Doveryai no Proveryai - Trust but Verify should be Trust AND Confirm

The Republican debates recently held at the Ronald Reagan library reminded me of the Russian phrase Doveryai no Proveryai. The phrase "Trust but verify" was made famous by Ronald Reagan in December 1987 after the signing of the INF Treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev. The Russian leader quipped, "You repeat that at every meeting," to which Reagan replied, "I like it." The origin of the phrase is actually from a Russian proverb, "doveryai no proveryai".

Some might argue that if you have to verify then there is no trust. Particularly, if you consider that that the inclusion of the word but in this oxymoron is usually considered an eraser word. Forget everything I said before "but". I am troubled by that because it implies to have real trust, it must be blind.

Blind trust is not often the best strategy. If the clients of Bernie Madoff had verified maybe they would have achieved a better result. It is easy to recognize the cost of trusting too much. We are not nearly as good at acknowledging the cost of not trusting enough. When we extend trust to others we will normally receive more trust in return.

Maybe the term should be Trust and Confirm. We replace the exclusive "but" with the inclusive "and". This implies there is a finite chance that the other person did not understand or might have a skill gap to execute where we need to step in to support. We confirm our expectations are being met and reduce the chance of being disappointed in the result.

I jumped out of planes with a parachute packed by others. As a Jump Master I inspected those parachutes for my men to Confirm all was well.

If people know that we are responsible in our due diligence, they will be more likely to perform to the higher standard. I value good intentions, but I bank on those who have shown they can and will deliver. As a young cadet at West Point and later as an Army officer, I learned that the team does well what the boss checks. It is also how you make behavior to a standard stick. While there are some that refuse to comply without supervision, I came to understand that more often it was about checking AND CONFIRMING that:

1. I had communicated clearly
2. I had empowered the team by developing the skills in them to execute
3. I had properly resourced and enabled the team

This is also what the Toyota Production System drives with the Gemba walk. It's a workplace walkthrough which aims to observe employees, ask about their tasks and identify opportunities for productivity gains. It is an opportunity to identify and eliminate waste. Gemba is derived from the Japanese word "Gembetsu" which means the real place like the scene of a crime. It is literally seeing where the actual work happens.

It is "Trust and Confirm".