Making trust a central focus for conversation throughout the business to transform performance. This article by Sue Swanborough, HR Director of General Mills UK & Ireland was published in today’s CIPD Update, and is so good that I have posted it here. It’s an inspirational, proof positive account of the power of trust as an efficient, low cost strategy for successful and sustainable business transformation.
I just can’t emphasise enough how important and uplifting this is.
“For the General Mills UK & Ireland business, the story began when the Executive Team determined that building on the reputation of trust within the business was of paramount importance to our business goal. Why was this important? Well the business goal was extremely ambitious and we knew we needed to do something deeper, more meaningful and more enduring than the range of employee engagement activities we had used very successfully in the past. Given the ever shifting external environment, not only did we need to grow, we needed to take our people and all of our stakeholders with us on the journey at a time when they were feeling more exposed to change. In short, we needed to move from a really good to a really great business environment to develop an even more agile, innovative and sustainable culture in which people felt they were able to be themselves, so that more of the latent potential we all have within ourselves could be realised.
The starting point was to work with the company’s leadership team in order to build a structure of trust that could cascade down through the whole business. The timing was also pertinent as, during this period, several members of the UK & Ireland leadership team had recently been promoted to new roles within General Mills’ international business, leading to significant change for leadership of the business. High levels of change both internally and externally posed a challenge, but also presented a great opportunity.
Our work to instill trust between teams and individuals throughout our business immediately brought short term tactical benefits, and we became more efficient as an organisation, where relationships were easier and we all had more fun. It also laid the foundations for how we would cope with the economic downturn. The work we did in those early days established a strong foundation and a trust fund to take us into the future.
Not only did this put us in a powerful position for the future but, as our Managing Director, Jim Moseley, is keen to point out, the culture of trust is key to the success of the business: We place enormous value on the vision, culture and values of the company and that has brought us much success.
By creating an environment of openness, fairness and transparency we have built trust and commitment amongst our staff. This culture has unleashed enthusiasm, passion and creativity at all levels of the organisation, and the business has continued to outperform the market place.
We talk a lot about engagement in the HR community. But engagement is not enough in today’s volatile environment – what is vital is trust. I have learned over the past few years that trust is a far deeper and more sustainable experience, as well as more rewarding. It has been the glue that binds us together in a world becoming ever more fast paced and unpredictable, whether it’s methods of communication, technological developments or economic instability.
We live and work in a world where we need to continue to find different and more radical responses. What people want from leaders is to be straightforward, to tell it how it is, and much of the reason for our success has come from raising the self awareness of our leaders and making the building of trust a central focus for conversation throughout the business.
Trust is a hard-edged, economic driver as it concerns the confidence level we have in others – where it exists it leads to efficiency and means that things get done. Trust is a learnable skill and can be measured. It makes organisations more profitable, people more promotable and relationships more energising – it is efficient and low cost.
Whether your business is challenged significantly within the current environment or in a good situation and outperforming the marketplace, trust is critical to making your business more resilient. Trust cannot be seen as “a nice to have”. It’s critical for the sustainability and future growth of businesses (and so the UK economy).
General Mills UK & Ireland is part of the world’s sixth largest food company and is known in the UK for market leading brands including Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Green Giant, Jus-Rol, Nature Valley and Betty Crocker. General Mills has a strong reputation for Nourishing Lives and as a multi-award winning employer, we are committed to developing employees’ talents for the benefit of the business and the individual. The business is growing – testament to great people, great brands and a great culture.”
Sue Swanborough, HR Director, General Mills UK and Ireland
13 March 2012
Able People Development ~ Inspiring Leaders 