Conversations For Action and Collected Essays: Instilling a Culture of Commitment in Working Relationships by Fernando Flores

Author:Fernando Flores [Flores, Fernando]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781623461348
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2013-06-13T04:00:00+00:00

Managing moods and maintaining mutual commitment to the invention of a shared future is one aspect of productive teamwork. Another critical element is building trust. Trust is crucial, not only for internal relationships, but for customer relationships as well. This is because we invent the future in the commitments and promises we make to each other about actions we’re going to perform. The members of a team all rely on each other’s promises to take actions to fulfill the team’s mission. And a transaction between a company and a customer is nothing more than an exchange of promises: the provision of a product or service for appropriate compensation. Because people who accept promises rely on others, trust is always a critical issue. People aren’t about to hand over a part of their future to someone they don’t trust.

Trust is neither a spontaneous nor an arbitrary feeling. It is not something we develop from “inside” as some ambiguous, personal, internal phenomenon. Trust is built in relationships when we demonstrate real concern about the well-being of others and manage our commitments rigorously. In our interpretation, trust is a mood that involves several related assessments. When we trust someone, we judge that a person is sensitive to our concerns and will fulfill his or her promise.

This is rarely a conscious decision. Generally, we experience this mood as an undifferentiated attitude about a person. We either trust the person to fulfill the promise or not. But we can also distinguish a number of aspects of trust. In doing so, we can learn both to be prudent in making our own assessments of trust and to identify actions that can build trust with others.

First, we don’t typically trust people unreservedly in all domains. We might trust a physician to make promises to take care of our body, and not trust him or her to fix our car. We might trust someone to make promises to attend business meetings on time, but not to be punctual at family affairs. Also, we can distinguish three separate concerns that are always relevant to our assessments of trust. (These concerns appear briefly in the accompanying exhibit, Fundamentals of Trust.) Whenever we accept a promise, we make a judgment of the other person’s sincerity—whether the person actually intends to do what has been promised. We also assess the person’s competence to take the actions promised and his or her involvement—the commitment to the relationship. We can trust people in one of these areas and distrust them in another.

We can distinguish four separate concerns that are always relevant to our assessments of trust in partnerships: sincerity, competence, reliability, and engagement. Whenever we accept a promise, we make a judgment of the other person’s sincerity—whether or not the person actually intends to do what has been promised. We also assess the person’s competence and reliability to take the actions promised and his or her engagement—i.e., commitment to the relationship. We can trust people in one of these areas and distrust them in another.

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