"SPEED TRUSTING"

On board ships or ashore, having a great deal of trust amongst each other makes work safer, more efficient, provides a greater sense of well-being and fewer conflicts. From a leadership perspective, management research shows that trust is always a key parameter for success.

Building trust takes time and requires effort from everyone involved. Ashore, building trust may take less time and effort as we often tend to work with the same people for long periods and in time we get to know each other’s personalities and competencies. On board ships, you are constantly required to work together with colleagues that have just arrived or are soon leaving. Whether you are senior officer or junior-most on board, the fact that new people come on board can be routine and potentially be a challenge. So, how can one start build trust and get to know one another in a short period of time?

SPEED TRUSTING SOLUTION

A simple solution is curiosity, whereby you eventually build a Trust Culture on board your ship or ashore. If you have tried Speed Dating then you know what it is like to get to know a stranger and build trust in a short period of time. Speed Trusting is like Speed Dating, where you have few minutes to get to know a new person on board the ship and still have to get into a working relationship through mutual trust. There are various ways for creating speed trusting. To help you start the process, I would like to focus on two key areas, which are Informal communication and Cultural skills.

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION

Create time for informal communication with your colleagues by asking questions about family, favourite sport, or hobbies. You could take notes to remember names of family members, special occasions etc. It creates trust between the two of you, if you remember these. A simple “good morning” or “how are you doing today?” can get you far in initiating a conversation. Engage in initiatives to arrange tournaments, BBQ’s, karaoke or encourage crew to suggest ideas for social events.

CULTURAL SKILLS

Curiosity is the key on board and it is important to observe, listen, ad understand cultural aspects that may be the reason for certain actions or behaviours. Ask your colleagues about their culture, customs, its speciality and important dates. Looking for similarities as opposed to differences among cultures may help you understand that individual personalities affect their behaviour at least as much as their cultural backgrounds. Be aware of your own cultural background, its values important to you - and that it may differ from the values of your colleagues. I believe that these two key areas are simple, specific and action oriented, which will allow you to focus on how you can speed up the process of establishing a high level of trust on board. Give this a try and let me know how it went.

"Curiosity is the key and it is important to observe, listen, and understand cultural aspects that may be the reason for certain actions or behaviours."