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“The Reina's clearly map out a heart-and-soul
, practical approach to trust building.”
~ Sharon Jordan-Evans
Trust
& Betrayal
In The Workplace
Building Effective
Relationships in
Your Organization
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this landmark book
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Stories from the Field
Employee Satisfaction Renewed
“Frank, you’ve got six months to improve these results, or you and your management team can forget your bonus for this year!” Cheryl said, with a little panic audible in her voice. “And I can forget mine too. How did this happen? Your division has the lowest employee satisfaction survey scores in the whole company. That means anywhere in the world!”
“I thought the numbers were going up,” Frank offered defensively. “I don’t know how they went down further.”
“You’re responsible for Learning Services. I don’t have to tell you that your division is responsible for helping our business units and leaders throughout the world carry out their key strategic initiatives. And one of those initiatives is almost always employee satisfaction! And just how do you think we’re going to sell our services to help them, when we can’t even help ourselves? Don’t you think everyone in the company is looking at these numbers? I know I look at everyone else’s. They do, too.”
Frank sat stiffly as he absorbed his boss’s words. He had known all this before he entered the room, but he still did not have an answer. She was right and they both knew it, but she didn’t have an answer either.
“Okay,” Cheryl said after she had taken a couple of deep breaths. “My yelling at you is not going to solve this problem. We are out of time, out of ideas. We need help, and fast! I think I know where to go.”
Later, Cheryl was able to reach Michelle Reina to ask for help. “We have to get those numbers up in six months,” Cheryl said in a desperate voice. “I know that low satisfaction means that the employees probably aren’t as involved in their work as they might be. They may even leave. After all, they do the things that anyone does when morale and commitment are low; they feel betrayed. That division is stretched superthin since the recent alignment that was centered on keeping just the people with core skills. I can’t afford to lose any of them.” Cheryl paused for a moment. “Can you help?”
“I hope so,” answered Michelle. “We have to gather some information fast if we’re going to have time to do anything to change those scores. I’m going to have to meet with your senior people and a number of others.”
“Just let me know when you need them. I’ll make sure they’re there.”
Over the next week, Michelle met individually with each member of the senior team and then leaders of other units that worked with this troubled division. She wanted to understand the history of the organization, the players, what their mission was, their strategies, their processes, and their desired outcomes. She asked each person, “What’s going on here? Where are relationships damaged? How willing are you to participate in rebuilding these relationships?”
Once Michelle earned his trust, Frank confided in her how frustrated he felt. He had been hired from the outside a year earlier to take this division to new heights. “This job is not what I thought it was going to be. I inherited a mess. People are frustrated and angry about the restructurings that happened before I even got here. I can’t get them to stop complaining. I’m sick and tired of hearing people whine about things that I had no part of and can’t change. They’re acting like spoiled kids who didn’t get their way. And Cheryl doesn’t want to hear about it anymore. She just wants people to move on. Well, I’d like that too, but they’re so stuck in the past.”
As Dave, one unit leader, put it, “Things have been bad for a long time. There are a lot of people around here in pain. Many are just not willing to do the top job they used to do.”
There was no quick-fix answer, but some issues were surfacing that could lead to answers. Like a detective, Michelle needed more information and help, so she brought in Dennis Reina. For the next six weeks they created a safe environment for people to share their experiences and feelings. They conducted small focus groups and held one-on-one confidential conversations. By the end of the process, they had spoken with over 150 people. The Reinas listened to the employees’ experiences (what had happened) and listened for what impact these experiences had on the employees and on others. These weren’t pure “dumping sessions,” though. The Reinas helped employees see what their options were as to how to behave.
Michelle stopped in Cheryl’s office late one afternoon. Cheryl was hunched over her computer typing rapidly. Cheryl was so focused that a minute passed before she realized Michelle was there. “Sorry, Cheryl,” interrupted Michelle, “I didn’t want to disturb you, but if you could take a few moments to review what we have been learning, we’ve reached a critical stage in our process.”
“Of course! Your work is a priority around here.”
“Thank you. We’re learning some important facts that have influenced your employee satisfaction scores. We are finding that many of your people were feeling like they were powerless victims. They didn’t know how the leadership was evaluating them, and as shifts have happened, many employees are unsure of their roles and responsibilities, who their bosses were, or how these new jobs fit into the company’s plans.”
“How could they not know? We talk about those things all the time.”
“I’m sure you do,” Michelle responded, “but the messages are not getting through. Dennis and I have been working with them so they can see that they could do things differently. Sure, they couldn’t control what had happened, but they can control how they respond. We’ve helped them map out their choices. We’ve also tried to help the employees understand why you, as leaders, have made the decisions you have.”
Cheryl listened to Michelle’s every word, but didn’t say anything.
“We heard about how the Learning Services division has gone through two major restructurings in the last three years—that 30 percent of the division’s workforce was downsized. People didn’t understand where you and Frank planned to take the division in the future. Since they didn’t know that, they couldn’t see how they personally fit into the future here. They’ve spent a lot of energy wondering when the next restructuring would come and when they might lose their jobs.
“As you can see, those changes have not been accomplished as well as you thought. Employees found they were duplicating work being done elsewhere. Finger pointing and blaming are running rampant, as they often do when people are hurting, confused, and frustrated. A problem is everyone’s fault, and no single person is responsible for fixing it. The rumor mill is alive and does not paint a pretty picture.”
