Aspen Digital

In today’s rapidly evolving work environment, trust-building in tech has emerged as critical for fostering engagement, innovation, and productivity in organizations. How can trust be cultivated among leaders and employees? What are its impacts on performance?

The Tech Accountability Coalition, a project incubated by Aspen Digital, recently hosted business and equity experts for a session on trust in the workplace, moderated by Etsy Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility Senior Manager Beth Weisendanger. 

This discussion featured three distinguished panelists, including Wharton School of Business Assistant Management Professor Dr. Stephanie Creary, Google Retention & Progression Director Rachel Spivey, and Paradigm Learning Director Alex Tiant. The panelists each shared their insights on the complex interplay between trust and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Watch the session below, and dig into highlights here. 

Watch Session on Trust-Building in Tech

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I’m really excited to be here today totalk about trust building it’s such animportant concept and before we dive inI would love to just give our panelistsa moment to introduce themselves share alittle bit about them and their work uhand then we can dig into the questionsso Dr Stephanie cery I’ll I’ll hand itto you first to do a quick introabsolutely hello everyone nice to meetyou I’m Stephanie cery I’m assistantprofessor of management the WhartonSchool of Business at the University ofPennsylvania delighted to be here foryou um it has been probably almostalmost I think it’s 18 years so almosttwo decades that I’ve been studying uhcorporate diversity Equity inclusionpractices in organizations both as anapplied researcher so most of myresearch at the time my early days wasgoing straight into the hands of Chiefdiversity officers and um HR peopleteams uh I’m now an academic who uhpublishes research not only for academicresearch in in our journals but alsocontinues to work with umorganizations um applying some of theseinsights to the context so glad to behere and looking forward to theconversation thank you so much StephanieAlex I’ll hand it to you for an introthank you um my name is Alex Tiant mypronouns are she her hers I’m a directorat Paradigm um for anyone who’s notfamiliar we are a diversity equity andinclusion strategy firm that helpsorganizations build more um inclusiveworkplaces leveraging uh research likeuh Dr Stephanie C’s uh uh work in andher colleagues that work have um helpedus with and in our um our partnershipwith organizations around the world wehelp them build strategies um wefacilitate workshops and um help themoverall um build inclusive workplacesthrough um several different umplatforms and services so really excitedto be here today and share some of thoseexperiences our clients have thank youand Rachel would love to hear from youhello everyone my name is Rachel SpiveyI am a director of our team at Googlecalled stay and Thrive where we helpemployees um who want to stay be able tostay and Thrive at the company and thenit’s mainly focused on retention andprogression so I look forward to tellyou more about ourprogram wonderful well thank you all forbeing here and I really want to kick usoff by grounding ourself and what trustmeans so Stephanie I’m going to startwith you and I’d love for you to kick usoff by telling us what trust means froman academic perspective and its historyin connection to diversity equity andinclusion yeah so um the history of ofacademic research on trust has mostlyfocused on this psychological state orexperience that occurs between peopleand groups right so it’s very much atthe level of the person um and so thatresearch has it goes back to the 1960sand it’s actually the field ofpsychology economics sociology um weresome of the first um fields to take onthe study of trust and then in the last25 years my field which isorganizational behavior has has appliedthis particularly to trust in theworkplace and so if we’re looking attrust between people right so I trustyou or you trust me or maybe we don’t umwhat we’re really trying to understandis the willingness that I might have toaccept being vulnerable to you or totake on risk um that might come intoplay when you are either expectingsomething of me or whether you’re doingsomething that affects me so it’s reallyabout the willingness to acceptvulnerability or risk based on someoneelse’s expectations oractions however um trust doesn’t justcome into play between people we canalso trust things we can’t see like aninstitution right like our employer likeyes we see our manager yes we see thesenior leaders that the way that wethink about trust in that way reallycomes down to like that definition Ijust offered as trust in people but umI’m an academic adviser to the Edelmantrust Institute um and so I invite youto look at all the work that they’vedone Edelman e d l m.com as soon as yougo to the homepage you’re going to seethe Edelman trust barometer they’vereally done a lot of work inconsultation with academics to to movetrust from the level of just trustbetween people to trust in institutionsand a lot of what they’ve studied islike for 20 some OD years is trust inthe media trust in government trust inbusinesses trust in Nos and morerecently in the last couple of yearsthey’ve looked at trust in a variety ofways in the workplace um and so