The Formula for Trust and Why It Matters
I love learning and reading and enjoy sharing what I’ve found helpful with others. This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read the full disclosure for more information.
Did you know there was a formula for trust? And why does that even matter?
When we are talking about something intangible, like trust, it is helpful to understand what components build up trust and what can break it down. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to pinpoint what we need to do to nurture trust and what we need to avoid doing in order not to lose trust.
Why does trust matter?
Intuitively, you probably already agree that trust is an important factor in any type of relationship.
Trust matters because it is a key building block for high-performing teams since it helps promote psychological safety. Being able to establish trust and psychological safety quickly in teams is important especially now where there is so much turnover in organizations.
Psychological safety is a phrase coined by Prof. Amy Edmundson based on her research on teams that means “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”
Google ran a study called Project Aristotle in which they collected a large amount of data to try and figure out why some of their teams performed better than others. They looked at a variety of factors such as the teams background, personalities, education, geographical location, etc. But they found it was not who was on the team that correlated with high performing teams but rather how the team worked together. It was their group norms that mattered, and the most important group norm that was associated with a high-performing team is psychological safety.
How are trust and psychological safety related?
Trust exists between two individuals. Psychological safety is a group norm. The more we can build trust between team members, the stronger the psychological safety of the team.
When most people within the team trust each other and there is strong psychological safety, people will feel comfortable bringing up issues or concerns they have to the group that they would not discuss with certain individuals within the group that they do not trust. It may not be possible to get everyone on the team to trust each other, but if the leader understands what it takes to build trust within the team, they will be able to go further, faster, together. As leaders, your role is critical in building trust and psychological safety in your team.
What is the formula for trust?
The trust equation comes from the book The Trusted Advisor by Charles Green, David Maister, and Robert Galford. They outline a formula for trust based on credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self-orientation.
Trust = ( C + R + I ) / S
Components of trust from The Trusted Advisor by D. Maister C. Green & R. Galford
The concepts in the trust formula are echoed by Charles Feltman in the Thin Book of Trust where he explains four components of trust: competence, reliability, sincerity and care.
Components of trust from the Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman
What are some practical things we can do to build trust?
The most underappreciated factor for building trust is S – self-orientation – this is the entire denominator. Explain why you care and your motivation for what you are doing. If you do not provide this, the other person is left to come up with their own speculation.
If you are not able to do something, it is better to acknowledge this rather than mislead someone to think you are able to do it and not be able to deliver on it later (competence, credibility, reliability).
Try to avoid making someone look bad in front of other people especially in front of large groups, otherwise they will not feel comfortable around you.
Display some personal vulnerability to build intimacy.
Make small promises and keep them. If you say you will send an e-mail the next day, keep your word. This builds reliability and sincerity.
Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy)/Self-Orientation from the Trusted Advisor
Trust influences all our relationships. I hope you find this guide helpful in many aspects of life outside of work as well, with family members or neighbors.
What steps will you commit to taking to improve trust in your relationships? Share this in the comments below. Committing this to writing will increase your chances of following through with it.
Subscribe below for more useful leadership resources and frameworks. If you found this useful, please share this article with others.
To read about the formula for excellence, check out this blog.
Resources
The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman (1-1.5 hour read).
The Trusted Advisor by D. Maister, C. Green & R. Galford (4-6 hour read, ~10 hour audiobook).
The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey (5-7 hour read, ~12 hour audiobook). If you want to delve deep into the topic of trust, this book is for you. It has been used by companies such as Procter & Gamble to develop their leaders.