Why trust is the first step towards a strong culture
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I spend a couple of hours each week writing the Future Work-Life newsletter. Plus there’s the time I spend consuming the content that stimulates the ideas, of course, which all adds up.
I mention this only after reflecting on last week’s article - Trust me, employee surveillance is a bad idea - and the fact that I very rarely look back on previous versions. Invariably, it’s because I don’t have time, although it’s also because I find it immensely irritating to spot a typo that I missed the first time around.
I did look back this week, though, because I was intrigued how frequently I repeat the same phrases, ideas or concepts. In particular, given the theme of last week’s ruminations, trust.
Sure enough, throughout the previous thirteen newsletters, trust appears several times. If you’re interested, here are my other favourite words:
Autonomy: this makes sense, given I go on about trust all the time.
Discombobulating: I started writing FWL during a global pandemic, so this hardly surprising.
Empathic: I’m still not convinced this even the right way of describing empathy; I’m going to revert to empathetic in future.
F*ck: you’d think that by this stage in life I could avoid profanity when putting thoughts down on ‘paper’ but clearly not!
Strategy – a go-to word should you ever want to make any idea sound well-considered.
Work-Life Design – if I didn’t mention this regularly, I’d be disappointed in myself.
One word I haven’t written many times is culture, which surprised me given how often I discuss I discuss it in day-to-day life and that it feeds into so much of my thinking around work-life design.
Of course, the trouble with culture is that’s a slippery f*cker. Many people will tell you that culture isn’t something that you can define; that you can’t impose culture on people because it’s something ‘you live’. There’s also a good argument that culture only truly exists at a team level in large companies, but that debate will have to wait for another day.
There is, however, little doubt that culture, particularly when it’s bad, permeates an organisation. As an example of this, take Uber and WeWork, evidenced by them parachuting Frances Frei in to clean things up.
And yet, culture is routinely the first thing staff reach for when describing what’s amazing about their company. Of course, this makes sense when you think about it. Beyond individual successes, our feelings about work are otherwise defined by the collective experience, including the success and reputation of the organisation.
Either way, whether perceived as positive or negative, culture can be the determinant factor in what makes a company distinct from other businesses in the same industry or category.
The shift to remote working has made it clear that when we talk about culture, we’re not talking about whether there’s free food in the office, a pool table or Friday-night drinks. Although much of this stuff is a nice perk, culture is more accurately defined as “a set of norms and values that are widely shared and strongly held throughout the organisation.” (C.A. O’Reilly and J.A. Chatman, “Culture as Social Control: Corporations, Cults, and Commitment,”)
A combination of strategy and culture informs the behaviours of people within an organisation. It is to the latter, though, which we tend to defer during times of uncertainty.
As Frei and Anne Morriss put it in Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You:
“Whatever strategy has not made clear to your extended team, culture will unapologetically fill the void. Culture establishes the rules of engagement after leadership leaves the room; it explains how things are really done around here.”
Trust’s connection to culture is also vital. As Paul J. Zak explained in his HBR article, The Neuroscience of Trust:
“In my research I’ve found that building a culture of trust is what makes a meaningful difference. Employees in high-trust organisations are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. They also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives, and these factors fuel stronger performance.”
Trust is also a prerequisite for those businesses that aspire to create an ‘innovation culture’. In these environments, task conflict is encouraged since it directly and positively relates to team creativity. Differences of opinion, when offered constructively, can be the difference between running a wild goose chase and executing an experiment-guided plan. But this can only exist where people inherently trust each other and feel a sense of psychological safety (another of my favourite topics).
Legendary coach Bill Campbell worked with some of Silicon Valley’s top founders, including Steve Jobs (Apple), Larry Page and Sergei Brin (Google) and Marc Benioff (Salesforce) and was the embodiment of this idea. He worked with executives throughout their organisations, and he valued cultures bound by honesty and immensely high standards
In Trillion Dollar Coach, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle wrote a wonderful tribute to the man that everyone who knew him called, The Coach. The anecdote that sticks in the mind as it relates to this week’s topic, though, is that Campbell never shied from telling people the truth – however, difficult it was to hear at first. As the authors put it, the recipients of the feedback always recognised that it was at the same time candid and caring, which was only possible because everyone trusted him.
Taking inspiration from The Coach, here are a few thoughts on how to foster a culture of truth within your organisations:
Start by giving people your full and undivided attention. Switch off devices, listen intently and ask questions that help you understand their perspective.
Be honest at all times, regardless of any momentary discomfort this causes you or the person to whom you are speaking. I’m not suggesting you be rude or dismissive; quite the opposite. Offer negative feedback in a caring and understanding way, preferably in private.
Encourage people to be themselves and show them that you believe in them. Celebrating diversity benefits business and is a critical step to creating an honest and open culture.
My final thought is this. Whenever I hear people proudly talking about their organisations, trust proves to be an essential characteristic of their working culture. And this is why I’ll no doubt refer to back to it again and again. Perhaps I’ll try to cut back on the swearing in future though.
Have a good week.
Ollie
Any Other Business:
Continuing the theme:
When It Comes to Culture, Does Your Company Walk the Talk? by Donald Sull, Stefano Turconi, and Charles Sull in MIT Sloan Management Review. Company practices often conflict with corporate values. Closing the gap starts with communication.
How might offices change when we do return?
Covid will force us to reimagine the office. Let's get it right this time by Kerstin Sailer in The Guardian. Dreams of reinventing the workplace gave us cubicles and hotdesking as utopian ideas gave way to cost-cutting.
And on a different note:
How You Feel Depends on Where You Are by Susan Pinker on her website and originally from the Wall Street Journal. New research uses GPS data from cell phones to draw connections between people’s location and their mood.