I always get nervous when somebody says, "Trust me." Trust is something that is earned or assumed. When someone asks for trust without earning it, I worry.
Big money is spent in corporate America these days on "team building." There are books, tapes, seminars, games, retreats - everything but love-ins. Teams are keeping balls in the air, playing games, and categorizing their personality types. All these things help, but not if the foundation of trust is not supporting the rest. Interpersonal skills, group goal setting, and role clarification are all on shaky ground if the fundamental of trust is not developed first.
Last night my second grade son said to me, "Mom, Andrew isn't a very good team player . . . and he calls himself a Cub Scout." I didn't know a 7 year-old knew what a team player was, but I think his insights are prophetic with regard to what happens in business teams. What my son was trying to say is Cub Scouts should be honest and trustworthy. It is expected that when you wear the blue uniform, those traits come with it.
It occurred to me that a whole lot of people in the corporate world wish their coworkers would be more like Boy Scouts. They hope that by wearing a company logo watch, an employee will automatically work with integrity.
Trust was intentionally structured out of companies over the last 100 years. The industrial age hit, and Frederick Taylor came up with the scientific management model, ruling out people thinking for themselves. Employees did what they were told without question. It became obvious that employees were not trusted. Managers made a business of checking the work of subordinates, thereby proving to themselves that they were smarter and that's why they were "the boss." Then came bosses who needed to check on the bosses.
We still have structured distrust in our companies. In my first job after college, I managed a $7 million portfolio. Any wrong decision on my part could cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Very little was checked on my work with the accounts. On the other hand, each month when I turned in my expense report, the president's secretary and the executive secretary both reviewed it and checked all the math. Two different months, they found errors. The errors amounted to less than $30 both times, once in their favor.
As they checked my work and sent memos to my boss, it occurred to me that it probably cost them more than $4,000.00 in the four years I worked there, to check my expense reports and to fix any problems. But that wasn't the real cost. The real cost was that I was demoralized by having my pennies counted when I was trusted to deal with substantial money for a client. I found it humiliating. I could see a periodic review or even an occasional dispute on what was an acceptable expense. But, receiving back the adding machine tape from the executive secretary each month as a reminder that they are "watching me and all my peers" was demoralizing and insane.
Corporate America would be a much better place to work if people gave trust and earned trust. If employees managed themselves to get their work right so that managers never had to check it, both sides would be happier. Having checkers checking the work of checkers is redundant and wasteful.
Trust only comes with complete integrity. Integrity means telling the truth even when we know it is not the message that needs to be heard. I explained to my 7 year-old son last week, when he and his curious friend spilled the driveway sealer in the garage (only to be discovered by me the next morning when it was already dried and irremovable), the truth doesn't just mean not lying. It means saying things that need to be said when they need to be said. Managers need to provide the environment where truth tellers are not beheaded. I assured my son that I would not have disciplined him for spilling. However, we had to have a little chat about him not telling me that he spilled.
Clubs need to spend less time selling candy door to door and more time on teaching the value of integrity and the foundation of trust. Companies need to spend less time talking about team building and spend more time in earning and building trust.
