Fault Lines

Richard Roman

Fault Lines explores why trust breaks and how to rebuild it in organizations, leadership, communities, and public institutions. Hosted by Richard Roman, PhD, an expert in organizational leadership and trust strategy, the show translates research into actionable playbooks for senior leaders, consultants, and anyone navigating broken trust. Each episode features researchers, executives, and practitioners unpacking what actually works: workplace culture, team dynamics, institutional credibility, and civic trust. New episodes every week. Subscribe and start building trust where it matters most!

  1. 1d ago

    Sympathy Is Not a Feeling: What Adam Smith Got Right About Trust

    Most leaders treat trust as something earned through track record and verified performance. But what if that model is fundamentally incomplete? Rae Greiner, professor of English literature at Indiana University, argues that sympathy (and by extension, trust) is not a feeling that passes between people. It is an imaginative, speculative act that requires us to reason about another person's situation without ever fully confirming what they feel. Drawing on Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments and two centuries of the novel form, Greiner reframes what it means to read people, extend trust, and build belief under conditions of genuine uncertainty. For leaders managing teams, navigating organizational culture, or rebuilding trust after disruption, her argument carries a practical edge: the problem is not that we cannot know what others feel; the problem is that we behave as though we can. In this conversation, Greiner and Roman explore the roots of the collapse of institutional trust in the Enlightenment, why the 18th-century novel was essentially a trust-training machine, what it means that we can sympathize with the dead, and why the capacity to change your mind may be the most underrated leadership competency of all. Topics covered: trust, empathy, sympathy, Adam Smith, case thinking, certainty, judgment, Victorian literature, moral philosophy, Dickens, Austen

    1h 8m

  2. Jun 10

    The Initiation Gap: How We Fail to Support Men And What the Research Says It Costs Us

    Taking the pioneering work of Dan Doty as his cue, Richard Roman, PhD, examines the collapse of initiation structures in American culture through peer-reviewed research: normative male alexithymia (Levant), gender role conflict and suicide risk (JAMA Psychiatry 2020), rites of passage program outcomes, and the RAND male mentorship deficit data. What does the science say about what boys and men actually need, and what is the evidence base for getting it right? Keywords: masculinity research, male initiation, rites of passage, normative male alexithymia, male loneliness, boys' mental health, gender role conflict, leadership, trust, CHRO, men's work, wilderness therapy Further Reading: Coleman, D., Feigelman, W., & Rosen, Z. (2020). Association of high traditional masculinity and risk of suicide death: Secondary analysis of the Add Health study. JAMA Psychiatry, 77(4), 435–437. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.4702 Levant, R. F. (1992). Toward the reconstruction of masculinity. Journal of Family Psychology, 5(3–4), 379–402. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.5.3-4.379 Levant, R. F., Good, G. E., Cook, S. W., O'Neil, J. M., Smalley, K. B., Owen, K., & Richmond, K. (2006). The Normative Male Alexithymia Scale: Measurement of a gender-linked syndrome. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 7(4), 212–224. https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.7.4.212 Pollack, W. S. (2004). Male adolescent rites of passage: Positive visions of multiple developmental pathways. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1036(1), 141–150. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1330.008 Bozick, R., & Wenger, J. W. (2025). The limited presence of male mentors in the lives of boys and young men (Report No. RR-A4451-1). RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4451-1.html

    34 min

  3. Jun 4

    The Initiation Gap: What Happens to Boys Who Were Never Told They Became Men

    What does it cost an organization (or a family) when the men inside it were never given a threshold to cross? Dan Doty has spent over two decades asking that question. As a wilderness therapy guide, high school teacher in the Bronx, executive coach, and now the creator of a training program for male initiators, Dan has worked with thousands of men across a range of contexts. What he keeps finding is that the crisis isn't in the men. It's in the absence of the infrastructure that was supposed to shape them. In this episode, Dan and Richard explore why American culture quietly dismantled its rites of passage for boys, and what that erosion looks like inside adult men, adult teams, and adult organizations. They get into the difference between conditional and unconditional confidence, why men's retreats can become a form of "depth cosplay," and Dan's deceptively simple trust equation: vulnerability multiplied by time equals connection. If you work with men, lead men, or are one, this episode will reframe something you thought you already understood. Topics covered: male initiation, rites of passage, men's mental health, self-trust, organizational trust, psychological safety, leadership development, fatherhood, men's groups, wilderness therapy, emotional intelligence in men

