Hello again!
As mentioned last week, I’m running a webinar on trust-building later this month.
I think you’ll love it, find it mildly life changing, and very career enhancing!
Here’s the backstory:
Many years ago, I got hired to deliver a failing agile project. Big bank. Major vendor. Millions at stake.
Actually, I tell a lie:
it wasn’t failing YET,
because it hadn’t started YET,
but when it started it was already going to be waaaaaay late,
unless they did something radical.
Which is why the hired me in.
Radical old me!
Their problems were both technical and human. Technically, they needed to deliver on time to a very aggressive date. But that was made far more complicated because they HATED each other.
I’m not exaggerating. In the sales meeting, the vendor’s CTO said he felt so bad asking his staff to work on anything involving this bank. It wasn’t how you treated staff, he said. When I met the bank team, they told me: “Clarke, you seem nice. But you work with them. We normally spit when we say their name. So we cannot trust you.”
Every project felt like going to war.
And they’d been at war for over 10 years.
Three months later, something extraordinary happened.
The bank’s CIO called the vendor’s CEO and said, “What did you do to turn around your performance so much?” and he, and the CTO, and COO, were invited to visit Bank HQ, and tell all.
A few weeks later they were removed from the bank’s shit list (where they’d lived for many years) and move to the preferred supplier list.
The project was only 1/3 of the way through at that stage, but the difference was so noticeable, and everyone wanted to know the secret sauce.
They thought it was Agile and ToC … but it was far more than that.
What changed? I deliberately rebuilt trust.
When I took the gig, I made the CTO and COO a promise: “My promise to you is that I will use this project to rebuild trust between you and the bank.”
Implied in that promise was that I’d deliver on time, to their very aggressive date.
But that was an outcome of being trustworthy every single day. Because when you build trust, everything speeds up.
I had an advantage over a lot of people because I’d previously worked with a consulting company that, essentially, “sold trust”.
So I had a lot of theory in my head, but this was the first time I’d put it into practice.
And. it worked far better than I expected.
Since then, I’ve used the same principles everywhere. Cross-functional teams. Resistant stakeholders. Departments protecting turf.
Trust isn’t just nice to have. It’s a strategic tool. When you’re delivering big projects to aggressive deadlines, trust is what makes changes happen without a fight. Trust is the secret sauce in my Motorcade Method, but I don’t want to keep it secret. So here we are …
The webinar covers three tools that make trust deliberate:
- Trust maps
- The trust equation
- Trustworthy conversations
I teach these tools 121 with the people I work with, and I’d love to share them with you.
Many timezones - 3 options!
Because the world is round, it complicates things, … so I’ve got 3 ways to join in:
Option 1 - NZ, AU, US friendly times;
Monday 22 September:
San Francisco 4:00 PM
New York City 7:00 PM
Tuesday 23 September
Edinburgh Midnight
Paris 1:00 AM
Manila 7:00 AM
Sydney 9:00 AM
New Zealand 11:00 AM
Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/TX9clCzESfqiAYM5cdv_1A
Option 2 - NZ, AU, UK and EU friendly times:
Wednesday, 24 Sep (all countries)
NZ 8:00 PM
Sydney 6:00 PM
Edinburgh 9:00 AM
San Francisco 1:00 AM
New York City, 4:00 AM
Manila 4:00 PM
Paris 10:00 AM
Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/fqMlzdcFRbSgMV4GEUJSqQ
Option 3 - Recording
I’ll share the recording here a couple of days after the live sessions.
No action required!
This stuff has made such a different to me and my clients. I hope you can join me live.
Register above!
Clarke