“This is hard to hear,” Cheryl sighed. “But keep going. I need to hear it.”
“People are struggling to balance their work and personal lives because of the expanded workload. They resent times when they have to choose between their family and work. They pay a big price regardless of their choice. Some comments we heard were, ‘No matter how I use my time, I let someone down—either a team member because I didn’t join that 9:00 P.M. conference with Asia or my family because I worked another Saturday morning.’ ‘We are constantly in a no-win situation. I either let my family or my team down.’
“This pressure has had a huge effect; many have felt they have lost their own lives. ‘I’ve gained fifteen pounds in the last six months and have completely dropped out my exercise program. Who has time?!’ ‘I used to play racquetball on Saturday mornings with my buddies. I haven’t seen them in three months.’ ‘I used to have my parents over for dinner on Sunday nights. Now I’m just too tired to cook, talk, or entertain. I know they love me no matter what and do understand, even though they are disappointed. But I feel lousy and miss seeing them.’ ‘I’m newly married. I want to be with my husband in the evenings and on weekends.’ ‘I honestly wonder how long I can keep this up. If I knew this was temporary, I’d grin and bear it, but I don’t see it changing.’ ‘What am I doing here? Is it worth it? I don’t see an end in sight.’
“The bottom line here is that everyone in your organization feels betrayed in a really major way,” Michelle observed. “The betrayal continues to grow. These major trust issues are directly affecting employee satisfaction scores.
“I see the way trust was breached in so many ways. They thought they had an agreement with you and your leadership team that you would provide a structure to accomplish the goals of their division. Instead, they experienced what one person called ‘structural roulette.’ This person thought you just kept spinning the wheel when you didn’t win immediately. They thought you didn’t communicate clearly with them, so they didn’t know what was expected of them, and you didn’t appear to listen to them. Finally, when you kept changing people’s responsibilities, they began to feel it was because you didn’t have confidence in them. They experienced betrayals in all three types of what we call transactional trust: contractual, communication, and competence. Under these conditions, you can commend them for their loyalty that their satisfaction scores had not gone down sooner and further.”
Cheryl looked as though a brick wall had fallen on her, just staring blankly at Michelle.
“That’s the bad news,” Michelle added. “Now for the good news. These people still believe in this company and want to be a part of it. We received commitments from every person we interviewed to do their part in rebuilding the relationships here. They want to heal from the betrayals. They want this organization to be successful and for them to share in it.”
This latest news boosted Cheryl’s spirits. “So you mean we have a chance to redeem this tough place we’re in?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. We challenged everyone else to take responsibility for their part in what has happened. I challenge you in the same way. Are you willing to make the changes necessary to heal, not only the betrayals experienced by your employees but also those betrayals you have felt from them?”
“Of course! I have to. What’s it going to take?”
“We will need to spend time going over with you and Frank the specifics of what we’ve learned. We will talk much more about the nature of trust and betrayal and how to rebuild trust. We need to do this with the people in your immediate organization. They also need to learn more about how they must operate differently, so they don’t just blame the two of you and the rest of the leadership team.”
“Okay. Let’s get started.”
During the next several months, the Reinas helped everyone see how collaboration was breaking down due to poor communication. Individually and together, Cheryl and Frank were coached to understand what their people needed from them and to work through their own feelings of betrayal. They learned to trust others enough to share information with them. The division was behind on its deliverables (such as setting up a knowledge management system). They had not been honoring their commitments or delivering on time. Decisions were made by those involved on how to improve this.
Then the Reinas did some work on clarifying boundaries. They armed people with tools and skills to deal with difficult and ambiguous day-to-day situations. The Reinas helped them reframe their experiences and see them as opportunities that would strengthen them and the organization. They did this work through face-to-face meetings and global conference calls (Singapore, Germany, and elsewhere). The Reinas also provided coaching for many individuals throughout the division.
The leadership team received extra attention, which helped them clarify their roles, how trust had been lost, how they could rebuild it. Some of this was done as a group; much of it done as executive coaching. The focus made a difference.
Cheryl and Frank paid attention, they learned, and they changed their behavior. They earned the respect of their people. Relationships were rebuilt; a foundation of trust was created, and deliverables were getting back on track. Finger pointing gave way to collaboration, gossip to straight talk; expectations were clarified and roles and responsibilities negotiated; information sharing and open lines of communication allowed for greater life balance. As one employee put it, “I feel like I have returned to my family.”
Sure, challenges continue, and people do have their share of “bad days.” But they manage their tendencies to blame and react. They continue to share responsibility. “The model helps us maintain perspective. We understand we won’t be successful and satisfied without trust. We are continuing to learn how to build trust, and we understand the steps to take when it is broken.” “We count on our relationships with one another. We can actually focus on doing our work!”
At the end of the six months, Cheryl called Michelle. “I’ve got incredible news. You did it. No—I mean, we did it. Our employee satisfaction scores shot up. The jump was unprecedented. Being average never felt so good! We now have higher levels of employee collaboration and engagement, and less duplication of effort. We know we can take this even higher. Thank you so much for teaching us so much about ourselves. You have helped us learn more than we could have hoped for.”
© 1995-2006, The Reina Trust Building Institute, Inc., all rights reserved.
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