theyacknowledge that you know there issomething to be said about not just do Itrust my manager does my manager trustme but do I trust this my employer thisbrand do I trust the government so theyhave some interesting research there acouple of things that I just want to sayjust to provide some context isthe reason why this is an importantconcept to study and certainly relevantto the field of diversity Equityinclusion is because trust really isabout relationships whether it’s therelationship between people or therelationship between you and youremployer or you and the government oryou and you know some other thing thatwe really can’t see but we know itexists out there um because trust isessential for helping us initiatemaintain repair and just overall Elevatethe relationships we have at work and soif you think of it as a relationalconcept that really is about how do youlike our willingness to be vulnerable toour employer our willingness to bevulnerable to our manager ourwillingness to be vulnerable to the Deileader who’s asking us I reallyappreciate what rert had to say as faras gaining Buy in that’s so much abouttrust right the last thing I want to sayis really tied to what Rupert is sayingis is understanding that the roles thatanybody who is a Dei leader no matterwhat your title is you’re playing therole of a change agent and there’sDecades of research on what it means tolead change out outside of Dei and so ifwe just step back into the place ofleading change historically changeagents in organizations were insiderswho had been around for a long time andso there was already some base implicitlevel of trust because they were peoplewho maybe were respected in other umareas of the organization but now theyhad to lead this change thing thatnobody wanted and was freaked out aboutbut it’s always hard right but now whatwe have is in most organizations uh theDei lead is someone who was an outsiderwho just got hired who’s coming into anorganization with no Baseline of trustum from anybody and is trying to lead amassive initiative a and what becomesreally important in there in buildingtrust is to help first people who arethere overcome the experience ofpsychological threat when you show upright and the threat when you show up isthreat to their St status right I washere first or we were doing this and wewere fine and now this person’s comingin tell me what I we have to do or or oror threat to their values and so allthis talk around hiring unqualifiedpeople is because people have like thisperverse um sense of what Merit means umand so when they think about hard workand earning it they’re thinking thateverybody who shows up actually earnedit relative to people who they feel likewe’re forcing in so these values aroundMerit that they have these very blackand white understandings of Merit umfeel threatened by these individualsjust by you showing up and certainly howthey think about what fairnessinequality means is very different forperhaps you think about it and so thoseare the threats that are experiencedwhich makes trust very hard in the Deicontext um and so I’m like I just hopethat that’s like enough information tokick us off but I’m excited to hear whatthe other panelist have to say to divein more thank you yeah no that’s so it’sso helpful as a grounding and it’ssparking for me that you know I wasrecently reading culture amp which I’msure a lot of organizations uh arefamiliar with in terms of engaging theirsurveys they recently released researchsaying that trust in general is downacross a lot of things trust in theexecutive team uh across the industrytrust in the business trust ingovernment and so it’s it’s such aninteresting challenge for Deipractitioners to step into this space asyou say and be up against kind of thatthreat of someone newand also knowing that industrywide atthis time trust is is decreasing versusRising so thank you so much for thatcontext um I would love to talk aboutwhat it means to you to create a cultureof trust at work and Rachel I’d love foryou to kick us off and talking aboutwhat that means at Google inparticular yeah so I’m going to startoff just giving an overview of my teambecause it’s a little bit different sothen we can ground in some some of theinformation that we found based on thatso my team the Stan Thrive team we focuson making sure that um retention andprogression is Forefront for allemployees and so at any moment a googlerthat’s our what we call our Googleemployees I’m going to say it a lot I’vebeen at the go uh the company for almostwell for almost 15 years so um it’ssecond nature to me so um googlers cancome and request support from my team atany time they can fill out a form andthey anytime that they have a questionabout their career it could be that theywant to um improve something arelationship with their manager theymight just have a question about whatprogression looks like from that pointwe work with that googler um untilresolution so we have an intakeconversation with them to understand whythey’re coming to us it could be goodbad in the middle they’re still figuringthings out and then we work with them onaverage for about 100 days until theyreach their desired out which was statedat the intake conversation um right nowwe’re sitting at about a 92% retentionrate which lets us know it’s workingusually our average is around86% um so we’re a little higher rightnow because of some of the externalclimate uh but just wanted to give youthat grounding