Trust Issues – Part 2

To any human being who has been an observer of events, especially recent events, it is apparent that a mentality of low trust is rotting away at the gears that allow our global human civilization to operate. How did it get this way? Is there a way for us to rebuild trust within our society? As the Human Civilization Reformation Coalition, we believe that there is a way forward to overcoming the pitfalls that this low trust mentality has fostered in our global human civilization. We believe that there are two elements required to rebuild trust, whether the attempt is to rebuild trust between two individual people, an individual and an institution or even between two institutions, these two elements seem to hold as almost absolute truths when it comes to building or in this case rebuilding trust among two parties.

Before revealing these two elements of rebuilding trust, we must explain one caveat to these processes. Especially before considering a qualitative and quantitative measurement of the effectiveness of these processes for rebuilding trust. We must understand that the process of rebuilding trust is always something that is done over time and is almost generally never accomplished with a single action. The best way to make sense of the time it may take, yet this is by no means an absolute rule, is to understand that the lower the trust levels are between two parties, the more time those two parties will need to rebuild trust. With this understanding of the time it will take to rebuild trust, we can now unveil the elements of rebuilding trust.

The first element of rebuilding trust is based upon our expectations of each other as human beings. Simply put, we must set very clear expectations on how we expect every human being to conduct themselves. Our trust is most generally broken when someone does something that is not aligned with the expectations we have. Whether that means we had different expectations of the person or how any person should act in that specific situation, when expectations are not met is when the trust begins to diminish. Moving forward towards a more trusting relationship, no matter who the two parties are requires clear expectations of how each party is to act and react to different situations and circumstances.

Some may say that most expectations of people should just be apparent rules that we can all look in between the lines for and understand. Making these kinds of assumptions is what has created the low trust mentality that thrives in our current day society. Human tendencies cause people to claim ignorance when faced with the fact that they have not met expectations, which in turn creates low trust on the side of the person who set those expectations. Hence why the first step towards overcoming low trust is the act of setting very clear expectations on how a human being should conduct themselves in certain situations. Again, some may question this approach claiming we already set expectations, yet we still run into situations where people do not abide by the expectations. This is where the second element of rebuilding trust is introduced.

The second element of rebuilding trust is the element of holding each human being appropriately accountable according to the specific expectations. This entails that when any one person or group of people does something that is not aligned to the specific expectations set, we as individuals and as a society then hold that person or group accountable for not fulfilling the previously set expectations. We must understand that accountability has many different forms. The overall goal of holding our fellow humans accountable is not to penalize the human in question, rather it is to help them develop an ability to adhere to the expectations set forth.

Using these two elements to rebuild trust, creates a revolving cycle that allows each element to become easier to abide by, as we strengthen our use of the other element. Essentially, the more we set very clear expectations, the less chance we will have to hold people accountable for failing to meet those expectations, and the more that we hold people accountable to expectations when they are not met than the more the expectations become enforced as a norm. Utilizing one of these elements without the other will only continue in more of the same, a low trust mentality that stifles our ability to make positive progress as a species towards building a better global human civilization.

Until next time, I am Jeff McCarty and I just want to thank you for your time in reading. If you enjoyed this post, please share this with someone you think would enjoy it. Find the Human Civilization Reformation Coalition on Facebook for more content as well. Looking forward to seeing you next post. Thanks again.