From what I’ve seen, many processes fail due to a lack of trust. It’s the underlying reason for shoddy communication, insufficient delegation and, ultimately, poor team cohesion. It’s also a vicious circle.
“I don’t trust you to get the job done.”
“I can’t get the job done because you don’t trust me.”
From a manager’s perspective, if you trust your team members, the instinctive and logical thing to do is to include them in the decision-making process. If you don’t trust them, you’ll try to do everything yourself. This obviously won’t work in the long run. You have to break the circle.
Discuss the parameters and constraints of the project up front. Let your team come up with solutions (and hacks, if necessary). This isn’t to say you should build a democracy, which is another recipe for failure. The goal is to instill a sense of ownership. Make a final decision that your team can accept — convincing is better than ordering. Everyone should be able to articulate the goals and success metrics.
You may have to force yourself at first. But it’s a positive feedback loop. The trust will come.
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.
– Booker T. Washington
The user interfaces of online shopping sites are fascinating to consider, especially given how closely the elements are tied to revenue.
1. “Powered by Service” isn’t just something they say.
2. An interesting choice to display keyword examples.
3. More search terms. I wonder if this is the result of a usability test — maybe users did not think to search for “wide shoes.”
4. An interesting visual design choice to place the search button within the field.
5. One reason why Zappos is different and great. They’re letting you know right away.
6. Another reason why Zappos is different and great. (Though other sites are now doing this as well.)
7. I had an item in my shopping cart, yet the button did not change state. See Amazon’s header for a more useful button.
1. This area feels cluttered. “Recommendations” goes to the same page as “Jean’s Amazon.com.”
2. I was on a Mac — which does not have IE8 — when this promo appeared.
3. The shopping cart button indicates the number of items within the cart, thereby increasing utility.
