Environments of Trust 3

My last two posts have addressed my feelings and experiences regarding trust characteristics in groups of individuals.    To summarize:

1. Trust environments are recognizable;
2. Trust environments are definable based on the behavior patterns of individual members of the group;
3. Trust environments are self-sustaining and self-enhancing.

This time, I'd like to address where I personally get stuck and am currently stuck:  effecting change in low trust groups.

I have found that shifting environments starts with smaller personal shifts and personal choices.  A propensity toward a low-trust behavior such as judgment (a common behavior in low-trust environments), will become “uncool” if there is no buy in from the group and therefore no trend.

Conversely, acting as though you are in a high-trust environment when you're really in a low-trust environment can make you appear to be out of touch, and loose credibility. Breeches of trust are easy to recognize and in a high-trust environment, but breeches of non-trust in a low-trust environment are hard to pick up on, especially by people surrounded by an atmosphere of low-trust.

Next time...effecting change...