A trust model

“They don’t trust us”, “they don’t believe us!” are phrases you hear frequently when a working, service or business relationship is starting out.

Trust is something that takes time and effort to build, but it can be lost very quickly. How valuable it would be to have a model that lets us assess and improve the degree of trust with our clients and users.

There is a trust model that divides this concept into four dimensions that can be brought together in a simple equation:

T = (C + R + I) / S

The terms of this equation are:

• T: Trust, which is the result.

• C: Credibility, which comes from credentials or knowledge, as well as honesty.

• R: Reliability, dependability, knowing that promises are kept.

• I: Intimacy, the closeness that comes from getting to know each other. It touches the emotions; it is feeling connected to the other person, it is openness, transparency.

• S: Self-orientation or Selfishness, the pursuit of your own goals at the expense of the goals of the relationship; it is the degree of selfishness in the relationship.

Notice that the first factors, credibility, reliability and intimacy, add trust. They are gradual; each element on its own helps to raise the result.

By contrast, increasing selfishness, self-interest, wanting to push “your own agenda” at the expense of the common goal, makes the value of trust drop quickly. The more self-orientation, the less trust.

Any relationship can be analyzed with this model. One way is to assign values from 1 to 10 to each of these parameters; in that case a relationship of perfect trust should give a value of 30 and absolute distrust would have a value of 0.3.

Let’s look at an example.

Prospecting a new client. In this case their initial perception of us is given by our company’s reputation. Let’s assume a value of 6, above average, on a scale of 1 to 10. Reliability takes time to establish, so based on what they hear from other clients they might initially rate us a 3. The same goes for intimacy, the degree of familiarity and closeness; let’s say it’s a 3. The self-orientation we project in this case will be high, because we are in a sales scenario, so they will give us a value of 8.

The values in the end are: C=6, R=3, I=3, S=8.

We do the math
T = (6+3+3) / 8 = 12 / 8, T = 1.5

So trust normally starts out at a low value when we begin a relationship.

With clients who already know us the value depends only on our performance (C and R), on how well we know each other (I) and on how well we have managed to convey that we are interested in giving them good service (S with a low value).

Typically, in client relationships these values look like this:

C (credibility) = 7
R (reliability) = 8
I (intimacy) = 5
S (self-orientation) = 4

T (trust) = (7+8+5)/4 = 20/4 = 5

Perfect trust would be a 30. A more realistic goal is to reach a value between 12 and 20. These values change with the type of relationship or project. The degree of intimacy depends entirely on the client, who can limit this factor a great deal. The most important factor, and the one to focus on to improve trust, is self-orientation: it is important to convey that we are aligned with our client’s goals and interests.

As trust grows, our clients will ask us for advice in areas broader than our technical knowledge. They will better understand the value we bring. There will be more tolerance for our failures (when they are honest mistakes and not carelessness in our work). Clients will be more open about showing us their real situation. And finally we will be recommended to other potential clients.

Some advice for improving these parameters

C: CREDIBILITY

• Tell the truth

• Don’t exaggerate

• Say so immediately and directly when you don’t know something

• Do your homework

• Love what you do

R: RELIABILITY

• Make small commitments, on small things, and keep them

• Use the client’s, or user’s, terminology

• Be consistent

• Tie intentions to actions

I: INTIMACY

• Be patient; intimacy comes with time

• Open up your process, be transparent

• Know how to listen

• Show that you care about the other person (empathy)

S: SELF-ORIENTATION OR SELFISHNESS

• Let the other party fill in the blanks in a conversation

• Listen, be reflective

• Focus on defining the problem, not on describing the solution

• Take responsibility for failures in communication

• Be honest with yourself: if you have little interest in the situation, it is almost inevitable that you will focus more on yourself than on achieving joint success

• Commit as intensely as you can to helping the other person (your client, your user).

(*) This article was originally published in May 2011; this is a corrected and expanded version :)

This article was inspired by an excellent talk by Ariel Plon, Partner Lead at Microsoft Chile.

Source: The Trust Equation http://www.collieassociates.com/common/Trust_Equation.pdf