context um and I lovewhat Dr query said about trust inrelationships and one of the commonthemes that come up about why googlersrequest support from my team is theremanager relationships and so we divedinto what does that mean it would comeup sofrequently and when we looked at it wedid a qualitative analysis of all thegooglers who had come to us and said itwas their manager relationship um and wesaw it was a couple of three things soone and the number one thing was thattheir manager could not help themprogress their career um the other wasthat managers couldn’t didn’t for themthemselves have enough knowledge to helpthe googler themselves grow and advanceand the other was interpersonalrelationships and so those are some ofthe Dynamics that we see happeningaround trust in our organization and thegood news is a lot of that can be fixedand addressed um and so I know we’llprobably get to Solutions later on butthose are some of the things that we’veseen um from our time working withgooglers thank you yeah that’s so it’sso fascinating because you’re touchingon this relationship between trust andperformance which I think is is key it’scritical um Alex I’m curious to hearfrom you because your organization ishelping leaders uh do this for theirorganization so I guess my question toyou is why should leaders care beyondjust the performance and what risk doesit present to teams and leaders whenthey don’t have trust yeah so first whenI’ll start with the second part of yourquestion when people don’t have trust itleads to people questioning theirbelonging it leads to people not feelingsafe to ask for help ask questions um italso can lead to people just being heldback not taking risks or tryingchallenging new tasks if they feel as iftheir manager or the organizationdoesn’t trust them to take those risksto um you know use their expertise andknowledge to expand in the work they’redoing um and that can hold not only theindividual back but the organizationback um if people aren’t feeling safe totalk about their mistakes together withtheir teams um that can lead to peoplenot learning from each other and peoplerepeating the same mistakes that theircolleagues had made and there’s a lot ofdifferent challenges that can come intoplace in general with feedback too so umI definitely want to focus on that aswell when when organizations haveleaders that are more in kind of a fixedmindset tend to think that the nature oftalents and abilities are are fixed atBirth rather than a growth mindsetbelieving that people can can changewith effort and coaching um it can leadto that that having a more of a growthmindset can lead to people feeling likethey have that safety to ask thosequestions to be willing to ask forfeedback about a specific thing theyworked on not trying to hide the thingsthey did that maybe weren’t as good umso you want to have leaders inorganizations that have more of thatgrowth mindset because it impacts thepeople that they’re reporting to um whenif you’re on a team where somebody youknow makes it seem like well you justcan’t do that so I’m just going to takeover you’re probably not going to wantto go to them to to set some new goalsyou’re probably going to set easiergoals and not loftier goals so all ofthose things can really have a hugeimpact on um the organization as a wholeand individuals specifically and I Ithink it’s important especially in thisspace to mention that people frommarginalized or stereotype groups that’seven more high-end if you’re on a teamthat’s diverse and you’re a leader it isespecially critical that you’re thinkingabout how are you giving feedback howare you cultivating that trust for yourteams are you creating that thatpsychological safety and and modelingsome of that humility um like Dr Currymentioned you want to make sure you’reon teams with leaders that are able tosay hey this is an area I’m trying tolearn I would love for you to give mefeedback or when I was at your levelthis was a challenge I had in providingthose interventions to make sure peoplerecognize that it doesn’t take um youknow it’s not so simple to get frompoint A to point B you need to have thethat coaching and and experience andpeople should be there to guide youalong the way so those are some of thethings that we’re seeing um help leadersespecially grow and in building thattrust on their teams is having that openconversation sharing their learnings andmaking others feel safe to do the sameyeah I love that and you’re touching onyou know it we’re talking a little bitabout Buy in the conversation started ina place of getting stakeholder Buy inand I think so often when you talk aboutConcepts like trust like psychologicalsafety like inclusion for leaders whodon’t have the buyin it can really feellike a soft science so I’m curious tohear from you all um what is the likethe data behind it what is the hardscience there and also so what are somereally tangible you know you talked alittle bit Alex about some tangiblethings leaders can do to create thattrust by modeling vulnerability but I’mreally curious to hear um some otherideas for for what managers canpractically do cont tangibly do and howto really uh present the hard the harddata there so Stephanie I don’t know ifyou have anything that you would want tospeak to there’s actually one point thatI want to make we’re actually usingreally great uh Concepts this is why youhave like the academic on the call rightyeah we’re using the term psychologicalsafety