Category Archives: Science

Build trust reliably

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Hi folks,

Trust is a fundamental in any relationship, but dealing with a trust issue can seem like a fuzzy nightmare with more finger pointing that a carpark full of spider-men [ref] That’s one of the reasons I love the Trust Triangle framework from Anne Morriss and Francis Frei via Harvard Business School.

I’ve been collaborating with an entrepreneur, arts worker and business student on their project to build a accessibility app, aimed connecting people with lived experience with business to make change. This week we were looking at bridging communication gaps and building stake holder trust, so of course the “Trust Triangle” was a feature.

Anne and Frances have strong credentials in business leadership at all levels, and have an excellent podcast called Fixable. In their last book – “Move Fast and Fix Things” iv, they introduced the the Trust Triangle system for solving any relationship dilemma. It was built on their popular article “Begin with Trust” in Harvard Business Review May 2020

Trust has three drivers: authenticity, logic, and empathy. When trust is lost, it can almost always be traced back to a breakdown in one of them. To build trust as a leader, you first need to figure out which driver you “wobble” on.

Everyone has a go-to strength (which they call an anchor) and an area that’s less of a reflex, which may produce the wobble. The terms and framework are used to reduce the natural defensiveness that occurs when talking about trust.

a graphic titled The Trust Triangle with a triangle with points labelled Authenticity, Empathy, Logic

It’s important to remember that trust is a perception of the receiver. If someone has a doubt about your logic, it’s not questioning that your logic is flawed; the focus is that they not receiving that part of the message yet.

The other thing about it is trust is in the eye of the beholder. This is a really lovely technique, that it’s not that I think I’m logical, for example, it’s do you experience me as logical? It’s not that I think I’m empathetic, it’s do you experience me as empathetic? vi

Looking at relationships with a trust lens allows us to make this intangible quality something we can build and nurture, without it being a character flaw in either party. It’s about speaking the right language and looking at the needs of the person you are communicating with. If a person is thirsty and you bring them a bran muffin, they might be frustrated. Similarly, if we respond to a need for empathy might with logic then we might not be bridging the gap.

Frances Frei’s TED talk on Trust viii is a good audio starter, as is their podcast episode on Uber ix where it all started. For applying the framework a good episode to listen to “How to get your confidence back”. Transcript vii and Podcast-ep on Spotify x. There is also the episode on How to help your team build trust vi

Empathy is a big topic in neurodivergent discussion, and starting with the framework that an issue the mutual gap between individuals is refreshing. The communication barrier between autistic people and Double Empathy communications barrier. It might be helpful in our context to note that neurodiversity has been covered on their podcast a number of times and Francis has been clear on her autistic identity.

Have a wonderful week

Trust Triangle Graphic and text

Visual description: a yellow triangle with it’s points labelled Authenticity, Logic and Empathy. Text in the graphic reads

The Trust Triangle
Trust has three drivers: authenticity, logic, and empathy. When trust is lost, it can almost always be traced back to a breakdown in one
of them. To build trust as a leader, you first need to figure out which driver you “wobble” on.

Authenticity
I experience the real you.

Logic
I know you can do it; your reasoning and judgment are sound.

Empathy
I believe you care about me and my success.

References

the Bat Cloud!

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So my amazing sister has been feeding me with a steady diet of awesome … well forever … but more recently fascinating digital things. Digital things that include over 60,000+ years of astronomers, collaborative digital art, nonlinear culture, etc.

Today’s feast was the bat cloud.

… and I’m not going to even explain it. I’m going to leave your journey to you.

But on brand I am going to tangent off about myself.

There are many things that I love about my sister, and what’s on my mind at the moment is that gold that drops without need of preamble and context. The context is largely unnecessary in a lot of neurodivergent conversations. Especially the ones that fall in the category “I found this shiny rock that I want to give it to you.” They are the start of a conversation and add to your dialogue that may have been on hold for minutes, months or years – it’s irrelevant. The relevance is that it’s additive. It’s an instinctual “Yes and…” game.

Recently, we were talking about the indigenous astronomy from an article. Astronomy is very helpful as a calendar to track seasons, and in the outback sky the viewing is pretty incredible. The Boorong constellation Djuit – the red backed parrot contains Antares – referencing both the red supergiant star (α Scorpii A) and it’s bluer companion (α Scorpii B) representing the male parrots red back and blue halo feathers. Ngarrindjeri call Antares the “red man” (Waiyungari) and talk about its changing brightness in the stories.

Indigenous Australian calendars recognise as many different seasons as the region produces. The Tiwi seasonal calendar has 3 major and 13 minor seasons as fits their tropical island climate. The D’harawal calendar has 6 with rules and observations that are relevant for where we are on the south east coast. Ngoonungi is when the flying foxes appear just before the end of year heat starts.

Serendipitously after my conversation with my sister on indigenous astronomy I was at Sydney Writers Festival where I happened to catch Bruce Pascoe and Ray Norris talk about their latest book on (you guessed it) Aboriginal astronomy, Big Sky. It was a fascinating talk full of nuance and the wonderful dry humour of Bruce. Big Sky was unsurprisingly scoped up from the festival bookshop but I managed to get a book signed for my nephew over in the Northern Hemisphere.

Antares appears white in this WISE false-colour infrared image
Antares appears white in this WISE false-colour infrared image (Wikipedia)