Trust In Your Organization

I don`t like when - at various events - a presenter asks us to stand up, to wave hands, to jump and do all sorts of physical activities. Well, maybe the intentions are good, for people to stretch a bit due to long time they spend seating. However, somehow I feel the presenter is “manipulating” me, trying to motivate me externally, instead of me being motivated intrinsically. Yet, I participate, but feel uneasy.

On the other hand, when I am asked to do some other activity, like using my smartphone, turn the flashlight on, take a shot, send it somewhere, or install an app and draw a picture (see the photo) – I follow the instructions. Since I believe the presenter wants me to learn something new, wants me to explore – sometimes – an unknown “territory”. And I trust the presenter to lead me through the “experiment” safely. I just trust. As simple as it sounds. Probably the presenter will not ask me to install some harmful app, or to do something that will cause me troubles. I do not only trust the presenter, I trust the organization. If it is an external one, like on conferences, I still trust. I trust even more if the event is internal, in my organization. Who would lead a whole bunch of people into “dangerous waters”?

Yet, it happened on an internal event, in my organization, that a “demonstration” was not welcome by some colleagues. They were asked to follow a fake link and then they received a message, which looked as if they had been “hacked”. Some colleagues believed that they had been manipulated, they had been driven into a trap. They were even talking about losing trust after the “experiment”.

?I was thinking a lot about the way we react – and about our trust in organizations. Based on our case, we saw three types of reactions:??

1. Very negative, in the sense: “I lost my trust in organization.”
2. Very positive, saying: “Well, I got trapped, but I understood immediately that on such an event no one would drive us somewhere where there is something problematic. It must be a trick, I am a part of a (safe) experiment in a safe environment.” (The latter is the category I am in, too.)
3. Scientific, with exploratory spirit. They believed it must be a trick, but wanted to be sure, checking their devices, using some tools, analyzing what happened, even thinking in terms: “Hey, I have not provided any passwords or critical information. So, I must be safe.”

I believe that not a single organization would want to harm their employees gathered at the event. Because consequently, such an action would harm the organization itself, too. So, what sense would it make?

We have to trust when asked to do something, even if the intention is not at once obvious to us. (Here I refer to “experiments” on events, not to any action that individuals request from other individuals in an organization - some second thought is always good in dubious situations). But based on the explained case, my organization probably just wants to engage me a bit, wants to make me a part of a fun demonstration. Just to help me learn something new, to show me something. Or just to get a good starting point for a discussion.

I will trust during the next experiment again. But, please, do not take advantage of my trust. ????