Unless there’s solid assurance, we usually find difficulty trusting anyone. Every time I apply for any changes in my credit card, mobile-phone line or bank accounts, the person on the other line will always ask for personal details to verify my identity. In the same way, whenever I interview job applicants, I will always check with their character references to validate what an applicant wrote in her résumé.
In drafting contracts, lawyers grapple for the precise words and strong language to minimize risks due to lack of trust. Prior to the use of written contracts, however, a mere promise was sufficient to trust the other party. Today, it is considered idiotic for parties to seal a deal with a handshake! Background checks are indispensable, especially for critical transactions.
For highly sensitive or confidential positions, applicants should be thoroughly screened and vetted. For human-resources managers to accept whatever is written in a usually self-serving résumé is tantamount to gross negligence. Common sense and the simplest due diligence would require verification in the recruitment process. In this digital age, where physical evidence can easily be forged or fabricated, trustworthiness of documents is always in question. For instance, when I recently applied for a visa, the consular office required the submission of an original certificate; a certified copy appears not to be trustworthy enough.
It is common for people to distrust others. It takes a genuine relationship, nurtured for some time, for trust to take place. And constant communication plays a major role in building relationships. Whether the relationship is between employer and employee, joint business venture or conjugal partnership, frequent interaction and communication leading to trust is crucial for its sustenance. In the workplace, trust in employee relationships can be enhanced through constant communications with a sincere objective of getting to know each other more.
In Philippine Airlines (PAL), management engages the work force by way of quarterly town-hall meetings, annual team-building activities, periodic electronic surveys and daily e-mail reminders about wellness and employee welfare. I suppose management—even those in government— will constantly find ingenious ways to build and strengthen their relationships with their work force.
Trusting each other, developed through genuine interaction, would have significant benefits, as in the case of a PAL lawyer and an irate passenger who recently filed a complaint for damages against PAL. In his quest to settle the case amicably, Atty. Pieraz of PAL kept on reaching out to the passenger via e-mails and text massages. It came to a point where the passenger started feeling conciliatory and apologetic since he could not at times respond to Pieraz’s periodic yet persistent correspondence.
I think the gesture of constantly keeping the irate passenger informed about the status of his complaint earned for Atty. Pieraz the complainant’s trust, such that the two of them now call each other by their first names. In due time, they agreed to resolve the complaint without going to litigation.
On a side note, the recent runway closure at Ninoy Aquino International Airport has brought a tsunami of complaining passengers whose flights were delayed, cancelled or reset. I beg the indulgence of those who cannot be accommodated, or responded to at the very least, inasmuch as my colleagues in PAL contact centers, working on extra shifts and augmented by volunteers, simply cannot take all calls by their sheer volume. Please trust that PAL is doing what it can to respond to your calls.
In contrast, unwavering faith seems enough, though elusive at times, for believers to trust God despite little physical manifestation or no tangible evidence of His presence. The prerequisite, however, is to first believe as it is written in the Bible in Hebrews 4:2: “For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.” To build on this initial foundation of belief, we have to know Him more, similar to how we build relationships with others. We must communicate to Him regularly either by reading His Word or praying to Him. In the process, we will trust Him more, especially during trying times.
Trusting others without assurance is perhaps the greatest folly of modern man, but trusting God even without it is the greatest wisdom of believers. In the Bible, Isaiah 55:9 tells us, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” There are just some things no science or logic can explain; only our relationship with Him can. All kinds of relationships are founded on communications. Trust is best earned through regular interaction. Over time, doubts are removed and risks are mitigated when we get to know more about each other. We just have to keep on communicating…and, eventually, trusting one another.
For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.