Mindset: The Key Barrier for Building Trust in Your Ecosystems

The most challenging situation faced by leaders who seek to move an organization toward external collaboration is that they do not have everyone with them. Having a strong, external focus is still a fairly new way of doing things for many, and it will draw criticism from detractors who want things to stay the same. This is true for all companies, no matter what their size.

This is a very normal reaction; many people feel threatened by something new that doesn’t seem to match the business paradigm that made the organization successful in the past. That’s why you typically don’t get much support from within.?

Some people might be intrigued at first, but once they realize you will need to make significant changes in the way your company works with external stakeholders, they begin to see obstacles where they should see opportunities.

“Trust is key for innovation and especially within ecosystems. Too often, your own organization creates the barriers for building this trust.” - Stefan Lindegaard

Barriers to building trust

Below are some of the most common barriers to building trust and strong relationships with stakeholders in your ecosystem.

• Most organizational structures foster an internal perspective rather than an external one.
• Most companies view external partners as third-parties who are paid to deliver a specific service rather than as a source of co-creation and innovation relationships.
• Most companies are more focused on protecting their own knowledge and intellectual property instead of opening up and exploring new opportunities. They play defense when they ought to be playing offense. This should come as no surprise, as one of the main objectives of corporate lawyers is to minimize risk. Without a doubt, opening up to the outside world increases the risk element.?
• Large companies can be inherently skeptical about the capabilities of small companies. Running into a wall of doubt would isn’t unusual in these situations. After all, what could a small start-up possibly have to offer a global giant? And if the small company’s employees were any good to begin with, wouldn’t they be working for bigger companies? This is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point, right?
• Forging strong relationships takes time and personal commitment. Detractors claim that people are too busy to invest time in these pursuits. It’s no help that most companies don’t allow employees the time, resources, and encouragement necessary to network and build outside relationships. It does not help that we are living and working in the midst of what I call the “being too busy” syndrome.

Building trust starts with mindset

When you have recruited enough people with the proper mindset, you will have laid the foundation for trust. This will help everyone accept that strong relationships are the key to business success in the future. Only then will you be ready for external collaboration.?

Unfortunately, few companies have laid this foundation. And, they won’t be able to until they become successful in recruiting the right people with the right mindset. You can pretty much forget about processes and concepts because, when it comes to external collaboration, mindset is what matters most. If you get the mindset right, it will be much easier to implement processes.?

But if not, it will soon show that mindset itself is your biggest barrier for building trust and thus gain full value in your ecosystems.