The Trust Factor Achieving High Performance, One Act of Trust at a Time
Before class starts please: Write name on a name tag placed on Before classyour starts please: Write your table your name on a name tag placed on Sign the attendance roster and pass it to your table Signsomeone next to roster you and pass it to the attendance someone next to you
The Trust Factor Welcome
Safety/Cultural Moment
Class Guidelines
To get the most from today’s session:
Be Here Now Silence cell phones Do not use laptops Listen and be respectful of others Minimize sidebar conversations Participate Have fun Follow safety and emergency procedures if needed
Introductions Instructions: Discuss at your tables the following question: o What do you think each employee’s role is in helping to build a high trust culture here at Crowley? o Write your answer in the space provided. o Choose a spokesperson to share your group’s answer with the class.
Agenda
How Trust Works
The Cycle of Mistrust
Trust Traps and How to Avoid Them
Your Role: – Techniques to Build or Repair Broken Trust •
How to Take Action
The Importance of Trust There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world – one thing, which if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, and the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time. That one thing is trust. Contrary to what most people believe, trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don’t; rather, trust is a pragmatic, tangible, actionable asset that you can create – much faster than you probably think is possible. Stephen Covey
The Importance of Trust - Video
Stephen Covey
Trust in the Workplace When there is high trust in the workplace, people:
Share open, honest, and factual communication.
Make fewer mistakes due to factual and accurate information. This also lowers costs and increases speed and productivity.
Enjoy healthy working relationships, higher morale, and job satisfaction.
Trust in the Workplace When there is a lack of trust in the workplace, people:
Base their actions on their assumptions or fears rather than the facts.
Distrust each other because of what they don’t know as well as what they do know.
Work in an atmosphere of stress, anxiety and low morale.
The Cycle of Mistrust The cycle of mistrust begins when two people in a relationship beleive the other person did something hurtful, suspicious or wrong first.
At it's worst, the cycle of mistrust can spread beyond the two people in the untrusting relationship to others
The longer both people continue avoidance and non communication, the worse the cycle of mistrust can get.
Both people think the other person knows what they did and should admit wrong first.
Both people start distancing themselves and keeping the other person at bay usually through avoidance and non-communication
The High Cost of Low Trust- Video
Stephen Covey
The High Cost of Low Trust- Video When trust is low the costs can be high and the impact staggering
Employee Disengagement - 250 Billion
Employee Fraud - 4 billion
Time Theft - 230 Billion
Employee Dishonesty - 120 Billion
Office Politics - 100 Billion
Unproductive Meetings - 127 Billion
How Others View You \
How could anyone not trust me?
Everything you do or say on the job effects the levels of trust between you and your coworkers, leaders and customers.
All of us would like to think our actions are basically trustworthy and hope others think so too.
However, most of us without knowing it, often say or do things that breaks trust with others more often than we think.
Trust Traps
A Trust Trap is an action that prevents others from trusting you. Once you step into a trust trap it’s difficult to pull yourself free.
At some point, everyone has accidentally stepped in a trust trap.
Trust Traps Making Assumptions Means jumping to a conclusion without having the facts to back it up. Causes you to relate to people negatively—which causes them to respond to you negatively. Makes you appear unreasonable and people decide you can’t be trusted to seek and to act on facts. Is especially damaging if you share your negative ideas with others who then believe your ideas and act negatively because of them. Making Assumptions Scenario: Phil and Tina come up with an idea to streamline a process in shipping to make it more efficient. They take their idea to Bob, the shipping department manager. Before Phil and Tina even have a chance to finish presenting their idea, Bob tells them whatever they’ve come up with will never work and that in his time with the company, he’s sure he’s seen and heard it all. He also says that he is just trying to save them the wasted time and aggravation.
Trust Traps Making Assumptions Scenario Questions
1. How could Bob’s assumptions affect Phil and Tina’s future work on their idea? 2. What would it mean for the organization if Phil and Tina didn’t pursue their idea any further? 3. What effect could this experience have on Phil and Tina’s relationship with Bob in the future?
