Acquired Consulting

Hints for Building Organizational Trust

When the world required buggy whips, those who perfected the whip were fat, dumb, and happy…okay, maybe happy.  Complacent?  Yep.  Trusting their organization?  Yep.

Then came along Henry Ford (if we hold him responsible) and buggy whips were not selling.  What do you suppose happened?  Do you think the workers then trusted the organization?  It wasn’t necessarily the organization, but workers probably looked toward their employer to protect them.

Since then, organizational trust has waned and may never be fully regained, but there are ways to build trust within your organization by following simple rules.  Here are six hints toward improving employee/organizational trust.

Encourage change.  Complacency invokes trust.  Sudden change for development, cost effectiveness, or market changes will surely create distrust.  Change is not bad or good.  It is what it is, and continually causing change awareness can only keep employees aware of the possibilities.

Collaboration.  Encouraging employees to work across boundaries/departments can only foster more trust in that slowdowns in one area could provide boosted workers for another, more tasked group.  In addition to skill/knowledge building, the employee feels needed and responsible for organizational improvement.

Empowerment.  Knowing your personnel and their ability to perform within their areas then empowering them to make decisions fosters trust throughout the organization.  When workers notice others within the organization make decisions without requirements to conduct meetings or seek approval workers feel more autonomous even if only in their department/group.

Innovation.  Encouraging employees to share information across boundaries helps foster knowledge base and often, procedures.  Continuously challenging employees to find new, improved operating methods keeps employees searching for ways to improve products and customer satisfaction.

Encourage growth.  Sharing customer needs across departments is a good source of growth and encouragement toward employee value.  Employee value enhances employee trust.  Sharing group/department abilities and resources can also assure employee retention.

Support learning.  While this includes formal, external learning, organizations should never forget the learning events available internally.  This concept reinforces the above concepts allowing employees to evolve and become better involved, both of which reinforces trust between the organization and employee.

On the scale, neither total trust nor distrust is healthy for any organization.  Giving employees trust that balances the scale both fosters trust and encourages mutual sharing between the organization and employee.