Nature of Trust
Nature-inspired Solutions for Trust-Building and Social Change
What can nature teach us about building, maintaining and repairing trust? Biomimicry for Social Innovation and Biomimicry 3.8 have partnered to explore this question and discover new models for social innovation using nature’s best strategies for building trust.
The Nature of Trust is a two-year project dedicated to biological research on “trust” and the real-world application of these insights in partnership with leaders working in the field of health equity and social change. This Learning Cohort will be supported to bring bio-inspired ideas to fruition through training, coaching, peer collaboration, and project grants.
The Nature of Trust project aims to:
Identify lessons from nature relevant to trust-building
Demonstrate biomimicry’s application as a strategic lens, implementation tool, and regenerative practice for social innovation challenges
Develop a framework, toolkit, and multimedia resources to illustrate real-world applications of nature’s intelligence and to inspire leaders in every profession to embrace nature-inspired solutions for trust-building and social change
Support for the Nature of Trust project is provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
WHAT IS BIOMIMICRY?
Biomimicry is a design discipline that draws inspiration from life’s 3.8 billion years of evolutionary intelligence. Applied to social innovation, biomimicry becomes a strategy to shift us away from colonized, mechanistic models and instead apply nature-based, ecological insights to solve human challenges. It is a practice that promotes systemic thinking, fosters an adaptive mindset, and elevates diverse perspectives to meet the complexity of today’s problems.
PROGRESS TO DATE
The Nature of Trust project kicked off in fall 2023 with a series of three community Listening Sessions. The sessions engaged over 40 health equity professionals informing the guiding biological research question, "What is important for us to learn from nature about building trust?" With these insights, the team of biologists launched into the Bio360, a six month process to research and distill findings on how nature builds, maintains, and repairs trust.
The Bio360 results and preliminary “trust framework” was previewed in May 2024 and five health equity teams were chosen to join the Learning Cohort. In August, the Cohort convened in New Mexico for deeper training, and has since been convening online to practice, inform, and refine the new Nature of Trust principles.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2025
Throughout 2025, the Cohort will continue to practice the Nature of Trust principles and will convene in January and June for two additional in-person workshops. The Cohort teams will receive project grants to support the development and implementation of nature-inspired trust initiatives. The experience and insights generated by the team projects will be the basis for creating public educational resources, multimedia learning opportunities, a toolkit, and framework for further propagation in social innovation contexts.
Educational materials and accompanying toolkit will illustrate real-world applications of nature’s intelligence and inspire others to embrace nature-inspired solutions for trust-building and social change.
THE COHORT
The Nature of Trust Co-Lab Learning Cohort is comprised of 11 dedicated health equity and social justice leaders working in communities across the country. The work of these nonprofits includes community and maternal health, union organizing, racial justice, youth education, public health, and more. Over the course of a year, these practitioners are convening in-person and online to learn, practice and inform the key principles from the Nature of Trust framework. The Cohort will also be designing and implementing projects using the Nature of Trust principles in the spring of 2025 and contributing to the development of the public toolkit and multimedia resources.
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in the nation. We represent over 450,000 members throughout New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida, and Washington, D.C. Our mission is to achieve quality care and good jobs for all.
"We are witnessing a resurgence of worker organizations. Yet historical organizational challenges persist. We believe confronting these challenges requires shifting organizational culture to center trust in both internal and external matters. We sense that nature’s wisdom might show us the way."
Shift Health Accelerator (Shift) is a national network of multidisciplinary health equity leaders that supports community-based colleagues in building power to secure health investments, decision-making rights, data ownership, and more.
“Shift's work is deeply relational, and rooted in trust as a primary currency across multiple aspects of our work; we also frequently advise other grassroots, community-based organizations and healthcare institutions on how to build trust. We are excited about the opportunity to explore a dimension of relationship-building and collaboration, and to add it to our toolbox of strategy and facilitation.”
Presbyterian Community Health is the bridge between healthcare and community. To achieve health equity, we seek to understand how community members experience health inequities due to structural and social determinants of health (SDOH). We strive to remove barriers for individuals as we simultaneously seek big-picture, systemic change.
Earth Care works to equip our youth and families with the tools we need to secure a healthy, just, and equitable future.
“Biomimicry highlights the importance of authenticity, understanding context, and the relationships between messengers and their audiences. Our community-based health equity work relies on the mobilization of trusted messengers for conveying information. We can learn from nature’s systems for improving access to better health.”
Creative Reaction Lab’s (CRXLAB) mission is to educate, train and challenge Black and Latino/a/x/e youth to become leaders designing healthy and racially equitable communities. We challenge the belief that adults solely hold the power to address inequities.
“CRXLAB's participation in the Cohort and exploration of trust through nature's lens inspires systems-thinking, fosters collaboration, and highlights interdependence, mirroring nature's ecosystems. This approach enhances our work in the field of equity design by promoting holistic, sustainable community development.”
The Butterfly Movement is dedicated to empowering Black women and girls through comprehensive pathways of personal development, fostering entrepreneurship via small business growth & development, and advocating for social equity and justice.
“The Butterfly Movement Team was drawn to this cohort for many amazing reasons. We are always looking for ways to grow and ask critical questions. Our foundation mimics the stages of a Butterfly as a way to build trust and support women and girls.”