To get started, reach out: info@taigacompany.com
The Troubling Topic For Trust In Business
Trust is a topic that has been focused on in a number of different conferences, articles, and management books. Trust is claimed to be some almost magical economic elixir that explains everything from enhanced happiness to productivity gains. However, in reality, it is just as challenging and complicated to measure at an organizational, individual, and team level. Luckily, there have been discoveries in neuroscience that have provided us with actionable, peer-reviewed, rigorous, and fresh insight into what trust is, how to measure it, and most importantly, how businesses can create and enhance trust to improve their performance.
In this blog post, will take a look at the science behind trust and how leaders can cultivate it by giving more in business.
Understanding trust
There is only one place to begin, and this is by understanding what trust is. In 2001, Steve Kanck and Paul J. Zack released a biologically based model that provided us with the first comprehensive mathematical derivation of trust. It showed us that we can lower the transaction expenses that are linked with investment decisions through sheer trust. It was all about improving the confidence in what the other party would do. This involved using 41 different countries, and the outcome was that the strongest predictor economists had ever found was trust. Since then, trust was deemed an economic lubricant, which lowered the friction that usually happened during economic activity. This same relationship can be applied to organizations when it comes to describing interpersonal interactions between the workforce.
Oxytocin
One of the turning points when it comes to trust in business and in leadership was the discovery of oxytocin and the role it plays. This is where the neuroscience of trust really comes into play. Oxytocin is a neurochemical , and trustworthiness is predicted by the amount of oxytocin produced. Therefore, the study of this chemical enabled us to understand things from a different perspective. One study involved giving synthetic oxytocin to patients. In this research, it found that those participants were twice as likely to show optimal trust by sending all of their money to someone else and they also trusted strangers with 17 percent more money. There has since been further research into this chemical that shows that it works by increasing our empathy and emotional connection to someone else, which again, increases trust. After all, we are motivated to help other people when our empathy is enhanced. So, what does this mean for your business? Well, it is all about creating an environment whereby trust is high, and this means an environment whereby more oxytocin is created.
Start by reducing stress
One of the most important elements when it comes to creating reciprocity within the working environment, which of course, enhances productivity is to lower stress . This is because there are a number of neurochemicals that either inhibit or promote the brain’s release of oxytocin. One of the chemicals that inhibits oxytocin from developing is epinephrine, which is a stress hormone. When we are experiencing periods of high stress, epinephrine will spike the blood pressure and heart rate, which stops us from connecting to other people and feeling empathy. Therefore, in high-stress environments, creating the trust that is needed for your business to flourish is impossible. Interestingly, though, oxytocin release increases when there are moderate levels of stress, and so it is all about finding a balance. We like a challenge and we will often turn to others to assist us. If you create a workplace that is challenging without tipping people overboard, you can create the perfect environment for trust. People will feel the need to lean on one another and help one another, which will promote autonomy, which in turn promotes innovation to build a strong team.
Building a high trust culture
When you take all of this into account, building a high trust culture whereby reciprocity lies at the core of productivity is all about designing a work environment whereby oxytocin can be released a lot of times throughout the day. Therefore, you can put together a set of actionable ways to design a business culture that bolsters and sustains interpersonal trust by understanding the brain circuit that oxytocin activates. This should include the likes of recognizing accomplishments through price, enabling participative decision-making and celebrating mistakes as opportunities to learn, and stimulating oxytocin through timed group challenges.
It does not matter whether you run an insurance company, like West Point Insurance Services , or you have a retail clothing store, you need to make sure that there is trust across your business. Trust will enable other areas of your business to flourish as a consequence. You will find that your workforce is more productive because they will not be second-guessing everything they do. Instead, they will be able to do their jobs with full confidence, and the difference that this can make is truly astounding.
Remember that trust takes time to build but it can take seconds to destroy
While we are on the subject of trust, it is imperative to realize that while trust can take a while to build, it can also be destroyed in just a matter of seconds. This is why you cannot afford to take your eye off the ball when it comes to this area of your company. No one wants to have to embark on the process of rebuilding trust, as it is definitely not something that is easy to do.
Final words on the troubling topic of trust in business
All things considered, we hope that this blog post has helped you to get a better understanding of the power of reciprocity in business and workplaces. There is no denying that this plays a critical role. However, trust is something that is incredibly difficult to measure and understand, which is why you need to look at it from a neuroscience point of view.
