Trust is a strategic choice in #partnerships - it could be increased with efforts

Trust doesn’t just occur 👌 in #partnerships by itself, but it could be increased with efforts.

Distrust leads to redundancy, high cost, politics, disengagement and churn.

But trust is also one of those words, whose meaning becomes exponentially more complicated as you try to deconstruct it.

Here is a helpful framework from the research of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on how to measure and increase trust in strategic partnerships.

✋Trust has 5 components:

✔️ Focus - do you have a common purpose and clarity of direction?

✔️ Communication - how open, timely and constructive is your sharing of information?

✔️ Team Orientation - can you direct individual goals into a cohesive group strategy? (A key indicator of how well partners work together)

✔️ Innovation - can you deal with change, tolerate risk and stay open to new ideas?

✔️ Performance Trust - can you promise and meet commitments consistently? At the end of the day, no performance - no trust.

📊 High alignment across these dimensions leads to strong relationships with a balance of power. Partners are building value together, sharing risks and rewards.

Trust starts with cultural fit - you need to have similar perspectives on how organizations work, communicate, and make decisions.

But increasing trust is a strategic choice that needs to be supported by conscious behavioral changes.

💯 The benefits of trust are high. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) study of 1,200 outsourcing agreements found that

trust-based agreements generate up to 40% lower costs than ”‘power-based agreements” (where one party dominates the business relationships).

[Source]