Having distrustful , vendors, customers and most important people within our organisation is one of the biggest waste that we don’t account for.
How is distrust wasteful? Imagine a person on your team whom you don’t trust to keep certain business secrets. Now you will always have to work extra to make sure that this person does not divulge secrets to your competitors.This unnecessary waste of time and effort would have been easily be used for more profitable purposes if there was no distrust.
Ideally an organisation with minimal or no distrust will move faster on any change project. Thus I feel Integrity and trustworthiness are one of the important traits to look for in any team member.
I don’t think it’s an unknown waste, but it is a substantial outcome and problem.
We must ask what creates distrust, and what creates trust. Creating distrust is pretty easy, but to root out the accidental causes we must make our work standards, decision making, and process consistent. Inconsistency leads to lack of trust. If people can learn to rely on a process or a decision or a reaction, then they can learn to trust the organization and those around them.
Jamie Flinchbaugh
http://www.jamieflinchbaugh.com