Who can I trust?

Trust in the workplace is one of those awkward issues.

On the one hand there are endless books and workshops that basically say:
"If only everyone would open up and trust, wouldn't the world be a better place? Why don't we all do that right now!"

But then there I am, in a real live workplace and I see that it isn't that simple. There are, on occasion, people I need to treat with great care--don't let them get behind you!

I've seen the following cycle: someone tries the "just open and trust" method--does this with someone who can't be trusted--gets burned--says "you just can't trust anyone these days." It's a pity.

There is great potential in trust--when it's applied with the right people, and built smartly. It takes work.

I had a great opportunity earlier this year to write a week of blogs for the Silicon Valley Project Management blog on the topic of trust. I focused on the challenge "how do you figure out who is trustable?" at the most basic level.

Day 1: I kicked off the week with my favorite joke about trust workshops.

Day 2: I wrote about how to explore if trust is appropriate.

Day 3: I told a story of what happened to me when I trusted a new GM at work too much, too quickly.

And in the final entry of the week, I summed it up and said "ok, once you've decided that someone is trustable, how do you make the arrangement work?"


I'm happy with how the blog entries came out. I feel that I addressed an important topic in a realistic way, and gave my readers useful things to consider in their real life challenges.