and trust and so I feel the needto help us um understand the differencesbetween these two terms they’re reallyrelated and both of these are really keyConcepts as you think about your toolkitof Dei terms that you’re trying to usethat I think are accessible um so AmyEdmonson who is most known for theirwork on psychiatrical safety she wrote apaper about 20 years ago that was reallyall about dis differentiatingpsychological safety and trust and I’mjust going to read part of that aloudfor us because I think it’s veryaccessible um and so she says as notedthe concepts of psychological safety andTrust have much in common they bothdescribe psychological States involvingperceptions of risk or vulnerability aswell as making choices to minimizenegativeconsequences however um when we’rethinking about trust we’re thinkingabout giving others the benefit of thedoubt with with the focus on otherspotential out actions or trustworthinessso the fact that it’s like trustingsomeone else there’s like the other andwhen we’re talking about psychologicalsafety we’re focusing on ourselves rightis whether we feel like we will be giventhe benefit of the doubt when we make amistake and so it’s like important rightbecause it these are complimentaryConcepts is like do I trust them and thething about psychological safety is willthey give me the benefit of the doubt ifI make a mistake so I just wanted to putthose out there as I’m thinking aboutyou know one of the things that we’reoften accused of as people who careabout Dei is creating new terms and notin just like throwing like the wordsalad so as we’re talking about trusttoday I just want to give us more umrigor for on how how we can think aboutincorporating this term if it if itmakes sense so your question was alsoabout like things that can be done inorder to my my understanding of thequestion was about things that can bedone in order to increase trust in theworkplace all right so if we’re thinkingabout trust as umlike I can trust my manager like whatshould be done so that I trust mymanager more well part of that is likewhat is the manager actually doing to togain my trust right and I would say thatyou know without a doubt when I talk towhether it’s people who participate inmy research studies or whether it’s uhcompanies that I work with the reasonwhy people often don’t trust theirmanagers is because they don’t feel liketheir manager actually cares about themas a person just doesn’t care about themas a person um and and I think most ofthis is about the people managers rightand if you think about what it means tobe a people manager you’re like somebodywho’s having to do a lot of work you’regetting a lot of pressure fromunderneath you from the your directreports and you’re getting a lot ofpressure from your managers and so mostpeople managers will tell you I don’thave time for anything they don’t havetime for this they don’t have time forthat they don’t have time for Dei theydon’t have time for performance reviewsand so people managers feel verystressed and pressed for time to doanything particularly things that relateto um how do I make uh my employees feellike they can they can trust me butactually when I think about you knowsome of my youngest students and theyoungest people in my data set it’sactually really simple really simpleanswer to how you gain trust from peoplewho are from the younger generations andthat is ask them about who they are aspeople and what do they enjoy right andit’s this idea that I can trust mymanager because I feel like my managerknows inherently who I am as a personand what makes me tick outside of thisjob that’s just an example of for thatparticular generation what seems to beincreasingly important and helping themto feel that they can trust theirmanager and the last thing that I’mgoing to say is the reason why that’simportant is because managers often arevery perplexed why younger people don’tlike their feedback and it’s becausethey don’t trust the feedback that theyare given because they don’t trust thesource of the feedback so to solve thatproblem around uh do people internalizethe feedback that they’re given do theyaccept it it it really does requirebuilding trust between the person who isum the recipient of the feedback and theperson who’s providing the feedback andlike I said for the younger generationthat’s about do I feel like you careabout me or understand who I am as apersonthanks yeah so powerful and somethingthat you said I think resonated with alot of us is that people managersthey’re always going to feel like theydon’t have enough time that’s probablyconstant across all of our organizationsand what I’m trying to reinforce withmanagers is there are parts of processesthat you can trim down for efficienciesthat should be quick that should benimble and then there are things that weintentionally slow down and invest inbecause we know longterm the impact ofthat is greater than you saving 5% ofyour time today on this Monday uhwhatever day of the month it is so Ireally love that perspective on you wantsomebody to perform at their best toshow up and be their fullest mostproductive self to be receptive to thefeedback you are giving them if you’renot investing in that trust and thatrelationship building upfront none of itmatters you can give the clearestfeedback if the trust isn’t there peoplewon’t take it so I love that just onequick followup a quick example of thiswas I was doing an executive Ed Workshopyesterday on