Creating a trusting culture is one of the biggest challenges in our consulting practices, but it is also the most important.  Trust is the basis of teamwork, meaning that without trust, your team will perform below its abilities.  A lack of trust causes damaging conflict, decreased productivity, higher than necessary turnover, and toxicity among staff.  An example of a toxic culture: Your current team argues over ideas, or even worse, stays silent during a meeting.  They are unable to move any ideas forward because they cannot support each other over their own ideas.  Management perpetuates this infighting by promoting the loudest person in the room by confusing loudness with leadership abilities.

 

Sounds messy, but this is the reality for many businesses.

 

A trusting culture, on the other hand, is not free of conflict – in fact, with the right culture, you will actually increase conflict, but in a healthier, more productive way.  When a team has trust, they are willing to move forward, even when they don’t think it’s the right way.  An example of a trusting culture: You current team argues over ideas, and they are not afraid to voice their opinions during meetings.  They move ideas forward, because everyone gets the same platform to share solutions, and being heard is the biggest catalyst to gaining trust.  Management supports that the team will not always get along, and promotes a leader than can facilitate great discussions to cause conflict, and solve it.

 

This is what happens when you have a trusting culture.  That trust is a catalyst to ideation, because it takes away the fear of “bad ideas,” sharing opinions, and making mistakes.  Removing those barriers to successful teamwork creates an environment where people collaborate, aren’t afraid to have different points of view and are celebrated for it, which creates true value for internal and external customers.