Edwards Deming argued years ago that trust is an essential condition for good performance. Revered management thought-leaders such as Chris Argyris and the late W. Do managers take trust for granted? What do you think? Original Article He said: "the problem starts with … management having a belief that they (already) are trusted." Carrying that thought to its ultimate conclusion, therefore there is no need to pursue the question. Questions that we might ask ourselves include several posed by Maree Stewart: Are women more or less trusting than men? Are young people more or less trusting than older? What part do unions play? My concern, of course, is whether there is anything here that can be or remains to be taught? As Dan Wallace, a graduate of Harvard Business School, points out "… none of this was addressed when I was a student there … trust would be more prevalent if our best schools of leadership taught it."įinally, Richant raised a point in advancing a hypothesis for the trust deficit to which I had given little thought. Jill Machol noted the importance of keeping employees "informed as information (regarding change) becomes available." Ann Brown commented that "The best an organization's management team can do is be transparent (and) … persistently continue open conversation and not expect to be perfect." Karl Hunrick suggested that we need to employ more managers willing to take risk, because "Without risk there can be no trust." Bruno Borghi pointed out that "Trust requires reciprocity." Mike Beer suggested that managers succeed by "inviting honest, collective and public conversations," in the process "making themselves vulnerable." Bob Lee added that "Trust is a factor of relationships, not the least of which, with one's self." Mike Flanagan stressed the importance of ensuring that "transparency, honesty, communication, consistency and predictability are present" in everything we do as managers. For starters, Karen Caswelch suggested that we take steps to ensure that in our hiring, we consistently select people who share and value behaviors that produce trust as a shield against management turnover that leads to broken commitments. There were even more suggestions about what to do about the trust deficit, other than just making sure that all expectations and promises are fulfilled on a regular basis.
Reasons for the trust deficit, in the view of respondents, included the following: (1) "(management) actions … inconsistent with the mission and vision of the company" (Linda Murphy) (2) an emphasis on "productivity, effectiveness and of achievement at all costs" (Liam) (3) "excessive turnover and continuous change" (Marlis Krichewsky) (4) leaders who "use ambiguity and weasel words in their promises" (Jim Conlow) (5) managers who make "unwritten promises" that are not fulfilled (Kamal Hossain) (6) behaviors of managers who "compete with each other to climb to the next higher level" and make unfulfilled promises to do so (Subrata Chakraborty) (7) a "modern fashion of us all being 'economical with the truth' in our communications with other people" (Hugh Quick) and (8) management that does "not observe sanctions when trust is violated" (Tony Smale).Ĭharles Green added that "We don't have it because we haven't taught it, learned it, practiced it." In fairness, Rolf Van Dulst points out that the cause for broken promises that lead to damaged trust may well be "plans and intentions … (that are) overtaken by circumstances beyond … control." Yet many managers are experiencing a trust deficit. The list of things that can be done to restore it is equally long. There is a long list of behaviors that can damage it. Its importance in management is agreed on. Trust is a big issue these days judging from the volume of responses to this month's column. Summing Up Do Managers Take Trust for Granted?