An Historical Perspective on Trust
A very interesting perspective on this topic was written by the London Professor Geoffrey Hosking. It’s called: Why We Need a History of Trust.
In it he speaks to trust in the context of “joint responsibility” going back to traditional Russian society. Households would collectively share the responsibility of taxes and providing recruits for the army. If one household was unable to carry their weight, another one would step up. As Professor Hosking explains “all members of a village community had an interest in ensuring every household enjoyed a basic level of subsistence, enough to pay its dues and bring up healthy young men”. This approach both served the rulers of the time and laid the groundwork for the concept of mutual aid in times of adversity.
Why care about this? Simple. Shared responsibility is how we take care of each other. No one group (family, community, society) forever enjoys continuous fortune without periodic adversity. It’s the act of providing help to others in those times of need that allow for mutual trust to develop. This applies to the world scale as well as how we approach getting work done from 9-5. We can learn a lot from bringing “collective responsibility” to the workplace.
I Trust You And Here’s A Carrot To Prove It!
It’s conventional wisdom that trust is the foundation of people working well together. Is there a formula to insure trust is present among leaders and the people who work for them? Or do we just get lucky with the right people having great camaraderie?
One thing’s for sure. In business, we don’t just trust for trust sake. We give trust to those who earn it through productivity and results. And how do we demonstrate our trust or lack of trust of others. Simple – the carrot and the stick – rewarding those we trust and punishing those we don’t trust. But does it work?
An excellent read that addresses this question is the book Punished by Rewards -The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn.
http://www.alfiekohn.org/books/pbr.htm
In it, Kohn suggests reward and punishment are two sides of the same coin, and only serve to manipulate people into actions, versus finding what it really takes to motivate and build trust. We’ve effectively learned better ways to control people while reinforcing this focus on rewards and punishments, and not on where it should be – the value of the work itself.
This is a great read for those looking to break out of management techniques that may work in the short-term, but don’t build respect and trust in the long-run.
Trust and Priorities
I don’t know about you, but I have a higher degree of trust for people and groups who have their priorities straight. In a recent organizational retreat I led, the President opened the session with a discussion around the difference between “priorities and noise”.
“Noise” is all those tasks that need to get done, but don’t directly contribute to helping the organization get to a stronger place.
Even if your priorities and goals are lined up with Senior Management, there still is too much to do. The question you need to ask is, “Are we collectively spending our time doing the things that contribute directly to the health and well-being of the organization?” If the answer is, “Not sure”, then you’re not.
Consider asking the following question of your team, department, steering committee, Board of Directors, whatever the group: “What are our top three priorities?” Once you figure this out, the rest is just noise.
Making Change Stick: Moving Beyond the Rah! Rah!
What does it take to make change stick? I’m talking about a month after the organizational retreat. The mission that was so clear over coffee and muffins now seems like a lifetime ago. What happened?
In this issue we will discuss what it takes to keep momentum building around organizational change, especially after your people have a glimpse at the light at the end of the tunnel.
Anyone who has ever successfully done anything that requires personal effort, like losing weight, quitting smoking, or going back to college at forty eight, knows the difference between insight and action.
Insight is hope minus action, a sense that something new is possible. It’s moving beyond skepticism, doubt and even resignation. Hope is that first step to initiate any meaningful organizational or individual change. The dilemma with hope, however, is it will not “carry the day”, or even a few days after that inspiring offsite.
That Intoxicating Feeling
Organizations do many things to bring insight to their staff — retreats and team buildings are two examples where renewed hope becomes the intoxicating elixir. “Maybe this can become a fun place to work again”, or “I really enjoy my job” and even a senior management perspective that “We can become an effective, high-performing team.” This feeling can lift the burdens and annoyances off the collective shoulders of an entire organization — until the next morning.
All it takes to kill hope is step back into your office. The “hope zapper” starts ticking. Check your 150 emails (delete 125, scan 15 quickly and read 10), check your voicemail and attend two meetings. You’re done. By the end of the day, you could swear how you felt yesterday must have been a dream. Does any of this sound familiar?
