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Increase trust, reduce fear

“The most critical challenge for any organization is to enlarge the circle of trust.”

Command-and-control systems reflect a deep mistrust of employees’ commitment and competence. They also tend to overemphasize sanctions as a way of forcing compliance. That’s why so many organizations are filled with anxious employees who are hesitant to take the initiative or trust their own judgment. Organizational adaptability, innovation, and employee engagement can only thrive in a high-trust, low-fear culture. In such an environment, information is widely shared, contentious opinions are freely expressed, and risk taking is encouraged. Fear paralyzes, mistrust demoralizes—they must be wrung out of our management systems.

124 Stories
236 Hacks
22 Barriers

Increase trust, reduce fear

“The most critical challenge for any organization is to enlarge the circle of trust.”

Command-and-control systems reflect a deep mistrust of employees’ commitment and competence. They also tend to overemphasize sanctions as a way of forcing compliance. That’s why so many organizations are filled with anxious employees who are hesitant to take the initiative or trust their own judgment. Organizational adaptability, innovation, and employee engagement can only thrive in a high-trust, low-fear culture. In such an environment, information is widely shared, contentious opinions are freely expressed, and risk taking is encouraged. Fear paralyzes, mistrust demoralizes—they must be wrung out of our management systems.

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 I have had much success helping managers who need to get their teams to accept a new change.  It doesn't just happen.
Story by Terry D. Everson on January 6, 2011
Determined to foster a culture of continuous feedback, enable coaching relationships outside traditional hierarchies, and encourage meaningful recognition among his engineering team, Gilt Groupe's Joh
Story by Nicholas Stein on July 18, 2011
A  common sense response to making the working environment fit for humans.
Hack by Jeannette Chapman on December 15, 2011
In our group tasks are chosen by our people.People are encouraged to volunteer to lead projects and others are encouraged to volunteer to join them and support them.The whole work is self-organized.Wh
Story by Edna Pasher on July 9, 2013
The future of work is slowly awakening.
Hack by Marla Hetzel on September 11, 2016
Games are finally recognized as a very powerfull dynamic to improve productivity and ease change management while keeping people happy and committed.
Hack by Alexis Nicolas on November 3, 2010
The current economic environment has created tenuous if not perilous conditions to organizational effectiveness.
Hack by Tom Yagos on January 20, 2011
In Parts 1-3, I recounted the Pull Replenishment saga of how a small team started a bottom-up movement that generated millions of dollars in profit, improved shipping performance to the customer, and
Story by David Choe on June 17, 2011
Entropy: a hypothetical tendency for the universe to attain a state of maximum homogenity in which all matter is uniform..Among all matter, gases have the highest entropy, they don't have a p
Hack by Abhijeet Sharma on October 14, 2011

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