Dangerous null hypothesis

When you start a new relationship, your null hypothesis should not be "I can't trust this". To reject this hypothesis, you will end up spending lot of time and effort which otherwise could have been made productive. Imagine yourself trying to build a new engagement with a potential client. During the initial discussions, you start opinionating the client on various grounds. You tend to compare with your past experiences. You tend to factor the person sitting at the other side of the table (without factoring who he/she represents). You tend to like a few things and hate many other. Quickly and unconsciously you feel that you can't trust this client. That is the null hypothesis that you set not just for yourself but also for your organization. This hurts the engagement. The time and effort that you would end up spending to reject the null hypothesis, i.e. to come to a state where you have built a trust-able relation, will eat up your energy and focus.

Instead imagine you give yourself and the client ample chances to create a mutually cooperative and conducive environment (of course without hurting your primary objectives). You should believe that the client also wants to build such a relationship. Why else would someone spend time on it? A slight tweak in the mindset could be a game changer.

Your null hypothesis could be: "This relation will be mutually beneficial"

This is also applicable in many relationships such as new accomplice, new partner at home, and new manager at work. If only one realizes this, the relations would be much simple and pleasant.

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