Schuman S. - The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation (2005)(en)

Building Trust

The Great Enabler

c h a p t e r

S I X

Maria Begoña Rodas-Meeker

Larry Meeker

Trust is a supremely important element in relationships between people. To trust someone makes a statement of faith about the other human being.

It means you believe in the person, that you are willing to rely on his/her integrity, strength, ability and surety. It rings of confidence. Relationships strong in trust have a feeling and sense of security and strength.

Larry Meeker, Steve Fischer, and Beth Michalak (1994)

For organizations, teams, and groups both large and small, trust is one of the great enablers of actions and behaviors that are important to achieve success. It is not a skill and cannot be learned by intellectual study. It is learned, or more appropriately built, based on our

experiences one with each other.

In the profession of facilitation, this could not be more true. As with many other professions—medical, legal, and financial, to name a few—successful outcomes depend largely on interpersonal relationships. Trust is a key ingredient in strong working relationships.

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Three critical areas regarding trust demand the facilitator’s attention:

•Trust between the facilitator and the hiring manager client

•Trust between the facilitator and the group or groups being facilitated

•Trust within and between groups or organizations that will be critical to the implementation and execution of their desired outcomes and actions

We will examine each, explaining the importance of each to effective facilitation, proposing indicators of levels of trust, and considering facilitation practices and techniques appropriate to build trust.

For each of these critical areas, it is vital to have effective relationships among members that are based on trust. When this exists, the participants and facilitators can find success in processes and activities important for achieving success: communication, effective coordination of processes, timely decision making, successful problem solving, cooperation among members, and commitment to decisions and results.

Success in these areas enables progress toward business goals. Absence of trust has an extremely negative impact on groups, and at a very high organizational cost. Such a lack can be far more serious than simply a lack of confidence between people. (Confidence is a product of trust. It pertains to our faith in each other’s trustworthiness to behave and take actions in a manner that contributes.) It can have much deeper consequences and even result in loss of progress toward business objectives. When trust is absent, negative emotions and actions, such as suspicion and blaming, can steal from an organization’s productive energy and undermine the positive work that people should be attending to. “The dynamics of trust and betrayal in the workplace are complex. That is why people have difficulty understanding them” (Reina and Reina, 1999, p. 1). It is critical that the facilitator understands these dynamics, facilitates processes that increase knowledge about trust and mistrust, and stimulates group members to behave in ways that have the potential to cultivate and nurture high levels of trust.

The importance of this appears to be universal, spanning cultures around the globe. We have observed the critical role of trust while working with diverse teams in the United States and Europe. The United States is perhaps the most diverse nation on the planet. Working with organizations and teams in the United States requires an appreciation and understanding of processes that can build trust among diverse participants. In work with multinational corporations in Europe

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as well as the United States, the stimulation of trust across cultures is similarly important.

We have had similar experience in other parts of the world. In Latin America, team members commonly wait until they can see the actions and results of a new team member in order to start building trust. In the past year, important multicultural facilitation experience in countries such as South Africa further demonstrated that important alliances and partnerships can be built when people feel they are in a safe environment where they can participate, learn, and trust in each other to find ways to cooperate and build together sustainable development agreements.

TRUST BETWEEN THE FACILITATOR AND CLIENT

Levels of trust, whether great or small, start to take shape in the initial discussions and interactions that a facilitator has with a potential client. This is true whether it is a process that will use a facilitator internal to the organization or a professional consultant from outside the company. The client has some need. There may be serious pain in the organization. The decision to take action to resolve those needs to some extent involves whether the client has confidence and trust in the facilitator (or facilitation team) to help with the issues.

The qualities and values critical to forming trust are important in those initial discussions between client and facilitators. A lot is at stake for both, depending on the trust that they can establish in their relationship. To achieve the results the client expects, it will be very important for the facilitator to be honest, responsible, and professional. To build and maintain the relationship with the client, it is important to reach agreement on ground rules and to be clear about what can be negotiated and what cannot. Finally, it will be important to talk honestly about any possible conflict of interest. This will help the client make informed decisions regarding the facilitation services. (These issues are discussed as well in Chapter Thirty.)

Gaining the trust of the client is equally important for internal facilitators. In particular, in Latin America (but also in North America and other countries), it is common practice to place more trust in external and “expert” facilitators rather than in the inner resources of the organization. The early work of an internal team of facilitators is critical for their future credibility and continuity; when positive results are evident, the leadership will increasingly ask for the internal rather than external facilitators. The internal processes are then perceived to be more effective

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and trusted and can achieve results more quickly. In addition, there is a double gain in the process because members of the facilitation team begin to feel that the organization has more trust in them. Because of this shift in trust and confidence, the use of the internal resources becomes common: the leaders trust in the internal facilitators more than the external resources for certain special activities. The facilitator can aid this process of creating strong levels of trust in several ways:

•Listening and understanding. There is nothing more important in the beginning of an intervention process than for the facilitator to listen authentically, asking questions that reveal the issues to be addressed and displaying genuine interest throughout the process of fact finding.

