Trust as a Valued Commodity at Work and in Movements

By Akosua Meyers, Development Director, The Center for Law and Social Policy

The benefits of investing in building trust at the workplace, especially in the social and economic justice ecosystem, as a core value or an integral part of an organization’s culture, are irrefutable—improved open communication, heightened confidence in self and others, transparency, honesty, increased credibility, community, mutual respect—these are all essential to effective collaboration. And we can all recognize the many ways that the lack of trust breeds so much stress, headache, and heartache in our lives, at work, in our communities, and in society at large. In the social and economic justice movement, trust builds bridges, mends fences, and allows us to work as an aligned collective committed to moving a transformative agenda forward around issues we care about. This is vital in a world where the impact of our efforts often involves collaborating internally with coworkers and across teams, and externally with partners at the grassroots, local, state, and national levels.  

Broken trust can take a long time to mend—if it ever does. And even then, things may never fully return to what they were. Ultimately, if unaddressed, it can have devastating outcomes. Over time, it can transform perceptions around an issue, a person, a group, or approaches to doing things. In the workplace, distrust can open the door to loss of confidence in a person’s ability to lead and make informed decisions for the whole. It can surface questions related to transparency. The lack of trust can stifle opportunities to advance open communication and further erode the little bit of trust left within an organization. At the individual level, distrust hinders our ability to feel safe, self-confident, validated, and appreciated. Lack of trust fuels suspicions around intentions that could result in lack of cohesion and misalignment between co-workers, team members, or organizational partners. The absence of trust can create a breeding ground for assumptions that are held as facts, making it difficult to address conflict effectively, and further complicating efforts to form authentic working relationships with colleagues.

In the social and economic justice space, trust is a valued commodity. Trust is central to fostering community partnerships that have real impact, having faith in leadership of an organization to make informed decisions, and in believing that our collective efforts will one day have the transformative impact we seek if we all show up in solidarity. Having worked in the nonprofit sector for most of my career, primarily in fundraising and organizational development, I’ve found five elements of building and sustaining trust that have helped to advance success in my line of work, work relationships, and collaborations. In the broader scheme of things, I have found these five elements to be applicable in almost all facets of life—professional and personal—related to trust building. Together they help to support our individual and collective trust-building journeys in a way that can be sustainable, and, in my experience, transformative. 

1. Confronting Past Harms

I am a big fan of television mysteries. In one episode of a TV series called Granite Harbour, one of the characters said, “It is important we acknowledge our past so we can move on with our future.” Our experiences, for better or worse, shape who we are, how we think, who we build community with, and who we invest trust in. They influence our perceptions, assumptions, and ability to hope for the best in people and situations. In the social and economic justice ecosystem, many of us have experienced varying degrees of harm, directly or indirectly, that have impacted how we show up in this work and at the workplace. Some of the harms experienced are traumatizing, leaving us forever guarded in our daily interactions, friendships, and relationships. The degree of hurt, consciously and unconsciously, can sometimes serve as a major obstacle in allowing us to advance on our journey of trust building, especially at the workplace.  

There is immense value in making space to effectively confront the impact past harms have had on us, as individuals and a collective, in a way that allows for healing. This can be done through a variety of support systems, including leadership development support, one-on-one coaching, and therapy. It is important to recognize and acknowledge how our experiences hold us back (as individuals and as a collective) from being willing to invest in, nurture, and build authentic relationships, trust colleagues’ expertise, not always question intentions, and find the right balance needed to engage with people or teams we work with to achieve our desired and shared outcomes in an impactful way. 

2. Openness

Rigidity can be the enemy of change, flexibility, and openness. When there is change on the horizon, some of us avoid it like a plague. We come up with every reason to not adapt. We question the validity and relevance of the coming change. And if we have unaddressed trust issues we see our inflexibility and lack of openness as an armor that protects us from falling prey to harm, and the risks involved in investing in building trust with others not like ourselves. 

Since the pandemic, every new thing feels like a very big shift. In the social and economic justice ecosystem, change is inevitable and vital to achieving greater impact. The basis for movement work is advancing change in systems, infrastructure, leadership, etc. When an opportunity to rebuild, earn, or nurture trust presents itself, being willing and open to take that first step and give it a go is a major step. Some degree of blind trust can be a good thing. Note that I said some degree. In life, I have come to learn, it is all about creating balance. Too much blind trust can be just as harmful as 100% distrust. 

That said, when we are confronted with situations where we must push ourselves to be open and vulnerable to trying new ways of doing things or investing in a new relationship or partnership, it does require us being open to the good that could come out of it all. You have no evidence that it will play out the way you hope or envision it will; however, being open to trying to see the outcome without judgment shows some degree of introspection, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. Openness to assuming the best intentions goes a long way towards fighting back the desire to pass judgment or turn unfounded assumptions into facts. And, with a reasonable and balanced sense of trust, it could even be an opportunity for you to step into your power in a transformative way. Our minds have the tendency to take us to a million places within seconds, when we are questioning someone’s intentions simply based on assumptions we make up or have been influenced by. Sometimes, to protect ourselves, we make up reasons why investing in building trust in work relationships is just not worth the time and energy. In a leadership development training I participated in, I was introduced to the concept of the ladder of Inference. Learn more about this to understand how our beliefs, experiences, and assumptions collectively impact our thought processes in a way that may adversely impact our ability to be more open and trusting. Building trust takes a lot of work, and it all begins with our willingness to put in that work consistently, recognizing how much it matters to our success, well-being, and peace of mind.

