Some of you know that I’m a recovering Engineer…haha, emphasis on ‘recovering!’ Well what can I say, I like formulas! I totally dig equations!! Weird I know but its okay, luckily my awesome wife is a recovering engineer too.
Anyway, I ran across this formula in the book ‘The Speed of Trust’ by Stephen M.R. Covey and it ROCKS! It really makes sense not only in business but in life generally.
LOW Trust = LOW Speed and HIGH Cost
HIGH Trust = HIGH Speed and LOW Cost
Now I love the example he gave in the book. He talked about how before 9/11 you could get to the airport 30 minutes before your flight and just wiz on through the lines. So, trust was high, speed was high and the Airlines costs were low. Ahhh, remember the good ole days? What is it NOW!!! Get there almost 2 HOURS before your flight so that they can check every inch of you, your baggage and perform a full background check. (Ok, just kidding about the background check) Perfect example right! Currently, there is low trust, the whole process is slow as molasses and the costs are extremely high! We don’t even get peanuts or cookies as a snack anymore!
How can we compare that to your life? Not just business but life in general. Because as you can see from the formula’s listed above the more you trust, the easier life is. So now the big question, how can we build more trust in your life? Some people think that ‘either you trust someone or you don’t’ and I’m not going to address each and every circumstance but I will say this. If you find yourself NOT being very trustful of a lot of people, well there is one common denominator in that equation my friend, and that’s YOU.
So how does trust work? According to Stephen Covey, ‘it is a function of two things: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, your motive, and your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. And both are vital.’ We trust people who are honest, and whose skills have proven they can get the job done. Both of those things are learned behaviors that we ALL have to work on.
He's got a different trust equation, but any way you factor it, TRUST is important!
“Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him” – Booker T. Washington
All the best!
Tim Schmidt
July 7th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I am always amazed by people who act in an untrustworthy way and then are surprised by the impact it has on their life.
Being trustworthy and trusted is probably the most important part of our lives. It is one the reasons that personal referrals mean more than an advertisement.
Our word is the only thing we can control. We keep out commitments, we show respect, we keep confidences, we earn trust.
Online trust is probably harder to earn than offline which is why we have to work so much harder at being honest and worthy of trust.
Excellent book review. I just finished 5000 Year Leap and it was excellent. I will add this one to my reading list. Keep up the good posts and good luck implementing Predictably Irrational in your business.
January 24th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I’ve been a long time reader, and I just thought it was time to make my first blog post. Hope all is well.