Trust Traps Discussion Breaking Promises Nothing breaks trust quicker than not doing what you say you’ll do. Breaking even the smallest promise damages people’s trust in you. People quickly come to think they can’t believe or rely on what you say. Often caused by overcommitting yourself, trying to spread your time and energy over too many things, or trying to please too many people. Breaking Promises Scenario: During a planning meeting On Monday, Mike in product development, commits to John in sales, to have the XJ17 product samples ready for John to take with him to show his East Coast customers by Friday. Mike has also promised three other different product samples to the members of the West Coast Marketing Team by Friday also. On Thursday, John calls Mike to see when he can pick up his product samples. Mike, informs John that he he’s sorry but he is a little behind and the XJ17 product samples won’t be ready until the following Wednesday.
Trust Traps Discussion Breaking Promises: 1. How could Mike’s broken promise affect his and John’s team and the organization? 2. What effect do you think this experience will have on John’s relationship with Mike? 3. What could Mike have done to prevent this trust trap?
Trust Traps Discussion Covering Yourself Means wanting to avoid blame or failure at all costs; the mindset is “whatever keeps me safe.” These people often make excuses, avoid commitments, and are more focused on avoiding blame than finding solutions. People quickly realize that working with you is a risk and that you may be blaming them if something goes wrong. Demonstrates to people that they can’t count on you to consider their needs. Covering Yourself Scenario: Susy, a new manager at Trotter Communications, reports to Frank in the IT Department. Frank tells Susy to just purchase her phone, laptop, printer and whatever she needs for her office on her company credit card rather than working with procurement (which is company policy) to get what she needs. Two weeks later, Carl, Procurement Manager meets with Frank about Susy’s unauthorized purchases. During the meeting, Frank says he gave Susy the company’s procurement policy and isn’t sure why she bought all the items that she did. He says he may have told her to buy some simple supplies but acts surprised that Susy bought a laptop and a printer.
Trust Traps Discussion Covering Yourself Scenario Questions 1. How will this experience affect Susy’s relationship with Frank in the future? 2. How could the organization be impacted Frank’s effort to cover himself? 3. How could a cycle of mistrust occur here?
Trust Traps Discussion Spreading Rumors
A rumor is information that is not known to be true. It’s usually based on suspicion, speculation, or hearsay. Rumors can create tension, anxiety, and anger. People who spread rumors—especially gossip about coworkers—are not easily believed or trusted afterward.
Spreading Rumors Scenario: Dan is standing outside of Allison’s office (Allison is the HR Director) reading a report and overhears her say…”there will have to be layoffs.” Dan goes and tells Gayle that he heard Allison say that there will have to be layoffs and that she better get her resume ready. Gayle goes down to the cafeteria and sits down with four other coworkers at lunch and tells them she heard that layoffs were coming any day now and that management has made up their minds about the matter. She also says she’s not sticking around and is going to start looking for another job. All of her coworkers are devastated by the news. Meanwhile, Allison is still on the phone with a friend describing the movie she saw about a famous designer that got laid off from a company early in his career, who went on to start a major clothing company.
Trust Traps Discussion Spreading Rumors: 1. Gayle seems to believe Dan. What could be the consequences of them both spreading rumors? 2. How do you think people will respond to Dan and Gayle when they discover the rumor is false? 3. What could Dan have done to avoid spreading a rumor in this scenario?
Trust Traps Discussion Bypassing People You bypass someone when you don’t deal with him or her first, even though you should. Instead, you go to that person’s boss or another coworker to get the information, services, or action you want. These actions damage trust, as people will feel you don’t value their skills and knowledge, and makes them wonder if you are intentionally excluding them to achieve a personal benefit at their expense. Causes people to make your future requests for help a low priority; they assume you’ll get what you want without them anyway. Bypassing People Scenario: Peter doesn’t dislike Lily, but because she’s new, he assumes she won’t know how to produce the quarterly sales report he needs based on all the information he’s looking for. In addition, he would rather work with his buddy Hank, who used to have Lily’s job, to get the quarterly report he needs and asks him to do him this favor. Hank used to have Lily’s job but was promoted to a different department recently. Lily finds out and is very angry that Peter bypassed her and went to Hank to get what he needs. She sees Peter in the hallway, glares at him, then ignores him when he tries to speak to her. Peter seems surprised by her behavior.
Trust Traps Discussion Bypassing People Scenario Questions:
1.
How will this experience affect Lily’s relationship with Peter?
2.
How could Peter have avoided bypassing Lily?
Trust Traps - Discussion Summary
Trust traps are typically the result of unclear communication, negative assumptions, suspicious actions, or a lack of involvement.
