Because the conditions that build trust in the early phase of a transformation are systematically dismantled by the conditions that show up in the middle of one. It is not that people become less trustworthy. It is that the environment stops rewarding trust and starts rewarding self-protection. Once that shift happens, collaboration slows, information gets hoarded, and the team begins to fracture along lines that were invisible during the launch. The leader who does not recognise this pattern...