---
title: "High trust and low trust organizations"
description: "Comparison of the differences between high trust and low trust organizations."
url: "https://www.rubick.com/high-trust-low-trust-organizations/"
---

# High trust and low trust organizations

February 21, 2023 by Jade Rubick

[#company-culture](https://www.rubick.com/tags/company-culture/)

![Trust](https://www.rubick.com/_astro/trust._-p1_0pO_Z24xvY.webp)

Low trust

High trust

Focus on accountability

Focus on learning

Doesn’t require alignment or context

Requires alignment and lots of context

Command and control

Autonomy and alignment

Scary to reveal problems, risk.

Eager to explore problems, risks

Leaders get poor information.

Leaders get good information.

Focus on commitments. Changes require lots of scrutiny and explanation.

Focus on estimates, update as you get new information. Changes are inexpensive.

Fatalism

Optimism

Low retention

High retention

Individual performance

Team performance

Leaders focus on activities

Leaders focus on outcomes

Functions blame each other for problems

Functions (product, eng, design) work together, share problems

People that raise problems are criticized

People that raise problems are praised

People with a high tolerance for conflict speak up.

People who can contribute speak up

### Thank yous

Image by [Lisa Caroselli](https://pixabay.com/users/lisalove2dance-2628503/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1418901) from [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1418901)

I like to share what I’ve learned. If you’re running into something like this at your company, [I’m happy to talk](https://www.rubick.com/work-with-me/).