KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL: CULTURE OF TRUST IN A NEW REALITY

We live in an awkward and special period, that makes us see how exactly we cooperate, what we focus our attention and efforts on, what particular skills and abilities we develop, differently. Tim O’Reilly in his article on the post-pandemic future says, that the 21st century has come only in 2020. As a new and unexpected reality, it changes the world rapidly hitting literally everyone. Our new work reality differs from the previous experience as well. The way we collaborate, social and emotional sides of our professional activity have changed significantly. The question is not only about working remotely. Work from home, distributed teams, and even whole companies working only or mainly in online-mode have always been here. The specificity is about the context of crisis, in many cases moving from the strategy of growing to survive and back, a high level of uncertainty and stress. In such a time, the power of connection between people is essential. Mutual trust has a crucial meaning in the current conditions for teams and organizations.

In a new reality, we have a cause to re-think our previous experience and priorities to find a way to move toward a better result. Accepting this complex challenge is not an easy task for an individual. Traditionally, we combine our abilities and potentials in teams to achieve more. Here we face our interdependence that has a positive or negative effect. The factor to define is not who collaborates, but how they do this. To maintain collaboration, we create an environment that combines the system and culture of teamwork. Processes and procedures, schedule and agenda, structure and roles, tools and artifacts, plans and practices can belong to the system. Team culture is reproducible through behavior special ways of cooperation that shape the general climate and are based on common values and beliefs. We cannot substitute one with another, and they are mutually integrated. You can have a well-planned weekly team meeting with predefined goals and agenda. However, the outcome depends on what really happens within that time. The way we behave and treat each other defines if we will be inspired or frustrated, will we feel unity or hostility after the conversation.

The culture of a team is dynamic and shaped in the process of gaining common experience, learning together. Yet, the key role in the development of culture is for leadership style. I mean reality when you have to choose whom to promote, make complicated decisions, react to positive or negative results, what we reward and what we can ignore. Changed reality requires renewed leadership. Of course, the shift does not occur at one point in time, but the process is accelerating wildly, and priorities are being tested in practice here and now. Role models are the leaders who demonstrate empathic, human-centered leadership, care, and cooperation while acting without a delay and communicating the vision and decision boldly, honestly, and clearly. These actions empower people to move on, understand why, where, and for what. They create more confidence. Build trust. Empathy is especially important in times of difficult decisions. You can't avoid them. But ask yourself, “What can I do to make this experience easier for others? What exactly will be important for them?” Honest and timely communication. Comprehensive explanation. Operational and emotional support.

Again and again, these and other factors focus our attention on the special importance of trust, as it helps us reduce the negativity of the situation, maintains the relationship and resourcefulness. Paul J. Zack's research has shown, in particular, that in companies with a high level of trust, employees experience significantly less stress. There is a difference in how energetic and engaged they feel, how productive they are. Usually, they are more satisfied with what they do in general and have a lower risk of burnout. In addition to the feelings, in companies with a well-developed culture of trust, people take fewer sick leaves and earn more. Trust increases the efficiency of our work and gives us confidence. On the one hand, it inspires optimism, on the other – it enables us to face the truth without rejecting the facts, even if we do not like them. Trust in a team is not a general mutual adoration and absence of contradictions. It is our ability to achieve the goal more effectively, using similarities and differences as a resource. Trust is one of the key factors for teamwork and the willingness to work with a particular leader.

Cooperation with trust is a set of positive expectations confirmed by previous experience about the behavior of a person or group in a particular context when the interaction itself characterizes by a demonstration of friendliness and mutual respect. It is an integral part of an overall positive and productive work culture. Instead, the accumulation of negative experiences and demonstrations of hostility have a devastating effect. Where culture does not perform its optimal function, suboptimal processes will replace it partially. In the case of a low level of trust, additional approvals, formal but mandatory oversight functions, and inconsistent distribution of authority will reduce speed and increase the cost of work. Of course, everyone understands the idea of the general meaning of trust. However, in real life, where real people interact with each other, trust is destroyed very quickly. Furthermore, often it happens not because of large-scale failures, but a series of, at first glance, insignificant situations in which we show ourselves in some way. For myself, by reflecting on the cases I observe and structuring these behaviors, I have identified certain criteria to form and implement the patterns that help me strengthen trust.

