Those of you that seek to transform an audience, or an individual, or even a country with some truth know the importance of contextualization. So these eight pillars, how do we contextualize them? Well a few things to keep in mind. Even the eight pillars work around the world.
Clarity, it turns out, people around the world that are more clear are more trusted.
Consistency, for good or bad, those that are more consistent are more trusted.
As an example, the compassion pillar, it turns out around the world where people feel like you care about them, where you have intent for them, they tend to trust you more. So how do we show that compassion? Listening, so one level down, listening, turns out around the world, people that feel listened to, they tend to feel more cared about, compassion, which leads to more trust.
But two levels down we need to think about contextualization. As an example, in America the most trusted way to listen, most of the time, is by looking someone in the eye. In some parts of the world the most trusted way to listen might be not looking someone in the eye. So while listening builds compassion, which builds trust, how we listen might be different in that context.
Another part of contextualization is what we might focus on. So a leader, under the clarity pillar, we might focus on the vision, being clear about the vision, or clear about the purpose, or clear about the why. That’s critical for leaders, and it’s critical for others, but it’s especially critical for leaders.
For a salesperson, we might especially focus on being clear about the benefits, not clear how cool they are, not clear about the history of the company, but clear about the benefits of that product or service because that kind of clarity would serve them best.
As far as some other contextualization globally, we need to think about what’s most important in that part of the world. As an example, where we do a lot of work in Kenya, or in Latin America, they might have a bias for more focus on the connection pillar.
In America, we might have more of a bias toward the contribution, or results pillar, getting results. Now those in Kenya, they want to get results. Those in America, they do actually want more connection and collaboration, which leads to trust. But we might weight the pillars more or less based on our context. It’s also interesting and very important to understand the context of what’s happening.
In America we can think of police issues a certain way. When you go to Kenya, it’s different. There’s totally different issues that they’re dealing with as far as bribery, as far as why the staff and the police force are so underpaid, and where they live is totally different. And so all those things play into how we contextualize this work so that it’s applied in a way that actually benefits them and builds the most trust.
So take your time and think about contextualizing these eight pillars of trust for your situation, for your context, for your part of the world, for your audience, ’cause only then people might see how they can use it individually and in their organization.
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