Dear Friends:
I believe that trust is the most critical ingredient to any operation requiring more than one person. Trust binds us, yet it frees us. It allows us to focus on accomplishing what needs to be accomplished, instead of wasting time and energy trying to secon-guess the other individual's motives or "hidden agenda." Trust is becoming a rarer and rarer commodity in these times of depersonalization, cyberconferencing, text-messaging and, in general, limited physical person to person contact.
Trust between people. Trust between groups. Trust between organizations. Trust between nations. Trust between individuals and institutions. Trust between citizens and their own governments...
If you establish a record of trust, you build your credibility, and with that, your Relationship Capital Quotient (refer to numerous articles and interviews by, or featuring, Adam J. Kovitz, of The National Networker Companies). A simple example: I trust my life insurance agent -- he carries a high Relationship Capital Quotient. If I need a referral to another professional, I will phone this fellow because I trust that he would only refer me to a trusted colleague. He has, unbeknownst to him, become a moral surety on all of the persons he refers to me. He is also becoming more and more indispensable to me. He is trusted; he has credibility; he is valuable.
During the Bush administration in the United States, the US lost a great deal of credibility with the International Community (and the US citizenry lost a great deal of trust for their government and leadership). Secretive, hard-line, callous administrations...those who dictate terms and carry out their plans despite any opposition, difference of opinion, or the objections of their own people tend to be looked on very negatively. Be a powerful, determined leader by all means...but do not put on blinders to the reservations and opinions of others, and don't intimidate all of those who oppose your unilaterally chosen course of action. You cannot afford to be selfish, completely unyielding, oppressive and too secretive -- this conduct breeds suspicion and mistrust.
A brief exerpt from the NEW YORK TIMES follows to illustrate this point:
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 -- 9:38 PM ET-----
Outsiders Were Hired as C.I.A. Planned to Kill Jihadists
"The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outsidecontractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate topoperatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.
Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A.spent several millions of dollars on the program, which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects."
Read More:http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na
-----Now get New York Times breaking news alerts sent to your mobile phone. Sign up by texting NEWSALERTS to 698698 (NYTNYT)
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An article which I had recently written about trust also follows, printed in full, for your review. while this article centers on events in The United States, it can easily be generalized to global matters...matters common to us all.
IN ______ WE TRUST?
Note: This article, written by Douglas Castle, was originally published in HUMANITAS MAXIMUS (http://HumanitasMaximus.blogspot.com)
Dear Friends:
When it comes to banking nowadays, we would all be wise to adhere to a policy of "Let the Customer" beware. Count your change. Put your hand over your wallet. Reconcile every statement.
Banks are cutting credit lines (arbitrarily and capriciously, despite your actual credit history), destroying credit ratings left and right, charging record fees for overlimit expenditures and late payments, giving us the runaround when we try to "restructure" our mortgages, denying both individuals and businesses any credit facilities, foreclosing without a second thought, and enjoying the pleasure of government-infused taxpayer money. The Fed is not exactly forthcoming with the truth about the financial condition of banks and other credit institutions. The percentage of the population either unemployed or incarcerated continues to grow. The IRS is all but turning its agents into bounty hunters. A growing number of U.S. citizens are without healthcare insurance -- yet the insurance companies seem to be doing fairly well -- their health is certainly better than the average overstressed, overburdened and struggling citizen's. Unpaid insurance claims are piling up while premiums rise like the waters of Hurricane Katrina. There is desperation in the air, like the tinge of ozone before a major thunderstorm. When you telephone any major company for answers or explanations, you get a recorded menu of choices -- and when you've finally made your selection (*after going through any entire decision-tree matrix of choices), you are put on hold. Every possible impediment has been placed between humans to prevent real interpersonal interaction. And we are all suffering the consequences.
Here's a terrific (in a sad sort of way) story and some sideline articles, courtesy of Yahoo! News:
Bank's big auction blunder
A woman returns home to find a stranger demanding she leave "his" house. » Sold by mistake -NBC Miami
Find how to fight bank errors
Mortgage delinquency at all-time high
The question to ask yourself is, "Does it still make sense to give anyone the benefit of the doubt?"
The greatest challenge facing each of us is finding someone in whom (or something in which) we can trust. Trust is the glue that holds every relationship together. In point of fact, trust is the cement that keeps a society "civilized."
This is indeed a time for trusted friends to rediscover eachother, to reconnect with eachother, and to rebuild society from the smallest fundamental elements of the partnership and the team. Person to person, real space, real time.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle
http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com
p.s. I write for THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. Get your free subscription at http://twitlik.com/OK .
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In the coming months and years, Trust and Credibility are going to become more and more difficult to come by, and increasingly difficult to achieve for ourselves. Based upon the the simple economics of supply and demand, this would indicate that Trust and Credibility, and those special people who possess them, are going to become increasingly valuable.
Invest in building your own Trust and Credibility.
Faithfully,
Douglas Castle, Internationalist.
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