Trust
May 2003
Teamwork. We’ve all heard the word until we’re sick of it. What goes into making a team that really works? In the next few columns I will explore what I believe to be the most important underpinnings of highly effective workgroups. As a consultant, I have a duty to provide an acronym for this – they would drum me out of consultant-land if I didn’t. I call these underpinnings T.R.U.E. teambuilding. We’ll take one letter at a time. “T” stands for trust. This is critical – without trust, there can be no good relationship, business or other. I’m not saying you can’t work with someone you can’t trust, but I am saying that it is difficult, and you are going to have a very hard time creating a functioning workgroup without it.
We all make decisions each day that affect the levels of trust in our business relationships. When you present yourself in a manner that can be proven to be false, you lose your credibility. This happens in ways large and small every day.
American Airlines has recently been in the news for an unfortunate decision to award top executives huge bonuses while pressuring employees to take large pay and benefit cuts in order to keep the business running. Enron – well, we all remember Enron. What has happened to morale at these companies? You can bet it’s plummeted. One American Airlines employee was quoted in the AP as saying, “This has taken the distrust to a whole new level.”
Your day to day issues may not be as large, and you may not be awarding yourself multi-million dollar bonuses, but be aware of your actions. If you can afford to give a raise, even if it’s not as much as you’d like or the individual thinks they should get, do so. Especially if you find there’s enough there for you to go out and get a new Lexus. People will notice. I’m not saying you can never get yourself a new car or home if you own a business (of course, with most businesses, it will take a while to get to the point where there’s money for anything but reinvesting in the business). I’m saying that as your company shifts your fortunes, remember to shift the fortunes of those who contribute if you want them to continue to!
It is also important to acknowledge that when you are in management, you simply can not tell all the people all of the truth all of the time. You will have to make decisions based on keeping the workplace functioning, balanced, and calm. Rumors do not productivity enhance. But remember that rumors also start when shreds of truth are twisted or misinterpreted. If everyone knows there is trouble, or thinks they do, you’d best address it. Again, this doesn’t mean you have to trumpet every problem, it just means that acknowledging difficulties is usually best in the long run. Frequently, it also leads to a renewed desire in others to do what they can to help. And you want the creativity of your staff directed towards better service, not how they can re-write their resumes on your time!
Another way to break trust is to start and stop initiatives, special committees, workplace improvement methods, and management flavor-of-the-month techniques. I worked at a very large international firm in the eighties that was entranced with Quality Circles, one of the earlier employee-based problem solving models. In the early eighties, for those of you who don’t remember, the energy crisis was rampant, interest rates were skyrocketing, and companies were looking for new ways to save money and raise productivity.
Detroit, sadly, had not seen this coming, and American automakers found themselves losing tremendous market share, particularly to Japanese automakers, who attributed a large part of their success to various team-building methods and employee problem-solving groups. A lot of the elements that we today take for granted in team-building and group process began to be introduced into the general workplace at this time.
The company that I worked for decided to jump on the bandwagon. They expended huge resources to train a cross-section of workers in facilitation, problem-solving and meeting techniques that at the time were revolutionary. This was very expensive, and definitely a long-term investment. The participants were carefully selected to be a representative slice of workers throughout the entire organization, as well as being those who could hopefully persuade others of the benefits of participating in making a better and more efficient workplace.
Then someone somewhere decided it cost too much, and the effort was shelved. Swiftly, in organizational time. We went from, “Top managment cares about you deeply and knows that you have the answers about many of the issues that impact productivity. Consequently we are going to invest a large amount of time and money training you to identify the most important problems, give you tools to find solutions, present both those problems and solutions to us and be rewarded for it,” to, “No, actually, we don’t.”
That fabulous representative slice of the working force now became representatives of broken promises and dashed hopes. Not exactly the best ambassadors for why staff should work harder and better for the company. Better to not start at all, than to start and abruptly stop.
So, act with honor and constancy in your business dealings. The first element of an evolved workgroup is trust, and only you can start building it. Be as frank and honest as you can, with your staff and your customers, and you will build reserves of trust to help carry you and your business or workgroup through more difficult times. And that’s good business.
Ramona Abbott helps businesses maximize their efficiency, effectiveness and group dynamics. She utilizes proven techniques that are fun and affordable to help you improve your workplace in a variety of ways. She welcomes inquiries at 360-398-2606 or ramona@EssentiallyProfessional.com
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