

Some individual egos were so big that they kept their owners from identifying with and contributing to the larger corporate objectives in a collaborative spirit.

A competitive mindset stifled internal interactions and collaboration.

Results remained below expectations, and teams fell short of their potential.

The example set by senior leaders impacted other employees’ behavior leading to a non-committing attitude in what should have been collective efforts toward company objectives.?

While for some leaders, it was stating the obvious that the company needed to address attitude and behavior, the initial reflex was to rework processes. Formalizing how cooperation should work along the process chain took precedence over encouraging a trusting mindset and collaborative behavior.

On top of all this, senior leadership had the reflex to engage external consultants to confirm the most critical levers for achieving higher performance.

This happened despite numerous analyzes of root causes conducted in different departments that all pointed to the same set of factors, with attitude and behavior topping the list of all of these examinations.

It amazed us that the organization should place more trust on a generic outside view rather than trust and act upon the collective insights from within the organization.?

Take a leap of faith and trust in people

In an earlier article, The DNA of Human-Centered Organizations , we outlined how “being people positive,” which includes trust, is at the center of new ways of working.

Neuroscientist Paul Zak's research demonstrated the difference trust makes in organizations. Zak compared stress and energy levels and productivity and engagement at low-trust and high-trust companies.

People in high-trust environments reported 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, and 76% more engagement. Working in high-trust organizations also made people enjoy far more satisfaction with their lives (29% higher) and less burnout (40% less).

What is trust?

Trust is defined as the belief in the character, reliability, truthfulness, ability, and strength of someone or something.

In “The Speed of Trust”, Stephen Covey decomposes trust into “character” and “competence.” While character is formed by integrity and intent, competence comprises capabilities and results.

Character is indispensable for trustworthiness. Competence is the backbone of credibility. Only the two combined will lead to trust and allow you to harvest what Covey calls the “Speed of Trust”.

How to build trust?

1. Trust others

If you are trying to establish a trusting, collaborative environment in your team, your best first move is to trust others. Extending trust first has the most significant effect on others to respond with trustworthy behavior. Even though there is, of course, no guarantee that each time we trust someone, it is honored and reciprocated through trustworthy behavior, it is worth the try, given the potential gain.

Meeting someone with suspicion and mistrust from the outset is very unlikely to develop into a trusting relationship. Instead, it is highly likely to be met with equal distrust, leading eventually into a downward spiral.

2. Build your trustworthiness

You can reflect on your own trustworthy behavior using David Rock’s SCARF model , which captures five key social factors that have the power to affect how people feel and behave as part of a group.

“Being a trusted and trustworthy individual improves an individual’s relationships with those around them. This, in turn, leads to a range of benefits that help improve that individual’s sense of value, inclusions and, to some extent, wellbeing within their social group.” World of Work Project

SCARF stands for: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness

The World of Work Project describes how being trustworthy can improve your SCARF score and hence the relationship and collaboration with those around you. Trust thereby impacts you and the other members of the team.

Status:

• Being trusted improves my own status as people can rely on me, feel more connected with me, and are less likely to threaten me.
• Being trustworthy to others reduces threats to their status as I'm aligned with their interest, show respect through my actions and value their outcomes.

Certainty:

• Being consistently trustworthy improves my own certainty as it provides a guiding compass because I know how others will work with me.
• Being trustworthy to others reduces significantly reduces threats to their sense of certainty as the more trustworthy you are, the less uncertainty exists around what you say.

Autonomy:

• Being trusted improves my own autonomy marginally because other people are more likely to let me get on with things when they trust me.
• Being trustworthy to others reduces threats to their autonomy by removing one more thing they would otherwise have to monitor, thus leaving more space for their own self-direction.

Relatedness:

• Being trusted usually improves my own sense of relatedness over time. As I help others feel more related, they, in turn, help me feel more so as well.
• Being trustworthy to others reduces threats to their relatedness as you act in ways to support them, or at least are open and honest with them.

Fairness:

• Being trusted may improve my own sense of fairness, provided I'm trustworthy to everyone. As I treat others fairly, they increasingly should do the same to me.
• Being trustworthy to others reduces threats to their sense of fairness as you're being open with information and ideas. It's essential to be trustworthy with everyone to ensure this.

3. Build organizational trust

While the two strategies outlined above will create personal trust, you’ll also have to work on building organizational trust. Zak proposes the following eight building block of organizational trust (Oxytocin):

• Ovation: recognize excellence
• eXpecation: create challenges
• Yield: delegate generously
• Transfer: enable job crafting
• Openness: share information broadly
• Caring: intentionally build relationships
• Invest: facilitate whole-person growth
• Natural: be authentic and vulnerable

Conclusion

It should be plain to see that new ways of working and the DNA of human-centered organizations focus on fostering the kind of behavior and environment outlined above.

Focus on nurturing trust within teams will lead to:

• stronger employee engagement,?
• more constructive ways of dealing with conflict,?
• giving priority to innovation,
• being better at achieving profitable growth and results.

With hybrid/remote work as a central element in the Future of Work, trust will play an increasingly important role in team performance.

So, take a leap of faith and extend trust first. If it is reciprocated, continue building higher levels of trust. If trust is exploited or broken, don’t let it pass.

Building trust is a process. It requires us to take a risk and make ourselves vulnerable.?

This week’s edition of Brave New Leaders has been co-written with Eva Nell .

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