Whom to trust with our intellectual lives? Food for thought about trust

In the last World Economic Forum newsletter*, the question “WHO DO WE TRUST? “and linked to an article by philosopher Ryan Byerly on the topic of building trust. I immediately thought of the book “The Trusted Advisor” by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green and Robert M. Galford, which provides exciting food for thought about the relationship of trust between advisors and customers.

For us as a team that supports their customers primarily through project management and advisory, the issue of trust is essential for a good customer relationship. It is not for nothing that our profession is considered a “people business”.

Because as Byerly aptly puts it: “Knotty problems call for sound advice.” Many issues we encounter in everyday working life are too complex for one person to handle alone. They require discussion, exchange and advice, but in the noise of confusing, loud and controversial debates, it is not always easy to know who to turn to as a “trusted advisor.” In order to make the difficult decision of who should influence our thinking and support our deliberations, it helps to first understand fundamentally what type of person we should allow.

From our perspective: To be a trustworthy advisor, people must trust you. It seems obvious, but it is a challenge to implement.

In his article, Ryan Byerly describes five skills for when people trust each other:

#1 Benevolence

#2 Transparency

#3 Clear communication

#4 Target group awareness raising

#5 Intellectual Leadership

It's worth diving into Ryan Byerly's discussions and going through the five skills in detail. Byerly summarizes: “Looking out for these signs of intellectual trustworthiness can help us do a better job, as we think through, together, the issues that matter to us.”

Exciting food for thought! We are looking forward to the discussion with you.

* “7 things from the Forum” newsletter by Adrian Monck. This is one of my favorite newsletters because, in addition to the exciting articles on a wide range of topics, the fun presentation with entertaining GIFs is also an eye-catcher — who expects that from the World Economic Forum?

Tip: To receive or share further newsletter tips, you are invited to join our Trelloboard READ.THINK.CHANGE join in.

Link to the article:
https://psyche-co.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/psyche.co/amp/guides/how-to-spot-whos-trustworthy-and-whos-not-on-what-matters

‍