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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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Our Hack was inspired by Coens & Jenkin’s book “Abolishing Performance Appraisals.”  There are several other academic books and papers, blog postings, and even hacks that recommend doing away
Hack by Andy Lippok on July 16, 2013
As legacy business thinking attempts to stagger away from the ingrained practices of the Industrial era towards modernity nothing is in need of a more radical re-assessment than the view of the employ
Hack by Mike Parker on April 10, 2016
I propose that the transformation of the 20th century into the 21st be the Age of Answers to the Age of Questions.  While answers are important, it’s more important to know what qu
In my ten years at Red Hat (the open source software pioneer), we had a very simple little cultural trick we used everywhere we could:We defaulted to open.What does this mean?
Hack by Chris Grams on August 5, 2010
Life is inherently a very dynamic process and, therefore, a constant balancing both at the individual and group level.
Hack by Charles Ehin on March 9, 2012
Increasing trust and reducing fear has a causal relationship to the meritocratic organization coupled to strong internal leadership.  Trust and fear is indicative of xenophobia endemic to the fir
Hack by Vidia S. Ramdeen on October 8, 2010
Work toward a team of employees who develop their own goals and objectives that are in-line with corporate goals and based on their passions, likes, interests and job.
Hack by Robin Deacle on April 24, 2012

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