Just Trust Me: Take II
Peter de Jager is a provocative Speaker,
Writer and Consultant. His primary focus in on how we manage change,
technology and the future. In addition to speaking at conferences
worldwide, he's also written monthly columns for Municipal World and
Computing Canada. His goal is always to question what we
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‘Trust’ is one of those terms we bandy about as if we have a common understanding of what it means. We know it is important. We know we don’t like being mis-trusted, and we know we place people, and organizations, into a variety of categories depending on the level of trust we have in them.
So? What is Trust? Here’s a working definition: Trust represents the degree to which we are willing to make ourselves vulnerable to the actions of others.
How we determine how much to Trust is where the fun begins, consider the following mini-questionnaire. Answer each question on a scale from 0 to 10, where ‘0’ implies ‘No = No Trust’ and ‘10’ implies ‘Very likely = Complete Trust’.
a) How likely are you to lend a friend $1000?
b) How likely are you to lend a complete stranger $1000?
c) How likely are you to lend a complete stranger $1000 IF your spouse vouches for them?
d) How likely are you to lend a complete stranger $1000 IF a friend vouches for him?
e) How likely are you to lend a complete stranger $1000 IF ALL your friends, and your spouse vouch for him?
What is interesting in your answers is how your willingness to be vulnerable to a stranger increased as you factored in the judgments of those you Trust. How can I be so sure that that’s what happened when you answered the questions? Because that’s how Trust works. When we lack knowledge in a situation, we’ll accept the assurances of those we Trust. Ie. We’ll make ourselves vulnerable to others, based upon the assurances of those we Trust. That’s almost the definition of Trust.
Why is Trust important? More specifically, why is Trust important to an organization? The answer is hidden out in the open for all to see in the above short set of questions. Trust increases the likelihood, and the speed of transactions, as well as lowering the cost of the transaction, between the client, and anyone offering a service. A Bank will lend money if they Trust that you can pay it back. Once upon a time, you could borrow money based on your character – that was when bank were smaller and the relationship more personal.
Here’s a real world example of the value of Trust in an organization. If you’re trying to bring about a Change in the organization, then the ease of implementation is tied directly to how much Management is trusted by clients/staff/constituents. The more Trust? The easier the implementation. The less trust? The more likely the implementation will fail.
We factor in five primary components to determine if we should Trust a person, process or organization. In order of importance, they are.
What they say:
Sadly we live in a world where words are the smallest coin in the realm. Unless we already have a certain amount of Trust in the speaker, mere words do nothing to increase our level of Trust in anyone, or anything. That said? We can fall prey to the well formed sentence, the soft spoken and reasoned presentation.
What they do:
Actions speak louder than words. Get your clichés here while they’re hot before they go out of fashion! Cliché or not, in matters of Trust, this one is still in vogue. The manager who never breaks their word or stated intent, regardless of pressure to do so, gains respect, and Trust, from all those present. There’s no better evidence that it’s okay to Trust someone when their actions consistently demonstrate their reliability.
What others say:
As we’ve seen? Referrals and recommendations, praise via word of mouth and glowing references, testimony from expert witnesses, and spokespeople who aren’t doctors in real life but who only play them on TV – all contribute to the amount of Trust we’re willing to place in others. Hence the success of the Consumers Report.
What others do:
This is a peculiar aspect of Trust in modern society. We regularly do business with complete strangers, not because we Trust them, but because we place our Trust in the legality and strength of the contract between us. In lieu of Trust between us, we’ll sign a contract and place our Trust in the fact that we live in a society ruled by law. That the consequences of breaking the contract will enable us to ‘Trust’ each other.
What we know:
Above all else, our personal experience is our touchstone of Trust. If I Trusted you in the past, and you betrayed that Trust – then it is highly unlikely – even with the assurance of all those I Trust – that I will allow myself to be vulnerable again. This is why it takes a long time to create Trust, and only a single instance to lose it, possibly forever.
With this as a framework, how does an individual/organization increase their trustworthiness in the eyes of clients, employees and constituents? The last three are somewhat out of their control, the 1st option “What they say” isn’t that effective until some Trust is gained, so that leaves the 2nd option… “What they do”. Here’s what we can all do to build Trust in both the long and short term;
- Be transparent in all dealings – people need to see what we do, and how we do it.
- Acknowledge problems as we become aware of them. This stems from Transparency
- Increase the level of personal contact with constituents. Trust is mostly a person-to-person transaction
- Hold ourselves visibly accountable for our actions – That Transparency thing again.
Of course – all of this pre-supposes that we value being Trustworthy.
© 2010 Peter de Jager – Peter speaks passionately about Change, because once upon a time, he was a lousy practitioner of the Art of Change. You can listen to him at webinars.technobility.com
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