A Matter Of Trust

So, I’m still thinking about my trip to Africa and the many things I learned during that experience. And, so, of course I’m going to share those thoughts on my blog. But first, a trip down a different path. Do you remember the part in the movie Toy Story when Woody and Buzz first catch sight of the frankentoys created by Sid, the neighbor of Woody’s owner? The pair was terrified at first sight of these freakish toy mashups.

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But eventually a bond of trust between Woody, Buzz, and the frankentoys develops, and they all team up to take revenge on Sid.

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So how did that trust develop? And what does that have to do with me climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro? Well, I, too, was put in the position where I had to trust someone completely, and I, too, had a positive outcome as a result.

In order for my quest to climb the mountain to be successful, I had to completely trust people I’d never met, and with whom communication barriers were significant, to keep me safe and guide me on my journey. For example, when I first arrived at the airport, I was picked up by a driver to take me to my lodging. He had my name on a sign, but that’s the only way I knew he was there for me. Yet I instantly put my trust in him – I got in the car with him and let him take me to my destination. Is it possible that he could have been a bad person and not taken me to where I was supposed to be heading? Of course. But I undertook this trip with the attitude that I was going to need help to make my dream come true, and that I was willing to place trust in complete strangers in order to get where I wanted to go.

Some people before (and after) the trip have expressed astonishment to me that I was going to such a far and exotic locale. Wasn’t I worried about crime? About being vulnerable? About encountering abject poverty? About catching ebola? The honest answer is “no.” Other than the ebola thing, the rest were within the realm of possibility, I admit. But that was no way to take the trip if I couldn’t let go of fear and put my trust in others. And every time I did put my trust in others, barriers fell away and great things happened.

Despite some people’s astonishment, we actually trust our lives to complete strangers all the time. Think about driving on the freeway. Most of us driving on the highways make an unwritten compact that we will stay in our lanes, obey the traffic laws, and not slam into the other cars on the road. Yes, a very few people don’t obey the rules for one reason or other, and sometimes the results can be catastrophic. We have to remain vigilant, and trust doesn’t mean a complete submission. But we do trust others every time we head out on the highway, and usually that works out just fine.

Imagine! works with a vulnerable population. There has to be trust involved for us to be successful. The individuals and families we serve need to trust their support providers, the funders need to trust the organizations delivering the services, and the community needs to trust all of us. Sometimes there are barriers to trust, and those need to be overcome to ensure success.

 One way to gain and keep that trust is to be transparent. I believe strongly that Imagine! is an incredibly transparent organization. We are very open and out there with what we are doing and why. Wonder what’s up at Imagine!? Check out our Facebook pages, our blogs, our websites. Come to our Board of Directors meetings, which are open to the public. We encourage that kind of engagement.

And that sort of engagement can be risky. There are some who think we share too much. I disagree. I think the risk of sharing too much is far outweighed by the advantages of removing barriers to trust. When we trust, amazing things can happen.

Then again, what do I know?