humanize

by jamie notter & maddie grant

how people-centric organizations succeed in a social world

Humanize Worksheet: How to Be Trustworthy

The worksheets which accompany Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World are designed to help you start humanizing your organization, whether you are a top-level executive, in middle management, or a front line employee. The basic process for the worksheets is the same for everyone; but we do include some additional information customized to these three levels because our goal is to help you get the ball rolling in your organization, no matter where in the system you might be. Humanize spells out four key elements for humanizing organizations: Open Trustworthy Generative Courageous

This worksheet is about creating more trustworthy organizations.

Were here to help. Contact the authors:
Jamie Notter VP, Consulting Management Solutions Plus, Inc. jnotter@mgmtsol.com (240) 404-6493 www.getmejamienotter.com Maddie Grant chief social media strategist SocialFish, LLC maddie@socialfish.org (202) 713-5343 www.socialfish.org

Copyright 2011, Pearson Publishing

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Overview of Humanize Chapter 7:

How to Be Trustworthy

This worksheet assumes youve read the book, and it is probably a good idea to reread Chapter 7: How to Be Trustworthy, before you begin.
Trustworthy organizations embrace a culture of strategic transparency.
More information is shared AND people know why it is shared (and why other information is not). Structures are built to create a transparency architecture that supports the open flow of information. Values are clear to everyoneand not just the platitudes, but values that people understand and can apply. Knowledge is shared, because it generates power. The organization takes risks because there is no trust without risk. People are honest about elements of the culture that inhibit trust and transparencythats the first step in changing it.

Trustworthy organizations enable more truth to be spoken through their internal structure and processes.
They support whistle-blowing, and not just because Sarbanes-Oxley makes them. They change their processes, even the way reporting relationships are handled, to get people talking directly to each other, rather than through third parties. They design processes to ensure that MORE conflict happens, rather than less. Spin is somewhat of a bad word. They let people outside the organization speak their truth, particularly in social media.

In trustworthy organizations, individual behavior is marked by authenticity.

Authenticity, in all its messy complexity, is valued. Employees are supported in figuring out who they are, what they are good at, and why they are here. Employees can handle emotions and emotional interactions, because thats part of who we are. People are curious about each other and enjoy the exploration of varied interests.

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Humanize Worksheet

How to Be Trustworthy
Instructions
By focusing on these concepts in the three areas of organizational culture, internal structure and process, and individual behavior, this worksheet will allow you to assess your organizations capacity for being trustworthy and come up with action items that will help you move toward being more trustworthy. The purpose of this worksheet is ultimately to get you to do something. Reading our book is awesome (thank you, by the way), but nothing changes by reading a book. Change happens when people start behaving differently, when people start working differently. Our mantra: If you do what you always did, youll get what you always got. We feel strongly that our organizations need to be more human... Thats where you come in. The worksheet is divided into three sections that should be completed in order. They build upon each other to complete a final plan.

1 2 3

Your Assessment
Start by answering questions about you and your organization. Complete a quick quiz in which you give 30 numerical ratings on how trustworthy your organization is in terms of culture, process, and behavior. Then answer four open-ended questions to fill in the gaps.

Conversations and Data

This section helps you have targeted conversations with others so you can collect necessary data and brainstorm ideas for taking action. We help you set up individual meetings, group meetings, and produce summary reports.

Action Plan
This section helps you design an action plan for the next steps to help make your organization more trustworthy. We help you prioritize potential actions, both big and small, and map out what you are going to do next.

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Your Assessment

Assessment Goals
a. To evaluate your organizations ability to be trustworthy from your perspective. b. To identify possible ideas for your action plan.

