Day #111

Sharing Trust

This week we are focussing on Trust: what it is, how it flows, and the things we can do to earn it or build it.

In the research, people describe how trust flows through existing networks: if i trust you, and you introduce me to someone, some of that trust ‘rubs off’ onto them. At the very least, i am more likely to judge them in the context of your trusted status.

Conversely, if they betray my trust, the impact may blow back onto you, so i am less likely to trust your judgement in the future.

Whilst people generally state that it takes time for trust to grow, this type of ‘sponsored’ trust often sits counter to that argument - forming fast as it is sponsored into your network.

Use your sixty seconds today to ask yourself how you represent people when you introduce them: do you ever implicitly, or explicitly, try to transfer that trust along with the introduction, or is it simply something ‘perceived’ by the recipient?

One thing is clear from the Trust research: trust does not operate logically: it may make sense for me to trust you, and yet, despite that, i may not. Similarly, it may be that circumstance dictates i should not trust you, and yet weirdly i do. Trust is odd like that: powerful and illogical at time, and yet held very dearly by us all.