TRUST

Social trust is a measure of the moral quality of a society—of whether the people and institutions in it are trustworthy, whether they keep their promises and work for the common good. 

David Brooks

The above quote from a recent article by David Brooks entitled “America is Having a Moral Convulsion” stimulated some thought regarding trust. The article is worthy of serious reading.
Brooks’ posits that we are currently experiencing a social moral convulsion in which … political, social, and moral order is dissolving. When people in a society lose faith or trust in their institutions and in each other, the nation collapses. As I understand it, Brooks sees both cause and solution centered in trust.

Although much less dramatic, I became acutely aware of trust as an essential element in effecting organization change while participating in an innovative work place experiment at Ford Motor Company.

The back story is longer than this post allows. The short version is that Ford, like all os U.S. automotive companies was struggling to survive Japanese competition. One particular effort to meet competitive challenges was implementation of self-directive work teams in the manufacturing process. Self-directed work teams required dramatic changes for union represented employees and involved significant cultural and operational implications for management.

Because organizational and cultural changes were so dramatic and innovative, the company choose to initiate an experiment to prove the concept before applying it broadly. Our plant was chosen as the location for the experiment.
The scope of the experiment was one small area affecting only a small fraction of the plant’s population. Because the experiment was inherently suspect, the union insisted on a referendum by all employees whether to approve its implementation.
The value of the experiment to the company was such that, in exchange for acceptance of the experiment, there would be no lay-offs for the entire plant as long as the experiment continued.
A no lay-off policy was one of the most sought after union demands and was unheard of in U.S. automotive industry. Such a concession was unprecedented. The impending referendum became politicized with opponents and supporters in the union and company.

Despite promises of no-lay offs and potential changes which would help assure survival of competitive threats, employees voted NO. The referendum result was deeply disappointing for the company and even more so for me. To understand why employees were unwilling to accept an experiment which offered much, in exchange for little concession, the company commissioned an outside firm to conduct an assessment to determine the answer.

In one of the more memorable events of my career, I was present when the results of the assessment were presented to top management. The assessment concluded program and implementation plans and strategies were not contributing factors to employees’ rejection. The single deciding factor in their decision to vote no was …they did not trust management, upper management in particular.
That revelation was transformative, at least for me. In retrospect, here are some conclusions about trust and organizations:

• Trust is the glue that holds organizations together.
• Without trust survival is not possible.
• Trust is not an either or proposition.
• Trust is fluid and can be diminished or improved.
• Creation and cultivation of trust is the responsibility of leadership.
• Organization flexibility and adaptability are directly correlated to levels of trust.
• When resistance to change or participation occurs, the first inquiry by leadership should assess trust levels.
• Although distrust may exist because of an individual, the ultimate source of distrust may come from the “operating system” , in which case, improvement in trust cannot be solved by a quick dismissal.
• The most important challenge of leadership is to establish and grow trust.

Obviously I have not exhausted the subject of trust. I have more thoughts and questions I plan to address in future posts. Although this post focused on my organizational experience, I believe my conclusions to be applicable in all organization contexts.

Still on the Journey