Adam Markel uses lifeguard experiences to explain why trust is fundamental to relationships and leadership. He defines trust as truthfulness and transparency, illustrates it with beach examples (a sleeping lifeguard image, launching Dory rescue boats in heavy surf), and contrasts a "got-your-back" culture with a "watch-your-back" workplace culture.
Chapters
Trust is important. Say the word trust again. Trust. Everything in our lives is based in this word. Our relationships, the most important part of our lives, based in trust. What is trust? Trust is truthfulness. Means there's a lot of ways to look at this. On the beach, trust meant we could count on each other. When we said we were going to do something, what do you think we did? We did it. There were no points for not keeping your word. Trust meant truthfulness. It also meant transparency. I love this picture, right? This is a real picture of a lifeguard asleep on the lifeguard stand. So what did this mean? Well, hey, listen, we were just kids at the time, teenagers. Although there are still lifeguards working at Jones beach, which is the Field 4, Jones beach, where I worked, who are still working at that beach, who are in their 70s. So we didn't just have teenagers there. We had 20s and 30s, and as I said, men and women into their 70s still working on that beach. This is a guy who fell asleep on the stand. Transparency meant that if we were tired, if we'd had a night, you know, gone out with the crew the night before, and we're a little banged up, we told our captain, we told the other members of our crew, I might need to sleep a little bit here today. Can you cover for me? Can you take care of me? Because other people's lives were at stake. Don't kid yourself. Every single one of you right now, every one of you, are taking care of many other people's lives. Your family, friends, colleagues, countless people who rely on the technology that you're supporting. Technology that saves lives, that makes lives better, easier, more functional. Where would we be without our technology today? We rely on it. I was thinking the other day, actually did a little bit of a live stream yesterday to say, you know what? I think in many ways, we trust. We talk about trust. We actually trust technology more than we do other people. At times, I think millennials will trust an algorithm before they will someone who's older. Isn't that true? Trust. This is what trust looked like on the beach as well. We used to push these boats that we had, we called Dories, the. The specific kind of a lifeguard rescue boat that was called a dory. We wouldn't practice on the days when the ocean was flat and easy. We would wait till the waves were insane. They were massive. And that's when we would launch these boats. And we had to trust that every person in that boat was gonna show up as their best, that they were gonna do exactly what they were supposed to do so that everybody would be safe. That's what trust looked like on the beach. It was a very specific kind of culture. You think about culture at work. This was a got your back culture, not a watch your back culture. I think we've all had the experience of working in a business. I won't make you raise your hand for this one. We've all had the experience of working in a business where you did have to watch your back, where politics or other things got in the way of doing the job, or being vulnerable or being transparent. Truthful people use that word. Authenticity gets thrown around a lot today. I don't know what authenticity means, frankly, but I do know what transparent transparency is. It's what you see is what you. What? What you see is what you. Exactly.
