The Trust Dilemma In Today's World

I was listening to a video today about what has been going wrong with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as of late.

Why were Audiences lashing out against what was once a Dominating Force in Media?

It came down to one word.

Trust.

With the influx of content and lack of cohesion between stories and even just characters, the Audience has lost Trust in the MCU to consistently tell Quality Stories that are true to the Characters they Establish.

I then thought about how this is true all over the place when it comes to Business in today's world.

People don't trust their Leaders.

This isn't anything new, even long before the happenings of 2020, 58% of Employees trusted COMPLETE STRANGERS more than their Leaders.

However, it hasn't gotten better, and if anything it has become SIGNIFICANTLY worse.

I also recently was reading about one of Amazon's Rules for Business.

Disagree, and Commit.

It has been a guiding principle for quite some time.

The Idea behind it is that it is alright for people to Disagree, but once a Decision has been made it is Important to Commit to the Decision.

However, lately, it hasn't been working for Bezos.

In the continued Failings of the Return-To-Office Mandates, Bezos has been unsuccessful in getting Employees to comply.

It's not just him of course, this has been happening with most Organizations making the "Demands".

However, for Bezos, he has been citing this rule, "Disagree, and Commit" only for it to be met with Crickets.

Why is it only recently being met with Crickets when in the past it seems to have been a guiding business practice?

Trust.

It is as simple as that.

Disagree, and Commit can be a fantastic rule, but only under one condition.

People have to Trust that they have been Heard and Understood.

When people don't have that Trust, as we are seeing widespread amidst these "Mandates" that are more like Threats that seem to have no teeth, people won't Commit.

To Commit to something, people must Believe that the Decisions being made are truly being made for the Betterment of the entire Organization.

However, when people don't Trust the Decisions being made are going to be for the overall Betterment, it comes as no surprise that they will Revolt.

When we look at so many large Organizations, people don't Trust their Leaders at all.

We see Leaders make promises (like how they will remain "Remote" Workplaces), only for those promises to be completely Broken.

We watch Organizations entrusted with doing proper Hiring, only for there to be Consistent Mass Layoffs that dramatically Impact people's lives.

We look at Leaders make Daring Claims about the Future, only for them to Change Course shortly after (Such as Meta's claim that the "Metaverse" was going to change the Future, only for them to completely go into AI, and now changing again specifically to AGI).

Employees watch as Leaders make extreme levels of Income, while they are Struggling to pay for basic necessities (Leading to numerous Strikes across different Industries).

Then, on top of all of this, whenever something doesn't look right, Leaders quickly blame Employees for all the Problems.

"It's because the Employees are Lazy!"

"It's because the Employees don't want to Work!"

"It's because the Employees have been Working from Bed!"

"It's because the Employees don't have proper Etiquette!"

"It's because the Employees aren't Listening!"

"It's because the Employees aren't Innovative enough!"

How many times can Leaders blame Employees for all of the Problems before the Employees start to feel like Leaders refuse to take Accountability for their Failures?

It's no wonder that Employees don't Trust their Leaders.

If someone continuously blamed "me" for everything that was going wrong, especially when "I" had no say in the matter, and "I" was the one who ended up getting punished for what went wrong...

I wouldn't Trust that person either.

The more that Leaders erode Trust with Employees, the worse things will continue to get.

As Leaders continuously Fail Employees, Trust will Erode.

As Leaders don't do anything to Prevent the Largest Business Problems, such as Extreme Levels of Burnout (at 80% across Employees), Trust will Erode.

If Leaders want to turn things around in their Organizations and with their Teams, they need the People to Buy-Into the Direction.

But Buy-In only happens when there is Trust.

That Trust is also needed at multiple levels - Employees, Customers, Shareholders, and even the World.

Without Trust, a Leader has nothing but a Position, and one that will crumble beneath them when the People refuse to recognize it.