A Chain of Trust - Part II
and looking for dance partners
Friends and family sometimes share links with me which I usually ignore. I do not have much trust in their ability to provide me with good information. I generally trust my own research. And I do not fully trust the intentions of friends and family but they are not bad people. However, they seem to be more motivated by their own need to share rather than having an understanding of what I would find useful.
In contrast, a trusted friend recently shared a couple of links. Sometimes I ignore such links because I am already overwhelmed with promising links to explore. The issue is time rather than trust. But in this case, I was confident that my friend was in alignment with my current interests. I felt that all he wanted was to help me.
I clicked on the link, liked what I saw, and continued exploring.
Linsenkasten - FLUX Lens Collection
This website has 256 lenses to see through, a very metamodern approach, but overwhelming.
The players and purpose of Linsenkasten are explained on their Substack.
We're a ragtag band of systems thinkers who have been dedicating our early mornings to finding new lenses to help you make sense of the complex world we live in.
I am currently interested in lenses for looking at trust. Linsenkasten gave me 28 in the Trust & Collaboration category which was still too much for me to absorb. I selected 5 which caught my interest.
Episode 137 - The profound network value of trust
As we navigate the world, we see cultivating trust is not merely about fostering goodwill; it's about building a more efficient, effective, and humane society. Being trustworthy and reliable isn’t some abstract good, it’s about raising the value of every network you are in. When society seems to take mistrust as a default position, the challenge is to bring trust — justified trust — into our daily interactions. In doing so, we not only enhance our economic transactions but also enrich our collective human experience, proving that trust is, indeed, the currency of a thriving society.
Episode 149 - This week’s lens: reasoning by analogy
Reasoning by analogy can be extremely helpful. When our reasoning is blocked, analogy can help open up new possibilities. Thinking about the parallels between debugging a program and fixing a machine may lead us to think about how to break the system down into components and test those independently. It can also be valuable when explaining a new idea to someone. If we can find an analogy that connects the unfamiliar with the familiar, it can help them to grasp the unfamiliar more quickly. For all but the true quantum physicists, anything we think we know about quantum mechanics falls under reasoning by analogy.
Episode 149 led me to think about metaphors which I will add later in this post.
Episode 183 - From “getting it” to “building it”
You're sharing a new direction with the team. It’s a strategy you’ve thought through deeply. You know where it’s going and why it matters. At this point, it seems so obvious. Someone asks a clarifying question. It’s reasonable, but you wave it off: “You’ll get it once you’ve seen it in action.” A few people nod. Others go quiet. No conflict, no uproar—but a subtle divide opens up: those who “get it,” and those who don’t.
And if they don’t?
Episode 183 is very helpful as I am currently thinking about a potential project. Building trust and moving others from getting what I hope to do to actually helping to build it is a big step. And those who go quiet may have something of value to contribute.
Episode 68 - Making space for open-ended conversations
Disagreement can be uncomfortable, especially with people you don’t know. However, disagreement, especially in the form of collaborative debate, is critical for building groups. Collaborative debate helps group members begin to gain each other’s trust, align, and learn how to work together.
Why is collaborative debate so important? To build trust, everyone needs to be able to share their perspectives. But if sharing doesn’t feel safe, the group no longer has access to the full range of perspectives — only those that are deemed safe to share. Healthy debate also shows that, even when we disagree, we can maintain our relationships with each other. We can disagree without being disagreeable.
I would like to reword this idea. I think of collaborative debate as exploring difference without conflict. Valuing relationships more than ideas seems important.
Episode 70 - Choose enthusiastic dance partners
Change comes in different shapes. Sometimes it’s like a military action: we have to buck the trends, go where we aren’t wanted, disrupt the status quo. Other times, change is more a dance. We need to collaborate with others to achieve our goal, working together to achieve something that we can’t achieve on our own. It’s important not to confuse the two. If we bring a conquer-and-control approach to a situation that calls for dancing, we’re going to end up with a failed collaboration as we push away those we need to succeed.
My project will need to be like a dance and I am currently on the lookout for dance partners.
I asked Perplexity for some metaphors.
Metaphors for Building and Maintaining Trust
Metaphors offer vivid ways to understand the delicate, ongoing work of trust. Here are several commonly used metaphors that illustrate how trust is built and maintained:
Trust as a Garden
Like a garden, trust needs regular nurturing—planting seeds of honesty, watering with communication, and weeding out misunderstandings. Neglect leads to overgrowth or decay, while consistent care helps it flourish.
Trust as a Bridge
Trust acts as a bridge between people or groups. It must be constructed carefully, with strong foundations of integrity and reliability. Once built, it enables smooth passage, but if neglected or damaged, it can collapse and require significant repair.
Trust as a Bank Account
Every positive interaction is a deposit, while betrayals or broken promises are withdrawals. Over time, a healthy “trust balance” allows for occasional mistakes, but repeated withdrawals can lead to bankruptcy.
Trust as a Delicate Fabric
Trust is like a finely woven fabric: strong when intact, but a single tear—such as a lie or betrayal—can unravel it quickly. Repair is possible, but the fabric may never be quite the same.
Trust as a Building
Constructing trust is like building a house, brick by brick. Each act of reliability or honesty adds to the structure, while dishonesty or inconsistency removes bricks and weakens the foundation.
Trust as a Tree
Trust grows slowly, like a tree, requiring time, patience, and steady nourishment. It can withstand storms if its roots are deep, but careless actions can damage or uproot it.
Trust as a Mirror
Trust is a mirror: once shattered by betrayal, it can be pieced back together, but the cracks often remain visible.
These metaphors highlight that trust is not a one-time achievement, but an ongoing process requiring care, attention, and effort to keep it strong and resilient.
Trust is not a trivial matter. I hope to move beyond the basics that were identified in A Chain of Trust - Part I. And I have an idea for Part III, an advanced concept for building trust in communities.