•Client needs. The facilitator aids the process of creating strong levels of trust when he or she has in mind the needs of the client and shows that he or she can help the client to achieve the objectives.

•Ethics and values. The facilitator should serve as a role model in terms of ethics and values. When the client observes that the facilitator’s behavior reflects a strong commitment to values and ethics, he or she will trust more that the group will obtain what they need. Personal integrity is critical to building trust with the client.

TRUST BETWEEN THE FACILITATOR AND THE GROUP

Throughout facilitated interventions, levels of trust have an impact on the capacity for success. From the introductions at the very beginning of a meeting, the members of the group judge the safety of the environment in which they are being asked to contribute. Their perceptions of safety bear on many factors—for example:

•Their level of participation

•The ultimate results

•Their commitment to outcomes

•Their belief about the possibilities that the results will be implemented

•The continuity of the processes

Trust internal to the group is an important factor in each event. Some individuals and groups bring a lot of baggage with them into meetings—for example, perceptions and experiences involving past commitments what were not kept, past

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disagreements, or a variety of relationship challenges. It is important for the facilitator to be prepared for the work ahead. The preconsultation process steps provide the facilitator important information and stories of previous circumstances where trust could have been damaged, such as projects that did not achieve their full potential. This type of background information and insight can aid the facilitator in creating an environment where the participants may share more openly their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions and create the appropriate processes where those conflicts and baggage can be handled.

It is important to address the issue of preparation and responsiveness of facilitators. The manner in which the facilitator prepares for and executes the events will increase the client’s confidence and trust in the technical ability of the individual to do the work involved. (See Chapter Four.)

Preparation to facilitate is critical. This engages the facilitator in the business or mission of the group. It illustrates where challenges are likely to be encountered during the facilitation processes. It enables the facilitator to design interventions appropriate for the specific group to achieve the outcomes important to the company or organization. It will provide the opportunity to create adequate processes that will enable the group to build trust.

Responsiveness means the ability of the facilitator to “be in the moment” with the group. For all of the preparation that a good facilitator can perform prior to an event, it is critical that he or she be tuned in to what is occurring with the group during the facilitated processes. Almost always, the attentive facilitator will discover new information that he or she should respond to as it emerges from within the group.

Flexibility is the key to responding to what emerges during the facilitated intervention. It is these skill areas in combination that can enable great outcomes and results—great preparation combined with great sensitivity and responsiveness to those things that occur during a facilitation process. When a group sees these together in a facilitator, the level of trust between the group and the facilitator grows rapidly, and better results can be achieved.

There are additional keys for a facilitator to understand and enhance trust when working with a group:

•Flexibility to provide better processes to help a group or to reconcile emerging needs with the initial need that had been stated.

•Processes that are aligned with the group needs and style

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•Permanent feedback and follow-up of the process

•Rapport that is built with the group from the first moments

•An understanding of the development stage of the team, with the facilitation type chosen accordingly

•Management of the information that the group shares during the sessions in order to guarantee that what they say remains in the room and will not be shared with other people unless this has been agreed to beforehand

TRUST WITHIN AND BETWEEN GROUPS

Ideas and plans developed during a facilitated intervention are great, but the payoff comes later, when the individuals and groups within the organization set out to implement their ideas.

Many times facilitation activities are connected to organizational changes, whether they are painful changes, such as restructuring following a downsizing, or processes essential to examine changes necessary to facilitate growth in the organization or marketplace. “Trust among organizational members increases the likelihood of successful change” (Shaw, 1997, p. 3). Facilitation processes related to organizational change must comprehend the important dynamics of trust if they are to have a chance of succeeding. Without attention to this facet of change, much is at risk relative to the ultimate outcomes of the change initiatives and the levels of commitment and participation that can be achieved among the members of the organization.

Sometimes specific efforts must be facilitated to help groups overcome difficulties from their pasts and to create solid working relationships that will enable the implementation of their ideas and plans. This ongoing and enduring trust will be essential to:

•Enhance organizational performance by implementing changes and improvements

•Break down silos between organizational groups that may have been holding back progress

•Improve the total effort toward accomplishing their mission rather than suboptimizing with improvements at the individual team level

•Communicate the needs clearly

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•Evaluate the performance, recognizing the mistakes and learning from them

•Manage conflict effectively

•Engage the teams that will be working to plan and implement the changes

MEASURING TRUST

In some settings, as illustrated in Exhibit 6.1, we have measured change in the level of trust with survey instruments. Most often this was done in the context of measuring outcomes from facilitated learning and development processes, such as experiential team-building programs. The data displayed in the exhibit are an example. They reflect the perceptions of changes in team dynamics by approximately four thousand employees of a major electronics company located in Texas. The data were collected sixty to ninety days following the experiential team development processes for each team. Trust was the second most improved aspect of team dynamics.

Exhibit 6.1

Results of an Employee Survey on Team-Building Results

Communications

Productivity

Problem Solving

Relationships

Decision Making

Trust

Participation

Overall Improvement

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Degree of Improvement

Source: Advanced Team Concepts.

