So, football is not coming home in 2018. Since I had no intention of going to any games, even if it had, I must confess to being completely ambivalent about the result. What interests me more is the way the decision was taken, in particular, the voting intentions of some of the committee. My newspaper today has a story about 'the five friends who turned their backs on England' - the people who had presumably promised to vote in favour of the English bid who then didn't, resulting in only two votes being cast for them - not enough to get through to the second round. Whether the bid team were right to trust these people to vote for them is not too important to me. Instead, I wonder how much do we trust the people we do business with?
Hopefully, we can trust our colleagues, our bosses and our staff - they are all on the same team as us and mistrust would seriously damage our performance together. But its not always a given.
What about our suppliers - do we expect them to deliver what they promised, when its due? Over the years, have we have grown to trust them based on their previous performances? Alternatively do we cross our fingers every time we are forced to put in an order, hoping it will work out okay?
And then there's our customers; do we trust them to respond in rational ways, to respect our products, be loyal to our brands?
If the answer is no to any of these - I don't trust someone - then how much unease does it cause you to work with them? How much distrust can you work around - at what point does it become completely untenable, forcing you to walk away from dealing with them again? Are you currently putting off making such a decision because you know it will have repercussions? If so, remember that trusting an untrustworthy person also has consequences that might cause more harm than the act of tackling the problem.
The flipside of course is 'how trustworthy are you?' Are you known as someone who is always true to their word? Do you action what you promise, turn up when you said, deliver what was requested? Is your word your bond or do you bend things to suit yourself sometimes? If you do, how does that square with the values that you hold to - is this kind of practice congruent with what you think is important in life?
Eventually, the stress caused by distrust can bring about breakdown; of relationships, people and processes. People don't know where they stand; they can't predict with any certainty the outcome of someone else's actions. Tackling the root causes early can maybe prevent the catastrophic from ever happening. Building the trust back up will be hard and won't come quickly but if theres even a slight chance, then do it now.
Hopefully, we can trust our colleagues, our bosses and our staff - they are all on the same team as us and mistrust would seriously damage our performance together. But its not always a given.
What about our suppliers - do we expect them to deliver what they promised, when its due? Over the years, have we have grown to trust them based on their previous performances? Alternatively do we cross our fingers every time we are forced to put in an order, hoping it will work out okay?
And then there's our customers; do we trust them to respond in rational ways, to respect our products, be loyal to our brands?
If the answer is no to any of these - I don't trust someone - then how much unease does it cause you to work with them? How much distrust can you work around - at what point does it become completely untenable, forcing you to walk away from dealing with them again? Are you currently putting off making such a decision because you know it will have repercussions? If so, remember that trusting an untrustworthy person also has consequences that might cause more harm than the act of tackling the problem.
The flipside of course is 'how trustworthy are you?' Are you known as someone who is always true to their word? Do you action what you promise, turn up when you said, deliver what was requested? Is your word your bond or do you bend things to suit yourself sometimes? If you do, how does that square with the values that you hold to - is this kind of practice congruent with what you think is important in life?
Eventually, the stress caused by distrust can bring about breakdown; of relationships, people and processes. People don't know where they stand; they can't predict with any certainty the outcome of someone else's actions. Tackling the root causes early can maybe prevent the catastrophic from ever happening. Building the trust back up will be hard and won't come quickly but if theres even a slight chance, then do it now.
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