The 3rd C (Part 2): Establishing Trust - the essential ingredient to a Can Do community
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In our three part series on the 3rd C, community, Paul Stepczak will be looking at the foundational approaches you need, the essential ingredient that brings it all together, and will outline how to establish a Can Do community. Paul is a community practitioner with 18 years’ experience.
Simply doing everything that you said you will do doesn't mean people will trust you, it just means that you’re reliable
Simon Sinek, TEDxMaastrict 2011
We ended part one with the idea that trust is the most important commodity in establishing meaningful engagement with the community. For a community to support your cause and advocate on your behalf is one thing, but to encourage them to get involved and act is at another level again.
Understanding and recognising how trust is built and lost is absolutely essential. But before we look at how you act and what you can do, we must also aim to identify why the community would even contemplate being involved with your cause.
Of their own will, people engage in an activity because of one of three factors. The first is that they believe in cause or a vision so strongly, that they are willing to invest themselves in it. As an example let’s use campaigning on climate change.
The second factor is that they engage or participate to fulfil a need of their own. For example, they recycle/reuse clothes to save money
The third factor is when both of the first two apply at the same time. To combine our examples, recycling at home to save money whilst at the same time reducing landfill.
This poses two questions for our trust building – is your cause strong enough to encourage people to act, and how well do you understand the needs of the community?
A cause worth following
To create a cause or a vision so strong that people will engage with you, you require three common elements:
The vision or cause must be attractive
A trustworthy leader (there’s that word ‘trust’ again)
Multiple ways to engage
The success, or otherwise, of these factors in developing trust will be determined by how well the organisation portrays itself, whether there is consistency throughout its service, and will be reinforced by the actions they take along the way.
Meeting the needs of the individual
To meet the needs of an individual is a little more complex. The common elements look a little different:
Work with them to identify and understand their needs
Provide multiple ways to engage
Provide an avenue where they can genuinely experience progress
Many services are designed on the basis of statistics and delivered in a uniform approach, en masse. That’s why person-centred, asset-based approaches are different. Instead of the traditional “one size fits all” approach, it dives deeper into understanding individual needs and supports the individual to identify how they can achieve what they want to achieve.
By following that process with a number of people, small circles of support emerge. They may require further support and external influence to help them grow and have a greater impact, but that is a great first sign that they’ve been brought along and trust you.
“There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them…That is the paradox of the epidemic: that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements”
Gladwell, M (2000) The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”, Little Brown Publishing
Trust: hard to earn, easy to lose
Trust is a very volatile commodity; it is much easier to lose than to earn. Whilst one person may be the connection point to an organisation, organisations promote themselves as one entity. They must therefore expect to be associated accordingly with any negative impressions that result from how the organisation as a whole entity acts.
Every individual within an organisation is responsible for building and maintaining that trust. From the first point of contact, through the public image of the organisation, to the after-care service; each positive interaction builds trust, while each negative experience diminishes it. Unfortunately, the latter is generally the one that holds the most weight.
The golden principles
So, what are the golden principles behind establishing trust?
Find common ground
What is the joint vision between the organisation and the community?Be open and transparent
What does each party need? What role does each party play? What does each party want from this exercise?Mutual understanding
What will we achieve together and how will we do it? Do both parties have the same, clear understanding?Be equal
Is the power balanced? We touched on how co-production is based on equality and reciprocation in part one, and that holds true here. To build trust you must empower people, and to empower people means giving power away.
With the foundations in place, and a plan for building trust with the people that matter, it’s time to turn towards part three, the final part of this series – a practical method for creating an engaged and sustainable Can Do community.
