Why We Need to Rethink Trust at Work

“Trust is a confident relationship with the unknown.”

Rachel Botsman was recently featured on the Culture First podcast hosted by Damon Klotz.

🤓 Fun Fact: This was the most downloaded Culture First Podcast episode of 2022! Trust issues anyone?

Below are some key takeaways from the episode that really resonated along with some additional thoughts around rethinking trust in the workplace.

Insight #1 — Innovation is a sea of uncertainty with the ego wanting to pull us back to shore.

When it comes to innovation and change, our egos will always get involved whether we like it or not. Asking someone to try something new, take a risk or behave in a new way, is commonly referred to as a ‘Trust Leap.’ These leaps launch us into a sea of uncertainty that many organizations can get stuck in.

When we’re in the sea of uncertainty, our egos want to pull us back to certainty and having a sense of control on the shore. What this looks like in the workplace is worrying what others will think, getting too focused on the competition, and being too focused on needing to be right or proving a point. This stops us from exploring the seas.

The organizations effectively navigating through these seas have a sense of humility and have increased their tolerance of the unknown. These are the ones that will continue to stay relevant. They leave room for doubt and are aware of the pull of the ego. Even though they are self aware, they aren’t immune. They are just able to view the innovative process with a different lens.

Insight #2 — Vulnerability Loops are rocket fuel to accelerate trust

Botsman talks about this concept of ‘Vulnerability Loops.’ It’s when someone sends a vulnerability signal to another person. If you send a signal back, you create a loop which accelerates trust.

How you receive someone’s vulnerability and what you do with someone’s vulnerability is critical. If that other person doesn’t catch the signal and respect it and signal back, that leaves them feeling exposed which can damage trust. This could be incredibly hard for those humans that don’t catch the signals or aren’t aware of the signals at all (individuals with lower EQ). This is why emotional intelligence or ‘soft skills’ is so important for the future of work and creating innovative team cultures.

On top of not picking up the signals, vulnerability has often been (and continues to be) weaponized in the workplace especially by those who view sharing your vulnerabilities as weakness. If someone’s trust has been breached in the past regardless of whether that’s at work or at home, they could have some workplace PTSD and lingering traumas.

One of the values at Culture Amp is ‘have the courage to be vulnerable.’ This value can be incredibly challenging for many. It can seem too good to be true to new campers (Culture Amp employees). It can take a while for these new employees to unpack their previous workplace baggage.

“Asking someone to be vulnerable before trust is there is more than a stretch and not respectful of where that person is and what they need.”

Keep the Vulnerability Loop in mind to build psychological safety over time.

Insight #3 — Transparency doesn’t always equal trust.

Botsman and Klotz identify some common phrases we use work that we ought to rethink with one of those being “we need to be more transparent.”

Say an organizational value is transparency. Well, values can have a shadow side to them. Or what I like to call ghost values where an underlying value is really driving behavior.

For example, I was born and raised in Kansas City. We are known for being “nice.” This is a wonderful reputation to have. People are generally kind to one another and visitors love it here because of that. However, this value of being “nice” can hold us back from an innovation or growth perspective. Being too nice can keep us from having the transformative conversations that move us forward.

How does this relate back to transprency? Needing to be more transparent can deteriorate trust. Companies will say they want open calendars. They want high visibility on what you’re doing all the time. They want you to copy people on emails. They want you to comply by disclosing information. These all may sound great in theory, but can make employees feel shitty and mistrusted. It can overload people with too much information. This actually increases fear. Botsman has us rethinking of transparency as more of a tool rather than a value.

“If you need things to be transparent, you’re in a low trust state. There’s a fine line between transparency and surveillance.”

Insights #4 — How organizations navigate the seas of economic uncertainty dramatically impacts culture and employee engagement

Let’s talk about the employee and employer vulnerability loops.

With economic uncertainty, there’s pressure on leaders to have all the answers when the reality is they don’t. Employees may voice their worries and concerns about being laid off. How an employer responds and acts is critical to long term employee engagement.

Layoffs can damaging to employee engagement which affects an employee’s confidence in the company and ultimately the bottom line. Investing in culture is positively associated with higher company stock prices and other positive traits. Here’s a link to a video on ‘Why culture matters.’

There are trade-offs inherent in making lay-offs. Employee engagement levels will likely take a long time to rebound. Prioritizing culture and employee engagement going forward is essential because it’s not just going to repair itself.

I hope these insights help you to rethink trust at to work as they did for me and inspire you to take action to ultimately create a better world of work.