On Trust
/I got asked a great question. “Is trust the same as Psychological Safety in a team or organisation?” It’s not but they are closely related. Building one without the other is probably impossible. Both involve some initial faith and investment before they are backed by evidence. Hemingway once said, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” There’s some risk involved. What if they turn out to be untrustworthy?
There are 2 useful questions to ask yourself/others in the team about trust:
How readily do you trust someone? We all sit somewhere on a continuum from ‘I assume everyone is trustworthy’ to ‘I trust no one’. At the extremes are dangerous territory. Too trusting is gullible and easily taken advantage of. Too distrustful and you are unlikely to ever work well with others. You'll always be watching your back.
If trust is broken, how readily do you restore it? Again it's a continuum. For some, any perceived breach of trust means they will never trust again. For others, they’ll repair broken trust easily.
Understanding what it takes for each person to give their trust and to fix it is useful.
I reckon a useful mindset is to assume people are inherently trustworthy. It speeds our ability to work well together. And we’ll build psychological safety more quickly too.
Consciously build and defend both.