137
Chapter 15
Making Promises
“So are we all convinced that trust is comprised of
three components—sincerity, competence, and reliabil-
ity? Do we see how they all relate to each other?” Karen
asked the group once it was reassembled.
Everyone nodded their heads.
“Good! Now, Claire and Dave, both of you please
come up to the front and face each other.”
The duo complied.
“Claire, would you please make a request of Dave?
Any request that you might make in the normal course
of business.”
Claire looked a little puzzled, shrugged, and then
said, “Dave, can you get me the initial technical specs
for the Y-Line demo?”
“Sure thing,” offered Dave happily.
Karen turned and wrote:
138 ◾ Transforming Teams
Request: Can you get the technical specs?
Acceptance: Sure thing.
“Thanks Dave and Claire, you can take your seats,”
said Karen turning back to the whiteboard, she wrote:
Request
+ Acceptance
Promise
Oer
+ Acceptance
Promise
Formula of Promise
Turning to the group, Karen asked, “So what do you
think?”
One of Dave’s sales reps offered, “So we have a
promise? Claire requested the tech specs and Dave
accepted. So that’s a promise?”
“That’s right! We have a promise, don’t we?” said
Karen, looking out to the group for a reaction. They
seemed uncomfortable. They were nodding in agree-
ment, but they didn’t seem condent.
“What’s up? I get the sense that not everyone is in
agreement here. Tell me, what do you think of Claire’s
and Dave’s promise?”
“We do this all the time, but we never call them
promises,” said one of the sales reps. “That makes them
seem more important than they actually are.”
“But according to our formula, it’s a promise, right?”
asked Karen.
The group nodded in agreement.
Making Promises ◾ 139
“So here’s the problem. We already discussed how,
by not being reliable or sincere or competent, we break
trust. But we make promises just like this one every
day. Many times a day, in fact. Right?”
The group nodded again.
“So, what do you think of this promise? Does it
seem satisfactory to you?” said Karen, turning back to
the original request and acceptance.
Carlos said, “It seems a little weak. It doesn’t seem
like a promise.”
“This promise has huge holes in it, doesn’t it? What
are we missing?” asked Karen.
“A timeline?” suggested one participant.
“Which spec sheet to use. The long form or the short
form,” offered another.
“For which product demo—they have a bunch of
models they’re considering,” offered another.
“That’s right,” said Karen. “This promise has holes
so big we can drive a truck through them! But we
make promises like these all the time. No wonder
we’re not great on our Trust Test—we are breaking
promises that we weren’t even fully aware that we
were making!
“Claire could have wanted that spec sheet by the
end of the day, and Dave may have planned to deliver
it by the end of the week. If he doesn’t check, he will
break his promise to Claire when he doesn’t deliver it
at the end of the day, but in his mind he’s still fullling
his promise. This sort of disconnect can really affect
the trust between them.
140 ◾ Transforming Teams
“So, step one is to recognize that these exchanges
that we’re engaging in are, in fact, promises and should
be treated with the level of importance that we treat all
of our promises. Agreed?” Karen asked.
“Agreed,” the group replied.
“In fact, this alone is huge for me,” interrupted Dave.
“You all know I’m working with Claire to get things
back on track. I’d hate to blow it by failing to keep
what she views as a promise.”
“And for my part, I would hate to ask Dave to do
something without clarifying my needs better,” offered
Claire.
“Perfect segue,” interjected Karen. “Step two is to
do just that, Claire. It is to make sure all of the compo-
nents of the promise are addressed.”
“Jennifer,” Karen said, turning back to the customer
service rep, “in this scenario, who is the provider of the
services?”
“Dave?” she answered cautiously.
“Correct! Because he’s providing the spec sheet,
right? And who is the customer?” she asked.
“Claire,” Jennifer answered.
“Correct again. So identifying who is the customer
and who is the provider is actually pretty fundamental
because in some situations, particularly when you’re
requesting someone else to do something, it can get
confusing as to who is serving in what role. Okay, what
else should we gure out?” asked Karen.
“The time frame?” asked one participant.
“Absolutely,” answered Karen. “When she would like
to receive it is absolutely essential. What else?”
Making Promises ◾ 141
“Clarity around what she wants. In this case, which
spec form,” offered a sales rep.
“That’s right, the service or product to be provided.
Excellent. One last piece. What do we need to have in
order to nd this out?” asked Karen.
There was a long pause.
A customer service rep offered, “I know on our
client ‘triage sheet,’ we always ask a wrap-up ques-
tion like, ‘Are there any other details we need to know
before attempting to address your concern?’ Something
like that?”
“Bingo! And we’re going to call those ‘Conditions
of Satisfaction.’ Does the consumer or the provider
have any conditions of satisfaction that need to be
addressed? You’ve got it. So let’s revisit this and do
some group exercises around making promises.” Karen
proceeded to write on the whiteboard the components
of a promise:
Formula of a Promise with Components
Formula of a Promise:
Request + Acceptance = Promise
Oer + Acceptance = Pr omise
Components of a Promise:
Pr ovider
Consumer
Service or Pr oduct
Time Frame
Conditions of Satisfaction
Karen had the group do some exercises in order to
practice making promises, forcing them to identify all
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