Creating a culture of trust decreases chronic stress and improves productivity, creative problem solving, and job satisfaction.

This, according to Paul J. Zak, a professor at Claremont Graduate University and chief science officer at Ofactor. Zak began his research in the 1990s. Initially, his goal was to find the common thread shared by high-performance cultures. His answer? Trust. But how could he prove it?

The idea that trust relates to high performance isn’t new. They are highly correlated. What sets this research apart from most is its focus on the causal chain. For more than a decade, Zak measured trust and trustworthiness by looking at the amount of oxytocin (the trust neurochemical) a person’s body produced when faced with a situation where trust played a role. This could be interacting with a stranger or placing finances in the hands of another person. Through years of experimentation, Zak and his group ultimately discovered what promoted and inhibited the release of oxytocin.

“Oxytocin facilitates the release of another neurochemical called dopamine, which increases motivation and makes it feel good to work as a team.”

However,

“High levels of stress as measured by the hormone epinephrine, inhibit the brain’s synthesis of oxytocin.”

This means when your employees are stressed out, they’re less trusting. They’re also less cooperative. According to Zak, “When the brain makes more oxytocin, cooperative behaviors surge.”

What that means for us as leaders is that we should do our best to help employees manage their stress. Because when employees are stressed, their brains aren’t making use of the oxytocin being released in their bodies. Which means decreased cooperation, and reduced productivity. All of which just leads to more stress.

In fact, Zak’s formula for measuring trust (as detailed in his article “Trust and Growth” in the Economic Journal) shows that:

“Trust reduces the frictions—what economists call transaction costs—when people interact. As the frictions to social interactions fall, the opportunity to create economic value increases.”

Does that mean we need to turn our workplaces into relaxation spas? Nope. The idea that we want to reduce feelings of stress among coworkers does not mean that we shouldn’t want them to be challenged.

“The science shows that employees want to be trusted and to be held accountable to one another because it makes work challenging and enjoyable, and has a salubrious effect on the bottom line.”

Furthermore, Zak’s study found that employees in “high-trust organizations” have:

  • 70 percent less chronic stress and
  • 28 percent more energy;
  • experience 26 percent more joy during the work day; and
  • are 19 percent more productive,
  • 22 percent more creative,
  • one-third less likely to miss work due to sickness,
  • 69 percent more likely to stay with their current employer, and
  • 17 percent more satisfied with their lives outside of work.

Okay great. But HOW do you increase organizational trust?

This is the hard part, and it is one of the big challenges with trying to increase trust in an organization. Zak’s team suggests eight classes of management policies that can impact (increase or decrease) trust. They even come with a handy mnemonic: OXYTOCIN.

  1. Ovation – recognizing those who meet or exceed goals. Example: peer recognition program.
  2. eXpectation – designing difficult but achievable challenges and holding colleagues accountable to reach them. Example: teams set clear and observable weekly and quarterly goals and supervisors make daily check-ins to assess progress and offer help if need be.
  3. Yield – enabling employees to complete their work as they see fit. Example: initiating a telecommuting program.
  4. Transfer – enabling self-management in which colleagues choose the work they want to do. Example: replace backward-looking quarterly reviews to forward-looking work development plans in which colleagues help choose their projects.
  5. Openness – sharing information broadly. Example: senior staff holds quarterly town hall meetings to discuss current challenges and ask for input before major changes are made.
  6. Caring – intentionally building relationships with colleagues. Example: create a more warm and welcoming office environment.
  7. Invest – enabling personal and professional growth. Example: continuing education, leadership training.
  8. Natural – enabling one’s vulnerabilities to show. Example: leaders working on projects with colleagues, creating opportunities for interaction and developing relationships.

Honestly I think this prescription is overly complex (probably to get the mnemonic to work). But I’m sure you noticed all 8 of these policies involve relationships, communicating, and essentially just caring about the people you work with. The other thing I hope you noticed is how closely they align with the 3 Questions and 3 Habits of Approachable Leaders we outline in the Approachability Playbook.

One of my favorite points from Zak’s research has to do with his critique of positive psychology. While Zak doesn’t disagree with positive psychology, he does argue that most of the time its application is superficial. Most people think it just means leaders should try to make employees happy.

I totally agree with Zak here. Approachable Leadership really began when I started seeing study after study showing that happy employees DO NOT significantly increase organizational performance. Sometimes the unhappy employees are the most productive. Instead of wasting time and energy on trying to make everyone happy focus on making sure your employees feel that they are doing important work and making progress in their lives. That’s what gets the good brain chemicals flowing, and according to twenty years of research from Zak, builds an organization of trust.

To create a culture of trust you need leaders who can be trusted. This begins with being self-aware (are people avoiding you or afraid to tell you what’s going on?) It also requires you to seek honest feedback and be willing to grow and improve your own leadership skills. Finally it requires you to be fully committed to providing opportunities for your team to do work that excites and challenges them, and gives them opportunities to grow and develop. It requires you to seek personal connections and to be a great listener. You can only pull this off by being approachable. The good news is these behaviors also prove through action that you can be trusted.

Which of the 8 OXYTOCIN suggestions are your strong areas? Are there any you could embrace more? What do you think about the distinction between satisfaction and job performance? We’d love to hear what you think.

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