Meghan, I enjoyed reading your post, and of course agree with everything you said.  I strongly believe that trust is the absolute cornerstone of any functional organization, regardless of the state of the economy.  There are many things that an organization must do in order to maximize business success.  However, when you dive deeper into these things, you can start to categorize, sub-categorize and ultimately bring them all under “trust”.  Simply put, the absence of trust can instantly shatter (or break) the inner workings of an organization.  To rebuild however, is a long process.

You touched on one thing that I wanted to comment on (I can probably write a book but will spare you chapters 2-25 for now!!). ??  That one thing is that “unknowns represent an enormous threat to productivity…”  I could not agree more.  Relationships within the workplace are so complex and diverse that what drives how well these relationships intertwine is positively correlated to the degree to which employees feel “in the know”.  The human brain and its psychological influences are enormous, and drive how we feel during the course of a given day, which peaks and valleys constantly.

I guess my point to all of this is, a) I agree with your perspective, and b) how you create trusting relationships within the organization is driven by consistent, constant, personalized and authentic communication that is top-down.  If leaders can do this, employees perceive their leadership to be in the best interest of them, and the organization.  This is a win-win situation.