actually relationships andsponsorship in the workplace um with abunch of senior leaders and this onegives it this one man um you know says Iam I’m a white man and I have like afemale direct report and um I did a lotof work to try to make sure that I wasgiving like unbiased feedback and Ithought I did a good job and all thesignals that she gave me was that I dida did a good job giving her thisfeedback and then after the fact I hearfrom other people that she didn’t likethis feedback at all so he goes to hisfemale friend at work who’s also at hislevel and says could you please look atthis feedback debrief this with me whatI do wrong and she goes well that feelskind of right do you mind me followingupwith that person so then this womanleader follows up with the junior persongives the same feedback and theyeverything goes fine the content wasn’tdifferent the person delivering it wasdifferent and so we talked a lot abouthow that’s a real thing is people aremore inclined to trust someone who issimilar to them than is not um and sothen what would it take for that maleleader to gain the trust of the juniorwoman knowing that it’s not going tofeel as easy or a automatic with thesenior femalewoman thank you for that example Rachelthis I mean this is like your bread andbutter because you’re talking about thatthri that thrive the grow the developand the people manager really being theopportunity area there I’m curious foryour perspective on this like whattangibly do you tell those managers whenyou’re experiencing their reports sayingI don’t I don’t trust I don’t feel likemy manager is giving me the feedback Ineed or the growth I need yeah so what acouple of things well one of the thingswe realize when we actually triage andwe get in the middle of these thesemanager relationship so first time Italked about like when we do some likebackend research to see why people arecoming to us but when we actually getinvolved and try and triage and supportthose manager relationships um thenumber one thing that we see and thatcan be fixed is miscommunication rightso usually it’s like the under themanager similar um to you knowStephanie’s example the manager thoughthe was giving feedback in a certain waythe the person received it in adifferent way there’s usually some typeof miscommunication that’s rooted at itand I’m so glad Stephanie went back anddefined psychological safety for us umjust because there’s that was thatopportunity to give the benefit of thedoubt and I think that’s one of thebiggest things is that you can continueto build that trust when you give the Bof the doubt knowing that there probablywill be a miscommunication there will besomething that might go a but if yougive that benefit of the doubt or you ifthat employee feels like you were goingto give them the ab benefit of doubt itcan help you work through it quicker umand then we actually do see a lot oftransparency issues so we talked aboutprogression and progression is thenumber one reason why people leaveGoogle any person leaves Google overyears and it’s like you can look at alongitudinal study progression is thenumber one even it’s so clear that inour employee survey more than um it’sbetter predictor than if someone’s goingto leave even more than them saying Iplan to be at this company five yearsfrom now is I feel like my career goalscan be met at this company um and what’sso important about that is actually likepromotion and progression transparencyso a lot of times managers don’tunderstand it for themselves which wesee a lot if they’re a new manager theymight come to Google and even thoughthey’re in a manager position it doesn’tmean that they know what it takes to getpromoted at Google so it takes time forthat manager to understand the processand then be able to translate it to thatper uh to the their report andparticularly even if there are noopportunities for promotion orprogression they need to state thatclearly and that goes into thattransparency that trust of like I knowthat this manager is going to tell methe truth even if it’s something I don’twant to necessarily hear yeah that’ssuch a it’s such a great point and it’sa great segue someone earlier in thechat said that one of the barriers theyface to establishing trust is a conflictbetween the employer’s priorities andtheemployees and it makes me want to askthe question and Alex I’ll start withyou on this is trust the same asagreement can you have trust whenthere’s disagreement or a misalignmentof yes you’re ready to get promoted orno we’re not going to action on thefeedback that you’re giving us at thistime yeah it’s trust it’s definitely notthe same as agreement and I think one ofthe the challenges especially people inmiddle management face because not onlyare they you know having to make surethat they’re building that trust withtheir reports but also upward as well isthat you can’t always communicate thethings as transparen as you as you wouldlike to and that transparency is one ofthe things that does help build trust soyou know what I what I find when I’mworking with my clients is that if thereis a manager or leader who’s having achallenge where they want to be able tocommunicate something effectively andand build a trust on their teams butthey know that people aren’t going tolike the answer I find that it’s evenit’s more helpful for them to talkthrough their thought process make surepeople are aware of all the things theyconsidered make sure they’re askingpeople for