If You Want a Mentally Healthy Workforce, Start with the Three Ts: Time, Trust and Ties

Do you remember those carefree childhood days hanging out with your friends, playing ball, climbing trees or laughing over some secret only you and your buddies knew?  What was it about those moments that made you feel happy, fulfilled and that you belonged? 

Research tells us that those early experiences, along with thousands more over the lifespan, reflect our core human need for time, trust and ties – what I like to refer to as the three Ts. 

The Three Ts:

• Time refers to our ability to decide on what we do and when we do it, including how much flexibility and predictability we have in our activities

• Trust encompasses our belief that something, or someone, is reliable, honest and will not harm us 

• Ties are our shared sense of togetherness and meaningful connections that makes us want to do things for, and with, one another 

When we have all three, we’re truly firing on all cylinders because we’re coming from a place of safety, support and control.  As a kid, those first connections with friends ran deep and gave us the courage to do all sorts of well, probably crazy things, yet they strengthened our values and provided a key point of reference for our future relationships.

Now fast forward to working life where we might have experienced fierce competition amongst co-workers, unfair or unjust work practices, unsustainable workloads, siloed processes or lack of support from others.  Pretty different feeling, right?  When our workplaces aren’t designed around time, trust and ties our natural response is to get stressed, to not perform at our best, to retreat from others, or to lash out.  We’re human.  We respond to our surroundings and stimuli in a way that is deeply connected to our needs, emotions and values.  It’s therefore no surprise that the interactions we have within our work surroundings play a key role in how mentally fit and well we are as employees.

Organizations that deliberately focus on the three Ts, and understand how they play in to employee engagement and workplace well-being, can cultivate a mentally healthier and more productive workplace. 

Here's what this means in practice:

·       Give employees more control over their time.  This might mean agreeing meeting schedules or deadlines far enough in advance so there’s predictability in both engagement and output.  It also might mean adding more flexibility to work processes and sharing workloads so employees feel there’s back up and support for key deliverables.  Lastly, allow employees the autonomy to choose working times that are adapted to them.  Not everyone can adhere to a 9 to 5.  As long as the work is getting done well, give employees the freedom to work around their family and personal activities.

·       Elevate trust as a core outcome not a core value.  Sure, we all want to work for organizations built on trust and integrity, but trust can’t just be reflected in corporate values or a mission statement, it needs to be an outcome of shared work practices and behaviors.  Remember those childhood friends, you hung out with them because they didn’t let you down.  Your repeated positive interactions with them built a firm foundation for safety and trust.  In the same way, organizations need to create the right conditions for employees to interact with trust in one another and in management.  This might mean boldly ensuring that employees are protected from harm including illness, injury, discrimination, bullying and harassment and that they feel secure in their organization’s future.  Remember that trust starts with open and honest communication of both the good and the bad.  Employees can see through the BS so be clear and concrete with your organizational level communications.

·       Foster connection and community at all levels of the organization.  This might mean providing workplace programs that offer opportunities for meaningful social interaction.  After-work drinks are great for networking, but meaningful programs develop collective social support and foster a deeper sense of belonging.  Consider offering programs where employees can share experiences, provide peer-support, give back to their community or feel more accepted as a member of the organization.  Encourage leadership to engage in these activities too and to set good examples by developing deeper ties and positive connections across the organization.  

Better mental health in the workplace requires a back-to-basics approach where employees feel secure, supported and more in control.  Well-being apps, yoga lunches and resilience training are all great, but they place too much emphasis on the employee to ‘fix’ their own mental health.  Organizations that instead go back to the fundamentals and put the three Ts at the center of their processes, measures and performance have happier, more engaged employees across the board.  These employees give more of themselves because they want to, not because they are expected to.  Time, trust and ties worked when we were kids and can be the secret to mentally healthy workplaces today.  

Is your organization living the three Ts? 

Let Greater Good help you to discover more and build a mentally healthy workplace.