A. Fiona Zeally writes:
You can’t simply tell your employees to trust you in the way that doctors are always quoted as saying – people need to rebuild that sense of trust for themselves. Everyone has their own set of values around trust, so what is important is to appeal to each individual’s unique ‘what matters to me’ factors. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be as time-consuming and difficult a task as it may at first appear.
At Ignite, we often ask people in teams to focus on insights from organisations they hold in high regard to really get to the core of what they think and believe, and help them to reach a common understanding. We might explore their vision of success, or organisational values.
For example, you could ask people in your team to think about organisations that they personally feel exhibit a high degree of trust, integrity or honour with customers and staff. Then ask them to think about what it is about that organisation that makes them feel warm or open towards them.
You may get some people saying that they absolutely trust the John Lewis stores group, with reasons including:
- “They are open about their commitments and pay up when ‘knowingly undersold’.”
- “Their staff are partners, so I know they do what’s right for the business.”
- “Their values match mine,” – in which case you might probe a bit further on what those values might be.
They might choose other trusted brands, such as Innocent, Harley-Davidson or BMW.
It doesn’t matter if people come up with different examples or even if they don’t agree, because the important thing is to get them talking with each other and with you about what encourages their trust.
Once you have done this, you can ask how your team could apply some of the strengths that attract your employees to
their favourite brands to your organisation.
We find that exercises like this create value from two sources:
- Having an open conversation about a problem everyone knows is there, but may not have owned up to explicitly.
- The ideas that you come up with, as a team, to help you get round the problem – which should only take an hour or two of people’s time in a meeting, fuelled perhaps by some cakes, or pizza and a few beers.
In our business, we use this technique every day in our work with clients; to engage team members in a more innovative way of thinking and to encourage a greater sense of involvement and ownership in the challenges their organisation throws at them.
Fiona Zealley is a senior consultant at Ignite, a leading UK innovation and change consultancy. She has led projects as diverse as reducing product development times for a global FMCG brand and transforming children’s services across England. www.igniteacademy.com