their feedback and theirideas and letting them know why or whynot they are taking their ideas umsaying yes or no is not necessarily theonly way to to build trust with peopleyou need to make sure you’re explainingyourself explaining your thought processif people don’t understand how yourdecisions are made they’re less likelyto trust your decisionso that transparency in how you makedecisions even if you can’t get all thedetails can help build the trust um andand we even when it does lead todisagreement you want to make sureyou’re encouraging people to continuesharing their feedback continue sharingtheir perspectives and what they wouldwhat would be ideal for them so you canuse that to inform maybe futuredecisions where their ideas arerelevant I love that you know it’s I’mI’m so glad that U Stephanie you broughtup Amy Edmonson because I was fortunateenough to goto a class she taught on leading duringuncertainty and Alex a lot of what shesaid touches on some of the things thatyou’re bringing up this idea that youknow as a leader you might not have theexact skill or expertise that somebodyon your team might have you mightdisagree you might go in anotherDirection but really what makes a reallystrong leader even in these moments ofdisagreement and uncertainty is theability to one like be as cander andtransparent as possible to remainpresent and accessible to give peoplethe why the context uh and then show upin the ways that you can give people theresources they need to really flourishso I love I love everything that you uhthat you called outthere we’ve talked a lot about how wecan have leaders gain the trust of theirteams but I’m curious to hear from youallon how can we teach leaders to trusttheirteams and I’m curious just for for anyof you whoever has a thought on this I’dlove to hear kind of your reaction andyour response tothat so I I first start when we sayleaders I have to differentiate thisbetween the people managers the peoplein the middle and the people who aresenior because I see these as differentopportunities and so I’m going to focuson the middle because so much of myresearch focuses on the middle and and Iwould say I see this more pronounced anissue of trusting people below withmiddle managers um and so this remindsme of that conversation so I I I teachdiversity A diversity courses that Icreated when it came to Wharton in 2017and so we just started the semester orthe quarter on Monday so I’m two classesin um and it’s interesting because Ithink part of the problem that these uhyou know PE budding people managers oractually people managers have is thatthey Trust trust in themselves more sothan they trust in other people becausetheir entire lives they’ve been rewardedfor their individual contributions theyknow they got an A they know that theydid whatever things that they feel likethey did to be successful so they trustin their own skills and competencies andno oneever made them sort of think about umthis idea that part of what their roleis as managers is to develop otherpeople right um and so part of I thinkyou know what we talking aboutmicromanager so part of the challenge oflike uh less experienced more novice oryou know just somebody who’s reallycontrol oriented as a manager is likethe inability to delegate because theydon’t trust that anybody else can do asgood of a job as they do how that thenum elaborates to the Dei context morebroadlyis if a manager’s responsibilities tohelp develop the careers of their juniorreports that’s has to mean to them thatsticking their neck out there andvouching for someone and advocating forsomeone isn’t going to cause them harmand people who are people managersresearch those time and time againthey’re so concerned about self and whatdoes this mean to me and my own self-protection that they don’t delegate andlet go of work and allow people todevelop their skills and competenciesand they don’t develop people’s careersin the way that they should becausethey’re afraid if they do to if theystick their necks out there that it’llfall back on them so the opportunitythen for a lot of people managers is tohelp them understand how do you movefrom holding everything close and tightto your heart to little by littletrusting in your employees that they cando some of the work right and that’sthat’s that’s a whole that’s a wholetraining I won’t get into but I thinkthat’s theopportunity I would love to add on thatone of the common things I see um iswhen when managers specifically are aretrying to help build that trust on theirteams and they aren’t sure you knowbecause it’s different working Styles orpeople have different learning styles umit is really important if you are apeople manager to find out how your teamlikes to collaborate how your team likesto work and even if their approach isdifferent different from the way it usedto be done or the way you’ve been doingit forever um having that trust in themthat their approach can still get to thesolution um and and giving people theoption to learn letting them know yourexpectations upfront so they can findthat their best way to get to thatfinish line and I think that opencommunication um will make delegationway easier for managers that arestruggling withit yeah psych safety too establishingtrust establishing psychological safetyboth of those things which are separatebut both important it’s hard it’s reallyhard and psychological safety is asliding scale meaning that thingshappening in the world things