By Susan Misiorski

Susan Misioriski

Susan is the National Director of PHI’s Training and Organizational Development team.

Trust: “Reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.” | “The obligation or responsibility imposed on a person in whom confidence or authority is placed. A position of trust.” (www.dictionary.com)

I have been reflecting a lot lately on the impact of trust on organizational culture. There is no doubt that the level of trust within an organization correlates with the organization’s ability to successfully implement change. The higher the level of trust, the greater the possibilities for change and creating a loving, comfortable home.

Building Trust

Author Steven Covey in his book, The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything, challenges us to understand trust not as a soft, social virtue, but rather as a learnable and measurable skill that makes organizations more profitable, people more promotable, and relationships more energizing. I have to agree; the impact of trust (or lack there of) is that powerful. In fact, I would describe the ability to extend, grow, and restore trust as a critical quality of effective leaders.

Given the importance of trust, what are some practices leaders can employ that build trust? It begins with genuine belief in individuals and teams. When we believe in each person’s strengths and ability to be successful, we extend confidence and responsibility.

Let’s apply this to the culture change principle of empowerment and self-determination. Trust allows leaders to place decision making with elders and those who work closest with them. A leader who does not genuinely believe that those decisions will be in the best interest of the individuals or organization may have a hard time sharing authority and ultimately keep most decision making within the traditional hierarchy.

Trust and the Change Process

A great example of extending this type of trust can be seen at the Edgewood Centre, a skilled care home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Edgewood Centre had been on the journey towards a person-directed culture of home for several years. Earlier on in their change efforts, the formal leaders made a decision to create smaller communities inside their larger home. While this decision was well intended, it was made and implemented by the formal leadership alone and the change process struggled.

Staff at the Edgewood Centre

Owner Patricia Ramsey had this to say about the earlier attempts to establish smaller communities: “Our attempt to create smaller communities was unsuccessful because we didn’t really involve those communities or the staff in the decision making process of change.

“We all agreed that our culture needed to be different, needed to be more resident focused, but we didn’t engage everyone in how to achieve that, it was not a participatory process.”

Once the Edgewood Centre provided staff with the training to build problem solving and shared decision making skills, and the formal leaders actively invited this participation, successful outcomes were quick to follow. The Edgewood Centre has achieved significant outcomes in quality of care and quality of jobs that directly impacted their bottom line.
Learn more about how this was accomplished

Trust and Workforce Retention

Loretto’s PACE Central New York provides another wonderful example of building trust in an organization. Loretto’s PACE was struggling with high direct-care worker turnover, and implemented multiple interventions targeted toward recruitment and retention. A key step to reducing their turnover was the implementation of a peer mentor program. Mentors extend a peer relationship to new hires that the new employee can trust.

“The mentor program was great,” says Tami Irish, who completed her orientation in May 2009. “It made me feel confident … that there was always someone to call if I had a question or any kind of problem.” Mentors similarly have seen the difference the program has made. Peer mentor Deirdre Johnson observes that “more people are staying… If you put someone out there [without support], they feel frustrated and just quit. Now [they’ve] got someone [they] can talk to about even their [own] problems or the job problems.”
Learn more about Loretto’s PACE Central New York

If you have an example you would like to share about how you or your organization has worked to extend, grow and restore trust, we would love to hear it!