Know your business case. In order for your efforts to build trust not to look like a struggle for all the good against all the bad, you should answer the question “Why?” The answer should be about a clear business effect. What are the performance indicators of the level of trust in our case? Are there project cases when trust has helped us innovate, avoid mistakes, make better decisions, gain new customers? If you want to engage people, build a common culture, it is important to outline the value that is relevant to all. At some point, we may have different practical attitudes toward such complex things as trust. At the same time, I think everyone wants to have a better result. Let's say you have some problems with the project. They pose risks but are not currently visible. More precisely, only by an individual or a small group see them. In a team with a low level of trust, there is probably a tendency to hide the actual state and try settling all without drawing more attention. Let's say it worked. But if not, we will have more negative consequences the longer the information is hidden. Instead, in an environment with a high level of trust, we will be able to learn and address problem areas before everything falls apart. We can even implement a system of regular self-diagnosis, which will allow everyone to identify and process risks at the earliest stage.

Make a conscious choice in favor of trust. In a remote mode, we all are partly invisible to colleagues. Here a special indelible confusion can appear. “What does he really do all day? Does she work diligently and focused on the important tasks?” – the manager asks herself, worrying both about the result to achieve and about people she does not want to put pressure on with micromanagement. There is a certain dilemma, two sides of trust in distance cooperation. We understand that trust is the most important “glue” that does not allow us to lose the sense of team in our daily WFH. More frequent alignments, additional reporting, and other ways to increase control seem such simple and obvious solutions to get the desired confidence that the work is still being done. Nevertheless, only clear and measurable goals, only clear and high-quality communication can help. Use efficient technical environments for better coordination and synchronization, and process transparency, and status update. Document all important information for a shared understanding of goals, objectives, priorities, and success criteria. Ensure that anyone who needs this information can get it when they need it, in the format and level of detail they need.

Take care of safety. We all have complex communication – with customers, colleagues, management. Trust in the team and in the leader gives us a sense of safety. “We agreed on this with my manager before. But when I showed the results to the client, he had a question about this part. Instead of supporting me, the manager strictly asked me to redo everything. I had the impression that I’m burning and he wanted to distance himself from me.” People make mistakes. When we publicly deny them support, it destroys trust. When we separate ourselves from the negative results of the team, we cease to be part of it and lose our influence. This does not mean that mistakes should be thoughtlessly wanted or ignored. The worst thing that can be done in case of failure is to publicly look for the culprits and criticize them. The strategy aimed at the trust is to speak and act from the standpoint of “we”. In important communication, people feel support as well as lack of it sharply. Support helps overcome existing difficulties and not be afraid of future challenges. Complex communication, on the other hand, is a source of great solutions. However, only if we know how to manage it and try defeating the problem, not each other. The key to productivity is common rules for everyone, including the leader, the confidence that we will not fall under friendly fire and can express our opinion, even disagreement.

Avoid temptation. Trust is a powerful resource. It is important not to use it manipulatively, for example, to share trust with the chosen ones, to have “favorites” in the team. It is also a bad practice to gain trust with someone by breaking trust with others. “I don't know, to be honest, why I was invited here and what exactly I’m expected to say, but I'll tell you something” – said the speaker to the audience. He comes into contact with the listeners and creates a trusting atmosphere at the beginning of the performance. At the same time, this behavior destroys the trust in the organizers and between the speaker and organizers. “Well, good, and now – to the serious things,” – the manager reacts to the expressed opinion. Devaluation destroys trust quickly and effectively. Create conditions in which there is no equal and transparent access to opportunities, encourage the covert competition in the team, do not stop gossip, do not express a clear position at the meeting, but then “solve the problem in the smoking room” – these are toxic behavioral patterns that let us achieve goals here and now, but do not give advantages in the long run. If you do not show respect or you destroy ethics systematically, it can lead to a complete loss of authority and trust. Demonstrating contempt for time or personal boundaries is about encouraging overtime, regular calls with work questions during non-working hours, banning personal calls at work, and so on. If you realize that there are adults around you with whom you are united not by positions but by common values, goals, and results, choose to be a partner instead of superiority or subordination. In this way, partnerships are formed on the basis of mutual respect and trust.

Increase resourcefulness. In modern conditions, the abilities to change yourself and manage change are critical. These abilities largely depend on a certain amount of surplus resources or the opportunity to obtain the resource quickly. Trust allows us to do this. In the environment where it is convenient to learn we acquire knowledge and skills that will be needed not now to put out the fire but in the future. In a team where we trust each other, we can learn by trying something new, experimenting. With support and open communication, we learn from others. The practice of mentoring will be useful here, it will strengthen the relationship and trust. In such an environment, we share effective and ethical feedback that is truly beneficial to the recipient, driving change and contributing to better results. Under other circumstances, if the primary focus is shifted, openness and trust can be immediately forgotten. We sometimes tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions. If your feedback contains an immediate “diagnosis” (irresponsibly, inattentively, ill-considered), you waste time and trigger negative emotions. Confidence-building feedback begins with the question to yourself – “How the words I plan to say be useful to those who hear to improve their future experience and result?” You should not jump to conclusions or teach. Exploring the case together will work as a much better approach – describe what you saw, ask what exactly happened, and for what reasons. In this way, we turn negative feedback into developmental one that is listened to. We gain the ability to learn quickly, change and recover in case of failure. We can attract additional capacity by building cross-functional or cross-organizational teams for complex and impactful projects.

