September 22, 2025
by Greg Henson, Kairos University President and CEO
Trust is often seen as the product of familiarity. We assume that if we spend enough time together, trust will naturally follow. In theological schools, this can lead to a focus on shared meals, retreats, or inter-departmental meetings as the primary means of building trust. While these practices can be meaningful, they are not enough to cultivate the kind of trust that supports long-term innovation.
Resilient trust is not built through sentiment or proximity alone. It is built through repeated experiences of competence, concern, and problem-solving. When people see that others are capable, that they care, and that they are willing to work together to solve real problems, trust begins to grow. It becomes more than a feeling and begins to be the connective tissue that strengthens the resilience of the community.
This insight, articulated by Cory Scheer in his book Closing the Trust Gap, invites us to look at trust through the lens of both people and policies. Trust does not depend only on individual character or interpersonal relationships. It also depends on the structures that shape how people interact. When an institution organizes its work in ways that consistently demonstrate competence, care, and problem-solving, trust becomes a lived experience rather than an abstract idea.
The first two practices in the category of Trustworthy Community (Practice What You Preach and Risk Openness) cultivate trust. Alignment and transparency bring concerns into the open, which allows the community to face challenges together. They cultivate a shared responsibility.
In this context, trust becomes durable. It is no longer dependent on perfect agreement or uninterrupted harmony. It can withstand disagreement and navigate uncertainty. It encourages broad participation in problem-solving by making space for risk, creativity, and failure. Most importantly, it does this while assuring people that they are not alone.
A resilient community is one in which wisdom is not concentrated in a single role or department. It is distributed. Insights can come from any part of the organization, and new ideas are not evaluated based on where they come from, but on how they serve the mission. This kind of community is not easy to build, and it cannot be rushed. But when it exists, it becomes one of the most powerful assets an institution can hold.
Trust is not the result of a single decision or moment. It is the cumulative effect of consistent, shared practices. It becomes the foundation for innovation that is not reactive or superficial, but sustained and transformative.
In the next post, we will explore the second area of focus: Shared Reality. We will begin by looking at the practice of defining reality together and rallying around the problems we are actually trying to solve.