TRUSTWORTHY
I previously posted “Never TRUST someone who lies to you, never lie to someone who TRUSTs you …” and wrote a fair amount on how TRUST allows us to accomplish things.
But how do you know who or what to TRUST or how much to TRUST? How much should others TRUST you? How much do you TRUST you?
What makes you or others TRUSTWORTHY?
· If you made a verbal agreement and 10 years later you could honor that agreement or you could use legal measures to reinterpret things and the difference would be a million dollars in your favor what would you do?
· If you are presented with a choice to take unethical actions or lose your position what would you do?
What about all the good you could do with a million dollars, or all the next things you can do if you keep your position? Would you be TRUSTWORTHY when facing such scenarios?
I have seen millions in profit for a company and hundreds of jobs created from decisions based on TRUST (before having the directly observed evidence to know for sure who is TRUSTWORTHY) and I have seen delays or missteps that have squandered opportunities for millions in profit and hundreds of jobs because of TRUST in people, processes or systems that were not TRUSTWORTHY. Easy to see in hindsight, but hard to know up front.
We can (and do) create legal obligations through public rules and written contracts to account for our inability to TRUST each other and the reality that not everyone is TRUSTWORTHY. But there are always creative ways to reinterpret such things and I have seen people and organizations fail to reach agreements when caught up in negotiating the language of how to manage failure of TRUST instead of focusing on the primary goals. And we can’t create contracts for everything we do every day, yet we need to determine who and what is TRUSTWORTHY for many of our decisions.
I think the most important early step in decision-making, negotiations, relationships and achievements is figuring out who, what and how much you can TRUST.
I don’t have any profound statement on the trustworthiness of others (my expertise in determining trustworthiness of medical evidence does not directly translate to determining trustworthiness of people).
But for a profound statement the Shakespeare line of “To thine own self be true” comes to mind. You can consider how TRUSTWORTHY you are. After all you are the one person you must live with for the rest of your life.
Senior Research Scientist, Analyst, Program Manager, Editor in Chief
8 年What evidence can be provided that they are worthy of trust or that you are worthy of their trust. Counting the cost and coming to terms with that may be important also.
Senior Research Scientist, Analyst, Program Manager, Editor in Chief
8 年I don't know that failure of trust can be managed, it is like grief. No contract is tight enough to protect the core. Managing ourselves to be trustworthy at any cost sets up a law of reaping and sowing, seedtime and harvest. It is a choice to multiply and bless or exclude and divide. There is no control over what others choose except the power we allow it to have over us.
Epidemiology for Health Decision Making
8 年This made me think of my life coach Scott Howard. So TRUSTWORTHY and ethical. He's someone who always makes the ethical and truthful choice, which always turns out to be the right choice.