The Trust Matrix

To build a strong team there must be a high level of trust. Trust is the glue that holds people together and the lubricant that allows energy and passion to flow. Trust builds internal cohesion. The ability to display and engender trust corresponds to the fifth level of personal consciousness.(1) Trust increases the speed at which the group can accomplish tasks and takes the bureaucracy out of communication. The principal components of trust are character and competence.

Character reflects how you are on the inside, your intent, and the level of integrity you display in your relationship to others. These depend primarily on the level of development of your emotional intelligence and social intelligence. Intent is demonstrated by caring, transparency and openness; integrity is demonstrated by honesty, fairness and authenticity.

Competence reflects how you are on the outside, your capability, and the results you achieve in your role. These depend primarily on the level of development of your mental intelligence, your education and what you have learned during your professional career. Capability is demonstrated by skills, knowledge and experience. Results are demonstrated by reputation, credibility and performance.

Even though the focus on competence (capability and results) is important, these are skills that can be learned and accumulate over time. I believe the focus on character (intent and integrity) is more important because these qualities are required for bonding and are much more difficult to develop. Competence is about achieving results; character is about how you achieve them.

In The Speed of Trust, Stephen Covey states that trust means confidence and the opposite of trust (distrust) means suspicion. In other words, trust breeds a sense of connection. When we trust someone, we know he or she will have our interest at heart. Suspicion, on the other hand, breeds separation. When we are suspicious of someone, we will not disclose our innermost thoughts. We keep things back.

We avoid connecting with someone we do not trust.Trust reduces cultural entropy: Suspicion increases cultural entropy. Covey puts it this way: “Trust always affects outcomes—speed and cost. When trust goes up, speed will also go up, and costs will go down. When trust goes down, speed will also go down, and costs go up.” A 2002 study by Watson Wyatt shows that total return to shareholders in high-trust organizations is almost three times higher than the return in low-trust organizations.

Bestselling author Francis Fukuyama says, “Widespread mistrust in a society … imposes a kind of tax on all forms of economic activity, a tax that high-trust societies do not have to pay.” This tax reflects cultural entropy. The following table describes each element of the Trust Matrix in more detail.

If you want to evaluate the level of trust in your leadership team or any other working team, hold a workshop and ask each member of the team to identify which elements of the Trust Matrix they believe are the strongest and which are the weakest in the way the team operates.

Give every person five points to allocate to the strengths and five points to allocate to the weaknesses—you can use green and red dots for this purpose (green for strengths and red for weaknesses). They can allocate the points in any combination to each of the 12 components of the Trust Matrix. Give them a few moments to think about how to allocate their dots. In a large team, people can work in pairs. As each person or pair declares their allocation of points, they have to explain to the rest of the group why they chose to allocate their points in that particular way. When everyone has placed their dots on the chart (the trust matrix), you will immediately see the results for the whole team--which elements of the Trust Matrix are most lacking and which elements are most present.

Based on these findings, begin an open dialogue on how to build on the strengths and minimize the weaknesses that the team has identified. At the end of this discussion, ask each member of the team to state which elements of the Trust Matrix he or she is least competent in and what he or she proposes to do to improve. This exercise makes the whole team accountable for improving the level of trust.

(1) You can find this exercise in Annex 10 of The Values-Driven Organization by Richard Barrett

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