The Invisible Infrastructure of Trust in Higher Education

by Claire L Brady, EdD

I came across a poem recently—”Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Laméris—and it stayed with me longer than most things do. Not because it was groundbreaking. But because it was just so true.

It reminded me of something we don’t talk about enough in higher ed leadership: Culture isn’t built in strategic plans, meetings, or retreats. It’s built in the smallest moments.

I’ve been thinking about the quiet ways we take care of each other at work.

• The colleague who pauses and says, “You look like you’ve had a week—are you okay?”

• The colleague who catches an error before a report goes out—and fixes it without needing credit.

• The supervisor who makes sure a new staff member isn’t sitting alone at their first campus meeting.

• The VP who sends a quick note: “I saw what you did there. That mattered.”

None of these show up in annual reports. But they are not small. They are the infrastructure of trust.

In higher ed and across our campuses, we spend a lot of time talking about culture as something we need to fix, shift, or transform. And yes—there are real structural and systemic issues that demand our attention. Small kindnesses don’t replace that work. But they determine whether people can stay long enough—and feel safe enough—to do it.

Because here’s the truth: Kindness isn’t a detour from performance. It’s what makes sustained performance possible. Most people in our institutions are not trying to harm each other. They’re trying—sometimes quietly, sometimes imperfectly—to make the day a little easier for someone else.

• Holding the door.

• Making space in a meeting.

• Giving grace on a deadline.

• Letting someone go first.

These micro-moments are easy to overlook. But they are what people remember. And more importantly—they are what people rely on when everything else gets hard.

And things are hard right now.

Budgets are tight. Teams are stretched. The pace of change—especially with AI, enrollment pressures, and shifting expectations—is relentless.

In environments like this, small kindnesses don’t disappear because people don’t care. They disappear because people are operating in survival mode. That’s where leadership matters most. Not in grand gestures. But in modeling the micro-behaviors that signal: this is how we show up here.

So what does that actually look like in practice?

A few small moves that have outsized impact:

Name what’s working. Start meetings with a quick recognition moment. Make the invisible visible.

Normalize grace. Build flexibility into timelines when you know your team is stretched—and say it out loud.

Be specific in your appreciation. “Great job” is nice. “The way you handled that student situation showed real care and clarity” builds trust.

Pay attention to the margins. Who isn’t being heard? Who is carrying too much? Small interventions matter.

None of these require a budget. All of them require intention.

In a sector obsessed with transformation, we may be overlooking something essential: Culture isn’t built in the big moves. It’s built in the moments we barely notice—and the ones we choose not to. And in a time when higher education is asking people to carry more than ever before, those moments aren’t small at all. They’re everything.

Note: Image created using ChatGPT