Trust Infrastructure Assessment

What this is

The book's Trust Infrastructure Assessment: five dimensions, each with three prompts, each dimension rated 1 (significant gap) to 5 (strong foundation). The total is read against four bands. The book calls it "not just diagnostic - it's developmental." It also gives a personal version as five unscored reflection prompts.

Use when / Do not use when

• Use when a team or leader wants to see how well trust holds "under pressure." The book: "The true measure of trust infrastructure isn't how it functions during ideal conditions, but how it performs under pressure."
• Do not use it as a verdict on any person. It rates the system.
• Do not add bands, cut-offs for single dimensions or comparisons across teams. The book gives none.

The Instrument

Instruction (book): "Rate each dimension from 1 (significant gap) to 5 (strong foundation)."

1. Boundary Clarity

• Do we have explicit agreements about where trust is assumed and where verification is required?
• Are our verification processes focused where they add value rather than applied universally?
• Do people clearly understand the trust expectations in different contexts?

2. Signal Visibility

• Have we identified specific, observable indicators of trust health?
• Do we acknowledge trust-eroding signals when they appear rather than ignoring them?
• Are we tracking leading indicators that predict trust issues rather than just measuring after erosion?

3. Repair Capability

• Do we have explicit processes for addressing trust erosion?
• Can people raise trust concerns without fear of making situations worse?
• Do we repair small trust fractures before they grow into system-wide gaps?

4. Reserve Adequacy

• Have we built relationship capital beyond transactional requirements?
• Do we invest in trust during lower-pressure periods?
• Do our reserves provide resilience during inevitable challenges?

5. Recovery Integration

• Are recovery rituals embedded in our regular processes?
• Do we treat renewal as a core requirement rather than an optional addition?
• Is recovery planned and protected rather than hoped for and neglected?

Scoring (book, exact)

Note on the book's ambiguity. The book says five dimensions are each rated 1-5, which gives a total of 5-25, and the four bands cover exactly that range. The book also gives three prompts under each dimension and does not say how three prompts become one rating (average, majority, judgment) or whether the prompts are rated separately. If each prompt were rated 1-5 there would be 15 ratings and a total of 15-75, and the bands would not fit. The reading that fits the bands is one rating per dimension, with the prompts as guides to that rating. That is an inference; the book's instruction line ("Rate each dimension") supports it.

Book's framing: "Each dimension represents an opportunity to strengthen your trust infrastructure, creating more stable support for everything built upon it."

Personal version: self-trust prompts (book; five unscored reflection prompts)

• Self-trust boundaries: "Where do you assume capability and where do you require verification? Are those boundaries appropriate to your actual strengths and growth edges? Are they adjusting as you develop, or remaining fixed on past limitations?"
• Self-trust signals: "What indicators tell you when your relationship with yourself is healthy or strained? Are you attending to early warnings or waiting for major breakdowns? Are you measuring what truly matters or what's easiest to see?"
• Self-repair mechanisms: "How do you address moments of self-doubt or internal trust erosion? Do you have processes for restoring confidence after setbacks, or do small failures accumulate into fundamental self-questioning?"
• Self-trust reserves: "Have you built confidence beyond immediate performance needs? Do you have relationship capital with yourself that can be drawn upon during inevitable challenges? Have you invested in knowing yourself beyond your functional capabilities?"
• Self-recovery integration: "Are renewal practices embedded in your personal system, or treated as optional if time allows? Do you plan for recovery or simply hope it happens between demands? Do you protect restoration time with the same rigor as performance time?"

The book says the self-trust questions are "practical infrastructure assessments for the foundation upon which all your performance is built." It gives no scale or scoring for them.

Closing instruction (book): "take a moment to assess your current trust infrastructure, both around you and within you. What's solid? What needs reinforcement? What requires complete rebuilding?"

How to run it (Performance Lab suggested practice)

1. Decide who rates: one leader, or each team member separately. The book does not say. If several people rate, compare their ratings by dimension before combining anything.
2. For each dimension, answer the three prompts yes / partly / no with one line of evidence each, then give the dimension one rating from 1 to 5. Record how the rating was reached.
3. Add the five ratings and read the total against the four book bands. Quote the band text; do not paraphrase or add a label.
4. Look at the lowest dimension. Use "Trust Infrastructure Framework and Repair Protocol" (a Coaching OS tool) to choose a component to work on (Boundaries to Boundary Clarity, Signals to Signal Visibility, Repair Mechanisms to Repair Capability, Reserves to Reserve Adequacy). Recovery Integration maps to the recovery rituals section in that protocol. This mapping is by name and is an inference.
5. Re-rate at an agreed date. The book gives no re-rating interval.

Record sheet (Performance Lab suggested practice)

Team or self: ______ Date: ______ Rater(s): ______

First dimension to work on: ______