Build a Trust Culture with Truth
Jan 12, 2025
Build a Trust Culture with Truth
I walked through a historic home that begged for a fix-and-flip. The floors were uneven which is typical with older homes. However, when I got to one room in the back corner, the floor shook as I walked. Turns out that corner of the foundation had failed. It required a great deal of work to feel right.
Ever walked through a work culture that shakes? Unless your culture’s trust is built on a firm foundation of truth, even your best growth efforts will wobble.
Sarah, a division leader, struggles with her team’s performance. "We have all the right programs," she said. "But something's missing."
Know what was missing? The foundation. Her team had development plans but not the trust in one another to use them.
Connect Trust and Truth
Ron Carucci discovered something powerful in his research: Organizations where truth-telling is the norm are 16 times more likely to succeed and achieve high performance. Not 16 percent. Sixteen times. That's like turning a one-story house into a skyscraper.
Truth builds trust.
(Discover more in Ron’s research as I interview him for the Work Positive Podcast at https://workpositive.today/ron-carucci.)
Tom, a manufacturing team leader, transformed his department by making one simple change. Before sharing his own ideas, he started asking, "What do you think?" Team suggestions jumped 300% in one month. Why? People felt their ideas mattered. Their work and their worth received value from Tom.
The next time a team member asks you what to do, follow Tom and say, “What do you think?” and listen with genuine interest. You communicate immense work and worth as you do.
Truth builds trust.
Create Truth Bridges
Know what kills trust built on truth faster than anything?
Silos.
Leaders say, “I have to look after MY people.”
Team members employ “us versus them” language.
The company’s bottom line is subservient to the department’s turf.
When departments become kingdoms, truth gets lost in translation.
Here's how to disassemble silos and recycle the cultural steel to build truth bridges of trust:
- Regular cross-team check-ins: schedule consistent, collaborative gatherings for various teams in which you emphasize common purposes, creative problem-solving, and communication clarity.
- Shared learning sessions: the wonder of it all is that teams are myopic in their silos. Their silos are echo chambers that reinforce the same old mental models that dominate a fixed mindset. A growth mindset, positive culture rips up the map and transparently, authentically says, “Here’s what I learned . . . “
- Joint problem-solving meetings: the fixed mindset says, “I already know that” even when you don’t. A growth mindset says, “I need some help” and earnestly seeks guidance.
- Celebration of collaboration: everyone loves a party, right? Especially when it’s for their team. Instead, celebrate “our” win as we achieved more together than either team could have done separately. Pause long enough to celebrate which cements the positive benefits of the experience in everyone’s mindset.
- Open feedback channels: everybody’s business is nobody’s business. Prescribe how cross-team communication happens best. Expect engagement. When it’s not, call attention to it. When it is, celebrate the collaboration.
Create truth bridges.
Your Trust from Truth Challenge
Do One Thing to build trust from truth:
- Share a personal growth struggle: even HR leaders and owners have growth mindset edges, i.e., those development tasks that defy reason and persist. What’s yours? Go first to share yours. Your words weigh more than some other person’s. You liberate your colleagues who are mental prisoners of their own fixed mindset struggles.
- Ask for honest feedback: start your day by asking one team member, "What's one truth I need to hear today?" Then really listen. Avoid the urge to defend or explain. Listen. Say, “Thank you.” Watch what happens to trust levels when you do this consistently.
- Admit a mistake and share the lesson: go all in on vulnerability. Sure, it’s a risk, but if the owner or HR leader refuses to do it, who will? Be transparent. Release your humanity. Focus on the lesson learned. Redeem the experience.
- Bridge a team divide: the silos are real in virtually every industry in which I’ve worked. Tell the truth. Call it what it is. Build a bridge of trust that positions the company as the winner.
Someone said recently to me, “I used to think trust was soft stuff. Now I know it's the hardest foundation we've ever built . . . and the most valuable.”
Build your foundation of trust today, one truth at a time. Your growth mindset, positive culture depends on it.
Taken from Dr. Joey’s soon-to-be-released book, Growth Mindset and Culture: Six Power Moves for a Growth Mindset at Work.
What’s your question about how to create a positive work culture? Ask Dr. Joey here.
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