Why people don’t trust governments — and how to fix it

By JACKSONGITHAIGA

Are you a national or county leader with close to three years left in office? Are you facing serious challenges executing your mandate due to endless fights with stakeholders, miscommunication, rumours and a lack of trust?

According to a 2013 initiative by the World Economic Forum, advised by PwC, titled The Leadership, Trust and Performance Equation, only 17 per cent of survey participants indicated they trusted their governments.

Managing the current “trust challenge” is a critical point of concern for any national or county government leader.

In Kenya, the trust challenge in the public sector can be considered as displayed through repeated labour strikes, go slows, and a lack of collaboration and teamwork.

The source of this trust challenge can be traced to limited engagement with stakeholders at a time of significant changes in Government roles, structures and functions.

Limited clarity on roles and functions in the public sector is misleading an already disengaged workforce and the general public is experiencing apprehension and fear. This could quickly give way to a lack of trust in the decisions made by leadership.

As leaders in the national and county governments seek to rationalise and restructure their institutions to execute their mandate and meet the requirements of the Constitution, the trust challenge could put their efforts at risk due to the possibility of limited or inconsistent stakeholder buy-in and support.

As noted in The Leadership, Trust and Performance Equation, trust brings with it several benefits.

Firstly, it brings greater predictability; a sense of confidence that the sun will rise tomorrow.

For public servants, it is predictability that management teams will do the right thing with the responsibilities and resources they have been given. For civil society and the public, it is that governments will do good with tax money. It is a compass for looking forward.

Secondly, trust builds resilience. It helps build structures that enable us deal with the unexpected, and we are better prepared to handle change quickly.

When there are bonds of trust at a time of change, there is a greater commitment to follow the recommendations of leaders. Leaders and institutions with a high degree of trust will survive crises more effectively than those with low degrees of trust.

How can a leader quickly and consistently establish trust? According to Tracey Groves, a PwC partner in forensics, to re-establish trust in an organisation requires stakeholders “to do the right thing”.

But this assumes a shared understanding of what the right thing is across the organisation, and a commitment from all to make the right thing happen. A proven way of rapidly accomplishing this feat is through a change management strategy and plan.

All transformational initiatives within government are time bound, and the need to have everyone on board with the programme from the beginning is critical for any project to succeed within budget and scope.

Therefore, it is critical to have a detailed change management strategy and plan that maps, measures, and mitigates resistance; overcomes miscommunication and rumours; structures knowledge to encourage learning; operationalises teamwork and cross-functional collaboration; and monitors and analyses the impact of change.

Apart from enabling national and county government leaders to execute their mandate effectively and efficiently, a change management strategy also allows public sector leaders to conform to the national values and principles espoused in Article 10 of the Constitution. This is because it allows for public participation in governance through effective stakeholder engagement and management.

The writer is a senior consultant for PwC Kenya, Advisory, People and Change.

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