How to use this guidebook

Recommended order

The guidebook itself is split into three main sections built around three common trust-related challenges:

1. Assessing trust and trustworthiness - guidance, tools and resources to help an organisation assess their trustworthiness and assess the degree to which they are trusted by external parties.

2. Building trust and trustworthiness - how an organisation can build their trustworthiness and build and bolster trust with external parties.

3. Demonstrating trust and trustworthiness - how an organisation can demonstrate their trust and trustworthiness to others.

The three sections are distinct but related. While it is possible to jump directly to the ‘Build’ or ‘Demonstrate’ sections, for instance, in our experience there is more value in working through the guidebook in order, starting from the ‘Assess’ section. This is because, regardless of whether you are ultimately interested in assessing, building or demonstrating trust and trustworthiness, the resources and tools in the ‘Assess’ section can provide a helpful start towards achieving your goals.

Duration

Depending on your trust-related challenges, goals and time or resourcing constraints, this process could take an afternoon, a week, a month, or a year. We offer different activities and tools in each section to suit different needs.

How to use the tools and activities in each section

The activities and tools described in each section can be used individually or in combination. We recommend you proceed through them sequentially as some of the activities build on previous activities. You can use and work through them at your own pace, or you can explore them by participating in a facilitated workshop.

They can be worked through by a single person or as a group. If you work through them as a group, we recommend you gather people from as many different departments or areas of activity across your organisation as possible.

If you are working through these activities outside of a group setting, we recommend you send the activities around to people in different departments or use the questions and prompts as a basis for surveys or interviews of staff in different areas. You are likely to find that people from different departments understand trust and trustworthiness differently. In some cases, people working in one area of an organisation may not be aware of the steps others in their organisation are taking to be trustworthy and trusted.

Working through these activities as a group can help cultivate intra-organisational awareness.