What’s Trust Got to Do With It? Practices for Trust Building in Partnerships & Collaborations
Trust is one of those words that gets frequently thrown around business circles. Business guru Stephen Covey once said, “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” Well, that sounds big. It seems like trust is a topic that we in the business world should know about. What is trust anyways?
The Oxford Dictionary defines trust as “a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” Trust becomes important in the business world because we need to trust people to do what they say and we want to trust companies with our assets. We need to trust our teammates that they will deliver on their work. If trust is a firm belief, then we need actions to back up that belief. What actions build trust for you? Maybe it’s showing up somewhere when you said you would. Maybe it’s being responsive when a request happens. Maybe it’s keeping a relationship going over a long period of time. All of these actions can build trust.
Today I want to share some research with you that I recently conducted with colleagues about practices for trust building. In this research, we used the following definition of trust: “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (Mayer et al., 1995, p. 712). In this definition, I see two explicit actions of trust building from this definition – being vulnerable to the actions of another and setting expectations. An implicit action is the choice to offer trust in the first place. Let’s explore these actions further.
Our research article offers this statement: “In a world fragmented by digitalization, social upheaval, ethnocentric development policies, and global pandemics, trust among people, companies, and governments has eroded.” Are you feeling this fragmentation in your workplace? Maybe even in your community? I do. I see the fragmentation politically here in the United States. I feel the fragmentation globally with uncertain economies and ongoing pandemics. I also see trust eroding between employees and employers, especially around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.
In our research, we referenced a graduate school practicum that moved from an international trip to a virtual experience in a matter of six weeks during the 1st months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving locations at this point in the graduate program constituted a high risk of potential failure yet asking students to travel internationally was not an option. Not offering this practicum would also delay the graduate students’ graduation dates, which made the graduate school vulnerable with the graduate cohort and future candidates. The graduate school did not have prior experience with a virtual practicum, and stakeholders (including students and potential consulting clients) experienced a great deal uncertainty within their professional and personal lives.
A first step to building trust came from the graduate school faculty who asked his professional network for help with this project. The faculty lead then had follow up conversations with those who responded. This process took time, and the faculty lead was responsive to anyone who offered help. The faculty lead also provided updates to the graduate students who anxiously awaited answers while watching the world shut down, one country at a time. The faculty lead was able to build trust in times of uncertainty with these actions.
Lesson #1 - While the world around us may have continued uncertainty, we can still build trust across teams, companies, and global communities. The first step is a willingness to open yourself up to another person or group.
Times of crisis can help us get very clear on messaging and deliverables. This was the case in our research. The graduate school had specific learning objectives that needed to be achieved within a certain framework and timeline. When asking for help, only respondents that could meet these needs were considered. Then a negotiation began about levels of support and potential client expectations.
For this final practicum, graduate students were required to conduct an international consulting assignment in small groups with multinational companies. The students would receive support from the graduate school faculty, yet previous practicums were conducted in China. The graduate school had multi-year relationships with Chinese schools and corporations, which enabled the two groups to easily form consulting assignments. Partnering with a different school, specifically located in South Africa, brought a new level of needed relationship building and description of what was possible with these consulting assignments.
The faculty lead at the graduate school and the new faculty contact in South Africa worked together to set expectations with each other, between the two schools, with the graduate students, and with potential consulting assignments. These expectations included communication methods (Ex. who will communicate what and when), technology requirements (Ex. Zoom, WhatsApp, etc.), time commitments, and support conversations. The two faculty leads navigated conversations for each group and across the groups over several weeks.
Two key actions helped to lower levels of uncertainty – response time & capability and sticking to the project schedule and meetings. Decreasing uncertainty allowed the graduate students to express their deep concerns for safety and capacity for completing this project. Concerns were addressed in quick and meaningful ways by the faculty leads.
Lesson #2 – Say what you are going to do and stick with it throughout the project. Setting and meeting expectations can decrease uncertainty and increase employee engagement.
In this particular research study, history & reputation were key trust builders throughout the project. The two faculty leads knew each other from previous networking events. The faculty lead for the US-based program did not have much relationship history with the student cohort, but the students had a rich history with each other from the graduate program and the other faculty members. The South Africa-based school knew the reputation of the US-based school as the premier Organization Development program in the world. The faculty lead for the South Africa-based school used her local network to source clients for consulting assignments.
History and reputation between individuals and institutions allowed trust to cascade into every level of interaction within the project. The trust between two individuals – the US-based faculty lead and the South Africa-based faculty lead – enabled six multinational companies to complete consulting assignments with global organization development students. That’s two individuals influencing a project with 54 people and 8 companies represented. This is a powerful example of one’s circle of influence.
The impact of history and reputation in this research is a timely reminder that building connections in our networks is still useful. And the move to more virtual interactions requires us to put forth more effort into building and sustaining these connections. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman published an article about trust in the Harvard Business Review that reaffirms this notion of networking. They categorize the importance of positive relationships and specifically highlight the need to “stay in touch on the issues and concerns of others” as a key trust-building action.
Lesson #3: Keep building and sustaining your network of business connections, even when virtual seems less than ideal for interactions. History and reputation are becoming more critical with globalization.
Trust becomes possible through a series of small actions that build consistency over time. As we said in the article, “The data here clearly suggest that the effectiveness of trust building requires an intentional willingness to risk, lean into the discomfort, and desire to develop deep human connection. Deep virtual connection may require more time in designing trust building activities. The most useful design elements in virtual meetings focus on explicit connection rather than content alone.”
The collaborative effort of University A and B was possible because initial levels of trust between the two faculty leads were cascaded to other stakeholders in the ecosystem. It created an environment for the co-creation of solutions with clients in the practicum projects. These solutions, too, were enabled by trust building/action learning cycles.”
How will you build trust in your interactions today? While the world around us may have continued uncertainty, we can still build trust across teams, companies, and global communities. The first step is a willingness to open yourself up to another person or group. Say what you are going to do and stick with it throughout the project. Keep building and sustaining your network of business connections, even when virtual seems less than ideal for interactions.
*Special thanks to my amazing partners in this research – Dr. Chris Worley, Dr. Caren Scheepers, Hannah Nichols, and Christine Parcells.
References
Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. The Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709-734. https://doi.org/10.2307/258792
Prabhakar, K., Brodzik, C., Gest, D., Nodi, N., and Cherny, M. (2022). Build trust in diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. Deloitte Report. Employee trust and DEI in the workplace | Deloitte Insights.
Worley, C. G., Loftis, S., Scheepers, C., Nichols, H., & Parcells, C. (2022). Building Trust Through Action Learning in An Uncertain Transorganizational Context. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00218863221117592
Zenger, J., and Folkman, J. (2019). The 3 Elements of Trust. Harvard Business Review. The 3 Elements of Trust (hbr.org).