Building Organizational Trust in the Workplace
Organizational trust is the foundation of any workplace. High levels of trust are critical to deliver effective and efficient results. Without high levels of trust, engagement cannot flourish, empowerment cannot exist, and the atmosphere is often toxic and reactive. High levels of trust are critical and building trust levels should be a top priority of any management team looking to improve their results.
What is Organizational Trust and Why Should We Care?
On a practical basis, what does ‘Trust’ mean to the everyday worker and why is it important? Where’s the ‘so what?’
Trust in a workplace can be defined as the levelof confidence that the workforce collectively feels toward the reliability and predictability of the management of the organization. Do the workers feel that they can reliably predict management behavior in a given set of circumstances? This is somewhat different from the concept of individual trust.
Individual trust is a much more straightforward concept – do I have confidence in how you will behave in certain situations? Organizational trust is complicated as we are considering the overall feeling of one conceptual group, ‘the workforce,’ towards another conceptual group, named ‘management’ or even ‘the company.’ These groups may include different members - different people in different positions or with different needs and perspectives.
This concept of trust is critical to the effective and efficient operation of the workplace. If workers can reliably predict how their manager will act, then they will feel more empowered to take action. It is commonly known that greater empowerment is a factor in improving engagement, and engagement clearly leads to higher output with the same resources – i.e. the definition of efficiency!
When an issue arises, if workers can predict how their manager will respond, then they will be empowered to take action without waiting for direction. For example, suppose the workers can reliably expect that their Manager holds the view that having a safe and clean work environment is the top priority. In that case, the workers will feel empowered to take actions that result in a safe and clean environment - like cleaning up a puddle of water on the floor so no one slips, before continuing with an assigned task.
Conversely, if management is unpredictable, employees will not be inclined to take any action until they are told to do so, as they do not want to be on their boss’ bad side for doing something against his/her wishes or delaying an assigned task even briefly. In this example, low trust may result in leaving the puddle of water for someone to slip and get hurt, rather than delay the assigned task.
The concept of Organizational Trust is the foundation upon which a workplace functions and is the basis upon which all of the other qualities of leadership rest.
What Does a High-Trust Environment Look Like?
Because Trust is a feeling, it is difficult to directly measure objectively. Yes, an organization can conduct surveys to try to measure the level of trust in an organization, however, that will be subject to various biases, and since feelings can change rapidly, and we cannot constantly be running surveys, we need to know what to look for as indicators of trust.
Here are some of the things we can look for that occur frequently in a high-trust environment:
There is consistency in the prioritization of objectives and operational topics throughout all posted materials (e.g. metric boards, scorecards, reports, town hall slides, Standard Operating Procedures, and workplace signage).
Employees know the prioritization and can repeat it easily, giving personal examples from their work day that demonstrate the relative prioritization (for example – a warehouse employee might cite that stopping to fix a pallet stack that is leaning dangerously is more important than loading the next truck because safety is the highest priority of his workplace even if that means the next truck might be delayed and incur demurrage charges).
There is a respectful atmosphere where people are not afraid to be themselves or to voice their opinions. People speak up and identify potential issues before they become major obstacles. The respectful atmosphere allows people to disagree and leads to meaningful discussions.
Employees support one another without being told to do so. This creates a spirit of ‘we sink or swim together.’ This also helps the team members learn to differentiate between poor processes and honest mistakes, versus poor, or negligent, behavior.
Employees hold each other accountable to demonstrate behavior that supports the organization’s values and priorities.
Employee turnover is low in comparison to peer organizations. This is true for both voluntary and involuntary turnover.
There is obvious pride in the work being done and the products made. Employees can easily speak to how customers use the products and will do so in boastful tones.
Disciplinary action is seldom required as employees understand what is important, how to behave, and what work to prioritize. As a result, when issues occur, the focus can be on what went wrong rather than who to blame.
Employees frequently step up to take on additional responsibility or to volunteer for special projects.
Supervisors frequently are seen giving positive reinforcement and acting as coaches rather than autocrats.
How do we Build Organizational Trust?
Recognize that building trust takes time. It cannot be built with a snap of the finger just because you decided that today it is important! For employees to feel confident in predicting how management will act, there must be a track record of consistent behavior. Organizations that bounce between various priorities du jour will NEVER build a track record of consistency for their workforce to see and rely upon. The old adage that one ah-shucks can wipe out 100 atta-boys, also holds true with building confidence, predictability, and trust. One act that is inconsistent with expectations will raise doubts and quickly erode any sense of trust or predictability.
New leaders often have an advantage over existing leaders in their ability to build trust as they do not have to overcome all of the historical garbage that has built up from their past inconsistent behavior. This may explain why so often a company will start with changing leaders to solve an operational performance issue. This will only work if the greater organization supports and enables the new leader to behave in a predictable way. If the organization requires the new leader to chase new priorities every day, and act in a manner contrary to the stated prioritization, then forget it, game over.
Existing leaders who wish to drive an increase in organizational trust can effectively do so by making a visible shift in their behavior to signal significant change - a line in the sand.
Whether you are new in role, or an incumbent, here are some tips for building trust over time;
Acknowledge the past. Draw a clean line between going forward versus what was done in the past. Explain why this is important and what the workers can expect from leaders going forward. It is critical to not over-commit in this step. Do not promise what you cannot deliver!
Listen first to understand, then be understood! (thanks Steven Covey – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). Listening empathetically to truly understand another person’s opinion and felt experiences is a critical step in signaling respect. You cannot possibly know everything your employees know or everything that is happening in their lives. Listen to truly understand - not just to respond. Repeat what you heard to ensure the full picture was received intact. Then, and only then, it is your turn to speak.
Treat employees respectfully. They are the experts in what they are doing every day, ask and respect their opinions. When an employee has an idea that is low risk and low cost, just implement it! At a minimum, you will see an engagement bump up and you might see better suggestions start to emerge.
Let the team know what the organizational values are, and how you as the leader support these values. You do this verbally, in writing, and most importantly through your behavior. Your behavior and support of the organizational values must be unconditional - you cannot blow up emotionally or act inconsistent with the values just because things get tough. You must constantly restate this support.
Be mentally present when in the workplace so that you can see what is happening and respond to what is happening in a manner that is consistent with the expressed values.
Be transparent as to the ‘why’ behind decisions. Remember that employees are always watching your behavior, looking for inconsistencies. They do not have all of the same information that you have on the broad business factors impacting decisions. If it is not confidential, simply explain the ‘why’ behind your decisions. This will build trust - and your team may even raise factors you hadn’t considered or come up with better solutions!
Be approachable and easy for employees to communicate with – e.g. open door policies, open non-verbal language. Being mentally present (#5 above) will also help you to be approachable!
Over-communicate. Find multiple communication mediums and use them all consistently – town hall meetings, email announcements, bulletin boards, newsletters, and word of mouth, to name a few.
Ensure consistent treatment and accountability are employed – including for the leaders!
Extend empathy towards the individual members of the team and treat them as you wish to be treated.
Recognize team members for doing the right actions – frequently, sincerely, and immediately.
Go back to the top of the list and start again! It’s a journey!
Conclusion
Organizational trust is the foundation of any workplace. High levels of trust are critical to deliver effective and efficient results. Trust takes time to build and is a leadership responsibility – so be patient, and most importantly, BE CONSISTENT!