happeninginternally you get a new team member youget a new manager all of these thingskind of move you up and down theprogress bar when it comes topsychological safety and there’s allthere’s an X and Y access uh of respectand autonomy right like the more respectand the more autonomy you can give teammembers the higher the level of Psychological safety is so some of whatyou’re talking about Stephanie this ideaof being able to let go a bit it isinvesting in a relationship ofpsychological safety because one you’rerespecting and recognizing that peoplebring their own skills and expertise tothe table and you’re kind of giving themthe autonomy to try things try thingswithin you know a certain parameterwhere they are safe to learn andcontribute and make mistakes andsometimes failum and again people managers you knowtime is a limited resource so some somemanagers won’t take the time to investin that moving things up that axis butuh it’s so important and to trust thatyour team memb contributions can makethe idea better right so yes you aresmart yes you are smart you are a greatyou know technician or whatever you doright you’ve been a great engineer yourentire life right the reality is is youdon’t need to have all the doesn’t needto be 100% you in order for it to begood it’s actually going to be betterbecause other people get to say stuffabout it right that’s like a coreopportunity for most in Tech we I thinkthere was something in like what are theum differences in trust in Tech or theimplications of this in Tech in Tech yougot a lot of people who are you knowvery good skilled technical expertsthey’re not managers they get throwninto a managerial role because somebodyneeds to manage people but they’ve hadno leadership training right but they’revery good at like creating the videogames or creating the product orcreating the code right and they trusttheir ability to get that right and soum H you know creating opportunities forthem to understand like what does itmean if somebody else weighs in likethat’s like a good thing or that can bea good thing is how can I how can Istill feel like the creative process isis important when other people giveideasright one more thing I’ll just add isthat a lot of times we hear frommanagers that that they’re under theirown pressure um they might not trusttheir have like feel like they can trusttheir own leadership um and again toStephanie’s Point either they might benew in management and they just are notskilled at being a manager um or theyare under immense pressure from theirown leadership and so sometimes that’swhy they have a hard time trusting theirown teams is because they themselves donot feel psychologically safe in theirown jobs and I think we take that forgranted a lot of times and this nottrusting their team members is aresponse of them and the pressure thatthey’re alreadyreceiving yeah totally totally okay Iwant to ask you all just one morequestion before we move into a littlebit of an audience Q&A uh and I wouldlove if each of you could sort of giveus if you want one people to take awayone thing that they can take back totheir organizations or their uh theircompany or wherever they’re working inmaking change making an impact whatwould that one thingbe I think around the topic of trust Ithink I want to take this from thestandpoint of the people who are on thiscall and a variety of people who are onthis call are are in the role of tryingto create more inclusive environmentswhatever your title is is I think it’simportant that we say things like I wantto earn your trust right I’m here tohelp gain your trust and I think peopleappreciate that when we say those wordsbecause you’re putting it out there in away that’s an offering that’s sayingthat you know I’m going to continue todo what it takes to earn your trust sothat you know we can effectively buildthis environment that we all want rightI I for me that’s really important isacknowledging to someone else thatthat’s the thing that you feel like isessential for you all workingeffectively together and is really anopportunity that is I don’t want to sayin the way but is in the space betweenthe ideas that you have and theyactually the execution ofthem I’ll add um you know modelinghumility for your teams um letting suremaking sure people know where yourgrowth areas were and and how you got tothe place you’re at um that could be areally helpful way to to show yourhumanity and um and the growth Journeyyou were on and help them feel motivatedand also help them trust that you arethere to help them get there aswell I’ll just add the the words plusthe action is so critical because youcan say that I’m here for you I reallycare about your personal well-being andI’ve had so many managers say that andthen like if I’m sick um it’s like okayI’m so sorry you’re sick and can you dothese things and then you realize thatthat those words were shallow and theywere Hollow and they didn’t meananything um and so especially in pointsof contention and points of stress whenyou still are able to show up for thatemployee and do what you said you weregoing to do even in those tough momentsI think that that’s what I would takeaway from this conversation to reallybuild that ultimate level oftrust amazing thank you all so much foryour insights and for being here todaythis was such a lovely conversation tomoderate and I feel like I’ve learned somuch from each of you so just feelingreally grateful to be able to to be here

