The PACT® Trust-Building Framework
Most organisations know they have a trust problem. Few have a framework for solving it.
The PACT® gives L&D, leaders, and HR professionals something specific, evidence-based, and behaviourally grounded to work with.
What is The PACT®?
P — Predictability
People know what to expect from you. Your standards are consistent. Your commitments mean something. You show up the same way.
A — Ability
You are capable & competent in the things that matter most to your role & your relationships. You are honest about what you don't know.
C — Care
You have others' interests genuinely at heart - not as a performance, but as advocacy, recognition, attention- in small, consistent acts.
T — Transparency
You communicate honestly and openly, even when it is uncomfortable. You don't hide your reasoning, your concerns, or your mistakes.
Working with The PACT® - the assessment tool
Participants complete the inventory individually before the workshop and team session. There are 3 inventories: Individual Professional, Team Professional, and Personal Relationship. Inventories are paper-based and online.
What this means for your organisation - the report
Each participant receives an individual profile report and, if applicable, a team version. Individual and Team results are aggregated and facilitated by Shelley. For L&D and HR professionals, it offers:
A common language for trust that leaders, teams, and coaches can use consistently across an organisation.
A behavioural lens that moves trust conversations from the abstract to the specific - from "we need to build trust" to "here is what that looks like in practice."
A diagnostic instrument - the PACT® Trust-Building Strengths Inventory - that gives individuals and teams a clear picture of where their trust-building strengths lie and where development is needed.
The PACT® framework is available as a facilitated programme, a leadership development module, and a coaching tool for use with individual leaders and teams.
The Workshop Experience
Interactive, reflective, and evidence-based — PACT® workshops combine visual materials, reflection cards, and facilitated group discussion with an individual debrief on each participant's Trust-Building Strengths profile.
The PACT® Trust-Building Strengths Inventory and its associated workshops have already been piloted and used with leaders and teams across a range of organisational contexts — including leadership development programmes, executive coaching, and coach supervision.
The framework has been tested, refined, and validated through real-world application. What you find in the book is not an untested theory. It is a framework that has already been put to work.
The PACT® in practice
The PACT® book - publishing July 2026
The PACT®: Trust-Building Strengths Inventory book brings the full framework, its research foundations, and its practical applications together in one place. Written for coaches, leaders, and L&D practitioners, it is both a rigorous account of how trust is built behaviourally and a practical guide to developing trustworthy behaviour in yourself and the people you work with.
Subscribe to Between the pieces - my Substack publication on trust, resilience, and leadership - to be among the first to hear when the book launches.
“Trust is not a foundation. It is a response”