You Can’t Manufacture Trust
Developing trust and increasing alignment and cohesion is a meaningful goal that requires deep levels of individual and collective change. It doesn’t materialize overnight. Trust is like a muscle that with work will grow in strength and endurance, but if left neglected, will atrophy. Here are five core convictions for how we approach building real, long-term trust with executive teams.
The WiLD Philosophy: WiLD stands for Whole + Intentional Leader Development and this captures our approach and the reality of leading in the midst of change. Our conviction is that building trust where it doesn’t exist is a wild endeavor full of unexpected twists and turns. Our approach to building trust isn’t about merely increasing collaboration for a moment in time, it’s about investing deeply in the generative and ongoing capacity of the leaders in the room to lead well both individually, and together for the future. Behavioral modification will be necessary for every person involved. The changes can be difficult, they will require the whole person, and they will be deeply personal. They will also require trust, which starts with an understanding of self. Ultimately personal changes call for a perspective expanding approach.
Thoughtful and Nuanced: Trust is more than a mere platitude. Trust is an active and invisible force that enables or derails. Building trust goes beyond a pop-psych airport seminar, empty magic box, or an oversimplified three-step solution. It often involves difficult questions more than answers, at least at first. Our approach to building trust is based on decades of practical experience informed by cutting-edge research in the field of Industrial-Organizational Psychology. We reject a one-size-fits all approach. Our tools and approaches draw out context and require leaders to “edit” or change themselves in real-time. We’re also committed to editing ourselves right alongside the leaders we serve.
Real Trust: We want teams to build real trust, not just to manufacture the appearance of trust. Deep trust is built over time and requires intentionality and commitment to learning about each other and alignment to a shared purpose. And, deepening trust will require moving through seasons of peaks and valleys with a long-term trajectory toward organizational health. Our role is to architect spaces that maximize psychological safety and to provide scaffolding for individual leadership team members to know each other and grow in connected collaboration. We’ll bring tools to develop a common shared language for being together and seeing each other. This extends the impact beyond the punctuated moments that we spend with any team and moves leader development from an event to an integrated process.
Disruptive: Our time with leadership teams will have moments that feel uncomfortable for everyone, including us. We challenge leaders with tough questions when appropriate and we’re not afraid to lean into the tensions and paradoxes that are present in this work. The most meaningful development moments for leaders and teams are often moments that are disruptive. Psychological research suggests that we can’t unlearn behaviors, but that instead we can replace our mental models and behaviors with new ones that are more adaptive. To adopt a new approach requires what we refer to as “editability” a word we made up to describe the willingness of a leader to edit themselves in order to grow for the sake of others. When we partner on a courageous journey with you to increase trust and alignment, some people in your leadership team may leave. Building trust isn’t about a warm and fuzzy team building exercise. Misaligned individuals may leave the organization, but the right people will remain and invest more deeply in the organization’s growth.
We bring expertise in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, leadership development and organizational systems. Our client partners bring expertise in their context. We’ll co-design powerful processes, but rely on you, the client, for collaborative insights into your organization and culture. We work best as true partners who bring thought leadership. We’re not effective as just an extra set of hands, nor are we at our best when we are merely an armchair advisor. Also, change may be hard work, but there should be some fun along the way. We’ll laugh with you too. Whether it’s with WiLD or on your own, fostering trust requires a whole and intentional leader development process that you commit to working on, because trust requires more than just a trust-fall.
