December 17, 1977. The first day that a very young Bob Tipton was gainfully employed in the world of IT ("data processing," back then), and I found myself sitting in front of a System/32 (yellow side panel) working to make some changes to an accounts-payable report. The pressure was on to get the A/P application done so that the Burroughs posting machine in the same room (clacking and banging away) could be replaced by the end of the year.

The requirements that I'd been given to fix the report seemed straightforward, and I was moving along well. My confidence was soaring, and being a generally friendly person, I thought I'd strike up a conversation with the woman who was trying not to have various parts of her anatomy sucked into the posting machine as she switched ledger cards.

"Good Morning!" Silence.

"Hey, are you looking forward to using this new computer?" More silence, only "icier" this time. No eye contact.

"We hope to get it ready for your new year. It ought to make your work life easier, don't you think?" I got eye contact this time: a look that would have melted Halo 3's Master Chief into a pile of quivering bits.

She said, "I don't trust that thing — can't see how it works, and I am not looking forward to using it."

My work on making sure a column was added correctly suddenly became far more interesting to me, and I avoided conversation with the dragon lady for the rest of the week.

Alas, my start in the IT world showed one of the most significant problems in the relationship between IT and "the business." In way too many organizations, the absence of trust between the IT function and the rest of the business is a giant problem. That was true in 1977, and it remains true in 2007. Trust is a foundational building block critical to creating high-performance teams, delivering exceptional results, and maximizing returns on scarce resources. Without trust, there is no platform for "purposeful" conflict, no chance to develop commitments to common goals, and little pressure to hold anyone accountable for their results (lots of finger pointing happens instead!). Without trust, the IT organization generally is considered ineffective by the business.

Although we've moved far beyond the scenario of Burroughs posting machines being replaced by System/32s, the basic lack of trust between new IT solutions and how the business feels about them shows up today in situations such as SAP/Oracle ERP implementations, thin-client mandates from IT, poorly designed CRM solutions, ineffective intranets, and so on. Whatever the circumstances, without deep and meaningful trust between IT and the business, we have problems. Does this lack of trust sound familiar? Is it a permanent situation?

Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are "yes!" and "gosh, I hope not!" How do you move from an absence of trust between the business and IT to "we absolutely trust each other"? At the risk of stating the obvious (I am a consultant, after all), nothing changes until something changes. Trust doesn't just happen because someone calls a meeting and talks about it or suggests that people read a book about it or recommends that you go to a workshop about it.

Gaining trust starts with mutual intention. Both the business and the IT organization have to mutually agree that the lack of trust is getting in the way of high-performance outcomes — and then both groups need to intend to do something about it.

In addition, building trust takes three things: time together, shared history, and candor. Time together is not accomplished through conference calls, webinars, e-mail messages, or instant messages. It is accomplished by recognizing that we are social creatures and that spending physical time together is crucial. The more pronounced the lack of trust, the more important it is to spend time together as trust starts to build. Also, in my experience, it's extremely important for IT types to get out of our cubes, data centers, and halon-protected work environments and reach out to the business. Visit the manufacturing floor, deliver orders, and participate in the activities of the remote sites. Physically be part of the business, and you'll be amazed at how the business warms up to you.

Shared history? Certainly, that comes as a byproduct of spending time together, but it also comes as the business and IT work together to deliver solutions. Well-done ERP implementations have a way of cementing trust between IT and the business, but such projects come along rarely. In addition, with the turnover associated with modern IT projects, it's somewhat rare to have teams that share a deep and common history. I've found that organizations that capture and disseminate their "mythology and culture" through stories, training programs, videos, and so forth are the organizations that succeed in creating a sense of shared history even for brand-new team members.

Finally, candor. This is the process of tactfully and professionally saying what needs to be said, without censorship,without fear of recrimination, without concern for political implications, and with a clear focus on what's right, not who's right. Creating an environment in which candor freely lives can be a daunting task. Often, professional facilitation is necessary to get people to operate in an open, vulnerable, team-focused way, but when it happens, the potential for magic occurs.

High-trust situations between the business and IT result in high-performance projects, breakthrough competitiveness, and excellent outcomes. Fight for face-to-face meetings, go to lunch with business folks, and visit the remote plants, sales offices, and work centers. Capture your history, share it widely, and learn your company stories. Most of all, say what needs to be said: If ERP is a bad idea, say so. If moving to Windows Vista makes no sense, support your statement with clear, rational arguments. If you need to invest in infrastructure to keep the rest of the IT environment safe, secure, and available — tell the truth!

Trust. A critical component of success in any organization, in any relationship — anywhere people are involved. In the special situations in which IT and people come together, however, trust is especially important. How many times have you heard from a businessperson, "Why do you keep giving us what we ask for instead of what we need?" Building trust between the business and IT goes a long way toward never hearing this statement again.

Robert Tipton is managing partner of R S Tipton, Inc., and a long-time contributor to System iNEWS. His book, Untangling IT: 25 Years of Lessons in Effective IT Leadership (available at the System iNetwork bookstore — pentontech.com/education), and R S Tipton’s workshops and consulting services focus directly on the process of creating higher levels of effectiveness through innovation, inspiration, and common sense. He can be reached at bob@rstipton.com [2] or rstipton.com [3].