Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

What can we learn about building trust from the world’s greatest leaders, teachers, writers and philosophers?

JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING

We recently highlighted the greatest quotes on building trust from:

•  John Wooden
•  John C. Maxwell
•  Zig Ziglar
•  Mahtma Gandhi
•  Dr. Seuss

This week we turn our attention to George Bernard Shaw an Irish playwright and founder of the London School of Economics. Did you know that he received both a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Academy Award?  This article pulls together twenty of his most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business or religious leader, George Bernard Shaw has many messages about character, competence and consistency, the key ingredients for building trust.

1. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
2. “The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”
3. “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
4. “Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
5. “The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.”
6. “Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.”
7. “Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.”
8. “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”
9. “After all, the wrong road always leads somewhere.”
10. “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”
11.  “Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.”
12. “Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.”
13. “When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”
14. “A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.”
15. “Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery – it’s the sincerest form of learning.”
16. “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.”
17. “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
18. “But to admire a strong person and to live under that strong person’s thumb are two different things.”
19. “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”
20. “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.”

My favorites are #3, #8 and #19. How about yours? 

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust, and runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Our annual poster, 52 Weeks of Activities to Increase Organizational Trust is available to those who would like to support our work by making a small donation.

Did you know we have published 3 books in our award-winning TRUST Inc. series. They are yours when you join our Alliance.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

Welcome to our “living bibliography” on trust.

We are pleased to provide the latest free update to our followers.

This bibliography is provided courtesy of Bob Easton, an essay contributor to our book, Trust Inc., Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset.

Robert (Bob) Easton is a Senior Managing Director at Accenture, where he has been for the past 15 years. Bob has worked and lived throughout the world including: New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Germany, London and currently, the United States. He is well known for the contributions he has made to building trust based relationships. Bob’s specific research interest is in the relationship between trust and well-being and the implications for trust models and flourishing institutions. He calls for a positive deviance of trust and proposes a new conceptualization of trust to achieve this deviance –appreciative trusting or ‘the deliberate and intentional pursuit of maximal trust in others-even to the limits of prudence’. Bob can be contacted at robert.j.easton@accenture.com.

The bibliography will be updated monthly as we receive new references and resources. Please send your suggestions to Barbara Kimmel. E-mail: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Again, the latest update can be accessed here. We hope you find it useful.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust, and runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Our 2015 Poster, 52 Weeks of Activities to Increase Organizational Trust is available to those who would like to support our work by making a small donation.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

The World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos is in full swing, and as Sebastian Buckup, the Director of the Program’s Development Team reports, the world has lost trust in:

Progress

Markets

Government

Few would disagree, but on closer read, one will not find the word “leadership” mentioned until the discussion on government. I will continue to contend that the world has not lost trust in progress, markets or government, for that matter. The world has lost trust in the leaders who are impeding progress and innovation, fostering inefficiency in markets and placing their governmental “power” before the best interests of the people who elected them.

The world is not facing a crisis of trust, but rather one of untrustworthy leadership. Until the focus shifts from inanimate objects like progress, markets and government to the human beings behind these institutional walls, the global trust crisis will continue unabated.

On Monday, and for the fifth year, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World will be announcing its Top Thought Leaders in Trust, a group of approximately one hundred professionals who collectively hold the key to reversing the cycle of mistrust in all organizations, via the “human” approach.  And while a few are even in attendance this year at Davos, no one individual can change the course of this negative trust trajectory.

Imagine if this Top Thought Leader group convened in Davos (or maybe even somewhere warmer) with the sole intent of tackling the real crisis and building the tools leaders need to put trust back in their organizations. That’s the meeting I want to attend. How about you? How can we make that happen?

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Our 2015 Poster, 52 Weeks of Activities to Increase Organizational Trust is available to those who would like to support our work by making a small donation.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

Customer service is perhaps the most essential component in building and maintaining trust, and yet it is often the most abused. While the customer service team is the first interaction with the public, and the first opportunity to lay that essential trust foundation, in many organizations it represents an “easy” cost cutting “line item.”  As the economy improves, you might think companies would shift their pocketbooks back to their customers, but in my experience, it’s not happening. Just think for a moment about why companies choose “off shore” customer service call centers and the issue becomes clear.

Don’t get me wrong. There are many wonderful  businesses who understand that without their customers, their windows are permanently shuttered. This year, I have had first-hand experience with all the companies listed below and will continue to support the bottom line of the first six.

1. Kohler– their products are not inexpensive, but they stand behind them in an exemplary way. Something breaks? Give them a call. You will speak with a knowledgeable customer service rep who will have you happy and off the phone in no time.

2. American Express– I recently called them for the first time and was startled by the professionalism and expertise of their CSRs. The gentleman I spoke with told me he had been with the company for many years, has worked in all aspects of the card division and often hops on the phone to help customers, as he had with me. Wow!

3. Constant Contact– for those of you who maintain large mailing lists or databases, there are no computers answering the phone at Constant Contact. Call them any time and watch how quickly they assist you. You can almost see the smiles on their faces as they answer your questions.

