Development of This Book

This book first took root many years ago when we were working with organizations to design and develop teams, manage change, strengthen leadership credibility, and build managerial strategies. Leaders would ask us to help them understand why their development efforts were not producing results. When we reached out to their people for insight, again and again we would hear that lack of results were due to the breakdown of trust—a breakdown of trust among co-workers, with bosses, in teams, and throughout the organization.

We went on a search for solutions. Being doctoral students at the time, we each committed to studying elements of trust in our respective dissertations. We learned a great deal about trust and how central it is in relationships and organizations. We were, however, left with more questions than answers. Our quest continued.

The next phase of our research brought us to sixty-seven organizations in nineteen industries. We learned that it was not possible for people to talk about trust without talking about betrayal and the need to recover from it. The outgrowth of those early years of work experience and research gave birth to the Reina Trust & Betrayal Model, which served as the framework for the first edition of our first book. The purpose of the first edition of Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace was to provide a working construct of trust, betrayal, and rebuilding trust. The second edition was an expansion with a focus on helping leaders, in particular, learn to trust themselves and others more as they led organizations in a dynamic, complicated marketplace. Since the publication of the second edition, the cries for a trusting workplace have become louder and louder. We have listened and have dug even deeper to understand all aspects of trust.

Hands-on experience in hundreds of organizations and with thousands of leaders, managers, supervisors, human resource professionals, and front-line employees in a multitude of functions have taught us that although leaders do have significant responsibility to cultivate a culture of high trust, they do not have 100 percent responsibility. Each and every individual has responsibility for his or her part in building trust within their relationships throughout their organization. Trust begins with you. Trust begins with each and every one of us.

This third edition of Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace has been rewritten and refocused for you—regardless of your rank or responsibility level in your organization. Our intent is to help you build sustainable trust in your relationships, in your teams, and throughout the organization you serve. The stories and quotes in the book come from the actual experiences lived by people and shared with us in our research and work. The names and locations of individuals and organizations have been changed to maintain anonymity and to protect their trust in us.

We all have experiences of trust and betrayal. In our service to organizations, we continue to learn about trust. What we've learned from our clients and our lives is shared with you in the pages of this book. We also share personal stories of our own. Our interest in trust is passionate. Our professional lives are devoted to supporting the cultivation of trust in relationships all over the world. We believe that all human beings deserve to trust in themselves and to feel safe to trust in others. We wrote this book and continue our work to that end.

Dennis Reina, PhD

Michelle Reina, PhD

Stowe, Vermont

July 2014