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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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Every year companies spend billions of dollars on training and development, trying to help their people become more engaged, more innovative, and better leaders.
Story by Pamela Weiss on December 20, 2011
Co-Authored By Todd Pierce
On December 12, Google's home page noted the birthday of Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel.
Story by Joe Marchese on December 13, 2011
“Channel Us” is sharing of a success story of culture building for creating higher value and fuel optimism for employee engagement.If we accept that the leader’s job, at its core, is to insp
Story by Ramesh Dasary on December 3, 2011
A decade back as a "Change Agent " I supported a project in preparing the employees to implement ERP/SAP. I wish to share the implementation model(the how aspect) and seek comments
Story by Ramesh Dasary on December 2, 2011
So often, we set our company policies with a desire to balance customer interests against our own. But what if we designed a company to be completely customer focused?
Story by Michael Wilkes on November 11, 2011
Understanding a company’s culture is a key component that leaders may ignore. When I took on a new role, an updated strategy was cited as top priority. What the team needed was a culture boost.
Story by Jonathan Becher on November 1, 2011
By reconsidering the idea of a 'job creation program', individuals in a low income public housing area were able to take on the level of responsibility they were comfortable with, learn new skills and
Story by Martin Butcher on October 28, 2011
My Sales and Marketing journey began in a great country called Sultanate of Oman.  It was a role model sales team in the Middle East back in 1997 selling Automobile and industrial lubricants.&nbs
Story by Sridharan on October 4, 2011
 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
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

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