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