4. Amazon– publishers hate them but when it comes to customer service, they have their system so “right” that one need never speak to customer service! Orders can be placed quickly and efficiently, and packages are delivered. It’s that simple.

5. Wegmans– while most people don’t look forward to their weekly food shopping chore, Wegmans makes it pleasant and satisfying.  From quality to cleanliness, reasonable prices and great staff, it’s hard not to trust them.  Not only will they “bag” your groceries, but they will even take them to your car. Compare that to the service at your supermarket.

6. Starbucks– yes, their products are “pricey” and occasionally a Barista may spell your name incorrectly on your cup, but the Starbucks experience is pleasant for customers of all ages. It isn’t by accident. Howard Schultz cares and he makes sure everyone who works for him does too.

This list would not be complete without flipping the coin to the worst customer service companies of 2014.

Fortunately, this list is a bit shorter than the one above.

1. Chrysler Group– for issuing me an undated safety recall notice involving the ignition switch, power steering, engine and breaking. The notice states the following: “Chrysler intends to repair your vehicle free of charge. However, the part required to provide a permanent remedy for this condition is currently not available.” Huh? It’s now at least 4 months since this notice was received and the dealer advises that Chrysler still has not made parts available. And Chrysler has yet to follow up on its recall notice. Correct me if I’m wrong. Isn’t this the same story as General Motors earlier this year? Did you know Chrysler is owned by Fiat in Italy? What’s going on here?

2. Amerihealth NJ – it would be difficult to find a worse customer service disaster than this one. Even escalating complaints to the President’s office doesn’t work. The person you speak with will tell you that they receive dozens of calls every day, including those from lawyers on behalf of clients with the same exact issues. Nothing this company does is right from holding on the phone for hours (literally) to not sending insurance cards, getting your address wrong, incorrectly processing claims, to billing. Yet they have received designations of excellence and best places to work! Go figure. Thankfully, I will be escaping from this nightmare come January 1.

3. Comcast – This is the company that claims they “care” but a claim and an action are not the same.  And ….

4. CenturyLink – these two companies work pretty closely because in our geographic area, without the service of one the customer is “stuck” with the other. The companies know it and so there is no reason to give the customer any sort of service. It’s monopolistic business practice at its worst. The customer comes dead last in every interaction all the time. Be prepared to spend endless hours on the phone with no resolution. The option, disconnect your phone and TV and save yourself the aggravation. In my case, CenturyLink loses my business only because Comcast has a faster internet speed.

Any time the customer has the option to send a message with their pocketbook, they should do so.

Support companies who support and respect you. Dump the companies that don’t.

I know these stories will resonate with many of our readers. Who should be added to the top list of “good guys?” Send your recommendations to barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

You can order our books here.

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.

Last week an acquaintance reported on the ten biggest reputation disasters of 2014-  City of Ferguson, Flight MH370, Ray Rice, Bill Cosby and so on…. The focus remains on the negative under the premise that “bad news sells.” I’m tired of these stories. They serve no purpose other than to attract “eyeballs” and perpetuate negativity. How about you?

Not all is gloom and doom. When I launched Trust Across America-Trust Around the World more than five years ago, one of our objectives was to redirect attention to the “good guys.” There are plenty of them, but their stories continue to get hidden amongst the bad news. The list below is not about philanthropy or CSR. It’s about trustworthy leadership values and their impact on all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

These are….

The Ten Best CEO “Trust” Stories of 2014 (not necessarily in rank order)

#1 David Reiling, CEO at Sunrise Banks Answers the Toughest Questions about What Makes a Trustworthy Leader in our new magazine TRUST!

#2 Starbucks Howard Schultz “Comes Out” on Building Trust, and Why it May Decide the Future of their Organization… and a bit more detail here

#3 Nancy Lyons of Clockwork in Minneapolis Redefines Employee Engagement

#4 Elon Musk at Tesla Shares His Patent Secrets with His Competitors. Read why.

#5 Capital One’s Richard Fairbank Has a People Centered Vision. His company also made our Top 10 Most Trustworthy Company List for 2013.

#6 Trade Joe’s Employees Dance in the Aisles for Autism

#7 Herve Humler Announces Ritz Carlton as First Founding Partner at Impact 2030

#8 Marathon Call at Zappos Shows the Value Tony Hsieh Places on Customer Service

#9 Rick Holley CEO of Plum Creek Timber Gives Back Bonus, Says He Doesn’t Deserve it

#10 When Good Guys Finish First, The Second Coming of Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas

Let’s celebrate these trustworthy leaders and the companies they run. Let’s work together to continue the “trust trend” in 2015.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Welcome to TRUSTGiving 2014, our first annual weeklong trust awareness campaign.  Join the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts as our members help our readers navigate the complexities of trust. We will be blogging (several times a day) and posting on Twitter #TrustGiving2014.

Holly Latty- Mann has some further advice for building trust during meetings.

You may have caught an earlier post regarding opportunities to build trust at the onset of your weekly management or departmental meeting. Because people tend to remember the first and final activities of meetings, let’s now take a look at tangible ways you can end your team meetings that can promote a more meaningful trust level between and among your team members. Again the activities take on the nature of willful sharing, and as such can serve as a crude measure of your company culture within the context of interpersonal comfort and social trust. 

