The Speed of Trust, part 2

Continued from our November issue… below is the second half of our interview with Stephen M. R. Covey. The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything is currently in its 9th printing and finding application across the globe.

LAG: Sales have been outstanding for your book. Tell us about the growing interest…
Covey: We’re quite encouraged, but more than sales, we’re most encouraged that there has been a positive response from people and the book has really seemed to resonate with people. Its intuitive to them and they respond to it. They also like the fact there is something you can do about it. In other words, its not like you either have trust or you don’t, rather its something that you can turn into a strength, skill or competence. You can also learn to extend, grow and engender it with your customers, clients and shareholders.

LAG: How do you work with companies to create and build trust?
Covey: There is no common framework, but there are some consistent elements in building trust. First, we need to measure it and determine the baseline. Then, we need to understand why there is a low level of trust. Are there matters of integrity or issues of intent? Or is it related to capabilities? Or is it results? At the same time, we need to identify the behaviors that are causing these issues, such as being transparent or not, righting wrongs or not, and keeping commitments or not. Once we gather some of this data, then we have a benchmark for improvement.

We also spend some time in creating the business case for trust. Trust is seen by many as a soft virtue, when in fact, it is a much harder economic driver because it always affects speed and cost – and you can measure speed and cost. The end result is an economic, quantifiable impact.

Next, there are four key elements that we introduce. First, we identify the creation of trust as an explicit, deliberate objective. Its not something that is just a natural outgrowth – we need to be deliberate about it. Second, we focus on helping people understand the importance of credibility, starting with yourself and then each person. Its always an inside-out process with yourself, your team and your unit, and then you work to extend it to customers, clients, stakeholders and others. The next step is to focus on observable behavior. Here, we focus on the 13 behaviors associated with high trust leaders (described in detail in the book), such as talking straight, listening first and confronting reality. What’s just as important, is avoiding the opposite of these behaviors, and even more important, avoiding the counterfeit behaviors. The opposites are obvious, such as lying, but what may not be as apparent is the significant impact of counterfeit behaviors. Sometimes the impact of counterfeit behaviors is worse because they’re deceptive. For example, the counterfeit of talking straight is to spin, twist or position information. Technically, you might be telling the truth, but you are leaving the wrong impression, which will have a cumulative negative effect because it builds up over time. Many cultures are filled with counterfeit behaviors, such as hidden agendas, instead of transparency, and covering up instead of righting wrongs. There’s blame instead of responsibility and so forth. Unfortunately, these can become the norm over time.

Fourth, the final step is to focus on the alignment of the organization. Are the systems and processes of the organization in alignment with the core values of the company? Are there policies that contradict those values? Is there micromanagement? Are there sign-in and sign-out sheets with explanations needed, when one of the core values of the organization is trust? This can undermine all of your efforts. You need to develop symbols of trust, rather than symbols of mistrust.

LAG: Do you have a difficult time in convincing businesses about the measurable impact of trust?
Covey: Initially, we might have some difficulty, but once we spend some time with an organization, they quickly acknowledge and understand the impact. For example, we worked with a restaurant business that had roughly 1,000 restaurants, but was dealing with trust issues between the upper management and store-level management. The span of control was an issue because there were four or five layers between the regional manager and the store. We asked why the structure was created this way and the answer that we finally got was that upper management didn’t trust lower level management. Eventually, they changed their approach and brought in people that they could trust, and coached, trained and mentored them on this new approach. After going through this process, they moved the span of control from five stores to one regional manager to 19 or 20 stores per regional manager. When they quantified this economically, the net effect and the results were profound. But, originally, they didn’t see the problem as an issue of trust. When we start to mention the metrics of speed and cost, relative to trust, companies are usually persuaded quickly about the measurable impact.

LAG: What can be done when the masses of an organization want to address trust issues within the company, but upper management seems unwilling?

Covey: Great question. That is not uncommon. We would always prefer to have senior leaders embrace situations like this, but that’s not always the case. Where it can start, is with one extraordinary performer – with one person who has credibility and has produced excellent results. That credibility is based on four principles: integrity, intent, capabilities and results. Despite the low level of trust in the organization, this person has operated with a high level of trust themselves, as well as with their team, and has produced results. Because they have performed so well, they have some respect and credibility within the company and can afford to take some risks and challenge the norm.

I saw this happen with a beverage company. They were opening a new manufacturing plant and had selected a top performer to be the plant manager. This person agreed to the new endeavor, but did so on one condition – he said he wanted to run things his own way for six months without any interference from upper management. After about three months, his results had surpassed previous records. Upper management asked how he was doing it and he said that one of the reasons was that he had built a culture of trust. Speed had increased and cost had gone down because trust was high. His plant not only became a model for other plants, but also for the corporate office, as they became more open to such concepts.

To read more about Stephen Covey’s book, please click here.