Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Designing for Trust

Paul Zak, in the January-February 2017 issue of the Harvard Business Review (“The Neuroscience of Trust”) details how organizations can build “a culture of trust.” Trust is important because, as Zak reports, “Employees in high-trust organizations are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. They also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives, and these factors fuel stronger performance.”

Zak’s body of research has “identified eight management behaviors that foster trust.” Some of these can be more directly influenced by workplace design than others. Zak shares that the trust-fostering management behaviors are:

>“Recognize excellence…

>Induce ‘challenge stress’…

>Give people discretion in how they do their work…

>Enable job crafting…

>Share information broadly…

>Intentionally build relationships…

>Facilitate whole person growth…

>Show vulnerability.”

There are many ways to recognize excellence, some of which involve the physical environment. Since, as Zak reports, recognition has a more significant effect on trust when its tangible and public, workplace perks that are awarded for doing something an employer values are a good idea. Considering potential sorts of recognition as a space is being designed keeps them from uglying up an environment later.

The workplace-design related repercussions of “giving people discretion in how they do their work” are relatively clear. Options for where to work and comfortable levels of control over workspaces can help with this, for example. When people have comfortable levels of control, they can choose between a set of 4-6 thoughtfully developed options; they’re not faced with a myriad of alternatives. Four lighting presets in a conference room, one of which supports socializing, another for optimizing analytical performance, and the remaining two for other activities people are likely to do in that conference room, provide a comfortable level of control. Rheostats that tune light colors and intensities through every potential option do not.

Design can also support “intentionally build[ing] relationships.” Zak reports that “when people intentionally build social ties at work, their performance improves…when people care about one another, they perform better because they don’t want to let their teammates down.” Break rooms where people can gather, relax and refresh together, without disturbing other workers, for example, support building social bonds.

Workplace design can support a culture of trust, which is good for both employees and the people who pay them.

Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where readers learn about the latest research findings. Sally, is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.