What mistake has your team losing trust for you by the second?

I spent a good part of this past weekend helping my 8-year-old memorise his two-to-three minute public speaking assignment for school and speak it with expression. In order to do that, I created a system.

First, I would read a sentence from his speech to him with expression. Second, he would read it to himself, silently, with expression. Third, he would read it out loud, with expression. And finally he would speak (not read) it out loud, with expression.

The system worked like magic. My son was remembering his speech. He spoke with vocal variety, gave me plenty of eye contact and was using appropriate facial expression and gestures.

But once in a while I would skip a step and try to move things along. My 8-year-old, normally a rule-breaker at home, would pull me up and bring us back to the system.

Because it was no longer my system.

It was our system.

He was invested in it. He believed in it. He put his trust into the system. And by extension, he put his trust in me.