Trust – how do you get it? It can’t be bought or rushed – which isn’t very conducive with the modern attitude of “What can I get now?!”
Previous ideas of encouraging trust in the workplace probably involved exercises where one person voluntarily falls back while the other person is expected to catch them. And how risky a manoeuvre that is would depend on which of your colleagues you happened to be partnered with!
How do I think trust happens? Well it’s got to be a two way process. You can make a sincere gesture of investing and believing in someone. But ultimately they then have to decide how to respond to that gesture. To put to good use the investment that’s been made to them or to cash out and run. (Sounds a little bit like “Game Theory” which is used in economics, biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science, and philosophy – look it up!)
However I think you can encourage trust. If you spot a talent in someone and take a chance on them, a bond will often be formed. If you make yourself vulnerable by sharing something personal with a friend hopefully they will admire your courage and provide you with the confidential support that you need.
But this trust thing is a risky business. But as Dr Kelso off of Scrubs says:
“Nothing in this world that’s worth having comes easy.”
Now on the subject of Scrubs, I wanted to find a trust related video but the best I could do was a parody of “Risky Business” – a film featuring a young Tom Cruise in a classic dance scene that I’m disappointed hasn’t yet been replicated at an Encore event!
Original video:
Scrubs parody:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=G_NQWAmzmhA
