The impact of what we DO on building Trust

Much has been written about trust and its impact on organizations. Whether you read Pat Lencioni (5 Dysfunctions of a Team), Paul Zak (Trust Factor), Stephen M.R. Covey (The Speed of Trust) - this common word is at the heart of a high-performing organization. Why?

At its core, trust is the belief in the someone or something to be reliable, strong and competent. Think of a walking bridge. When you come to a bridge, you look at the chasm it spans and you have to determine whether or not you trust the reliability, strength and competence of the structure to safely hold your weight (and/or the weight of others simultaneously) to traverse the span. Your trust could be based on your experiences with this bridge in the past. It could be based on your assessment of the state of repair (or disrepair) of the structure. It could be based on whether you see any movement in the bridge or the strength of the materials you identify that comprise the bridge. After taking all this in, you have to make an assessment - do I trust this bridge to hold me safely or not?

Your assessment of the bridge is probably not based on the engineering drawings and calculations of force vectors that were used to design the bridge. Instead, you have to determine whether you trust the bridge from what you see, hear and experience. Trust is the belief that, given what you can see, the bridge is safe.

The same goes for people. According to Stephen M.R. Covey, trust is comprised of integrity & intentions. Like the bridge, we can't see someone's intentions - what's going on in their heads. We can only base our trust in others on our experiences with them and the behaviors they exhibit. We infer their intentions from their actions. This is why actions are so vital to building trust.

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

As we dive into a deeper understanding of trust and how to build trust on this blog, we must first remember that what we DO is a window to others of what we value.