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Attitude surveys are administered in some organizations on an annual basis. In South America, it is very common for well-known and successful organizations to survey their employees annually to measure and evaluate how they perceive and value the organizational culture. One of the key factors that is monitored with these surveys is trust among the members of the organization, the level of trust that the employees have toward the leadership, and trust in the future of the company. These are examples of another type of history that may tell the facilitator how the people of the organization perceive trust levels within the enterprise.

More often than not, the greatest evidence of trust, lack of trust, or mistrust will be anecdotal: stories and experiences communicated to the facilitator while preparing for or delivering the facilitated programs. A critical skill for facilitators is the ability to ask questions that invite the stories and experience through which he or she can encounter and recognize important symptoms of key issues in a group. A single question usually is not sufficient to get to core problem areas such as mistrust. The facilitator must develop the skill to press for examples that will illuminate the areas that need attention. That skill must be combined with great listening and observation skills to discern what might not be said, interpret the stories, and develop a good sense of a group’s health in areas such as trust.

KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE LEVEL OF TRUST IN AN ORGANIZATION

It is important to be on the lookout for behaviors and practices that are indicators of the level of trust that exists within an organization. Examination of the following areas can be useful in preparing for facilitation processes:

•Does the organization’s top management empower employees or tend to micromanage?

•How open is communication? Are people informed?

•Are there honesty and congruency with the core values of the organization? Do behaviors reflect those values?

•Does leadership create spaces where people can participate and make decisions? Is leadership supportive, so that employees can implement those decisions?

•Are roles designed where people have the space to be creative and participate?

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In addition, levels of empowerment and delegation at all levels can be a significant indicator of the levels of trust that prevail in a group or organization.

TRUST AND EMPOWERMENT

A useful way to view the relationships and dynamics we have outlined is with an eye to levels of empowerment, that is, vesting people with the responsibility to take actions to make the organization succeed. It is a major enabler in the interactions among individuals and groups. Is the facilitator empowered to use his or her expertise to help? Is the group empowered to create ideas and opportunities?

An important caution must be noted here. Empowerment and empowering styles of leadership should develop over time. There is no magic formula to have empowered people instantly. It is important for leaders to apply the proper measures of both direction and support that are appropriate based on the maturity of the group, as well as the levels of confidence and trust. Leaders should not abdicate their responsibilities in the name of empowerment. Instead, they should commit to facilitate the development processes that will lead to greater levels of empowerment and trust.

Are the people and groups in the organization empowered to take the actions necessary to succeed? Empowerment means trusting people to take the actions that will help serve the enterprise and make the business successful. The process of increasing empowerment, whether to an individual or a team, occurs over time. It is not an instantaneous change. The change involves two parties: the person or team receiving increased empowerment and responsibility and the party giving up some responsibility or authority. At the heart of this giving and receiving of empowerment is trust. It requires trust on the part of the one doing the empowering and trustworthiness on the part of those receiving the increased scope of work and responsibility. It requires both time and experience for this trust to evolve.

The scope and freedom in each of these areas of interaction may be increased in small ways at first. When these are handled successfully, an increasing level of action and authority may be enabled. It is important for both parties to understand the dynamics of building trust, so that they will know what is at stake in their activities as empowerment is increased. Knowledge of this will accelerate the process, because everyone will be expecting an outcome that moves the process forward.

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COVEY’S EMOTIONAL BANK ACCOUNT

Stephen Covey, in his famous book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

(1989), refers to an emotional bank account that we all have with each other. Our actions toward each other make either deposits to or withdrawals from these accounts. Covey states that if we make deposits through courtesy, kindness, honesty, and keeping commitments, trust levels increase. The opposite effect occurs if we are not courteous or are disrespectful or dishonest. When this is how we treat people, these emotional withdrawals reduce or eliminate levels of trust.

Some organizations find tremendous value in Covey’s metaphor of the emotional bank account, so much so that they develop experiential techniques to bring this principle to life in their classes and facilitated events. We recently developed a curriculum for the graduate-level leadership education program of World Vision and Habitat for Humanity. World Vision’s leadership programs has created this giving and taking from the “emotional bank” in forms of actual feedback between students during the residency portions of the education. The students get real-time feedback on how their personal behaviors are being perceived and how they are affecting trust and confidence in the group.

Important lessons can be woven into the processing that accompanies many types of experiential exercises. Experiential exercises create a safe arena for the group to hold a discussion about trust and confidence and the related consequences. The focus is on what just occurred in the activity, but the lessons stick because they pertain to the group’s real mission.

TECHNIQUES FOR BUILDING TRUST

Trust cannot be taught. It is not a skill that can be acquired intellectually. You cannot gather team members into a classroom one day and say, “Folks, today we are going to learn to trust each other.” It simply does not work that way.

Trust develops over time and is based on our experiences with each other. It takes time, but this important topic should not be left to chance. There is too much at stake not to try to create relationships that are strong and based on trust. If trust is absent, the result will likely not be neutral; it will probably be negative.

Eliciting Stories and Experiences from the Group or Organization

There is much power in the stories and experiences within a group. These reveal the important history that has resulted in the current levels of trust, whether they

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