WashU: Building and Sustaining Trust

At the end of this course, the learner will be able to:

• Recognize how trust in the workplace affects business results
• Analyze their role in building and sustaining trust
• Identify common workplace behaviors that can build, sustain, or break trust; Demonstrate behaviors that show they trust others, as well as give people the confidence to trust them
• Use interaction skills to foster open communication, build and maintain trusting relationships, and repair damaged ones

• Let’s Get Started: Learners introduce themselves and share the trust-building actions they identified in their Course Prep. The group discusses the challenges they read about in Course Prep, then discusses the business impact and benefits of high-trust relationships in the workplace.
• Trust Builders That Work: Learners engage in a table team activity, in which they match cards containing short descriptions of leaders’ opportunities to build trust with cards that list actions demonstrating Trust Builders. Learners then discuss the impact of Trust Builders in the workplace.
• Building Trust with Key Principles: Working in groups, learners choose two trust-building opportunities, and identify the Key Principles that would help the leaders address personal needs in those opportunities. The facilitator reviews how Share and Empathy work together and points out pitfalls related to sharing. In a two-part activity, learners recommend a trust-building action to the leader in one scenario, as well as words to say to use Empathy and Share. In another exercise, learners read a plan to build trust drafted by the leader from the second scenario, then suggest words the leader could say to carry out their plan.
• Trust Breakers: Facilitator introduces Trust Breakers and the leader’s responsibility to watch for signs of damaged trust. Learners write a brief description of time they damaged or broke trust and write the Trust Breaker it relates to on a note. The facilitator posts note to create a pattern, and the group discusses what they see.
• Repairing Trust: Facilitator reviews why Share is critical to restoring trust. Learners watch a video of a leader conducting a discussion to improve trust and point out what he said to use Key Principles. The large group discusses the impact of the leader’s use of the Key Principles.
• Skill Practice: Learners prepare for and conduct two rounds of skill practice using their repairing trust situations.
• Your Next Steps: Working in groups, learners answer three questions about a trust challenge the group discussed in the session. Teams share their responses with the large group. Learners review the tools and resources they can use in their workplace.

(The most important thing I learned was…) "How to prepare for difficult conversations."

Who should take this course?

Technical professionals wishing to earn Washington University's Technical Leadership Certificate. This course is designed to teach participants ways to increase their effectiveness with teams, in meetings and in individual discussion with peers, managers, vendors and customers.

Do I get a Certificate for this course?

This course is part of a larger program: The Technical Leadership Certificate. Take all 11 courses to earn the Certificate. Learn more here.