On a scale of 1 (completely not true) to 10 (absolutely its that way around here), rate the following statements in the context of you or your organization:

Quiz A: Culture
To Be Trustworthy at the level of Organizational Culture: Goal = Transparency
A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 People have the knowledge they need to make the right decision. Risk taking is normal (within limits). We actually create mechanisms that let more information flow to more people. We talk openly about bottlenecks (rather than complaining behind closed doors). More information is routinely shared than just on a need to know basis. The default is that information is public, unless it needs to be kept private. We have clearly stated company values and everyone in the organization knows what they are. We have a culture based on trusting each other as professionals. Differences of opinion are welcomed. SCORE (110)

A10 Were openly committed to transparency in our company values statement. QUIZ A SUBTOTAL (out of 100)

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Your Assessment continued

Quiz B: Process
To Be Trustworthy at the level of Internal Structure and Process: Goal = Truth
B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9 B10 We have a strong and clear policy that protects whistle-blowers. When conflict emerges, people actually move toward it. Solving problems is valued more than going through channels. When people start to spin their answer, someone in the room calls them on it. We have an ombudsman (a neutral third party to whom any employee can raise issues or concerns). We have facilitators who can help solve problems. We review performance continuously, not just annually. We have communications vehicles for sharing lots of information with the public. We welcome comments from others even if they disagree with us. Any employee can speak for the organization online, as long as he knows our policies and guidelines for doing so. QUIZ B SUBTOTAL (out of 100) SCORE (110)

Quiz C: Behavior
To Be Trustworthy at the level of Individual Behavior Goal = Authenticity
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 Emotions are a normal and accepted part of the workplace. I can be my open and full self here. This organization cares about me. We dont expect everyone to handle the same situation the same way. Im happy to share some of my personal interests with people in my professional circles. I can freely identify myself online as being an employee of my organization. Im encouraged to use social media on behalf of my organization. I have access to Meyers-Briggs or similar kinds of training, which explore who I am as a person and how I interact with others in a team. Im encouraged to ask questions about why were doing something in a particular way. Im able to develop and push myself in areas that I shine. QUIZ C SUBTOTAL (out of 100) SCORE (110)

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Your Assessment continued

Compile your point scores

This assessment will give you a snapshot of how trustworthy your organization is from your own point of view. Add up the points for each section, then add up your total point score. Add up your three subtotal scores. A B C QUIZ A SUBTOTAL (out of 100) QUIZ B SUBTOTAL (out of 100) QUIZ C SUBTOTAL (out of 100) TOTAL (out of 300)

226300 points 151225 points 76150 points

If you have more than about 240 points, please call us, because we want to feature you on the blog as an example of a trustworthy organization. Nice job. Your organization is well on the way to being trustworthy! You can freely concentrate on the areas that scored lower than others. Not a bad start. Pay close attention to which of the three areas (or particular questions) scored highest and lowest. Can you do more of the bright spots? Can you scrap some things that are completely not trustworthy? This score assumes that you probably have lack of trust issues in all three areas of culture, process, and behavior. Youll need to pick your battles and figure out where you can concentrate your efforts at first.

075 points

What scored highest? What scored lowest? What are some areas you might be able to effect some change? Are there high scoring areas you can do more of? Are there low-scoring areas where you can start small but still have some impact? Focus on those as you complete the qualitative self-assessment in the next section. Your notes:

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Your Assessment continued

Qualitative Self-assessment
Multiple choice quizzes are relatively easy. Your score should give you a little bit of quantitative insight into how trustworthy your organization is, and will become more interesting as you start to compare it with others scores (see Section 2). But this exercise is incomplete without more qualitative thinking about why you rated the questions above in the way that you did. Look back at your answers and write down your thoughts about the following questions: Wherever you are on the trust scale, why is it that way? If youre horrible, then why are you horrible? If youre awesome, then why are you awesome? What made you as trustworthy (or not) as you are today?

What is the most important area to work on in your organization when it comes to being more trustworthy? Why is that important? How will it matter to performance?

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Your Assessment continued

What are you doing personally that is contributing to a more trustworthy organization? What are you doing that is getting in the way?

Insights and Potential Actions

Take the answers to your essay questions and your own analysis of the mini survey and make a bulleted list of observations about where your organization stands in terms of trustworthiness, including your initial thoughts about what can be done to make the organization more trustworthy. You dont need to form conclusions yet, but you should be able to put some ideas down on paper. If you were going to start today, what could you do?

Youre done with Section 1. In Section 2, youll compare notes with others.

