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Some Perspective Before You Read This Story

by Ken Blanchard

Coauthor of The One Minute Manager^® and Leading at a Higher Level

Trust is a delicate thing. It takes a long time to build, yet you can blow it in a matter of minutes. All it takes is one incident of behaving inconsistently with what someone considers trustworthy behavior for that person to pull away from you.

These days there’s a lot of talk about trust and even more talk about the lack of it. But people need to see trust in action more than they need to hear about it. In other words, your walk is more important than your talk. As Cindy pointed out in her introduction, this is where the tricky part comes in, because:

Trust is in the eye of the beholder.

What does that mean? It means that you can be completely unaware that your behavior is eroding the trust of those around you. What looks like fine behavior to you could make your friend, spouse, boss, employee, or constituent downright wary.

Because we see trust behaviors through our own filters, we need to have a common language for trust so we can talk together about what it is and what it isn’t. We have created the ABCD Trust Model^™ to give you a way to begin having conversations about trust, not only in the business arena, but also in your personal life.

Ever since I wrote The One Minute Manager with Spencer Johnson and helped him in his writing of Who Moved My Cheese?, I have found that writing parables is the best way for me to live one of my missions in life, which is to be “a loving teacher and example of simple truths who helps myself and others to live more effective lives.” That’s why the first part of this book is a parable about how the lack of trust between a cat and a dog threatens the tranquillity of an animal-friendly family.

A story about a cat and a dog—is this meant to be a children’s book? No. While you can share the parable with your kids to start a dialogue about trust, the story is intended for adults. In fact, we hope you’ll see a bit of yourself—and some humans you know—in the story of Woof and Whiskers.

After reading the parable, you’ll be ready to review the trust-building resources in Part II. Here’s where you’ll learn to assess your strengths and weaknesses in the area of trust. You’ll find out about Trust Boosters and Trust Busters. You’ll also see how the ABCD Trust Model^™ applies to real-life situations and learn the challenging art of beginning conversations about trust issues. Finally, you’ll discover the steps to rebuilding trust that’s been damaged.

We hope you’ll find the story a fun way to learn about trust. So lighten up, get in touch with your inner child, and enjoy A Tale of Trust.