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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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How to create a culture of trust within an organization
Story by Matt Shlosberg on May 1, 2010
This hack looks at how some of the unique attributes commonly found in “techie” type people working within high-technology organisations present additional challenges for leadership development.
Hack by Grant McIvor on September 20, 2011
Hi you all!The paper “Conceptoloy of Learning and Leading at Work” is now completed and ready sharing and reviewing. The paper is available in both a short and a long version.
Hack by Rune Kvist Olsen on June 18, 2013
The meetings we endured and designed, added to frustrations and stress in an already caustic work place.
Story by Ellen Weber on July 31, 2010
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
There are three universal truths about traditional performance appraisals. They are widely used, universally despised, and are known to be ineffective.
Story by Christopher D. Lee on October 1, 2020
For innovation to prosper and novel designs to get funded, we need a more thoughtful language to communicate across isolated disciplines, with more clarity.
Barrier by Ellen Weber on September 8, 2010
 A newly appointed general manager (GM) managed to turn an unsuccessful company and not only achieving an unmatched level of performance, however he also created a trust culture in the workplace.
Story by Jacobus Tolken on October 4, 2011
How many of you have seen this sarcastic picture of a manager keyboard with a single key on it? The now famous "FYI" key...
Hack by Olivier Lavergne on December 1, 2010
When functional heads form alliances such that conformance to this inner circle takes precedence to freedom of expression; organisations will find themselves vulnerable to corruption, static performan
Barrier by LM on October 27, 2010

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