December 8, 2024

Fractured Trust – An observation pertinent to the 2024 US Presidential Election.

From Volume 16, Issue 1: I’m taking the liberty of re-publishing and article that first appeared in May of 2019.  It paints a picture of how things go when trust is not present.  A line between a data point from May of 2019 and one from today I believe points in a disappointing direction.  I pose the question “What can be done to enhance trust in our American culture today?”  Build mass-flourishing?

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The sky is probably not falling

From Volume 14, Issue 8:The sky is probably not falling.
(I’ll probably rock some boats with this month’s missive!) Back in the 1950s, New Jersey school children practiced air-raid drills in case of an atomic attack—Huddle beneath the window on the east side of the building!—because New York City was in that direction and that’s where the bomb would probably be dropped. Today’s media scare tactics have nothing on what boomers went through.

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Rally your team with trust, understanding, and camaraderie

From Volume 10, Issue 3:I’ve competed in car rallies for more than 40 years. This motorsport involves racing custom-built sports cars through unpaved or unruly public and private roads in all weather conditions. It occurred to me recently that the rally team—driver, co-driver, service crew, and car constructer—accomplishes much more if we work together in unity, when we’re doing well and even when we make mistakes. Those teams that lack trust, understanding, and camaraderie simply crash. The same concept applies to any professional or recreational team.

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Reinterpreting Trust Issues

From Volume 9, Issue 11:Recently, many of my clients are having “trust” issues with employers, supervisors, direct reports, spouses, and family members. Many of us have also had “trust” issues with our presidential candidates. So what is it about trust that gets us so worked up? In the last years of his life, my mentor, Jut Meininger, was attempting to teach me that the foundation of all frustration is expectation. “If you manage your expectations,” he would say, “the level of frustration in your life would evaporate.”
What is trust if not an expectation on steroids?

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Trust vs. Trust but Verify

From Volume 7, Issue 3:Trust: the belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.

Trust but verify, Доверяй, но проверяй (doveryai, no proveryai) is actually Russian in origin, although it is remembered as President Ronald Reagan’s modus operandi during the last days of the Cold War.

If I operate on trust but verify, do I trust? Exploring the difference between trust and verification can help you stop wasting time and energy in relationships at work and at home.

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