Understanding Trust: An Academic Perspective

Beth Weisendanger started the conversation by inviting Dr. Stephanie Creary to share her scholarly insights on trust-building, delving into its historical roots and intricate interplay with diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Additionally, Dr. Creary highlighted the multifaceted nature of trust-building, which extends beyond interpersonal relationships to include trust in institutions such as employers, governments, and brands.

Trust versus Psychological Safety

A critical distinction was made between trust and psychological safety. Trust focuses on whether one believes others will act in a trustworthy manner, whereas psychological safety pertains to feeling confident that one will not be penalized for making a mistake. Dr. Creary offered a nuanced explanation, underscoring the importance of understanding these concepts as complementary rather than interchangeable.

Building a Culture of Trust at Google

Rachel Spivey shared practical insights on building a culture of trust at Google. Her team focuses on employee retention and progression, recognizing that trust often hinges on strong manager-employee relationships.

The essence of trust lies in the assurance that a manager will communicate openly and truthfully. One significant barrier to building trust arises when there is a misalignment between the employer’s priorities and the aspirations of the employee.

The Organizational Impact of Trust

Alex Tiant addressed why leaders should prioritize trust, not only for performance but also for the broader well-being of their teams. Alex identified the risks associated with a lack of trust, such as feelings of exclusion, decreased willingness to take risks, and hindered feedback processes.

Paradigm helps leaders foster an environment where trust and psychological safety are paramount, ensuring that diverse and inclusive workplaces thrive. 

PRACTICAL Steps for Leaders to Build Trust

Throughout the discussion, practical strategies for trust-building in tech were emphasized:

1. Acknowledging Trust as Essential: Leaders should explicitly express their intention to earn trust as foundational to effective partnerships.
2. Modeling Humility and Transparency: Sharing personal growth journeys can humanize leaders and encourage inclusivity.
3. Aligning Words with Actions: Consistency in messaging and behavior, especially during challenging times, is crucial for maintaining trust.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND TAKEAWAYS

The session concluded with each panelist offering a key takeaway, collectively emphasizing the importance of establishing trust through both verbal assurance and demonstrable actions. In doing so, organizations can create environments where employees feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute meaningfully.

Building trust within an organization is not a one-size-fits-all approach but rather a multifaceted process that involves active listening, transparency, and a commitment to DEI principles. By implementing the insights and strategies shared by our panelists, organizations can ensure that trust becomes a cornerstone of their corporate culture, leading to thriving, innovative, and inclusive workplaces.

RESOURCES

• The Benefits of Belonging
• Inclusive Leadership: Unlocking the Power of Diversity Through Inclusion

SPEAKERS

Dr. Stephanie J. Creary
Assistant Professor of Management, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Read about Dr. Stephanie J. Creary

Dr. Stephanie J. Creary (she/her), is an organizational behavior scholar and an Assistant Professor of Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Creary’s research is focused on understanding how to create more effective work relationships and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. She has published her research in leading academic journals and insights from her research have appeared in top popular press outlets. For her contributions to management research and thinking, she was named to the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2023 and received an NACD Directorship 100 award.

Rachel Spivey
Retention & Progression Director, Google

Read about Rachel Spivey

Rachel Spivey (she/her) has worked at Google for the last fourteen years, promoting various dimensions of diversity, equity and inclusion. She has the unique experience of starting at the entry level at Google and rising into the leadership ranks. As Director of the Stay and Thrive, Minority Serving Institution Strategy, and Belonging teams, she champions underrepresented talent pipelines. Her team drives employee retention, progression, and belonging, strategically focused on supporting our partnerships with minority-serving institutions. Previously, she held the role of Internal Community Advocate where she served as a Diversity Team liaison between the Black and Hispanic Employee Resource Groups. During her time at Google, she has also worked as the Project Manager for Google’s race initiatives, helped launch a diversity engagement platform and continues to advocate to increase our investment in HBCUs. The highlight of her career has been elevating Google’s racial justice agenda by organizing a Hoodie March for Trayvon Martin, Day of Support for the victims of Charleston shooting and vigils for Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Rachel graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science from Hampton University.

Alex Tiant
Learning Director, Paradigm

Read about Alex Tiant

Alex Tiant (she/her), is a Director on Paradigm’s Learning Team. As the leader of the Client Partnerships function, she helps clients plan, manage, and execute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategies, designs and facilitates workshops, and coaches executives on their DEI journey. In Alex’s role, she has led Paradigm’s work with high-growth startups, global professional services firms, and Fortune 500 companies. She advises on the effectiveness of DEI Committees and Employee Resource Groups for global organizations. She is passionate about evolving organizational cultures, developing leaders, and empowering professionals to prioritize their well-being.

Moderator

Beth Wiesendanger
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility Senior Manager, Etsy

Read about Beth Wiesendanger

Beth Wiesendanger (she/her/hers) is a Senior Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility Manager at Etsy, and her mission is to ensure more of us are seen, heard and advocated for.  As a Disabled woman she works to leverage the resources she has access to and create access for those who don’t. She is a champion of creating opportunities, tearing down cultural and systemic barriers, and fostering community, knowledge, and success. Over her career she has overseen and executed hundreds of events around the globe; bringing awareness to topics like diversity in creativity, women in tech, accessibility & disability, the future of work, and more.