An organization can achieve great things when there is mutually shared respect, support and trust (or MSRST) among its members. In this article, we will focus on mutually shared support as the second step to achieving the full benefits of MSRST.

Mutually Shared Support

Once mutually shared respect is firmly in place, individuals are more apt to truly support each other. It is important to understand what we mean by support. Support as used here can also be thought of as a means to help each other achieve goals or maintain one's stated positions.

Mutually shared support naturally emanates from mutually shared respect between individuals. For instance, when mutually shared support is present, not only are you more likely to accept ideas from others, you tend to support the ideas and push for them as if they were your own. Without a foundation based on respect, it is difficult to support each other.

Instead of looking for common ground, members in an organization may seek ways in which they differ. Doubt starts to surface, thus causing individuals to exert more energy on checking and re-checking the work of their co-workers when there is no need to do so. In this situation, members question the most basic and fundamental concepts of peers in order to find things that help to discredit or dismiss each other's ideas. In an attempt to address this situation, the organization creates processes and procedures to remedy these issues. Gradually, these extra layers of work become the norm. People stop questioning the validity of the extra layers of work. More and more time is spent on making sure everyone is on the same page with less time being spent on getting actual work done.

This vicious cycle leads to an organization that is not as efficient as it is capable of being. The result is a duplication of effort and the re-checking of decisions. The intentions are good; however, the result usually ends up as the organization unnecessarily taking longer to do whatever it does. Such an outcome is less than ideal and certainly not desirable.

For instance, within a software application development or IT organization in general, there is a natural separation between the design team and the production team. When mutually shared respect and support are not present, the design team gets involved well beyond the software design phase of the software development lifecycle process. The design team may introduce unnecessary checkpoints and signoff procedures to ensure that the production team does what it is instructed to do. Conversely, the production team may not support what the design team hands off to them. The production team may alter the design to fit what they believe to be the right solution. More process and procedures will be introduced under the guise of so-called checks and balances. This not only slows down the production cycle, but also produces a very negative working environment that undermines organizational effectiveness.

On the other hand, respect and support among team members translate into the team members asking how they may help each other and the organization succeed. Better organizational alignment is achieved when mutually shared respect and support are in place.

When mutually shared respect and support are firmly in place, the organization is ready to move on to the next, and perhaps most difficult to achieve, attribute of mutually shared trust.