All the latest studies and business articles confirm that few things are more important to the success of an organization than trust. This is especially true in a manufacturing firm, where engagement and teamwork are critical to achieving measurable goals.

So, how can you build an organization based on trust?

Well, it begins with forgetting everything you’ve ever been taught about how to manage in a traditional manufacturing environment. Eliminate the old constraining, controlling policies. And most importantly, change the narrative of your company’s culture by focusing on what employees can do…not what they can’t do.

This may sound far-fetched, but it worked for us. We broke the old rules and created a place of greater satisfaction for employees, customers and stakeholders. We created a positive, profitable, and productive workplace where everybody wins.

We developed a business model based on the core belief that people can be trusted.  We had three major initiatives:

1)  implemented specific changes to policies and processes that let our employees know that we truly believed that given the freedom to do so, they would do the right thing;

2)  provided leadership-type learning for all employees; and

3)  created a process-centered organization (PCO), a flatter structure with process engineers and coaches rather than traditional vice presidents and managers.

Here are a few more examples we used.

– We got rid of manager approvals

– We replaced attendance policies with attendance guidelines, creating flexibility for our team members and reducing costs to manage attendance.

– We eliminated performance reviews and created Individual Development Plans, which focused on the present and future—not the past.

– And, we changed from having an HR manual to using an Associate Guideline, which clarified expectations and behaviors the company needed to be successful rather than rules about what you “can’t” do.

Basically, no matter what we did, what actions we took, whatever communications we had with our team members, we always came from the place of trusting first. And it worked!

Think about it: Traditional rules, policies and controls that manufacturers have in place are designed to target the small percentage of the workforce who can’t be trusted—between 10 and 20 percent of them. This ends up constraining the 80 to 90 percent of your people who can be trusted!

By coaching or removing that small percentage of people, the 80 percent are freer to do the right thing on their own. This transforms your workplace into a safe, creative and collaborative environment where people look forward to coming to work and contributing each and every day.

So, what does trust do?

 

Trust breathes openness. It takes courage to risk being vulnerable and consequently being responsible for outcomes. The more you trust, the safer it is for people to open up. It’s a two-way street. “If I trust you, you’re likely to trust me.”

Trust shows that you care. You care when you express concern for people’s interests. In an environment that feels safe, people feel you care about what matters to them. There are no surprises and no one is on the defensive. For example, we got feedback that the management team wasn’t listening to employee concerns, questions and suggestions. This really meant we either had not responded or the response wasn’t what they wanted to hear. So we asked everyone in the company, “What haven’t we been listening to?” We asked for a list of specific things—which turned into 300 open items—and put them all up on a big board in the lunchroom so that everyone could see them. We went through the entire list and addressed them all. Even when we said “No”, we explained “why”. It showed we cared and it built trust. Most importantly, it opened the boundaries for better communications.

Trust underscores a belief in competency. A leader trusts that an employee has the aptitude to do the job. Likewise, an employee trusts that a leader has the leadership skills needed for the organization. For us, this meant we focused on business metrics rather than individual metrics.

Trust depends on reliability. At Abrasive, we call this DWYSYWD (Do What You Say You Will Do). And if something happens to prevent doing what you said you would do, let others know why and what to expect next. It helped create a culture where people counted on others to do what they said.

Trust is sincere intention. When you say what you mean and mean what you say, it builds your sincerity level. You can be trusted because you are not afraid to look people in the eye and communicate that you don’t have a hidden agenda. You radiate openness, sincerity, reliability, competency and caring.

As we learned from our journey, building a culture of trust doesn’t happen overnight. Disconnects between promises and actions reinforces feelings of frustration. The world is ever-changing. But when you start trusting people, they begin to trust you back. This mutual respect is powerful. Just as we did with our organization, if you commit to taking the first step and a step-by-step, long-term developmental effort, you too can be successful in building a culture of trust.

If you are interested in learning more about how we work with companies to help improve culture and build trust, then please Contact Us today!