Trust: moving from “when” to “how”

This week we’ve covered two powerful tools to determine when trust is appropriate.
  

1. Invest time in getting to know people.  You’ll get valuable information that will inform your future interactions. Plus, you’ll be more familiar to each other, and more capable of collaborating effectively.  

2. Ask “Is trust appropriate here?” 
This way you can choose a smart strategy to either manage a threat, or cultivate a trusting relationship. If you blindly try to build trust with someone who has no interest in collaborating, you can end up getting “bitten” and jaded about trust.  

In a future week, we’ll look at the ideal case, where

(more…)

The critical trust question

Many years ago I was the manager for a large website when one day, the phone rang.

On the line was “John” the manager for a new product group within the company. Several weeks prior, a critical member of my team, “Roger”, had asked for formal permission to interview for a position on John’s team.

It was the height of the Internet boom, and knowing that I couldn’t easily replace Roger, I reluctantly gave him permission to interview, with one big condition: he had to remain on my team for at least 90 days after they made him an offer. John agreed to my terms.

Now John’s team had just finished interviewing Roger, when my phone rang… 

(more…)

Laying the groundwork for trust

I once worked for a semiconductor company, in a business development role. I was new to the industry and so when “Doug” the test manager invited me for a tour of the test floor, I readily agreed.

We spent about an hour touring the facility, discussing the challenges of the test floor, and generally getting to know each other. As interesting as it all was, I couldn’t have explained exactly why it made sense for a biz-dev guy to be touring the test floor.

But Doug mentioned that over the years he’d found it to be a good investment of his time, so I decided to go with it. Little did I know that not long afterwards, I’d find out how right he was.

(more…)

Trust Week 1: Getting smart about trust

So this guy goes to an all day workshop on trust. And in the supportive environment of the workshop, he sees that it’s safe to trust. Through the activities of the day, he learns to open up to others, to be vulnerable. After a full and satisfying day, he leaves the workshop feeling great. A few minutes later, he’s walking down the street when he happens upon  (more…)

Creating Passion in Projects

This week I’m working with an R&D team in a company that makes bathroom fixtures. As I walked into their lobby I encountered a 4 foot diameter glass ball containing a toilet, one of their products. They also have a papier mache lighted toilet that was built for a festival right next to another toilet in the foyer that opens via a motion sensor when you walk by. And to top it off, the company sign spells out the name of the company in little ceramic toilets. It’s pretty clear that these folks are passionate about their products! (more…)

Lessons NOT Learned!

Have you ever noticed that the topics raised at project post mortems tend to be pretty much the same every project? It’s deja vu all over again!  How many times can we “learn” that goals were unclear, or communication sucked, or late changes to the requirements caused quality issues in the shipping product, and on and on. In fact, the same things happen so frequently that one web site actually offers a post-mortem survey. You can just give your team the survey and they can check off the things that happened . . . AGAIN. (more…)