Relational Trust

In the sidebar of this blog, I mention that my colleague and friend, Claudia Heron and I, presented at the New Teacher Center Symposium earlier this month. Our topic? Ground Rules: Clarifying and Enacting Moral Purpose for Excellence in Leadership and Mentoring Practice. That is a mouthful, for certain. The session proved to be rich with insight and discussion and participants were inspiringly willing to dive into the topic - one that we saw as potentially charged as presenters - but rich with possibility. Why? Because we intended to surface the stuff that inspires our work - that within which we deeply believe. We were pleased to witness the complete opposite of "potentially charged." Participants wanted to engage in discussion about this most important of topics. How often do we get to talk about what called us to this work to begin with? Why we get up in the morning? What we hope to offer?

How does this relate to ground rules? It goes something like this. What does trust mean? When one looks up the meaning, we find that trust means "relying on the integrity or justice of a person; confidence." Look up integrity and we find "soundness of moral principle and character; uprightness; honesty." (American College Dictionary)

Trust is inherently linked to the alignment of our beliefs to our actions - to our integrity.

Open any book on mentoring or coaching and in the first 30 pages or so, you will find mention of the importance of establishing and nurturing trust in a mentoring relationship. Attend any training on mentoring or coaching and it is likely that trust will come up in the first day - perhaps the first few hours. Looking more deeply at trust, what it means, and how we establish and nurture it through our integrity was the focus of our presentation.

So why does trust matter? This is what I want to share with all of you in this entry. I turn now to the research of Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schneider from their important multi-year study published in 2002 as Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement. Through conducting qualitative research in 12 Chicago elementary schools, Bryk and Schneider established relational trust as an essential element for school improvement and academic success. In speaking of relational trust, they focused specifically on the adult relationships within a school -- parents to faculty and faculty to parents, principal to teachers, teachers to teachers -- and that these relationships form a sort of interrelational matrix that evokes relational trust when four core elements are present. These elements are respect, competence, personal regard, and integrity.

To take a step back and reflect for just a moment, think about the individuals you trust or mistrust. Do you find it possible to trust an individual who doesn't follow through on his or her word? Do you trust individuals who treat you with respect? How does trust line up with a leader who doesn't speak to incompetence? I suspect you get the gist of this.

Looking at Bryk and Schneider's findings, here is why trust matters.

Relational trust:

• Reduces vulnerability and encourages risk taking.
• Facilitates public problem solving.
• Establishes a professional community of mutual support.
• Creates a moral resource for school improvement.
• Influences belief in the organization’s mission. Bryk & Schneider, Trust in Schools (p. 116-117)

I'm not at all surprised by this list. It's a bit of an "OF COURSE!" in my book. Of course individuals are going to share, be vulnerable, take risks, develop community, and have stronger beliefs in an organization's mission when they trust the people in it. Of course taking risks, collaborating, looking at weakness and changing practice is going to result in change for the better over time. Of course, at schools wherein trust is lacking one would be hard pressed to find whole faculties coming together to engage in cycles of inquiry. Of course.

The research doesn't stop at qualities present in a trust-based institution. Bryk and Schneider also found that relational trust in schools correlated with academic gains.

• Schools with strong relational trust had a 1 in 2 chance of making significant improvements in reading and mathematics.
• Schools with weak relational trust had a 1 in 7 chance of making improvement ONLY IF these schools strengthened trust over the course of the multi-year study.
• Schools with poor relational trust did not improve and had almost no chance of making academic improvements in either reading or mathematics. Bryk & Schneider, Trust in Schools (p. 111)

I like to sum it up like this: Relational Trust Matters.

I've taken the time to share about this because we, as mentors, are integral players in establishing relational trust with our mentees and within the organizations wherein we work. I'd argue that even if a school lacks in overall relational trust in some way, our efforts towards establishing and encouraging a trust-based relationship with each and every mentee will, at the very least, impact relational trust - and all that comes with it - within the context of our mentoring work. At most, we become participants within the matrix of relational trust within an organization - strengthening collaboration and academic achievement for all concerned.

Thank you for all your hard work. It matters.

Alison