Enemies of Trust

The Enemies of Trust

Try an experiment sometime. Ask a group of managers in your company whether they and their closest managerial colleagues are trustworthy and, if so, how they know. Most will claim that they themselves are trustworthy and that most of their colleagues are as well. Their answers to the second half of the question will likely reflect their beliefs about personal integrity; you’ll hear things like “I’m straight with my people” or “She keeps her promises.” A little later, ask them whether they think they and their colleagues are capable of building trust within the organization. Because we’ve asked this question many times, we’re pretty sure we know what you’ll hear: A sizable percentage will say they have little or no confidence in the group’s capacity to build and maintain trust.

What accounts for the gap between the two sets of answers? With their differing responses, the managers are simply acknowledging a fact of organizational life: It takes more than personal integrity to build a trusting, trustworthy organization. It takes skills, smart supporting processes, and unwavering attention on the part of top managers. Trust within an organization is far more complicated and fragile than trust between, say, a consultant and a client. With a client, you can largely control the flow of communication. In an organization, people are bombarded with multiple, often contradictory messages every day. With a client, you can agree on desired outcomes up front. In an organization, different groups have different and often conflicting goals. With a client, you know if there’s a problem. In an organization, there’s a good chance you don’t, even if you’re in charge. If things aren’t working out with a client, either party can walk away. That’s not usually an option for people in an organization, so they stick around. But if they think the organization acted in bad faith, they’ll rarely forgive—and they’ll never forget.

Trust within an organization is further...