Why is Online Trust Limited?
…and how to gain it
Most of us, if allowed, are still working from home. And our worlds involve a lot of online meetings.
This is reality and based on stories I have read it will take years, if ever, to get us back to working full time from an office. A large minority is getting ready to quit a company if told they have to go back to an office.
Interesting…
In this new reality, we have warped into working with folks online that we might have never met in the office. These are strangers but yet not strangers.
We have learned to adapt to this environment. BUT do we trust the people we are working with?
I believe that the 80/20 rule comes into play. Because of the nature of online work, we give 80% of trust to these new interactions. BUT we never get to 100%.
Why?
Online collaboration is very transactional. It is not like spending time within the vicinity of one another for an extended amount of time. We see each other’s faces but not interactions of others with others outside of that meeting.
So yes we are communicating BUT in a guarded fashion.
How do we get that 20% of trust?
Recently I traveled for business three times. Each one of my trips had a specific reason that required me to be at certain places at certain times to achieve a goal. BUT they did so much more than that.
I worked on relationships with some of my key stakeholders, team, and coworkers. It was vital to help develop that 20% trust that was kept off the table. Critical for a team’s optimal performance.
At 80% we only have each other’s back 4 out of 5 times. In my world, that one time we do not could lead to a project failure. Consider the equation below:
Trust=Communication*Time*Togetherness
The 80% is the Communication in whatever format it takes place, the time we spend in meetings and the 20% is the time together to build up the relationship bonds.
Building trust is like running a marathon- slow and steady. The online world forces us into a sprinting environment that does not always prepare us for that marathon.
My four cents…
