It’s easy to forget that we are all perfectly imperfect. Especially when we imagine ourselves in our respective workplaces. When things are going well, our overly optimistic selves tend to allow avoiding conflict to become the default behavior. So much so that we avoid difficult conversations. But when we ignore minor issues, they can quickly fester into major complaints. Healthy companies build systems that will ensure foundations of trust with communication, transparency, clear expectations and accountability. However, over time, even the best places to work will have problems. We are, after all, human. And being human, misunderstandings, miscommunications and problems are bound to occur. Sh*t happens.
puzzle with missing pieces. Rebuild trust
We know this – in any group of ten or more people, whether it’s a community gathering, church, or workplace, trust can be ruptured even within the perceived ideal community. Within the workplace, this can begin with unchecked gossip or unaddressed conflict and resentments. Which can lead to complaints, a claim or a lawsuit that needs to be in the hands of Human Resources or lawyers. How these issues and occurrences are handled matters. They will happen. Eventually.
When they do, too often, we become solely focused on the isolated incident – completing any investigation, resolving the complaint and closing the books on the issue so that we can get back to “business as usual”. What is often overlooked is that the incident rarely occurs in isolation. There are likely environmental factors that are disregarded, minimized and/or overlooked. Any time a complaint or issue escalates to the level of an investigation, there has already been a rupture within the workplace culture. Usually, a wide range of employees will be indirectly impacted. There is no getting back to before, but addressing the impact at all its levels is key to restoring productivity and trust after the investigation is completed.
Attorney workplace investigator Brittny Bottorff notes that in her experience,
“Workplace investigations help employers determine whether alleged misconduct occurred. But the investigation process often escalates distrust and fosters resentments among the people involved. This can be very challenging to repair after the investigation.”
How are brains are biased
Let’s take a step back and remember how the brain works. When we have incomplete information, we fill in the gaps. This is a function of how our brains work and in most cases it’s helpful. It’s why we can understand a sentence when the words are slightly out of order, or a conversation if we don’t hear all of the words.
When your brain encounters a new or different situation, it also fills in the gaps – but because it is a new situation, the brain also senses uncertainty or danger and fills the gap with the worst case scenario. This is a protective feature of the primitive brain.If the brain can prepare for the worst situation, then it can deal with everything else. However, this response can happen when we aren’t in actual danger. We recognize this within our families. When our child isn’t there at pickup or isn’t home on time, we can leap to all sorts of drastic scenarios immediately. Our brains fill in the gap, either with extreme possibilities or an overly simplified explanation that is easy to understand.
This frequently happens in the workplace. Before, during and after an investigation, a wide range of people have incomplete information. If an employee has been interviewed, they know what was asked of them, but not about anything else. Those who haven’t been interviewed either keep their own lack of information or they might not even know that there has been a disruption in the workplace, but they can still feel the ripple effects. No matter who you are in the organization, the effects impact the workplace and how everyone continues to operate within it.
Our brain tendency is to fill in this gap with extreme possibilities or an oversimplified story. We typically transform whatever tidbit of information we’re privy to into a binary – good guys and bad guys – narrative. While this automatic associative cognitive response helps the brain to make a rapid conclusion and protect from potential harm, it’s usually bad for the workplace and for working together as a group. Over time, this can lead to a toxic work environment, where people are leaving, where there are retention issues, or where people are staying but are dissatisfied.
3 Steps for Trust Restoration
In the aftermath of a complaint or investigation, what can be done to prevent this? How can the trust gap be filled so people can move forward?
- Acknowledge the Harm. Break the tendency to move on at the conclusion of any official HR process. Acknowledge that the situation is impacting wider circles than the primary people involved. Start by mapping out the levels of impacted employees and what they might be experiencing.
- Participate in a Self-reflection. For those who caused harm, engage in an introspective process to determine how to repair it.
- Engage in Restorative Practices. This is often where it is crucial to bring in outside partners or interdisciplinary teams to broker conversations, to facilitate mediations when needed to rebuild and strengthen relationships and to help establish a common goal and vision for everyone. This stage helps people within the organization move away from filling in the gaps with incomplete information to recognizing the common thread between each other and making a pathway to move forward.
As you might imagine, working with outside facilitators can be crucial to successful implementation of all parts of this process. In many circumstances, trust is broken with the leaders of an organization, and there might not be enough trust remaining for the same leaders to facilitate the essential restorative practices.
We can be of great help in that process. At the Percipio Company, we pick up where the investigation leaves off, with distrust, resentments, and rumors. We create an experience for everyone where we can acknowledge that we are in a new situation and move forward from where we are now, filling in the gaps as we are able and solidifying a new foundation from which to work.
Better yet, it is helpful to be even more proactive in getting outside support. If your organization foresees a possible complaint or is at the early stages of an investigation, this is an excellent time for outside support rather than wait for the aftermath. By the time a situation has escalated to a legal or HR interaction, rebuilding trust is much more challenging. We are a collection of perfectly imperfect people. We may strive for perfection but know that there will be pitfalls along the way. How well we handle the situations when sh*t happens determines the future of our respective businesses. Download the 1-page brochure “Bias in Workplace Investigations.”
Percipio Company is led by Matthew Cahill. His deep expertise in cognitive, social, and workplace biases is rooted in the belief that if you have a brain, you have bias®. He works with executives to reduce mental mistakes, strengthen workplace relationships & disrupt existing bias within current HR processes, meeting protocols and corporate policies. Matthew has demonstrated success with large clients like LinkedIn, Salesforce and dozens of small to mid-size companies looking to create more inclusive workplaces, work smarter, generate more revenue and move from bias to belonging®.
