Trust in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Article Highlights

• An organization’s actions—performed with a high degree of competence and the right intent—can earn trust with stakeholder groups.

• An organization needs to continually earn the trust of stakeholders through its actions.

What we mean by “trust” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion”?

Trust is the foundation of a meaningful relationship between an organization and its stakeholders, at both the individual and organizational levels.

An organization’s actions—performed with a high degree of competence and the right intent—can earn trust with stakeholder groups. Competence refers to your ability to follow through on what you say you will do and live up to your promise. Intent refers to the reason behind your actions, including fairness, transparency, and impact. Research shows that competence and intent feed into each other, helping to build and then maintain trust.

We provided the following working definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion:

Diversity: The characteristics with which we are born and gain through experience, both seen and unseen, that make us different and similar.

Equity: The outcome of diversity, inclusion, and anti-oppression actions wherein all people have fair access, opportunity, resources, and power to thrive, with consideration for and elimination of historical and systemic barriers and privileges that cause oppression.

Inclusion: The actions taken to understand, embrace, and leverage the unique strengths and facets of identity for all individuals so that all feel welcomed, valued, and supported.

Key Takeaways

Tasks to help you prepare

• The work should be ongoing to maintain trust levels. Organizations that allow “commitment drift”—defined by Harvard University Professor Elizabeth Doty and Northwestern University Professor Maryam Kouchaki as “perceived systematic breakdowns in keeping an organization’s most important commitments to its stakeholders”—are likely to erode stakeholder trust and eventually the benefits that trust creates. Click here for full article.