When we were growing up our parents used to say: “Just tell me the truth and you won’t get in trouble.” Those words are often the beginning of a great stalemate. “I have to tell the truth to know that I won’t get in trouble, but I have to know that I won’t get in trouble to tell the truth.” Courage and risk are involved, and movement from both sides is usually needed to break the stalemate.
In a similar way, authenticity and trust are mutually dependent upon one another to build an inclusive culture. Trust provides the psychological safety that is needed for people to be authentic, for people to bring the whole of their humanness to their interactions with supervisors, team leads and workplace colleagues. Authenticity proactively builds trust by increasing ones sense of what belongs and what is acceptable. Authenticity is an act of courage and trust is an environment that supports the courage. In this sense trust and authenticity need each other. Trust invites people to be authentic while authenticity proves that the trust is real. Courage and risk are both involved, and movement from both leaders and those being lead is needed to build inclusive culture.
This session invites managers and employees to work together to build the trust and psychological safety that is required to support authentic contributions and inclusive teamwork.
Course Objectives