The Importance of Trust

Engineers, especially those involved in the public sector, must function under the microscope of public trust.  Trust between owners and engineers is the glue that holds the entire profession together.  Without public trust and our personal relationships with key stakeholders, the system of quality infrastructure sort of grinds to a halt.

Incoming UT Chancellor McRaven gets at the importance of trust during an interview with the Texas Tribune:

McRaven: It’s about establishing trust. My job really is to be the CEO of the UT System. I have to be able to have trust between the board of regents and myself. They’ve got to trust me to do the job. And then, frankly, I’ve got to build the trust between the presidents of the institutions and myself. And it starts with me.

I believe it is all about making sure I am trustworthy. The way you do that is all about building personal relationships. You have to meet people. They have to know that you have a wife and kids and what your desires are, what your goals are. Because if you have no personal relationship with these people, then when the times get tough, it’s really hard to trust them.

There are going to be some hard decisions that have to be made. But if you make the hard decisions and people trust you because you have that personal relationship, it’s going to make the outcome all that much easier. So, job one is to build trust, which is what I intend to do. I think if you do that, we’ll get past these. 

We have to resolve these. I’m not saying the disputes are wrong. I’m just saying we have to resolve them and move on.