What is the purpose of this article?

Illustrate some of the reasons why trust is critical for transformation success.  This article is appropriate for any size company undergoing major change.

You may download a PDF of this article from: Why is trust critical for transformation success V2

What does successful transformation require?

People within the company and its ecosystem need to change. These changes can include:

• Learning new skills and unlearning old ones;
• Gaining new knowledge and unlearning old knowledge and experience;
• Learning new processes and techniques and unlearning old ones;
• Learning new behaviours and unlearning old behaviours; and
• Potentially new values and culture and dropping old values and culture.

Successful transformation requires individuals to transform themselves.

People may transform themselves when they:

• Believe there is personal value to them and/or to those they care about;
• Understand why the current situation is not viable in the long-term;
• Understand what the future looks like and the path to the future;
• Feel some sense of control over their future;
• Believe the leaders have heard and understand individual concerns;

Why does transformation fail?

• Individuals see no reason to transform because they don’t trust what their leaders are telling them.
• Individuals don’t transform because they emotionally resist being told what to do without understanding.

Going from a slowly-changing business to transformation makes visible:

• All the issues with lack of trust in management; and
• Management’s inability to deal with all the emotional factors of trust and resistance to change.

Your next steps

• Determine the degree to which your employees and others in your companies ecosystem trust and believe what you say.
• Define what changes in you values, moral, ethics, behaviours, and actions are required to improve trust.

Further reading

Society’s trust in corporate leadership and political leadership is low.

https://koorandassociates.org/values-morals-and-ethics/societys-trust-in-corporate-leadership-and-political-leadership-is-low/

What is business transformation? V2

https://koorandassociates.org/business-transformation/what-is-business-transformation/

How do you succeed with transformation? V2

https://koorandassociates.org/business-transformation/how-do-you-succeed-with-transformation/