As with anything, trust is the most important factor. Data is no different, without trust you have nothing. Think of a personal relationship in your life (a friend, spouse, team-mate, or family member) and how the relationship would be different if there were no trust? In this post, I will talk about 3 ramifications of broken trust and 3 ways to fix it.
Broken Trust
Fact-Checking
Think first of the personal analogy. Imagine a personal contact that you trust and believe tells you something. If there is trust in this relationship, you can trust this person and take what they say at “face value”. This person will tell you something and you may even tell other people what they’ve told you, without a fear that it could be wrong. Think of a relationship that you have without trust and think of the response to this person with new information. If the news is something interesting then you would likely research and fact-check this news. You may validate this information with another friend or trusted source. This is a lot of wasted time and energy. No less, in an organization when you see data from a source that has lost (or has not earned) trust, individuals will fact-check the data. This results in a lot of time wasted and duplication of work leading to lost productivity and asking the question of “why do this at all?”
Ignore and Disregard
Just like fact-checking, ignoring and disregarding also happens. Coming back to the personal analogy, when someone with whom you don’t have trust tells you something, especially unimportant things, you simply disregard or ignore them. This can also happen when what is being said seems proposterous or “crazy”. If this is someone with whom trust is built, then it is likely that it will be stored and shared (as before), but if trust isn’t there then the news may be disregarded. In an organization, when presenting news (especially data news), this happens as well. What will happen in an organization is, out of respect for the person pleasantries will be paid (e.g. “this seems like a lot of work”, “thanks for doing this”, etc.) but others in the org. won’t use it because they don’t trust it. This could be a recurring email, automated report, or some other distribution of information. Even if this information is correct, because the trust is gone, the organization will miss out on excellent actionables and great opportunities.
Duplication of Efforts
The third rammification of lost trust is that of duplication of efforts. What this looks like is when one person who has lost trust builds something that “seems like it should be useful”, others will try to re-work it for their own purposes and build something similar. There are 2 ill-effects of this, the first is that people are duplicating efforts and wasting time and energy. The second ill-effect is that the results will almost certainly be different, even if the discrepancy is acceptable (depending on the situation 1% – 2%) this slight difference will not be tolerated if there is no trust. Those duplicating the efforts from the “official” work will be proud of the work their doing and perhaps even show along side it, however, the work they are doing is wasted because the official result is just as good.
(Re)Building Trust
If trust has been lost already and needs to be rebuilt, then special effort needs to be paid to the items below. If trust hasn’t yet been lost but is being built for the first time, then there is more leeway for some “minor mistakes”. Be sure, no matter what you’re doing, to always practice the items below.
Do it Right the First Time
This may seem obvious and is definitely easier said than done, however, it is very important. This will also look different for each project, but, what is needed here is validation and lots of it. That means before “delivering” anything, make sure that you can confirm that the numbers coincide with other sources. If the numbers don’t coincide then it is important to make sure that you figure out why, in this exercise you may find that the existing systems are broken and what you’ve built is right. Whatever the outcome, do the work of validating and making sure that everything lines up the way its supposed to.
Fix it When it Breaks
No matter what you build, eventually it will break. This is OK and happens, the most important thing is to not “freak out”. When it does break, don’t delay, fix it right away. To do this, understand how people became aware that its broken (e.g. an automated alert, conflicting information, “gut” or “sense” checks, etc.). Compare the two results and try to understand what is different and why. When understanding what is broken and why its broken, make sure that you understand what’s needed to fix it. After its fixed, be transparent about the fix. Its hard to admit when something breaks, but be sure to explain it to regain the trust that you are competent and confident in the work being done.
Call it Out Before They Find Out
When building out a solution, be sure to call out where there may be discrepancies to what is otherwise understood. This could be because of a flaw in the other system, a limitation in the tool you’re building, a limitation in data exports, or some other reason why these could be different. If you call out the problem before others catch it, you will build trust that you are intimately aware of everything involved in this process/tool. When doing this, make sure to communicate that you’re going to “stay with it”. That means that you’re not going to forget about this issue, but that you’re going to fix it as soon as you can or that you’re waiting on another team.
As they say, trust takes a lifetime to build and a moment to destroy. It is one of the most important and critical aspects of your career, however, what’s more important is your willingness to build it and maintain it. If you’ve lost trust then doing what it takes to rebuild will be hard, but not impossible. The items in this post wil help you to build and maintain this trust.
It is true. Thanks for posting this. People need to learn how to build genuine trust, not build it to achieve an objective and then break it.