Military Review English Edition January-February 2015

WINNING TRUST Do’s and Don’ts of Confidence Building In the interviews I conducted with subject matter experts, I asked them to detail advice they would give to soldiers needing to build confidence and win trust. This open-ended question produced some interesting and insightful rules of thumb, compiled in figure 3. Soldiers could find this simple list of do’s and don’ts valuable when trying to build confidence.37 Behaviors and attitudes soldiers should adopt include keeping an open mind and planning to change and learn—these stood out among the experts’ responses. Among the behaviors and attitudes to avoid are assuming that indigenous people share one’s thoughts (sometimes called mirror-imaging), rushing people, or talking down to them because they do not speak English—these were emphasized consistently by the experts. Overall, the lesson for would-be confidence builders is that to gain trust, soldiers should treat others as they would like to be treated.38 Conclusion Human emotion is often hard to fully understand, and even more troublesome to influence or change. Earning the trust of another is a complex endeavor, and many unknowable factors could contribute to success or failure. Therefore, this, or any model of how to build trust, can never be without flaws. Soldiers must apply sound professional judgment that is appropriate for the context of the situation and based on their own experience, training, and intuition. This model provides one way by which a soldier can choose to build confidence and win trust. It is very unlikely that all future conflicts to which the United States deploys its soldiers will be a carbon copy of Iraq or Afghanistan. However, the nature of conflict and the range of military operations short of full-scale combat Social o’s D Keep an open mind and listen Plan to change Plan to learn Choose the correct person with whom to build trust Choose the correct person to build the trust Designate one primary point of contact Put partners in the lead Share food and drink Communicate through action Give partners a high degree of autonomy Conduct an initial 30-day assessment Engage frequently Admit personal shortcomings and mistakes Be genuine Put yourself in partners’ shoes Don’ts Let your guard down Embarrass anyone in public Treat partners like they are stupid Apply a cookie-cutter approach Assume that because partners do not speak English they are not intelligent Assume partners share your thoughts Disempower partners Rush partners Disrespect partners Figure 3. Confidence-Building Rules of Thumb will necessitate that soldiers are as skilled in building relationships as they are in employing brute military force. Overall, I found that if soldiers understand context and apply physical, communication, and relationship measures over time to build confidence, they can succeed in winning the trust of key stakeholders, even in the most complex and challenging environments. Establishing trust is and will remain an essential function, critical to the Army’s ability to win in a complex world. Lt. Col. Aaron Bazin, U.S. Army, works at the Army Capabilities and Integration Center, Fort Eustis, Va. A strategic plans and policy officer (functional area 59), he served previously at U.S. Central Command as lead planner for the 2010 Iraq Transition Plan and other planning efforts. This article on confidence-building measures represents a brief synopsis of research for his doctorate in psychology. His operational deployments include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. MILITARY REVIEW January-February 2015 89

Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 91