Link #45 🌱🌿🌳 L&D Consulting: Developing trust
Fresh perspectives and links for learners and L&D professionals.
12 seats available for the peer-to-peer L&D consulting session on March 25th. It’s a pro bono initiative for helping L&D professionals grow 🌿
Ways to develop trust
We’re continuing the deep dive into the RCAA Consulting toolkit, built on the RCAA Framework: Relationship - Conversation - Agreement - Action.
In the framework, Relationship has 3 relevant aspects:
Positioning - ways in which L&D professionals can position themselves in relation to (internal) clients
Trust - ways in which they can develop the level of trust with the clients
Notes - ways in which they can easily have relevant information at hand, from previous interactions with the clients
After covering Positioning last time, today I’m inviting you to discuss about Trust.
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Luckily, this topic is covered much better by existing literature.
The best inspiration for me has been the Trusted Advisor book, which I discovered back in 2012. I was working as the HRBP for the 5 business units in Adobe Romania, offering consulting to tens of managers and directors on people & organization related matters.
I was particularly interested in enhancing my 30 minutes 1:1 sessions, as I had dozens of these each week. And I was not disappointed.
The fresh insight that I got from Trusted Advisor, which soon became a practice for me, was to understand the Trust Equation I had with each of my internal clients:
Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Personal Connection) / Perceived Self-interest
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Let’s unpack it, with some key ideas around each factor:
CREDIBILITY
Is linked to:
Experience - on relevant areas
Expertise - relevant know-how
Presence - how you present yourself
Reputation - how you are presented (also when not in the room)
RELIABILITY
Is linked to:
Setting expectations - talk the walk
Actions in line with expectations - walk the talk
Quick follow-ups - that help people anticipate longer-term reliability
PERSONAL CONNECTION
Is linked to:
Human-to-human interaction - you are working with a person, not with a role
Curiosity about the other - understand their bigger context, not aim only for a specific transaction
Small talk - discovering shared interests and perspectives
Empathy - closer connection to the other’s context and situation
LOW PERCEIVED SELF-INTEREST
Is linked to:
A balance in the relationship - stabilizing towards win-win
Awareness of needs - on both sides
Assertivity - asserting needs on both sides
Low egoism / egocentrism
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In my experience, one of the ways to develop trust in professional contexts is to be aware of how these 4 trust elements look like in a specific context, in a specific situation or in a specific relationship. And then to intentionally develop the trust elements that need a boost.
For example, when I switched careers back in 2014 from HR Management to Product Management, these elements looked like this - in the relationships with my new colleagues in Bitdefender:
Credibility - low. No previous formal Product experience, minimal relevant know-how (as perceived by others), good presence, zero reputation in the Product area
Reliability - low. This usually builds in time, as you develop a shared history working with someone
Personal Connection - high. I could easily relate to my new colleagues, as I’m a good listener. I had worked in a Product company before so I could understand their professional world and I’m genuinely curious about the people around me
Perceived Self-interest - low. I’ve shared from the get go that I want to help the Product teams get great results and also do my best to minimize headaches for my colleagues
So I knew, in a minute of reflection, that I need to work on credibility and reliability in order to develop trust effectively with my new colleagues.
One of the first initiatives that I’ve led after joining this new role, in the new company, in the new industry was to host a sharing session on a relevant, advanced topic in Product design (e.g. designing microinteractions for user delight).
I invited my colleagues from software development, UX design, product marketing, channel sales, customer support, along with my peers from the Product department, my manager and other key stakeholders for a 1h sharing session on microinteractions - applied on the products I was managing.
The effect was instant:
My credibility rose, as my colleagues saw that I knew what I was talking about, even if I had no previous formal experience in this kind of role.
My reliability rose, as I followed up very quickly with some useful materials that my colleagues could use going forward.
So the investment in preparing the session (3h), inviting my colleagues (1h), facilitating the session (1h) and following up (0.5h) were 5.5h very well spent in helping me perform quickly in the new role… and probably contributed to get to manage a portfolio of almost 20 software products after 1.5 months in this role.
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I shared this bit of experience with you to illustrate the power of building trust in an intentional manner. I encourage you to reflect on how the Trust Equation looks like for you (especially for key work relationships) and to solostorm ideas for developing the trust elements you need 🙌
Next time, we’ll deep dive into the Notes aspect of the Relationship in the RCAA Framework.
Stay tuned!
Bülent
As a learner and knowledge creator across fields, I enjoy advising OD and L&D teams on how to create more impact with the limited resources they have at hand.
My main activity is to help leadership teams of mid and large 🇷🇴 Tech companies, as a Strategy & Org Design adviser and facilitator.
My current mission is to grow leaders in 🇷🇴 Tech.
See also: LinkedIn / Strategy & Org Design Goodies and Personal Strategy newsletters / Affiliations: IASP, APF, EODF, IAF and IG