This is based on an internal quip doc I wrote up about careful communication in the context of rebuilding trust. I got a couple requests to turn it into a blog post for sharing purposes; here you go.🌈✨🥂

In this doc I mention Christine, my wonderful, brilliant cofounder and CEO, and the time (years ago) when our relationship had broken down completely, forcing us to rebuild our trust from the ground up.

(Cofounder relationships can be hard. They are a lot like marriages; in their difficulty and intensity, yes, but also in that when you’re doing it with the right person, it’s all worth it. 💜)

Tips for Careful Communication

When a relationship has very little trust, you tend to interpret everything someone says in the worst possible light, or you may hear hostility, contempt, or dismissiveness where none exists. On the other side of the exchange, the conversation becomes a minefield, where it feels like everything you say gets misinterpreted or turned against you no matter how careful you are trying to be. This can turn into a death spiral of trust where every interaction ends up with each of you hardening against each other a little more and filing away ever more wounds and slights. 💔

Yet you HAVE to communicate in order to work together! You have to be able to ask for things and give feedback.

The way trust gets rebuilt is by ✨small, positive interactions✨. If you’re in a trust hole, you can’t hear them clearly, and they can’t hear you (or your intent) clearly. So you have to bend over backwards to overcommunicate and overcompensate.

There are lots of books out there on how to talk about hard topics. (We actually include a copy of “Crucial Conversations” in every new employee packet.) They are all pretty darn cheesy, but it’s worth reading at least one of them.

I’m not going to try and cover all of that territory. What follows is a very subjective list of tactics that worked for Christine and me when we were digging our way out of a massive trust deficit. Power dynamics can admittedly make things more difficult, but the mechanics are the same.

Acknowledge it is hard beforehand:

“I want to say something, but I am having a hard time with it.”
“I have something to say, but I don’t know how you’ll take it.”
“I need to tell you something and I am anxious about your reaction.”

What this does: forces you to slow down and be intentional about the words you’re going to use. It gives the other person a heads up that this was hard for you to say. Most of all, it shows that you do care about their feelings, and are trying to do your b