Trust Traps - Discussion Summary Building and Repairing Trust Learning to use trust building techniques will help you build trust and avoid future trust traps by involving others, and ensuring a clear understanding of ideas, actions, and expected outcomes. Read pages 13 and 14 in your workbooks to learn about an effective technique for building and repairing trust called Sharing Thoughts, Feelings and Rationale, then we will practice using this powerful technique
Building and Repairing Trust Share Thoughts, Feelings and Rationale
Share the reasons you had for doing something a certain way or an action you took. People can’t read your mind. Only you can share what your thoughts, feelings and rationale are for your behavior. Give facts on which people can base their judgments. Be transparent and hide nothing.
Be open about your concerns about an activity or process.
Share information or data relevant to the listener and not gossip about others or something that violates confidentiality.
Spot the Trap - Activity Instructions: The scenarios on pages 14-19, describe five common workplace situations. Each one involves a potential trust trap or two. Find a partner for this activity For each situation: 1. Read the description. 2. Put a check (x) next to the potential trust trap(s). 3. Write what you would say to share thoughts, feelings and rational in order to avoid the trust trap(s).
Building Trust Techniques We’ve already covered how sharing thoughts, feelings and rationale can be a powerful technique for maintaining and repairing trust. Let’s look at the rest of the SMART techniques for avoiding trust traps and keeping trust strong. Share thoughts, feelings and rationale Make commitments you can keep
Instructions:
Admit mistakes
1.
Request and accept feedback Test Assumptions
Your table will be assigned a trust technique to read, discuss and teach back to the group.
2.
Decide what is most important for the class to know about your assigned SMART technique, why it’s important, and the best times to apply the technique to help build or repair trust.
3.
Choose a spokesperson for your group.
Building and Repairing Trust Make Commitments You Can Keep
Clarify expectations of what was asked of you or what you expect others to do: ¯ Who will be responsible ¯ What results are needed ¯ When results are expected ¯ When appropriate, also provide facts about the “ How and Where” of your expectations
Make sure you share any concerns you have about meeting the commitment the moment they arise before results are expected and encourage others to do the same.
Stay alert to changes - Review the who, what, and when of business needs, requirements, or the people involved change.
Building and Repairing Trust Admit Mistakes
Admit mistakes when they happen instead of waiting and hoping they won’t get noticed.
Take accountability for resolving the mistake and or finding the right solution or resource.
Ask for feedback or coaching from others in order to learn from the mistake you made.
Building and Repairing Trust Request and Accept Feedback
Make people feel safe enough to give you honest feedback. Senior leaders, supervisors and employees should request feedback on a regular basis to ensure steady job performance (Shadow of a Leader). o How am I doing (communication, job performance, assignments, leadership, etc.)?
o How could I have completed this task more efficiently? Accept feedback gracefully and without defensiveness; thank others for their feedback.
Building and Repairing Trust Test Assumptions
Expect the best from others and give them a chance to prove themselves.
Check your understanding by restating or summarizing what you’ve heard.
Test your assumptions before acting on them.
Behave in an emotional, rationale and predictable manner that others can count on.
Learn to recognize when you are making assumptions: o Are you under pressure? o Are you in a situation resembles a previous bad experience? o Are you being influenced by someone else’s opinion rather than your own?
Trust in the Workplace - Video
Stephen Covey
Trust in the Workplace - Video On page 22 of your workbook, fill in the blank to the question below:
When your trust account is overdrawn (meaning, trust has been damaged or broken), you have to ____________ your way back into good relationships.
Building and Repairing Trust – Action Plan Action Planning •
By working SMART, you’ve learned how to maintain and rebuild. Now it’s time to take action!
Instructions: 1. Find the Building Trust Action Planner on pages 24-26 in the toolkit section of your workbook. 2. Follow the instructions at the top of page 24 and complete your action plan.
All Aboard the Trust Ship Instructions: Now that you understand, when trust is mastered as a skill, it can generate dynamic results within a relationship, team or business. 1. In your table groups, come up with a quick and powerful one sentence slogan or elevator speech that would help all other employees quickly understand the untapped benefits of high trust for our organization. 2. Choose someone to be a spokesperson for your table.
Your slogan has the potential to be used to promote trust in some way here at our organization.
Summary Key Learning Points
Professional relationships work best when people act in purposeful ways that build and maintain trust.
The Cycle of Mistrust often starts with a negative and often false assumption about why someone did or said something.
Trust Traps are easy to step into and hard to get out of and should be avoided.
Use SMART techniques to build or repair trust.