How to Change Minds

3Establishing Trust

Those who manipulate don’t ask for trust.

Those who influence don’t need to ask for trust; they earn it.

It all begins with trust. Nothing else really matters, nor will any other tactics that are taught really matter, if there isn’t trust. Can the art of creating trust be learned? Yes. Is there a process that can be defined for creating trust? Yes.

THE OLDEST LESSON IN TRUST

For over twenty years, I have been marching into training rooms all over the world, asking audiences to help me figure out what makes people trust other people. I word the question this way:

I want you to think of someone you trust or have trusted in the past on a very deep level. This could be a parent, a teacher, a colleague, a manager, or anyone else ...