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# Move at the speed of trust
- URL: https://www.annemariecharrett.com/move-at-the-speed-of-trust/
- Published: 2023-11-09T07:43:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-25T23:11:27.000Z
- Author: Anne-Marie Charrett
- Tags: Tech Leadership

> "Move at the speed of trust. Focus on critical connections more than critical mass—build the resilience by building the relationships." - Adrienne Maree Brown

## What is trust? 

Trust, according to my go-to source of truth, The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman, is built on four elements:

- sincerity (you're honest)
- reliability (you're dependable)
- competent (you can get the job done)
- caring (you have other's interests in mind)

## Trust in Engineering 

Imagine a world of engineering work where we moved at the speed of trust. To do that, we would have to understand and be guided by:

- the trust we have with our customers
- the trust we had within our teams
- the trust senior leadership had in their teams
- the trust our investors have in our senior leadership

What would the behaviours with our tribes, customer support and product teams look like? Would we interact any differently? How would we coach and share knowledge? 

## Focus on critical connections 

Who are your critical connections? What is critical for you? For them? Might they be: 

- Those who have the power to make decisions
- Those who unofficially are the decision-makers
- Those who decide your performance rating?
- Those who dictate time and effort?
- Those who hold the purse strings?
- Those who listen to you at night when your work has been shit?
- Those you hug you when you feel you don't deserve it?

## Build the resilience...

Resilience. It's not being super strong. It's having the courage to acknowledge where you are and support yourself as you pick up the pieces. 

And having people to support you helps you build that resilience. Those who pair with you and explain the numerous times they screwed up after you deleted a critical container. Or when you screw up a config and have a whole network fail. The people who build you up, tell you to be kind to yourself and support you through their acts of kindness are integral to the delivery of our software. 

Move at the speed of trust....

## Credits 

To Mandy Brown for highlighting the concept to me 

[Change is constantadrienne maree brown outlines the principles of emergent strategy, drawing from the Earthseed verses in Octavia Butler’s Parables series, as well as other sources as diverse as Bruce Lee, Lao Tzu,…![](https://aworkinglibrary.com/favicon.ico)A Working LibraryMandy Brown![](https://aworkinglibrary.com/img/stop.gif)](https://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/change-is-constant?ref=annemariecharrett.com)

To Adrienne Maree Brown for writing her ground breaking book on Emergent Strategy 

[Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds : brown, adrienne maree: Amazon.com.au: BooksEmergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds : brown, adrienne maree: Amazon.com.au: Books![](https://www.amazon.com.au/favicon.ico)adrienne maree brown![](https://fls-fe.amazon.com.au/1/batch/1/OP/A39IBJ37TRP1C6:356-9915704-5002946:DXS91S6ZPCGHATT3NRFV$uedata=s:%2Frd%2Fuedata%3Fstaticb%26id%3DDXS91S6ZPCGHATT3NRFV%26pty%3DError%26spty%3DPageNotFound%26pti%3D:1000)](https://www.amazon.com.au/Emergent-Strategy-Shaping-Change-Changing/dp/1849352607/ref=asc%5Fdf%5F1849352607?tag=bingshopdesk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79989544424834&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583589114406527&psc=1&ref=annemariecharrett.com)

David Edgar from the Sydney Tech Leaders who pointed me to Mandy Brown