Building Trustable Teams
Trust isn’t naturally occurring. It needs effort and intention.
Trust is fundamental.
Relationships, teams and organisations cannot succeed without trust. It’s not controversial. We need to trust, and be trusted.
In “The Neuroscience of Trust”, which appeared in the January 2017 Harvard Business Review, Claremont Graduate University Professor Paul Zak wrote that:
Compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report: 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, 40% less burnout.
Wow. It’s difficult to disagree with these numbers. Who wouldn’t want to be 76% more engaged? I’d love to have 106% more energy at work. I’m fully on board, what do I have to do?
The article suggests eight management behaviours, ranging from the sensible (Share information, build autonomy) to the more esoteric (Facilitate whole person growth? Enable job crafting?). But in doing so, it seems to imply a one to one causal link between actions a manager can undertake, and the achievement of increased levels of trust. And while those actions are clearly very important in the creation of trust, I have a nagging feeling that this…
