Earning Trust vs. Learning Trust How Are You Doing

Earning Trust vs. Learning Trust How Are You Doing â€Å"Stack Trust† I remember a body work session, specifically a Network Spinal Analysis (NSA) session, that I had many years ago. Donny Epstein, the founder of NSA, positioned my head and made contact with a specific point in my spine. â€Å"Stack trust,† he said. I don’t know if it was the point he touched or the command he gave me to â€Å"stack trust,† but felt a huge shift and broke out in tears. Trust is a big deal. I have always thought of myself as a trusting person, willing to share things about myself with strangers. I don’t expect people to cheat or lie and I have done things like rent my apartment to Airbnb guests, leaving them alone in my house with all my belongings. When a friend doubted whether I was telling the truth in a recent situation, I was hurt and angry. Not only do I trust people to tell the truth about things, but I also like to think people trust my word. Learning to Trust Can trust be learned? The answer, apparently, is yes. I recently received a link to what I thought was an article about how to teach trust. It turns out it was an advertisement for a Franklin Covey training, leading me not to trust Franklin Covey all that much for having misled me. Nevertheless, the idea that trust can be taught is fascinating to me and rings true. Google searches for â€Å"Harvard Business Review Trust and Teams† and â€Å"Harvard Business Review Teaching Trust† gave me a plethora of information on how we become trusting and on how to build trust in a business. I must confess that there are some areas where my trust level is very low, and where I have some definite growing to do. When I am in charge of a project, for instance, and ask someone to take responsibility for something, I often don’t trust them to perform. If they do the job and do it well, great. They have â€Å"proven themselves† to me. But if they don’t do the job or do it well, my first instinct is that I can’t rely on them and need to do it myself. If it’s something I don’t know how to do, I easily become scared and angry. I was amazed on a recent project that when a team member did not do a task, all I had to do was write him a note and he did it immediately! I had made up that because this person was usually very responsible, and had a ton on his plate at the time, he was overloaded and would not be able to it. Where was my sense of trust? I’ve had multiple opportunities to practice trust as my new website has launched, along with a new email and client management system, Infusionsoft. As many of you have experienced, we faced many breakdowns in the implementation process. Incorrect and duplicate emails went out to my list members. Pages on my site had missing and incorrect content. New clients were directed to pages where they received 404 errors instead of the documents they needed. Leaning In While I have admittedly done my share of stressing out and blaming about all these breakdowns (my web developers can â€Å"trust† me to do that), I have also leaned on the people who can fix the issues. They have come through for me every time, including going the extra mile to give my clients assistance on weekends and on short notice. I’m learning, slowly but surely, that when someone doesn’t do something they said they would do, or doesn’t do it well, the first step is to ask them to do it or coach them to do it better. It’s amazing how well that works! Commensurate Trust Of course, some people truly are not trustworthy, and those are the people not to do business with or form close relationships with. The term â€Å"commensurate trust,† which I learned recently, tells me that one trustworthy person in a relationship, whether business or personal, does not a trusting relationship make. Both parties must be able to handle a commensurate level of responsibility, truth, and vulnerability for the relationship to work. I will be working probably for the rest of my life on my own process of â€Å"stacking trust† – becoming trusting myself, and demanding trustworthiness of others. As I have discovered, I have a lot to learn.

Mars Curiosity Rover is Uncovering Martian History

Mars Curiosity Rover is Uncovering Martian History Every day a robotic rover about the size of a small car wakes up and makes its next move across the surface of Mars. Its called the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory rover, exploring around Mount Sharp at the center of Gale Crater (an ancient impact site)  on the Red Planet. Its one of two working rovers on the Red Planet. The other is the Opportunity rover, perched on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit stopped working and is now silent after several years of exploration on its own. Each year, Curiositys science team celebrates another full Martian year of exploration. A Mars year is longer than an Earth year, roughly 687 Earth days, and Curiosity has been doing its job since August 6, 2012. It has been a momentous time, revealing dazzling new information about Earths neighbor in the solar system. Planetary scientists and future Mars mission planners are  interested in conditions on the planet, particularly its ability to support life. The Search for Martian Water One of the most important questions the Curiosity (and other) missions wants to answer is: what is the history of water on Mars? Curiositys instruments and cameras were designed to help answer that. It was fitting then, that one of Curiositys first discoveries was an ancient riverbed running underneath the rovers landing site. Not far away, at an area known as Yellowknife Bay, the rover dug into two slabs of mudstone (rock formed from mud)  and studied samples. The idea was to look for habitable zones for simple life forms. The study gave a definite yes, this could have been a place hospitable to life answer. Analysis of the mudstone samples showed that they were once at the bottom of a lake filled with water rich in nutrients. Thats the kind of place where life could have formed and flourished on the early Earth. If Mars had living organisms, this would have been a good home for them, as well.   Where Did the Water Go? One question that keeps coming up is, If Mars had a lot of water in the past, where did it all go? The answers suggest a range of places, from frozen underground reservoirs to the ice caps. Studies by the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting the planet strongly support the idea that some episode of water loss to space  occurred. This changed the planets climate.  Curiosity has measured various gases in the Martian atmosphere  and has helped Mars scientists figure out that much of the early atmosphere (which was probably wetter than now) escaped to space. More recent studies have revealed underground ice on Mars, and possibly salty meltwater just beneath the surface in some areas.   Rocks tell a fascinating story of Mars water. Curiosity  has determined of the ages of Martian rocks, and how long a rock has been exposed to harmful radiation. Rocks in direct contact with water in the past tell scientists more details about waters role on Mars. The big question: when did water flow freely across Mars is still unanswered, but Curiosity is providing data to help answer it soon. Curiosity  has also returned important information about radiation levels on the Martian surface, which would be important for assuring the safety of future Mars colonists. Future trips range from  one-way missions  to long-term missions that send and return multiple crews to and from the Red Planet. Curiositys Future Curiosity  is still running strong, despite some damage to one its wheels. That has led team members and spacecraft controllers to devise new study routes to accommodate the problem.The mission is one more step to the eventual human exploration of Mars. As with our exploration of Earth over the past centuries - using advance scouts  - this mission and others, like the MAVENmission and Indias Mars Orbiter Mission are sending back valuable word about the territory ahead, and what our first explorers will find.