More journaling

let-people-fail.org

@@ -7,18 +7,23 @@
 * How (and why) to let people fail
 Warning: This, like most things, will involve a fair bit of projection.
 
-I have some thoughts about collaboration.
+Effective and enjoyable collaboration with other people requires mutual trust.
 
-While a lot of this is obvious and well accepted, I think there are some fine points worth elaborating on.
+I believe that for someone to feel trusted by another person then they need the space to fail.
 
-The obvious part is that people work better together when they believe they are trusted. Trust breeds initiative and independence. Distrust breeds resentment and inaction.
+I _think_ this is obvious when considering what not having the space to fail looks like.
 
-Consider the flip side of trust, for a moment.
+Not having the space to fail means your collaborator is doing one of two things:
 
-A common way that people show _distrust_ when collaborating is either micromanaging or just coming in behind someone and redoing their work.
+1. Directing every action you take a.k.a. micromanaging
+2. Coming behind you and redoing all of your work
 
-If that demonstrates distrust then 
+Both of these are attempts by the other person to minimize risk (or simply cases where they're failing to manage their own anxieties).
 
-It's not enough that you simply _do_ trust someone else to get the benefits, you need to show it. I think this is the part that many people skip or ignore.
+These actions are counter productive to fostering trust and should be avoided unless failure is too costly.
 
-This is, of course, true in general. 
+I'm _not_ saying all collaboration _requires_ building trust. There are times when you simply can't afford failure or mistakes.
+
+What I am saying is that people frequently misjudge the value in deliberately giving others the space to fail for the sake of fostering trust.
+
+Building trust is important and we should do it deliberately.