The Role of Trust in Learning from the Trainer’s perspective

Combining my previous articles about psychological safety and trust in learning process, I would like to touch upon the topic of trust from the trainer’s perspective. Does my own level of trust matter when I facilitate the learning process? How does it affect me & my students? Let’s take a closer look at this topic.

Trainer’s trustworthiness. Trustworthiness is the perceived ability, benevolence, and integrity of a trustee. This aspect of trust emphasizes how trustworthy I am as a trainer in the eyes of others. Many factors may contribute to this, including the specific context of the training (e.g. remote versus in person, position of influence towards the students, internal vs external trainer). But there are a couple of things that can be controlled in this area.

From my experience, the most important one is authenticity. Authenticity can be seen as the ability to be yourself when training others and be true to the learners about what you know, and what you don’t know. How can a trainer establish themselves as authentic? The simple strategy that works for me is explaining my educational and professional background to the learners when I introduce myself at the beginning of the training. Our professional history without a doubt influences how we look at things. Being in the trainer’s shoes, you need to remember that every person in the classroom has their own story. So, the way you communicate, the way you explain certain concepts, will be more understandable to some learners than others. And that’s okay. What plays a role, in how others see whether they can trust you or not, is how authentic you are. This, together with factors like expertise, knowledge, communication, is crucial for establishing yourself as trustworthy.

Trainer’s trust propensity. Trust propensity is a trait-like characteristic that describes a trustor’s willingness to rely on others. Can we make a simple parallel that the higher trust-propensity the trainer has, the better learning experience the learners will have? Not necessarily but a low-level of trust propensity may jeopardize the learning process. A trainer with low trust propensity is likely not to trust others and may dominate the classroom with little room for brainstorming and discussion. Arguably so, an average to a higher level of trust propensity will be more beneficial. By the very definition of trust propensity, it’s not a factor we can fully control. But what we can do is to establish a certain way of thinking about the learners.

Cognitive-behavioral psychology, the approach to the way our thinking affects the way we feel and, therefore, how we behave, distinguishes between functional and dysfunctional thoughts. The first category focuses on shaping adaptive behaviors helpful to achieving our goals; the second one – not so much. So let me take myself as a case study here; let me share which ways of thinking help me to create the right balance between being perceived as an authority and to trust the learners to support their learning journeys.

• "I can always learn something new." Coming to a training with this approach allows me to stay open-minded and actively listen to the group. It makes me curious. What will I find out today? How will this experience affect me as a trainer? Will I get some ideas on how to improve? Having years of experience training others, I continue to be amazed at how the unique blend of personalities and experiences make the same training session different every time I run it. And I enjoy the process of growth – my own and others’ – at the same time.
• "Every person sees things differently – and that’s okay." I touched upon this earlier but to fully elaborate: when I started my own journey as a trainer, the more “far from home” the learners were, the more doubtful I was about the learning process. In other words, I felt more confident training groups of people from the same company or in the same profession. But the more experience I had, the more I valued diversity of perspectives. Having people from different worlds in the room enhances ideas: the brainstorming phase generates more solutions, is more challenging – also for the trainer – but makes the experience more memorable, offering unique outcomes that wouldn’t be generated otherwise.
• "I do my best, but I won’t be perfect." Here, I would emphasize that “my best” can differ one day comparing to the other. Having a degree of self-understanding can help you to trust yourself on the training day. There is a technique I use in order to do a health-check of my trainer’s readiness. I simply ask myself a question: What is my 100% on today? To most of us, wanting 100%, expecting the best performance from ourselves, is the norm. But is my 100% really a 100% today? Maybe it’s 95%? Or 80%? Self-expectation management is one thing; the other is the definition of perfection. It varies. Realistically speaking, even the most experienced, well-prepared, SME-trainer won’t be seen as perfect by everyone.
• "Everyone is an expert in something." This belief is helpful to acknowledge that the trainer-learners dynamic is contextual. Here I am training others in XYZ, but keeping in mind, that everyone in the group knows something much better than I do, offers a healthy distance and enhances my trust to the learners. It’s also a matter of respect that helps me to create a safe learning environment.
• "Prepare but stay flexible." Last but not least, this is the universal advice I would give to every trainer. The way you prepare for the training session is on you – you have a control over that. Do your part, study materials, polish the exercises and rehearse thought-provoking questions. ?In the classroom, you have a degree of control and, arguably so, you need to maintain it through the whole learning process. But flexibility is also a key to trust. Adjust the pace when the group needs that, be ready to shorten or extend a part of the session when you see fit, respect your learner’s time and their objectives. This will help you to concentrate on “here and now” and, in combination with the solid preparation, will create an efficient – and enjoyable – learning environment.

Summary

This article represents my point of view on the role of trainer’s trust in the learning process. On one hand, there is a “trustworthiness” perspective, the way the trainer is perceived as trustworthy. On the other hand, there is “trust propensity”, how likely the trainer is to trust others. These two perspectives - combined with the author’s own experience and background in cognitive-behavioral psychology - offer some practical advice for the trainers on how to approach a learning situation with the optimum level of trust in self and in others.