feature
“TRUST IS BUILT OR
DESTROYED ONE
CONVERSATION
AT A TIME.”
– MORAG BARRETT, SKYETEAM
That Make a Business Great, in which
he discusses the value that can accrue
to businesses that invest in a high-trust
workplace culture.
“Fundamentally, you learn to trust
based on values,” he said, pointing out that
JetBlue operates according to five values:
safety, caring, fun, integrity and passion.
“I think it is important for organizations
to determine what their values are
and start to live them throughout the organization,”
said Peterson. “Trust turns
into collaboration. If you’re wary, people
tend to play political games. They
hold information close to their chests
rather than innovating or being flexible.
Organizations that are high-trust tend to
be more innovative, they get more done.
Plus, they’re more fun!”
Part of building a culture of trust is
signalling tolerance for failure.
“In Silicon Valley, they talk about failure
as the preamble to success. Failure of
results should never be punished – a failure
of character is a different matter,” said
Peterson. “If you’re punished every time
you fail at something, you tend to play
way inside the line.”
A habit of empowering people by giving
them a high degree of autonomy in
their work is also conducive to a culture
of trust. Peterson recommends “empowering
people a little bit at a time, giving
them the next level of decision-making
power as soon as you can and driving
empowerment as deep into the organization
as you can. Recognize that the
further into the field people are, the closer
they are to customers.”
Transparency is another element
of building trust. For instance, in The
10 Laws of Trust, Peterson mentions
companies that dare to share detailed
corporate information with employees,
even at the risk it may end up in the
hands of competitors.
“People are smart,” he said. “Any time
you’re not transparent with folks, they feel
like they’re feeling manipulated. There are
some things that can’t be shared, but you
should always tell people what you can.”
UNDERSTANDING TRUST
“Trust can be given and is earned
through our actions,” said Morag Barrett,
CEO of Denver-based HR consultancy
SkyeTeam and author of Cultivate:
The Power of Winning Relationships. “You
cannot be successful in business or in life
unless you are successful in cultivating
winning relationships. If you don’t cultivate
the relationship, you won’t cultivate a
culture of trust.”
She says the nature of trust is generally
misunderstood.
“Trust is considered a soft, fluffy, implicit
thing that happens over time,” she said. “I
believe it is an explicit thing; it is built or destroyed
one conversation at a time.”
The first step in building trust is setting
out the ground rules about expectations.
“It can be as formal as a contract; it can
be as informal as saying, ‘We’re going to be
collaborating, so you need to know what
frustrates me’ and which of my qualities
may frustrate you,” said Barrett.
She suggests leaders should regularly
take what she calls a “relationship pulse
check,” consisting of three questions:
What’s working for you? What’s not working?
What’s one thing that I can do to help
our or your success?
“Ask these on a regular basis, not in the
same conversation, but over time,” she said.
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CARVERTECHNOLOGIES
30 ❚ SEPTEMBER 2016 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL