⚙️ Ops Playbook #32

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Hi Operators ⚙️

Over 131 people have signed up to be on the waitlist for the new private membership. Are you interested in connecting with other COO’s, executives and senior managers?

Join the waitlist here.

What’s one of the top factors when building a private membership? Trust.

Being able to trust your other members is key with executive groups. So let’s focus today’s playbook on trust.

Here’s what we got going on today:

• The Trust Equation → trust = (credibility + reliability + authenticity) / (our perception of their self-interest)

• Is the trust there? → 8 signs that trust isn’t there

• How to repair broken trust → Take a deep breath and use the trust equation to put yourself in their shoes

Let’s jump in.

(P.S Have questions about scaling your business? Reply to this email or email me at [email protected] and I’ll answer them in the next edition)

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5 Operators Library Links

• Ever take a quiz to find out how good you are at operations? Want to find out? (Take the quiz)
  
  

• Growth for this $22 Billion industry is slowing down. Enterprise software known for automating back-office tasks is being taken over by AI (RPA used to be the hot new thing)
  
  

• Here’s a step-by-step guide on how and why to implement a product ops team. (Who says Product Management and Operations can’t coexist)
  
  

• You can’t attract good enough talent for your ambitious projects? Did you give up too much equity in your last startup? Check out this dataset from 40,000 startups on how much equity to give your first employees (Carta always has the coolest datasets)

  
  

• Resource allocation is a top priority for any COO. Instead of having engineers focused on the product, try splitting them into different groups (Try adding technical talent to this team too)

3 Ops Tips

1. The Trust Equation

Insight from Steven Drozdeck and Lyn Fisher

Are you surprised when you can't get someone to trust you? You might have a trust problem.

I recently came across a book called The Trust Equation by Steven Drozdeck and Lyn Fisher. This book provides a framework to understand how humans determine how much to trust.

According to the equation, the amount of trust we have in someone is the sum of their credibility, reliability, and authenticity, divided by our perception of their self-interest.

I've been thinking about how to apply this Trust Equation to The Bottleneck. Building trust can be hard when connecting with people online. (Being belly to belly is the best way to gain that initial trust.)

When I examine the variables of the Trust Equation, I see many areas where trust can break down. By each factor:

• Credibility can be damaged when people are doing something they've never done before.

• Reliability can suffer when people miss deadlines or fail to meet their commitments.

• Authenticity can be undermined by a failure to admit mistakes

Addressing these issues proactively is essential to building and maintaining trust in a startup environment.

If you're moving into a new role, be patient and focus on your reliability and authenticity while establishing credibility.

If you question someone's reliability, work together to find a solution as soon as possible.

If you feel someone is being inauthentic, have an honest conversation with them and share your thoughts and feelings.

Ultimately, consistent, responsive communication is the key to building trust. Stay in touch with your colleagues, your investors, and your customers. Share updates, ask for help when needed, and celebrate wins together.

Learn More: Watch this video on the Trust Equation

2. How to Recognize that Trust is Broken

Insight from Rameel Sheikh

If something is off between me and another person, I need to stop what I'm doing and take the time to think about each variable in the Trust Equation.

I put myself in the other person's shoes and consider where a gap might weaken the trust between us.

I've noticed some tell-tale signs that trust has been damaged like:

• avoiding spending time together

• silence despite disagreement

• disengagement in meetings

• closed-door conversations that turn into vent sessions about another person

• people playing politics

• slow execution on directions that have been given

• a formerly close relationship drifting off the rails

• immediately jumping to the worst possible conclusion about why the other person said or did something.

I've realized that people often complain about a colleague in very specific ways, focusing on what they do wrong or why they're awful. But they don't realize that trust is the bigger issue at play.

Whenever I've encountered this situation, I've found it helpful to reframe the problem as a violation of trust.

This approach allows me to approach repairing trust more directly rather than giving into feelings of general dislike and withdrawal.

Learn More: About how to identify if trust has been broken

3. How to repair that trust

Insight from Rameel Sheikh

I've learned that it's important to initiate the conversation as soon as possible. But also to make sure that the rift is noticeable enough that it's truly impacting our work.

I prefer to speak in person, ideally outside of the office on neutral ground. I'm careful to:

• speak only from my perspective

• assume good will on their side

• tether my concern to a specific example.

I've found that it's crucial to tell the person that I value them and our relationship, even if I'm the angry or injured party.

I've seen too many managers get increasingly frustrated with an employee without ever saying anything. And then suddenly fire the employee.

If I hear someone villainizing their co-workers instead of focusing on the company's goals, I use the Trust Equation as a diagnostic tool. This sounds silly, but I try to assign numbers to the variables in the equation.

I rate the person's credibility, reliability, authenticity, and self-interest on a scale of 1 to 10. The goal is to cool down the negative emotions.

This helps crystallize my thinking, remove some of the heated emotion, and recognize what someone is doing well.

I also find it valuable to run separate equations for each project the person has worked on with me, recognizing nuance and avoiding unnecessary write-offs.

Does this feel a bit robotic? Yes.

Does this work to diffuse a tense situation? Also yes.

Learn More: On how to regain your customer’s trust 

Something Fun

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Rameel from The Bottleneck

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