Trust and Influence

The strongest relationships, which allow the most influence simply for the asking, are built over time and have been tempered through hard times. These relationships have become worthy of trust. Therefore, trust is an outcome of high quality relationships. It is also critical aspect of relation­ships where ready influence is needed. We’re talking about broad-scale trust. I might trust you for specific things like getting to work on time or even getting a project done well. However, to trust you to the point of readily using my energy on your behalf I must trust you in a larger way. This level of trust is a sense of confidence that someone will consistently behave in ways that will support our well–being—good intentions by themselves are insufficient.

There are five primary aspects of trust. They are…

1. Honesty

2. Openness

3. Keeping agreements

4. Understanding

5. Loyalty

Honesty is fairly straightforward. It means that I can be confident that you tell me the truth as best you know it—you won’t knowingly lie to me.

Openness that leads toward greater trust means you will share—on your own initiative and on request—with me any information or thoughts you have that will allow me to make better informed decisions and to know you better—intellectually and emotionally. If you are open with me you will not allow me to mislead myself about your intentions or expectations.

Keeping agreements is doing what you’ve said you would do when you said you would do it.

Understanding as an aspect of trust requires more exploration. To trust you with my well–being—personal or organizational—I need know that you to understand me. I need know that you to understand my goals, my values, my motivations, and what well–being is to me. I might believe in your good intentions regarding my well–being, however, if I sense that you do not understand me I will not be able trust that you will behave in accord with my well–being.

Loyalty has to do with support in the face of adversity. It is critical if I’m to trust you during difficult times. Hanging together during tough times—when budgets are being cut, when strategies are failing, when a promotion is at stake that only one of you can have—pays dividends. Honesty, openness, keeping agreements, understanding, and loyalty are the keys to building and maintaining the type of trust that signifies the quality relationship that allows for significant amounts of ready influence.

Excerpted from The Infinite Organization by me

Anatomy of an Intervention: The Intervention Cycle

Everything we do is an intervention in that everything we do or don’t do has an impact within the system of which we are a part.

Intention

1.  The overarching intention of an intervention should be to increase the support system for the goal toward critical mass.

2. To establish the type of relaxed, person-to-person dialogue that is at the heart of effective collaboration and mutually useful communication within human systems.

3. An intervention will generate useful information about the system regardless of its outcome.

Connection

1. The intervention should between the supporters of the goal and the goal

2. The intervention should increase the quality of connection among the supporters themselves. The stronger, more open and supportive relationships within the target system, the higher the quality of connection will be. Support toward genuine curiosity, interest, and appreciation while allaying judgment works.

3. Shifting conflict and conformity to learning from differences is important.

Intervention

Whatever you do to increase the connectivity toward the change goal.

Impact

The effect of the intervention in terms of movement toward the change goal

Dialogic Feedback

Discussion to determine how well the intervention created the desired impact in contrast to the actual impact so that the next intervention might be more effective if necessary.

Ego Management

1. Check to see that the intervention is based on the needs of the system as well as your own issues regarding your sense of identity, self-esteem, or self-importance.

2. Support your client to identify their ego needs and how to get them met in ways that support their change goals

3. Ego issues tend to be a distraction from the intention of the change goal and to interfere with the building of the relationships needed to reach critical mass.

Critical Interventions : A New Take on The Stages of Planned Change

This cutting edge article has been moved to http://www.chumans.com/human-systems-resources/critical-interventions.html.

Please read it and send me your feedback.

Michael

To be Passionate or be Safe?

We were passionate. We couldn’t see it then because we needed to eat and sleep. Then we were big enough to get around: somewhere around 18 to 24 months old. The world was our oyster! Life was joyful!

Then it began to wear away: “Behave yourself!” in some form or another. We became obedient or paid the price.

How do get back to that passion? That excitement for life? How we decide that to live with passion is more important than living safely. Before we are too infirm to do so. Do we choose to live from fear or from passion? Certainly, to live and love from passion requires us to experience pain that harbinger of death the we wish to avoid at all cost. Maybe, the cost is too high. Maybe, to live from avoiding pain, we hardly ever get to experience the deeper experiences of joy and love that are possible. What your choice?  What would be the doingness of such a choice?

I know that I have too often chosen to be safe, to survive, to live but not to thrive.

I have lived from the idea that before I share myself I have to have gotten it right. That would be safe. Not much passion there, though. 

More later?

Courage and Principles

Doing the work of organization development takes courage as we attempt to shift a culture that does not want to shift. In particular, the diversity work (as an aspect of OD) takes particular courage as there are sharp emotions in play which give rise to fear. When we act forthrightly in the presence of fear, we are called courageous. What, then, helps create courage? Principle! “Principles are the main ingredient of courage. A (person) with principles can get the better of fear.” This is from a Scott Turow character in his novel Ordinary Heroes.

Why else would we act in a direction other than where our fear would point us?

Establishing Possibilty

I’ve had this concept for awhile. And, it came back to me in full force while talking with Aubrey over dinner this evening. In the process of managing change, a sense possibility must be discovered, offered, or established first. I will add this is the “Critical Interventions” article.

Thanks, Aubrey!

• 6 hour program

Did a long program today with WL Gore. I was very happy with the results! Not just based on the feedback I got, but I felt good about we were doing while I was doing it!

Need to track down what that’s all about.

Better planning? Maybe, and something else.