    43 min

  4. May 28

    The Liberation Lens: Why Freeing People Is the First Act of Trust

    Most trust-building strategies assume everyone starts from the same baseline. Liberation psychology says that assumption is the problem. In this episode, we explore how liberation psychology reshapes the way leaders understand organizational trust, psychological safety, racial trauma, institutional repair, and collective healing. Drawing on Ignacio Martín-Baró and Amy Edmondson, this episode examines why trust cannot be rebuilt through communication strategies alone. Trust is structural. It is shaped by history, power, design, and unequal access to safety. So we ask: Who was this organization designed to serve? Who has been asked to adapt or absorb harm? And what would it mean to move from designed extraction toward designed service? This conversation offers a liberation lens for rebuilding trust at four levels: self-trust, interpersonal trust, team-level trust, and organizational trust. It is a practical and provocative episode for leaders, educators, managers, DEI practitioners, and anyone working to build more honest, humane, and trustworthy institutions. Thanks for listening!

    20 min

  5. May 20

    Healing What Systems Break: Liberation Psychology, Veterans, and the Real Work of Trust

    A young medical interpreter picks up the phone at 3 AM in a rural Nebraska hospital and hears a parent learn their child is gone. That moment changed everything for Dr. Ayli Carrero Pinedo. Now a trauma psychologist, founder and CEO of In Alignment Wellness Services, and recipient of the 2022 APA Presidential Citation, she joins Dr. Richard Roman to discuss building trust within systems never designed for the communities they serve, from therapy rooms to veteran groups to institutions dismantling their own equity work. They explore liberation psychology as a diagnostic framework, why coalition-building matters more than ever, and what it costs leaders when asked to act against their values.

    46 min

  6. May 12

    The Mirror and the Watchman

    Every AI tool that observes you is built on a choice: does it serve you, or does it serve someone else? In this solo companion episode, Richard unpacks the trust architecture behind AI systems across three domains: organizational leadership, higher education, and public institutions. Drawing on Gallup's 2025 data showing manager engagement at historic lows, the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer's findings on the collapse of institutional trust, and Pew Research on civic confidence, he introduces the "mirror vs. window" framework to evaluate whether AI tools are designed for service or extraction. If you lead people, develop people, or set policy for institutions deploying AI, this episode lays out the trust test every system should have to pass.

    27 min

  7. May 5

    Why Frontline Managers Aren't Getting Better

    Most managers get feedback once or twice a year if they're lucky. Ben Perreau is the founder of Parafoil, an AI-powered leadership intelligence tool that gives managers a real-time mirror after every one-on-one. I In this episode, Ben and Richard dig into the feedback vacuum that stalls most leadership development, why the IC-to-manager transition is where trust breaks down, and what it actually looks like to design an AI tool that serves managers rather than surveilling them. If you lead people or develop the people who do, this one's for you. Find Ben's work at Parafoil.co and connect with him on LinkedIn.

    46 min

  8. Apr 28

    Mindful Leadership, Psychological Safety, and the Neuroscience of the Pause

    What happens in a leader's brain in the moment between a trigger and a response? Why does that moment determine whether teams trust each other or fall apart? In this solo follow-up to the conversation with Andrew McNeill of LX Leaders, Richard examines the neuroscience behind reactive vs. responsive leadership, what Google's Project Aristotle and Amy Edmondson's research reveal about psychological safety as a driver of performance, and why vulnerability in leadership isn't about oversharing; it's about calculated courage. The episode also explores fierce compassion (why avoiding hard conversations isn't kindness), research on team charters as a form of trust infrastructure, and why one-off workshops fail where sustained interventions succeed. Includes a five-part Monday Morning Test with actionable steps for individual leaders, teams, and organizations. Guest episode reference: Andrew McNeill, LX Leaders (LXleaders.com)

    26 min
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4.7
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Fault Lines explores why trust breaks and how to rebuild it in organizations, leadership, communities, and public institutions. Hosted by Richard Roman, PhD, an expert in organizational leadership and trust strategy, the show translates research into actionable playbooks for senior leaders, consultants, and anyone navigating broken trust. Each episode features researchers, executives, and practitioners unpacking what actually works: workplace culture, team dynamics, institutional credibility, and civic trust. New episodes every week. Subscribe and start building trust where it matters most!

Information

  • Creator
    Richard Roman
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Fault Lines