5 Ways To Build Trust With Community Groups In The Field (And What Happens When You Don’t)
Who The F**K Is She?
Building trust quickly with the community you’re working with is one of the most important things a practitioner can focus on in the early stages of a project. To get anything done, a base level of trust is vital.
Not long ago, I was leading a 3-day On Country workshop in Cape York. All was going well, but on Day 2 some new community members arrived to join in. They had not been part of the trust-building exercises with the core group the previous day. And so, justifiably, they were dubious.
One person said, loudly enough so I would hear, “Who the f**k is she? Why is she here? What is she going to do for us?”
And that, really, is the heart of it. If you are an outsider going into an Indigenous community setting, the trust factor is even more important because - directly or indirectly - you will be battling the perception that you are just another outsider there to tell them what to do.
I’ve seen lack of trust thwart progress in many situations. In many cases, the problem can be traced back to how a workshop leader starts out. This is usually because they are being either too technical, too bureaucratic or too autocratic.
So how do you tackle that? After all, trust takes time to build and there’s often very little of that in many project timeframes. And if trust is not established early on, the result can be anything from disengagement, to hostility or even outright sabotage. Sometimes you can overcome it and get back on track, but even so, a heck of a lot of precious time will be wasted.
Know, Like, Trust
Of course, there is no substitute for time when building trust with new groups. In marketing and sales, there is something called the “Know-Like-Trust” factor. It suggests that for people to buy from you, they must first know, like and trust you, and the only way to do that is to consistently show up and engage with them on their terms. Others talk about the 7/11/4 principle, which implies you need to produce about 7 hours of content over 11 different touchpoints on 4 different platforms to build the all-important Know-Like-Trust factor with your audience.
How does that that apply in field-based workshop situations? I’ve adapted the concept to mean:
Spend 7 hours of time together
Use 11 different touchpoints (or engagement techniques)
Engage on at least 4 separate occasions (prior to when the real work starts)
Unsurprisingly, some of the most valuable trust-building happens in the casual moments of down-time in between sessions. For example, I’ve made the strongest connections when throwing in a line to fish, collecting firewood or during funny episodes when driving long distances together between remote locations.
5 Simple Tools To Build Trust
So, what can you do in a group-setting to quickly start building that initial trust? Here are 5 simple tools.
Talk about who you know in common
This can be good both when you’re having informal discussions, and also when you’re formally introducing yourself to the group and establishing your credibility. Talk only a little bit about what you’ve achieved, and a lot about who you’ve worked with before, people you might know in common, and who you are as a person (your family, where you’re from, the life you live). Many groups you will work with will be from collectivist rather than individualistic cultures, where families and community play a central role over the individual.
Tell some stories
Many cultures are built around storytelling and even in Western cultures you are more likely to get your message across effectively by using stories. Show your vulnerability and learning through story, if possible. For example, include some story-based examples of mistakes you’ve made or unusual things that have happened to you, what you learned from that and what you now do differently as a result.
Ask for their advice
Even if you have a clear idea of the next steps to move things along, it can be helpful to ask the group for advice. Give them some options about what happens next. Ideally, you have your workshop structure planned out so that either of the options will get you where you need to go, but allowing the group to choose or make suggestions gives people agency.
A small note of caution on this. Once you invite agency in, you must manage it. You want to avoid heading in a direction that is wildly off course (unless you are confident you can eventually get it back on track). The important point here is that you have a planned structure with multiple options to get you to the desire outcome and offer choice within this range, if possible.
Use a culturally-appropriate icebreaker
Icebreakers and their utility need no introduction. But not all icebreakers will work - or are appropriate - in all cultural settings. In particular, people who are unaccustomed to speaking in groups can be shy, might not think they have anything to contribute, or might not know what to share about themselves. The right icebreaker for your group must be culturally-specific, but one technique always up your sleeve, is to get people into pairs to share something about themselves. Then, in the larger group, the other person relays what they learned about their partner (and vice versa), avoiding the reluctance and pressure associated with sharing about self. Ensure you make it clear up front that the exercise is for participants to relay to the group what they have learned about who they are paired up with, so people know the information they share is not confined to that private conversation.
Have a respected community member vouch for you
This one is kind of obvious, and I’m not sure how you would even be invited into a community if this wasn’t in place. But it’s good to harness this quite intentionally. Having one or two senior, respected community leaders introduce you, vouch for you, and back you up when you hit a hurdle is incredibly important. Spend time with this person (or people) to explain your approach, ask their advice, and prepare them to do or say specific things in a workshop session.