Manage with trust. Trust should not be taken for granted. You have to integrate it into cooperation, starting with hiring. Make sure that you provide the correct information about the company, team, and vacancy from the beginning. During the communication with the candidates, the real conditions must be voiced, not to cause further unjustified expectations. When you start working together, trust a newcomer from the beginning, without having him or her prove anything. Different people have different levels of professional maturity, and for newcomers, it is obviously lower. It is not a reason to show distrust. Trust the potential, the desire to learn and grow. The maximum possible transparency and truthfulness of information are the requirements of building trust. Transparency includes accessibility and clarity. People need to understand, not guess, what an expected good result means. Trust in competence and motivation is the foundation of delegation. Be careful, it may seem that the delegation is happening, but it’s not. Excessive attention to the minor details neutralizes the entrusted responsibility for the overall result. Another anti-pattern is to set goals and declare the freedom of action but at the same time control every step. The imbalance of trust is in the tendency not to delegate something really interesting, to delegate only execution, not representation. Your manager asks you about the options for the development of a particular work area in cooperation with another team, but you are not invited to a discussion with them. Instead of openly introducing you to colleagues as an authorized expert at the beginning, decisions are made without your participation, and only the operational work is “delegated” to you. The initiative suggested by the team members is another good case for the leader to build trust. Or weaken it with unnecessary formalization or excessive control. Trust grows when we do not imitate delegation, but really share something valuable – participation in decision-making, holistic information, authority. Trust-building practices are to create opportunities, to make people generate decisions and take responsibility for their implementation, to give what we know so that others can learn, to move from the foreground to the background, freeing up space for others’ growth. We should not be naive, but by giving people more responsibility, we give them the opportunity to be self-sufficient, thus, increasing the flexibility of the whole organization.

Create role models. Two things should be kept in mind when building trust as an organizational philosophy. The first is that people need role models to change. The second is that in order for change to move in the right direction, it is necessary to encourage the expected behavior and mindset. If you want an honest conversation, learn to admit your mistakes. Pay attention and be present, no matter how attractive multitasking is during an online meeting. Recognize, show others the value of colleagues, reward, admire, celebrate achievements. Do not miss the opportunity to thank people publicly. A leader's ability to redirect gratitude correctly, no matter how much it pleases him or her personally, is also important. Think about what you plan to thank for and whether it is what the person perceives as the advantage or achievement. Recognition is such a magical tool. When we collaborate with others, recognizing their expertise and experience, we show them their exceptional value. When we do not discuss important topics, do not share a vision of the future, especially in conditions of general uncertainty, people begin to doubt whether this future exists at all for the team. Practicing coaching, facilitation, nonviolent communication will help instill cooperation and organize a common space for work and development.

One more important activity needs to be encouraged and exemplified. It is difficult to be attentive to the needs of others and build positive relationships when you are tired, annoyed, and exhausted. Take care of yourself. In the current stressful conditions, rest and self-care are a necessity. After all, by taking care of ourselves, we take responsibility for our own mental well-being and resourcefulness. The general climate in the team depends on the ability of everyone to be accountable for this part of their life.

In his book “Organizational Culture and Leadership” Edgar Schein draws an analogy between organizational culture and human character. As well as the character the culture of a team is unique and complex. Similarly, culture depends on many factors, understanding the experience, the choices made. In both cases, there is a visible part, and hidden features and reasons. Organizational culture, like character, is formed over time and is not easy to change. Therefore, having even the most determined intention to improve the culture, you will not have significant results quickly. Fortunately, through long, focused, persistent, and repetitive efforts, change becomes possible and noticeable. Our organizations are changing, just as we ourselves are becoming more mature and conscious. My personal experience lets me formulate and follow the rule of leadership about striving to be a leader I would myself like to work with. And to build teams, part of which I would like to be myself. I sincerely aspire to be trustworthy and a good example for my team, my students. My first focus is honesty, which applies to everyone and any situation. Honesty cannot be a privilege of someone. The second guideline is the fulfillment of commitments and promises. The cornerstone of building trust. The third is to be human. Know your “dark side”. Don't be afraid to admit mistakes and apologize. The fourth is to demonstrate competence and results, to be able to solve problems effectively. Good relationships are worthless without morality. Experience is worthless without results. One of the benefits of a culture of trust is that it is visible and scalable, becoming a part of your capital. The more you trust, the faster your opportunities grow. You can turn it into a superpower of your team despite all challenges.