Last month I was fortunate enough to participate on a panel with Doug Ruch (President of the Fleetwood Group), and Gaye van den Homebergh (President of Winning Workplaces) for the Scanlon Leadership Network. Gaye lead the session while Doug and I sat on the stage, each waiting our turn to share some stories about our unique company cultures. Gaye’s last question was, “What one thing should other companies focus on to build great cultures?”

Without hesitation I answered, “Trust. You have to have trust or nothing else works.”

Then Gaye momentarily stumped me: “And how should they do that?”

Wow. I hadn’t really thought about that. I said something about honoring the relationships you build and commitments you make. Honestly, I can’t remember exactly what I said.

When I was driving home, I had the opportunity to reflect on the question further. The simple truth is that I’m very fortunate to work in a culture that is rich in trust. I’ve been at Menlo long enough (7+ years) that I’ve started to forget what life was like before I came here.

I’m spoiled.

Fortunately I had a long drive home so I was able to think through the subject in more detail. The more I thought about it, the more I knew the truth: Menlo’s culture works because we work on it.

We’ve spent countless hours on lunch & learns, working to improve our communication skills. We work closely together, all day every day — there just isn’t room for backstabbing or gossip. We encourage open, productive conflict. We re-enforce (through our behavior) that this is a safe environment to make mistakes, to experiment.. The team makes commitments to one another and to our clients, and we work very hard to honor those commitments.

One of the books we give away to visitors seeking to understand our culture (more than 50 copies so far) is Patrick Lencioni’s “leadership fable”, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The opening line of the book is particularly impactful:  “Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork alone that is the ultimate competitive advantage both because it is so powerful and so rare.”

Indeed.

Anyone trying to build a great team really needs to understand the pyramid he describes of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results.

It’s a quick read. If you haven’t read it already, pick it up before your next plane trip. Or better yet, visit Menlo and we’ll probably give you a copy.

One Response to “Trust”

1. Seth Resler says:

   June 23, 2010 at 9:52 am

   Hi Lisa. Trust couldn’t possibly be more important. And if you liked Lencioni’s “Five Dysfunctions,” I recommend checking out “Getting Naked,” which is all about trust. We’re hosting a free webinar with Lencioni if you’re interested. The details are here: http://www.mylinkage.com/GILD/2010/patrick-lencioni-webinar