This morning I dropped off a package. I parked my bike in front of the store and walked inside. I wasn’t the only one in the shop. The other customer looked at me and advised me to lock my bike. I turned around, my bike was less than 4 meters away. No, I really don’t have to lock it, I thought.
It’s ok
The man said ‘I’ve always been taught trust is good – control is better’. I smiled, ‘It’s ok’, I said. Still, it got me thinking. Because, the whole time I was in the shop, the man kept his eye on my bike. I trusted it to be all right, but – in my place – he kept control. And yet…. trust has to start somewhere. Show that it’s okay, so that someone else can have confidence too.
Chain reaction
Think of the chain reaction. What if you set the example. Pass it along. Because no, control is not better than trust. It reminds me of ‘the smell of the place’, which I recently made a video about. It is also a dilemma within organizations. Trust or control. And where do you start? Should you earn it first (as the saying goes), or should you give it – Pay it forward?
What’s your smell of the place?
The video below is also about trust versus control within an organization. What is your smell of the place?
