Two kinds of batteries

There are two kinds of batteries. Those that come fully charged and can be used once. And those that come half-charged and are meant to be used many times.

I was surprised those very same approaches exist for trust.

My world view assumed that trust starts neutral (or half-charged). You do good things together, and trust builds up. And it goes down when things go bad. Once you have charged the trust battery close to 100%, projects succeed, no matter what. If it’s down to 30% or less, projects start to fail.

Recently I learned from a close co-worker, that his world view assumes full trust at the start. That is, 100% charged. Everytime the other person screws up, it goes down a bit. Never up.

It’s useful to me to understand that this other world view exists. It’s also useful for those to understand that most others think differently.