Whoosh and it’s gone! Trust can evaporate in an instant and organisations are notoriously poor at recovering it. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Greg (not his real name), the Project Director for a major international utility project, experienced a breakdown in trust. After bumping into technical difficulties, his project was in free-fall. Results were not happening. The client was unhappy and the “integrated team” that had been rigorously hand-picked was descending into chaos. Greg was rapidly losing the trust of his stakeholders.
Recovering trust is a daunting task. It is often associated with an overhaul of governance structures and processes, with a detailed review of work practices and with the occasional product recall. Moreover, reputation needs to be rebuilt with customers, investors and key stakeholders. Even with all these efforts, progress is expected to be slow.
