Your team is shaken by a major organizational change. How can you rebuild trust with your team members?

Following a significant organizational change, the process of rebuilding trust starts with acknowledging your team’s concerns. Establish an open platform for team members to express their worries and frustrations. Engage in active listening and demonstrate empathy, validating their emotions and experiences. Be transparent about the reasons for the change and its impact on everyone. It is essential to address specific concerns directly and provide clear, honest answers. By showing genuine concern for their viewpoints and a commitment to resolving their problems, you lay the foundation for trust restoration and the creation of a supportive team environment.

1. Convene influencers. Bring people together to form a community that can offer feedback to the executive team. 2. Ask one question. Try intentional listening sessions with 15-20 employees. In the one-hour session, leaders ask just one question: “What’s not working?” Leaders come out of the session with a handful of important items, and they need to make sure to follow-up with every issue. 3. Get employees talking to each other. Let team members come up with ideas for their own communications channels. They just might come up with something you had never thought of (like podcasts or social media posts)

Principles of effective workplace dialogue, there are 4 keys to making it work: Suspend judgment Listen Inquire Explore assumptions When we suspend our judgment, we temporarily silence our thoughts and open our capacity to engage as listeners. Greater inquiry into others' viewpoints helps us better understand our colleagues and adopt new ways of thinking. When we explore our assumptions, we encounter unchallenged ideas, unchecked biases, and thought patterns that influence and inhibit our workplace engagement. The practice of dialogue asks us to consider that our opinions are not always correct and others may have more effective methods for approaching situations. Doing this is neither natural nor cathartic, but growth is very rewarding.

During a significant organisational change, my team felt uncertain and disconnected. To rebuild trust, I celebrated every small milestone. After completing a challenging project phase, I arranged a surprise team lunch to acknowledge their hard work. I shared specific examples of each person's contributions, which lifted their spirits and reinforced their commitment. Celebrating milestones, no matter how small, significantly boosted morale and fostered unity. This experience underscored the importance of recognising achievements in maintaining motivation and engagement through change, providing reassurance that even in the face of uncertainty, our team can thrive.

When employees trust their employer, they work harder, contribute more, and drive higher levels of innovation and productivity. In Great Place To Work research, the highest levels of innovation occur when every employee is empowered to participate — “Innovation By All.” For companies where higher numbers of employees report innovation and inclusion, median year-over-year revenue growth is more than five times higher than companies in the bottom quartile for connecting employees to innovation.

People come together in a crisis. Consequently, it’s easier to connect people when the status quo is disrupted. Many novels and probably half of Hollywood’s blockbusters are based around the theme of people having to go through some unexpected hardship. They discover two things. Firstly, it’s beneficial to get through it together even though it’s attractive to do it solo. Indeed, even though we’re social animals and need each other to survive it sometimes seems counter intuitive to reach out. If you’re in a leadership position make sure everyone feels safe and then get talking as Churchill said, “When you’re going through Hell keep going“. But first of all you have to admit that you’re going through hell, then things become much easier.

When implementing change, it’s crucial to adopt a human-centred approach. Change is often perceived as a threat, triggering strong emotional responses. The impact of these emotions is frequently underestimated. It's important to remember that our team members are human beings with unique needs and wants. By recognizing their feelings, we can create a more inclusive and supportive environment. Addressing their concerns with empathy and providing support is also key. This approach fosters trust and smoothens the transition.

Great workplaces rebound faster from change and crisis. By investing in a great culture from the beginning your workplace is more likely to go through change and come out the other side successful and having treated all employees fairly and equitably.