FAQ’s – Flexibility and Trust Survey

Professor Tony Simons from Cornell University has clearly shown through his research that high levels of trust for managers results in higher levels of profit and improved business performance. So, we at Intégro believe it makes sense to measure a leader’s trust-building ability and through the debrief process identify specific development strategies leaders can implement to build stronger trust relationships.

Our research also shows that there is a very strong correlation between trust and interpersonal flexibility and that in most cases when trust is low, the biggest contributing factor is the leaders lack of flexibility. The FTS measures both the flexibility and trust-building ability of a manager.

One thing we have established is that there is no correlation between DiSC style and flexibility. There is no one style that is inherently more or less flexible than any other style. What we do know is that highly flexible leaders see the needs of others as at least as important as their own and having a thorough understanding of the needs of different DiSC styles can help leaders increase their flexibility.

In addition to that, we know there is a strong correlation between flexibility and trust-building ability, therefore understanding DiSC can also help leaders build stronger trust relationships with their teams and increase team performance.

Any leader who wants to increase their leadership effectiveness and build a high performing team.

The FTS identifies the degree to which leaders are perceived by others to be focused on satisfying mutual needs. Most leaders who are inflexible and therefore focused mostly on satisfying their own needs are unaware of the negative impact that behavior has on their relationships and the degree to which others trust them. The FTS is a powerful wake-up call for these leaders.

The leader who is being assessed completes the FTS to capture their self-perception of their level of flexibility and trust-building ability. In addition, others who work with that leader complete the assessment providing their observation of the leader’s flexibility and trust-building ability. If the FTS is being used for leadership development, the observers will be their direct reports or others who observe them in their leadership role. If it is being used as part of a team development process, it would be completed by other members of the team. It is not a 360° assessment – we refer to it as a 180° assessment.

There are two main sections in the FTS:  in the Flexibility section there are fifteen items being responded to on a six-point scale from 1 being Almost Never to 6 being Almost Always. In the Trust section, there are two items for each of the eight Values that Build Trust and again they are being responded to on a six-point scale from Almost Never to Almost Always.

There are no open item or literal comments captured in the FTS, there are thirty-one questions which typically take no more than 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

A 360^o survey gathers responses from the participant about their self-view and the view from their manager, their direct reports, their peers and potentially a group of other internal customers.

The FTS is gathering feedback relevant to the reason we are using this tool. Therefore, if it is being used to increase leadership effectiveness, we want feedback from observers who see the person in their leadership role – especially their direct reports. If it is being used as part of a team development exercise, we want the feedback to be about how effective the person is as a team member, so the observers will be other team members.

There is no limit to the number of observers, however, we recommend a minimum of 4 to 6 observers.

There are two sections to the FTS report – the Flexibility report and the Trust report. While the report can be printed as one report, we prefer to provide the report in two separate reports to participants during their debrief because as two separate reports, providing one at a time in the debrief enables less distraction while we are debriefing their results.

We strongly recommend that the only person who receives a copy of an individual’s FTS report is the individual themselves and the facilitator/coach who will be debriefing the profile with them and helping them to develop their action plans.

Yes. There are two ways to become certified to use the FTS. One way is to complete a full certification for Trust Inside Assessments which involves watching a pre-recorded 45-minute webinar overview and then participating in four 2-hour virtual workshops over four weeks. Alternatively, you can become certified in only the FTS by watching a pre-recorded 45-minute webinar overview and then participating in one 2-hour virtual workshop.

In addition to the online training you will receive a Facilitator’s Guide and Workbook, a PowerPoint file and Development Notes for you to facilitate up to a ½ day debrief of FTS results. We also supply videos of how to explain the Intégro models used in the debrief and poster quality pdf files of those models for you to print if you wish for any face to face debrief sessions. Intégro’s experienced team will be available on a continuing basis to provide support throughout your use of this survey.

The TIA Central Platform is a dedicated survey platform that manages all Trust Inside Surveys.  The Platform sends individual invitation links and generates the results of the survey into a full report.

The Platform enables an account holder to email invitations, reminders and manage the entire survey process up to and including the downloading of an individual report. The set-up and data collection enable concurrent survey’s to be run and provides absolute confidentiality to all those participating in the survey.

The Platform is held on a secure server in New South Wales, Australia and is managed and supported by an independent certified IT Management Company on behalf of Intégro Learning Company.

In 2019 a psychometric analysis was conducted by Dr Joseph Crawford from the University of Tasmania to examine the psychometric properties of the Flexibility and Trust Survey (FTS) along with its two scales: Interpersonal Flexibility (IF) Scale and Values that Build Trust (VBT) Scale.

A variety of statistical analysis techniques were employed to test the underlying structure and internal consistency of the models on which this survey is based. Each model demonstrated a strong underlying structure, and all subscales demonstrated strong internal reliability – all scales and subscales have a Composite Reliability of .93 or above.

Further analyses were conducted to examine inter-scale correlation. There were strong correlations between all the subscales demonstrating that as an individual’s interpersonal flexibility increases, so too does their colleagues’ perceived trust of them. The full Psychometric Analysis Report is available on request.

Intégro Learning Company provides dedicated Platform support in all areas of Platform function and Flexibility and Trust Survey (FTS) debrief.  We are committed to helping you get the very best out of this survey.

If you have been certified to facilitate the Flexibility and Trust Survey, we provide you with all the information you need to run the survey on the Platform, debrief materials and any support you may need to successfully deliver an FTS to an individual or leadership team. If you wish to complete an FTS and are not certified, we can support you with managing the survey and debriefing the results as per our platform and consultation fees.