New relationships are hard for a reason – no trust. You’re starting from scratch with no common understanding, no established shared goals, or history of goodwill. Everyone’s feeling vulnerable. But also suspicious. It feels hard to take risks or even just relax and be yourself.    

So, how do we get past the awkwardness and start building trust? Or rebuild it after it’s been lost?   

This episode, we’re joined by Dr. Karen Mellum. She holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and is a Human Resources Administrator and Executive leadership coach at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. And she’s here to help us stop waiting for others to prove themselves and start being the first mover.   

The three big questions we discuss with Dr. Mellum are:  

1.  What is trust? And why is it crucial for high performance teams?  

2. Why is trust so hard to build and maintain?  

3. How do we move from being "suspicious by default" to "trusting by design" while still maintaining healthy boundaries? 

 Learn more about On Human Optimization and access Pod-Club questions at: https://ce.mayo.edu/content/mayo-clinic-human-optimization

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