Trust can save a lot of time. Much of life is spent either checking those we don’t trust, or being checked upon by those who don’t trust us. The term ‘audit society’ has been used to describe our world of constant checking - from our reliance on lawyers, auditors, and inspectors through to heavy bureaucracies and down to adding up our restaurant bills. Being trustworthy and having people you can trust can save more time than being a good time manager. This articles looks at ways trust saves time.
Early in my career I noticed the relationship between trust and time. A lot of my work involved charging for my time on an hourly basis. What I noticed was that I could get more done (and the customers would get better value for their money) if we trusted each other. When there is trust you spend less time proving and more time doing.
Stephen M. R. Covey in his book the “The Speed of Trust” highlights this relationship between trust and time (or speed) which can be illustrated as follows [NB - I have added the ‘time saved’ component]:
A study entitled “Trust problems in household outsourcing” (by Ruijter E., Lippe T, Raub W) found that - despite the strong need for help many people do not outsource their housekeeping duties due to lack of trust in providers. Of course, trust issues are much broader than household outsourcing. In the work place we find ineffective teams and wasteful monitoring due to lack of trust. The result of this is less free time.
In all aspects of life we need people we can trust. If we don’t have them we need to find or cultivate them. If we have people we can trust then we can outsource or delegate work with peace of mind, and without the need to constantly monitor. We can also save time when we have – trusted authors, trusted advisors, and even trusted brands.
Just to clarify – I am not advocating blind trust. Clearly that would be foolish. To save time we need to find or cultivate people we can have good reason to trust.
If your staff and colleges trust you then you can get more done. An article on 'Trust and integrity' by the Pease group explains - when someone trusts you “they don’t waste time asking, ‘what are you doing?’, ‘how are you going to do it?’ ‘ why are you doing it that way?’” . If you are trusted then people are more likely to quickly accept and follow your instruction.
Trust is one of the most important influences on team behavior. Teams with members that trust each other get more done. Conversely, if team members don’t trust each other we see negative behavior such as – withholding information, not sharing resources, lack of collaboration and communication, and a reluctance to ask for(or provide) help.
Research supports the positive effects of trust on teams. According to Sandra Kiffin-Petersen one of the reasons “often cited for trust’s importance is that team members who trust each other are better able to examine and improve team processes and hence, to self-manage their own performance”. A study by Zand (1981) found that teams that trusted each other “(1) exchanged relevant ideas and feelings more openly; (2) defined goals and problems more clearly and realistically; (3) searched for alternatives more extensively; (4) had greater influence on solutions; (5) were more satisfied with their problem-solving efforts; and (6) had greater motivation to implement the solution”. Larson and La Fasto (1989) found that trusting teams communicate better.
In looking at effective international teams, David Trickey has come up with a ten item ‘trust criteria’ for teams – competence; shared values beliefs and objectives; concern for each other’s welfare; Integrity; consistent and predictable behavior over time; lack of fear; Inclusion; openness to sharing information; sharing of true feelings; and, reciprocal trust with other group members.
And remember - trust saves you time, and those that depend on you.
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