The Two Most Important Words in Business (Final)

Building Trust and Communication

Now we can return to our original question and the title of this article… the two most important words in business. Consider the following questions:

• What happens when someone promises to take action, but then they consistently fail to take action? Answer: they undermine your trust.
• What if you are a project team member but the intended outcomes of the project have never been made clear to you? Answer: it demonstrates a lack of communication.
• What happens if a contractor promises to achieve agreed-upon outcomes (e.g., deliverables), but they consistently fail to deliver? Answer: you may question their trustworthiness.
• What is it like to have a long list of priorities (outcomes), but you don't know which ones are the real priorities? Answer: this is poor communication.
• What if your boss is a micromanager who dictates all your daily actions and doesn’t allow you to use your creative imagination? Answer: your boss doesn’t have the capacity to trust you.
• What is it like to be on a team where complex interdependent actions between people are always clear, yet very little effort is expended to communicate these actions? Answer: the team has outstanding communication skills.
• What happens when a business stops focusing on physical presence of employees (attendance records) and starts focusing on achieving intended outcomes? Answer: it builds a culture of trust and communication.
• What happens if your business implements change control only on its intended outcomes, but its knowledge workers are free to coordinate discrete actions that will achieve those intended outcomes? Answer: it builds a culture of trust and communication.

It isn’t sufficient to say that trust and communication are important. If we don’t understand the difference between activities that are derived through outcome analysis and activities that are created through action synthesis, we are more likely to undermine trust and communication. If, however, we understand the vital difference between outcome analysis and action synthesis, and we leverage those differences, we can build trust and improve communication. That’s why I believe the words outcomes and actions are the most important words in business.

P.s., To learn more about the power of outcome-thinking combined with the power next-action decisions, I highly recommend the book Getting Things Done[2] by David Allen.

[2] Allen, David (2001), Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, Penguin Books, New York, ISBN 0-670-89924-0 (hc.).