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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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The FreeSpeak system is a simple but powerful method to force the organization to self-improve and become more competitive while eliminating reliance on management.
Hack by Matt Shlosberg on June 13, 2010
In turbulent times like a recession or a post-merger integration, the issue of low trust can escalate from a chronic condition to a major flare-up.
Hack by Anna Stillwell on June 9, 2010
A story of how one brave company blended work and play and achieved an unmatched level of performance.
Story by Matt Shlosberg on June 7, 2010
The assumption that employees must be hierarchically controlled has frustrated organizational innovation for decades.  We and five well-known business leaders stumbled upon the solution to this i
Hack by Bill Nobles on June 4, 2010
The organization is a recreational, non-program, culinary institute designed for ‘foodies’ or a term which our group marketed as home culinary enthusiasts(HCE’s).   Thomas is the fou
Story by Neil Patel on June 2, 2010
A method of solving dilemmas and problems that involves communications and iteration to reach better solutions and commitment to those solutions.
Story by Brian Hurley on June 2, 2010
We need to reduce the amount of rules used in the world of management in order to promote people's judgment and practical wisdom.
Hack by Elad Sherf on May 27, 2010
Measure the attitudes of your stakeholders in surveys. Link their scores to financial performance using factor analysis and structural equations.
Hack by Anders Magnusson on May 26, 2010
Replace the fundamental control relationship in the organization from ‘boss-subordinate’ to ‘mentor investor-intrapreneur team’, where mentor investors are modeled on the angel
Hack by Tory Gattis on May 20, 2010

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