Rebuilding trust starts with conversations and courage, says Professor Sim Sitkin
The erosion of trust has weakened our institutions, said Sim Sitkin, the Michael W. Krzyzewski University Distinguished Professor in Leadership at the Fuqua School of Business. Sitkin is also the Faculty Director of Fuqua’s Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics (COLE).
We are seeing fewer individuals around the world who are willing to put their faith in key societal institutions, Sitkin said. Most recently with the pandemic, science, health care, government, and educational institutions have all suffered from a lack of public trust.
In a live discussion on Fuqua’s LinkedIn page, Sitkin highlighted research that suggests how trust can be regained.
“One of the things that comes up again and again in our research is, ‘Do I believe that you truly understand me and what I care about, what my situation is, what I need, what my priorities are?’” Sitkin said. “And ‘Do you respect me, even with knowing my weaknesses and my limitations?’ And ‘Do I believe that you truly care about my welfare and my ability to pursue my own goals?’”
Sitkin said a key problem has been what he calls “perceived value incongruence.” This refers to the perception that two people don’t just disagree on a specific course of action, but more fundamentally have different values. With value incongruence, each side is more likely to completely write off the other.
[This article has been reproduced with permission from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. This piece originally appeared on Duke Fuqua Insights]