Thread by @warikoo

A thread on trust...

Year 2006
I joined management consulting, fresh out of Bschool, and my 2nd assignment was for a real-estate company in Dubai.

We had to help them with a high visibility international project.
I was given the job of making its financial model.
There was one problem though...

I hated accounting!
The subject I detested the most in bschool.

I did such a shoddy job of the financial model.
Every submission of mine was laden with mistakes, with inaccuracies.
My manager had to relook at my work every single time.

And then one day he said these words...

"If I can't trust you with your work, it doesn't matter how smart you are"

Wow!
There is something above smartness, something above intelligence, something even above commitment.

The trust I generate in the opposite person.

And this hit hard, because we in India are raised to not trust people.
We are a trust-deficient society.

"Daal mein kuch kaala hai" is the operative.
"Saamne waala meri kaatne mein lagaa hua hai" is the default.

Its why the #1 reason that people used to call the Ola helpline in early days was "where is my cab?"

Some product manager would be banging their head on the wall.
"You see that car moving towards you, on the app? THAT IS THE FUCKING CAB!"

But we didn't trust.
How could the cab be just 5 mins away.
There must be a catch.

Because earlier, when we ordered something on the phone and then called to check the status, there was ALWAYS just one response
"Ladka nikal chuka hai"

And then I saw this study one day in 2014.
It look bleak for us.

But I asked a different question this time
Could this trust-deficiency be used as an opportunity?

And I came up with a hypothesis

In a trust-deficient setup, if you start with trust, people will lose their minds.
They wouldn't know what just hit them.
So they will do even more than what you expected them to.
Because they will take this trust as a mark of respect.

After several years of testing this hypothesis, here is what I have learnt...

Trust is best established in moment of tough times.

People trust us when we showed up when it wasn't convenient, because we told the truth when it was easier to lie and because we kept a promise even though we could have gotten away with breaking it.
@ThisIsSethsBlog

Trust isn't about "nothing will ever go wrong".

Instead trust is even when things go wrong, you know that everything that was needed to be done to prevent it was done and everything needed to fix it will be done.

"I don't trust you because you know everything. I trust you because I know that you will do everything in your capacity to find the answer."

This is what I tell my most capable team members.

"I trusted you. And you failed me."

Nothing. NOTHING triggers a higher order of self-reflection than saying this to someone.
And I have used this a lot.
Almost every time, it changed the orbit of the individual.

"We are so excited to welcome you. And we trust that you will join us. Here is your Macbook. Welcome to @nearbuy!"

This is what we did to reduce % of offer accepts that eventually didn't join (h/t @kunalb11).
100% joined after this change.

"You will be paid your stipend at the start of the month and not at the end. I trust you."

This is what the interns working with me experienced, when they started working with me.

"If you hide from us and lie to us, how will we ever trust you when you do speak the truth?"

This is what we tell our 9-yr old, when he read comics during his zoom classes nowadays.
He now knows there is something important called trust.

Knowing that we will perhaps never become a trust-rich culture, I continue to be a student of trust and how operating with a trust-first approach can remarkably change the outcomes.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody
Is to trust them!

Fin.