3. Reciprocity

“One good turn deserves another” was a phrase I heard often in school as a teenager. The idea that if someone does good to you, you should return it by doing good to another: as a young person this resonated with me. When I heard the term reciprocity for the first time almost two decades later, while working at a national workers’ rights organization, I gravitated toward it with the same level of interest and curiosity. The term, for me, embodies a collective mindset—the intention to be in solidarity through our actions. Reciprocity means that we can be counted on to be there for one another. In the context of trust, it must be mutually applied. It cannot be a one-way street. In the workplace, knowing co-workers will show up for you in times of need deepens trust. Conversely, if your co-workers are unreliable and unsupportive, you are likely to not trust them to deliver and have your back. It is important to recognize what it will take to build trust in one another at work and in our collaborations. If there is a memorandum of understanding between two organizations that requires one organization regranting funds to another, when either organization fails to deliver on their part, chances are this relationship will not end well and the project’s impact will suffer. 

Of course, we each have limited resources and necessary boundaries, and we are all subject to changing circumstances. So communicating clearly and managing expectations is a key component of healthy reciprocity. This is as true for one-on-one interactions as it is for a collective. It takes a lot for anyone to invest in building trust with others, especially for those of us on our healing journeys. Showing up for one another when it counts matters when seeking to foster trust. And it is important to understand that often “showing up” for one another can be defined differently by individuals, partners, and organizations. Managing my expectations of others helps me to better navigate disappointment when I feel my expectations are not being met. Often we set high, sometimes unattainable, expectations of others in ways that set us or others up for failure or disappointment. This is further complicated when we are unclear about our expectations of others in a partnership. Communication and managing expectations tend to go hand in hand with reciprocity.  Managing expectations also allows one to fully appreciate when a good act is reciprocated.

4. Accountability

I love this quote by Maya Angelou: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It makes me think about the importance of accountability in sustaining trust. How people feel and what they perceive carries a lot of weight. Whether those feelings or perceptions are founded or not, if someone gives you distrust vibes through their actions, chances are you will naturally put your guard up. In the workplace, how do you navigate this? 

Accountability requires consistent effort to nurture, grow, and sustain trust. Building trust is like peeling an onion: it has so many layers. Like so many things in our lives, while it is complex, beginning the journey doesn’t have to be, nor does sustaining it. We are human and our tendency to default to what comes naturally to us is inevitable. That is why it is paramount that we ensure we are holding ourselves and others accountable, always, in working to develop and sustain the trust we have built as individuals and as a collective. 

In the workplace, for instance, the watercooler is the spot to “spill the tea” on organizational gossip. In the age of remote and hybrid work, internal virtual chat rooms are buzzing with information and misinformation. All that data, valid or not, does impact trust within an organization. Not having the capacity or systems to support open communication and transparency in place to address issues as they arise can adversely impact our efforts to build and sustain trust. 

Build your trust circle of friends and colleagues who will provide you with an objective point of view. Ensure your trust circle is diverse—if you are not a director, have a director in your trust circle who can provide you with a perspective on working with your direct supervisor or director-level individuals. Seek out people who you have trust in but who may not share the same beliefs, politics, or culture. Invest in relationships with people who will hold you accountable in the most loving way and who you trust enough to actively listen to. As much as it is nice to have folks who will only side with us always to stroke our egos now and then, it really matters to our self-growth to have folks in our life whose counsel will make us take a deeper look at ourselves and how we are showing up. 

5. Time

The last and most important element is time. It can take just a second to break trust, and what feels like a lifetime to rebuild it. The same is true for the other elements outlined. It is almost a set up to assume one will accomplish all this in the short term without pitfalls, relapses, and moments of wanting to just give up. Our inability to make gains or the degree to which we feel stuck on our trust journey depends on how much this matters to us and how much we invest the time and resources needed to make it work and be sustained. In the workplace and in life we will meet people who are trustworthy and those who are not. It is inevitable. How skillfully we show up will be determined by the time we have invested to build trust.

Trust building is not a linear act. Like most complex things in life, it can have many twists and turns. One thing I have learned in my trust-building journey is that much of it begins with me. I am constantly asking myself: How am I responding to moments when I feel trust eroding? Have I given this every possible chance to advance the way it should, or have I been quick to judge, question, or give up/in? Striking the right balance is a skill we should all strive towards. In the social and economic justice movement, our work has an impact on the lives of people, children, families, and communities. A commitment to advancing values like trust that are needed to move the work forward requires our undivided attention and devotion. Those most impacted by the systemic issues we advocate around have no time for us to bottleneck progress because we are unable to move the trust needle in this work.

Return to the main page to see more highlights from “Navigating Change: Toward Equitable, Democratic Organizations,” a series on bridging generations, expanding leadership, and envisioning the future of work by ten Content Fellows.