Trust Exhaustion

Repeated misalignment, broken signals, and unresolved structural failures deplete trust faster than it can be rebuilt. People continue to comply, but belief collapses. Engagement becomes mechanical, and discretionary effort disappears.

Belief that the system will respond rationally to truth.

Trust erodes when people repeatedly provide signal without observing correction. Over time, silence becomes adaptive behavior.

• Stable performance metrics
• Reduced conflict
• "Mature" acceptance of constraints
• Polite alignment with no advocacy

Calm replaces commitment.

• Fatigue
• Cynicism
• Generational disengagement
• Lack of motivation

These explanations personalize what is structural.

• People stop escalating known risks
• "Whatever you decide" replaces debate
• Feedback becomes vague or performative
• High performers disengage quietly
• Leaders hear "everything's fine" more often

• "People are burned out"
• "We have an engagement problem"
• "This is morale-related"
• "The team is change-resistant"
• "We need recognition or incentives"

Fatal misread: Trust is treated as an emotional state instead of a systemic outcome.

• Visible correction following escalation
• Leaders absorbing cost personally
• Reversal of a bad decision with acknowledgment
• Proof that truth changes outcomes

Trust returns only when systems demonstrate learning, not listening.

Trust rebuilt through constraint removal, not rhetoric.

Cease new asks. No additional commitments.

Upstream: FM-14 Narrative Collapse, FM-10 Leadership Saturation, FM-03 Responsibility Without Authority