In January I did a series of blogs on “Getting Smart about Trust.”
Laying the Groundwork for Trust. I talked about the initial stages of exploring trust, and told a story of how doing so helped me through a tough situation.
The Critical Trust Question. I recounted one of my corporate adventures where I didn’t do enough work upfront to explore how much I could trust someone, and nearly got burned. And I discussed what I now consider before moving forward.
So now that I’ve covered the groundwork for how I look at trust, and how I determine that the other person has good intentions, the hard part is over, right? We simply agree on what we’re going to do, by when, and then we go off and do it. I’m trustable, you’re trustable, it’s a done deal, right?
Ha ha. If we all shared one brain, this might work. But fortunately we don’t, which leaves us with our own way of seeing the world, understanding requirements, and communicating. Thus as a collaborator I can get into big trouble if I go forth with “blind trust” rather than doing the work to smartly build robust, “smart” trust.
This week I’ll cover three practices that have worked well for me to build trust. I’ll also discuss how to overcome the barriers to doing these practices, so you can get results.
The key words for this trust week 2? Connection, clarity, and courage.
Paul Konasewich, connectleadership.com
© 2007 Paul Konasewich