Good News and the Bad News
The good news is you weren’t dreaming. The bad news is the honeymoon is over before it started. “So what’s the point of inspiring me only to have it go nowhere?” you ask.
Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.
— James Belasco and Ralph Stayer
Flight of the Buffalo (1994)
I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.
— Aldous Huxley
What do these two quotes point to? Simply, that change is personal, even organizational change is personal. Organizations don’t change. People change. And this requires two very basic yet difficult traits to bring to the table — patience and perseverance. Here’s a direct quote from one of my customers prior to a recent organizational retreat:
“What will be the follow up to this retreat? We’re spending a lot of time and money on this. My experience with previous workshops that were similar to this one is that there was no on-going follow up, so, generally, the participants (including me) went back to their old habits, ways of relating to others, etc.”
Confusing Insight with Action
The bottom line is too often we confuse awareness with action. We set the wrong collective expectations for people — that somehow the work ends once the problems been identified. One of the key messages I deliver over and over again in organizations offsites is “the work begins when we’re done.” Not a popular message but the truth.
As stated in the client quote above “there was no on-going follow-up.” In essence, the organization (both management and staff) went back to sleep. Why? Because it’s hard work to change behavior, have the honest conversations about commitment and accountability. It’s much easier to commiserate about too much work and not enough time.
Where do you start?
The next time you find yourself inspired to make changes, consider that the feeling will not get you there — not even close. It’s about having the patience and perseverance to keep revisiting the need for change in the face of nothing changing. Nothing is going to make that easy, but that’s at the heart of where change is possible.
Are you inspired? I didn’t think so. Now get back in there and do the hard work that will lead to the change you saw was possible.
Patience
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
— John Quincy Adams
Trust and Leadership
When people ask me, “How can we build better leaders in our organization?” my first thought is: “Look in the mirror.” This is not a criticism but to start with what we have the most influence over – ourselves.
There are many traits that make up great leadership, but the one that stands out the most for me is to lead by example.
Regardless of your political standing in an organization, people respect those who walk the talk. It’s not so easy though. If you want your people to trust each other, you need to ask “Am I demonstrating trusting my people?” You want a collaborative working environment? Ask yourself whether you are truly listening to others ideas or are you just paying lip service because you already know what you’re going to do.
There’s a place for authoritarian, strong leadership. Some of us just need to back off a little bit and watch those around us who want to make an impact.
Where Trust Begins
The more I work with organizations, the more I discover what it takes to be great. A great organization is made up of exceptional individuals. And individuals bring the following attribute to the table – trustworthiness.
Ask yourself this question. “Am I trustworthy”? Not, do I think people trust me but do I trust myself and my actions? This question taps into something deeper, something we know when we see it but don’t often talk about – personal integrity.
Integrity and trustworthiness go hand-in-hand. At one extreme there are those we collectively agree have little integrity (think Kenneth Lay from Enron) while many of us would agree that Mother Teresa had high integrity. We trust people who we think serve the common good. And then there is this huge middle ground of those some believe are trustworthy while others consider manipulative. (Think political figures or religious leaders – there’s two groups where it’s so dependent on your world view).
Regardless, a great team, department, or organization starts with personal trustworthiness. “Can I be trusted to do the right thing?” Everything builds on that. Once you’ve decided on the answer, look around at those in your circle. It should be no surprise who you find are attracted to you.
BPMA Write-up
I spoke at the Boston Product Management Association meeting when this note popped up in my Google alerts: BPMA Meeting Roundup for April-June.
The central idea of the talk is pretty simple: miscommunication untreated fosters mistrust. I think of it as an illness; one that starts as a cold, but transforms over time into a cancer. It’s much easier to treat when addressed quickly and openly.
These meetings are usually stocked with great speakers. I’m thrilled to be included in this list. If you’re a BPMA member, make sure to look for the presentation itself in the discussion forums on the BPMA website. Next time, I’ll make sure the notification is up before I actually do the talk!
