01/19/2021

Trust Is Not Enough

Presented by: Skip Weisman

In 2006 Stephen M.R. Covey, son of the famed author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, published The Speed of Trust.

Ever since the business world has been speeding towards creating high-trust work environments.

In the well-researched book, which offers data and anecdotes to make the case that “as trust goes down speed goes down and as trust goes up, speed goes up, and costs go down.”

What business leader wouldn’t want to his or her workplace on that trajectory?

After fifteen years of working with clients to create high-trust work environments using the Covey book as a foundation of my work, I’ve come to a realization.

Trust is NOT enough!

There is a higher level of trust.

Focusing on trust fails to address that higher level that is required to expect and maintain civility and respect in the workplace.

Respect is that higher level.

Respect, in my personal opinion and in feedback received from my clients’ employees, is that respect is a human right.

Respect for our fellow human beings as human beings seems to be eroding in our society and in our workplaces.

A high-trust workplace does not guarantee respect and civility in that workplace.

There are too many contexts of trust that need to be defined and evaluated between people in a workplace, across all levels of an organization.

But on the path to a high-respect work environment trust is a vital step, because as I wrote in my 2018 book Overcoming The 7 Deadliest Communication SINs: A New Standard for Workplace Communication, “trust is the currency of respect.”

You can trust someone you don’t respect, but it is extremely challenging to respect someone you don’t trust.

The other reason respect is a vital component in creating a high-performance workplace, or as I like to refer to my clients a “championship” work environment, is because respect of teammates in professional sports, is the vital component in creating championship performance on the athletic field.

In working towards creating your “championship” work environment you will need to climb the seven rungs on the Championship Team Ladder.

It all starts with communication and goes up from there.

The next question you may be thinking is how is “respect” different from “trust?” How can we define “respect” so that this ladder works?

Join me for this session at UID 2021 to explore how it can work for you and your organization.