Tag Archives: trust

The Importance of Trust and How To Build it

Often in our workplace we think of our success as being dependent upon our skills and ability to perform in a timely manner. I thought the same until I stumbled upon this article and it really changed my frame of mind. Honestly, now that I think about it, before my performance and skills even come into play, it is someone endowing trust upon me to even utilize my skills.

In undergrad I was taught that business is a system of integrated relationships of skilled people that are working to achieve personal and organizational goals. As this article points out, trust is at the center of every relationship.

I, like many of you, am constantly working on a project teams and in some cases, managing a project team. The author of the article Roger Dean Duncan states that “With high trust, teamwork is more of a reality than a hollow buzzword. Innovation is vibrant. Productivity tends to be strong and is typically more sustainable.”

This article begins by discussing what it really means to have trust. Later in the article Duncan begins to have a conversational interview with Barbara Brooks Kimmel, the executive director of Trust Across America. In the conversation Kimmel mentions a model that can be used to facilitate the earning of trust. She calls it the VIP Trust Model™.

Below are the attributes of the model to gain trust:

Vision and Values

Integrity

Promises

See article below for the full conversation on trust and how to use the VIP Trust Model.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rodgerdeanduncan/2014/07/14/how-do-you-build-trust-in-a-trust-deficient-world/

Good Leaders Make Employees Feel Safe

I love TED.

Sorry, but this isn’t an article, but a video of a presentation that’s 12 minutes long. At least it’s not a 3 hour Makadok video… My boss sent this to me and I’m passing it on.

The video talks about the origins of cooperation based on the first paleolithic reactions to danger. In all, it talks about cooperation in any collective, be it a tribe railing against hunger and predators, or someone in a business that’s competing against others in an industry.

In either case, in-fighting and mistrust within the company damages our ability to work together and effectively against a common external danger.

There’s a company, NextJump that has a lifetime employment policy where no one can be fired, but if there are issues, will be coached. I must admit that I kind of laughed at that concept.

I didn’t laugh about the Barry Weymiller 2008 furlough decision, however. If you watch one thing in this video, skip to 8:30.