People are good

People are basically good at heart. Sympathetic human beings are the rule; bad actors are the exception. Set high expectations and people live up to them. People enjoy accomplishing things that matter. We are social creatures. We enjoy being with others. Meaningful relationships enrich our lives.

People take pride in accomplishing worthy things that they’re responsible for. The individual gets to define “worthy,” for it’s context-specific and depends on the eye of the beholder. Slavery, drudgery, and rote work don’t count. Responsibility comes about when managers and supervisors give workers enough freedom to do big things and trust them to give it their best.

Trusting others requires that you believe that people are essentially well meaning, caring, kind, diligent, and loyal. If you don’t think so, you’ll spend most of your time watching your people in case they screw up and monitoring things rather than delighting customers.

Do you support the notion that people are well-intentioned? Can you trust them?

Many organizations have said yes and are treating people like people instead of unemotional robots.

How do you feel about this?

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