Importance of Trust

Why is trust so important?

The success of a complex program is founded on the trust that is built across key partners and stakeholders.

If there's minimal or zero trust, communication falls apart. If communication falls apart, complex initiatives spanning multiple organizations will not succeed.

When trust is established and maintained, the quality of communication increases. Transparency across teams takes precedence over individual team success.

Note: Psychological safety—the belief that you won't be shamed for asking questions or expressing yourself—is vital when establishing trust within your company.

High-trust vs. low-trust programs

Let's look at the comparison of high-trust and low-trust programs.

A high-trust program will deliver more wins. What is a program win? It can be a milestone, a successful beta launch, a legal requirement fulfilled, properly scaled backend tech, and so on.

A low-trust program will deliver more losses. What is a program loss? A missed milestone/deadline, unnecessary tech debt, missed requirements, product launch fails, and so on.