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Conversations and Data

Conversation Goals
a. To collect qualitative and quantitative data from others in the organization evaluating your organizations trustworthiness. b. To collectively identify possible ideas for your action plan.

You are now ready to have conversations with others about trust.

Step 1: Identify who you want to meet with individually in your organization.
Exactly how many conversations you have and with whom will vary tremendously depending on your context. What works for a six-person nonprofit will not be the best plan for a large corporation. More information to help guide you on this is at the end of this section. List their names here.

Step 2: Schedule INDIVIDUAL meetings.

List the dates and times for each meeting with those you identified in step 1. Name Date Time

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Conversations and Data continued

Step 3: Invite the individuals you have listed in Step 2 to complete Section 1 of this worksheet as pre-work for a discussion about trust.
Their answers, compared with yours, will be the conversation starter. Suggested agenda: a. Quiz resultsCulture. Compare notes. b. Quiz resultsProcess. Compare notes. c. Quiz resultsBehavior. Compare notes. d. Action Plan brainstorm. Compare and compile ideas.

Step 4: Record key ideas from your individual meetings.

Step 5: Schedule GROUP meetings.

Be sure to review the group meetings guidance in pages 13-14 before you schedule your meeting. List dates and times for each meeting. Remember to invite participants to complete Section 1 of this worksheet as pre-work for a discussion about trust.

Name

Date

Time

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Conversations and Data continued

Step 6: List observations that you had from your group meetings.
Create a brief meeting report after each group conversation. Here is a sample: Meeting with (list names)

Date / Time / Location

Goals for this meeting 1. To assess, as a group, our organizations ability to be trustworthy 2. To brainstorm possibilities for improvement

Culture (transparency) what are the bright spots?

what needs work?

Process (truth) what are the bright spots?

what needs work?

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Conversations and Data continued

Step 6: List observations Continued

Behavior (authenticity) what are the bright spots? what needs work?

Specific areas that need further exploration

Ideas for actions to be taken Any and all ideas are welcome here.

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Conversations and Data continued

Guidance on individual and group meetings

Your goal for this section is to gather data from other people in your organization, and to brainstorm ideas for becoming more trustworthy. Every business is different, and only you will be able to judge how best to conduct these conversations. - You could plan one or a series of meetings with individuals. - You could ask every department to have its own meeting and share results. - You could plan a half-day workshop for the whole company. - You could use online tools to have an ongoing conversation. Depending on the existing culture, you may need to have a series of one-on-one conversations to start. Its possible youll come across as the person who just got seminared and is trying to push an agenda on them. Maintain a tone of curiosity in the conversation, and be open to the possibility that others wont see things the way you do. When you move to group conversations, we recommend you invite anyone who has an interest in the topic of trust in your organization to participate in these conversations. This is crucial to becoming more trustworthy as an organization supporting people in sharing their views, regardless of rank, title, or job description. That being said, in many organizations you will also want to have conversations within certain subgroups. Both types of conversations are fine. Here are some things to think about as you plan these conversations, depending on your level in the hierarchy. Executives. This one may be the most challenging for the top of the organization. Issues of transparency are tough, because people at the top always feel the most responsible, and that makes sharing and being transparent harder. Take the time you need working on this issue as a senior team, dig into issues like your transparency architecture, ensuring more conflict in the ranks, and getting rid of spin. It will help your broader conversations to have worked through some of these issues yourself first. And frankly, there is no more important topic for a senior team than trust, so you could spend a fair amount of time just dealing with that. In conversations with other levels, try to find out what information THEY want sharedyou might be surprised. But when you do get together with others to talk about transparency, dont hold back! As soon as you start hesitating and telling them youll have to get back to them, theyll realize its the same old same old and stop participating. Go into meetings to talk about this with other levels of the organization with the clear intention of being authentic and telling it like it is. If you dont think you can do thatat least at a basic level then hold off on the conversations for a while and focus within the senior team. Middle managers. For people in the middle, this is also a good place to start the conversation just with your colleagues, because being trustworthy (transparent, truthful, authentic) is a lot about giving up control. Let people be themselves, tell the truth, engage in conflict. Supporting that (when youre in the middle) often means getting out of the way, so it would be good to talk about how youre going to do that. Then start talking to the people above and below you in the system about what information they need from you, so you
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can get clear about whether youre the ones to share it, or if others have better access. Front line employees. Be careful as you talk to people above you in the system about this topic. We are going to guess that if you are on the front lines of the organization, you might be at least a little frustrated by lack of transparency and feeling like you are being kept in the dark. But if that frustration gets through, the people higher up tend to react badly, feeling like youre making unwarranted demands. So dont make demands. Work hard to be curious to ask questions about what its like for those who are supposedly keeping you in the dark. This is one conversation where the way you approach it has a big impact on how the conversation progresses. Also, dont forget that authenticity is a two-way street. You have to show up at these conversations willing to share your whole experience. So take the time (maybe in a few conversations with just your peers) to get clear about what transparency you really need and why. The ultimate goal of these conversations is to brainstorm actionable ideas, small and large. If you feel you need customized consulting help to manage these conversations, contact the authors. Were here to help. Youll be done with Section 2 when you feel you have enough participation (buy-in) and enough ideas to want to take action in large or small ways. In the final Section 3, youll prioritize those ideas, and decide how you can start. Notes:

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Action Plan

Action Plan Goals:

a. To prioritize actionable ideas b. To identify what YOU can do to get started.

Looking at all of the ideas that have come out of these conversations, we now need to figure out whats do-able for YOU. What are you, personally, going to do? You can also take this action plan and complete one as a team, or as a group. But ultimately, everyone who reads our book and wants to take action to help their organization become more trustworthy will start with the question, What can I do? Based on the assessments and ideas youve collected, there are at least three ways to decide on a plan of action.

a) Figure out what is working, and do more of those things. Think FRY (Frequency, Reach, Yield)can you be trustworthy more often? Get more people to be trustworthy in particular circumstances? Expand the areas youre already trustworthy? List the ideas here, from the results of your group and individual brainstorming, that fall under this category.

b) Change small things that are not working. Find small victories and keep moving up from there. Document everything and use data to help you move the needle. List the ideas that fall under this category here.

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Action Plan continued

c) Make big changes, as long as you have a good percentage of people invested. Involve everyone in the process of choosing what changes to make. List the ideas that fall under this category here.

d) Think about priority, and degree of difficulty. Of all the ideas youve brainstormed, are some more important than others? What kind of resources need to be mobilized? More Important

Fewer Resources / Easy

More Resources / Hard

Less Important e) Think about sequence. Do some of your ideas need to be completed before others can happen?

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Action Plan continued

Action Plan Outline

Ultimately, however, helping to make your organization more trustworthy starts with YOU. List the ideas YOU can do.

Idea Culture

How easy/hard? [sample]

Timeframe [sample]

Can I do this myself? Who else do I need to involve to make this happen? [sample]

[sample]

create an internal wiki to share real-t ime project informat ion across levels and depts.

Easy to set up; harder Immediate start; let it Some IT support, but to get people to use grow naturally. most ly will grow if we and update regularly. can make it relevant.

Remember: a trustworthy culture is about transparency.

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Action Plan continued

Idea How easy/hard? [sample] Timeframe [sample] Can I do this myself? Who else do I need to involve to make this happen? [sample]

Process

[sample]

Establish a dissent agenda in our staff meet ings to push conflict to t he front of t he meet ing.

Easy to do, but might need to work on our conflict skills.

Immediately.

Even if Im t he boss, I need buy-in from t he whole team on t his one.

Remember: trustworthy processes enable truth.

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Action Plan continued

Idea How easy/hard? [sample] Timeframe [sample] Can I do this myself? Who else do I need to involve to make this happen? [sample]

Behavior

[sample]

Commit to spending t ime wit h each direct report to get to know t hem bet ter.

Sounds easy, but what will I NOT do to free up t he t ime to do t his?

Immediately

This ones all me.

Remember: trustworthy behavior focuses on authenticity.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to complete this worksheet and start the ball rolling towards becoming a more trustworthy organization. There are three other similar worksheets accompanying Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World: a worksheet on How to Be Open, one on How to Be Generative, and one on How to be Courageous.

Good luck!

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