The end-of-meeting activity is purposefully shorter and lighter than the onset checking-in activity so that even the most reserved team members feel they have a viable place to engage.  With time these more reticent respondents may ultimately share at a deeper level such as the challenges of having a special needs child at home. This is when team members begin experiencing one another as real live human beings with a heartbeat. Team members invariably begin reaching out to one another in a show of support, even sharing similar experiences within their own life.

Consider the following brief activities to end your meeting. The content can either convey familial caring or offer a welcomed sense of levity. Either way, you can begin forging meaningful human connections with one another through these small, caring gestures:

►End with a quote, as most quotes impart a wisdom regarding how to enhance life and living,

►Offer meaningful information or tips such as the 4-7-8 breathing exercise to help manage stress,

► Share a brief human interest story (maybe your own), news item, or even a joke or recipe, and

►Invite other team members to share their favorite quote, tips, restaurants, and such. 

The degree of team sharing carries its commensurate level of team trust.  When we break momentarily from “work as usual,” we’re acknowledging the human side of one another where humor, sensitivity, and a certain sacred spirituality reside.  We are acknowledging the poet, the parent, the philosopher, and adventurer in one another among many other possibilities when we share from a diversity of resources. When we engage one another on a human level that forgets titles and job roles, we are providing the kind of psychological milieu that allows the spillover of good will and trust to permeate all interpersonal relationship dynamics throughout the organization and beyond.

Holly Latty-Mann, PhD, president and owner of The Leadership Trust®, uses her two doctorates in psychology to heighten and crystallize self-awareness and emotional intelligence at root-cause level. Her holistic, integrative model extends to the team and organizational levels to embolden trust-based collaborative efforts, thereby expediting both the creation and delivery of her clients’ innovative products and services. Contact Holly and learn more through leadershiptrust.org/info@leadershiptrust.org.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Welcome to TRUSTGiving 2014, our first annual weeklong trust awareness campaign.  Join the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts as our members help our readers navigate the complexities of trust. We will be blogging (several times a day) and posting on Twitter #TrustGiving2014.

Deb Mills-Scofield provides some insight on the intersection of trust and risk taking.

Taking risk requires trust – to discover, try, re-try, be okay with uncertainty, imperfection and even fail.  That’s why learning how to inexpensively and quickly Experiment-Learn-Apply-Iterate is critical to building trust.

Experiment: Identify a market, customer segment or business model that needs shaking up.  Start with the market/customer needs first, not the solution, the product or service.  I call this “Rushing to Discover, Not to Solve.” Create a cross-functional team with air cover so they are free to try things.  Create some prototypes of potential solutions after you’ve discovered!

Learn:  Watch how your customers respond to your prototype.  Remember, this is still an experiment and you’re still testing hypotheses. Watch them use it, touch it, interact with it. Watch how they respond to what it does/doesn’t do, where their eyes go first, where they seem stumped or frustrated, where they seem excited.  Ask questions to clarify and understand, not to advise or judge.

Apply:  Take this learning and change your potential solutions, prototypes, accordingly.  You will be wrong about a lot! Go back to your customers with the changed prototypes and test again.  The purpose is to test your hypotheses so you can create a solution that really meets your customers needs, not your needs.

Iterate:  Repeat Experiment-Learn-Apply until you create a meaningful, valuable solution for your customers or determine you can’t. 

The ELAI model is pretty straightforward.  Don’t overcomplicate it.  Get out and do it! You’ll be surprised at the level of trust and know-how you create!

Deborah Mills-Scofield has her own consultancy on innovation and strategy & is a partner in a Venture Capital firm.  Deb writes for Harvard Business Review, Switch and Shift & other venues, including her blog, & has contributed to several books. Her Bell Labs patent was one of AT&T & Lucent’s highest-revenue generating patents.  She can be reached at @dscofield or dms@mills-scofield.com.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

“The rotten apple spoils his companion.” Benjamin Franklin

Yesterday John Baldoni published a thought provoking article in Forbes  Trust Matters Even to the NFL, and he was kind enough to include some of my thoughts.

At Trust Across America-Trust Around the World we believe that often the most well-deserving, shiniest apples are not those that get the most press coverage. The Manning family, and Eli in particular, have been vocal about the issue of domestic violence and its negative impact on the NFL’s image. Eli is not alone. There are many players in the NFL with high integrity and character. We should not forget this.

Regardless of the organization, when a crisis occurs, it become the problem of every stakeholder, whether they are innocent or guilty. It is important to remember that trust is built in incremental steps. In the course of doing so, the organization, and its leadership, bank trust. When a crisis strikes, they are better prepared and the blow is softened.

Let’s not blame the Eli Manning’s or the NFL “team” for the bad apples, or the resulting fallout from the latest scandal.

This story is really no different than General Motors. Rotten cultures produce rotten apples.

The NFL did not take the proactive steps required to bank trust in their organization, nor to build a trustworthy culture.

Quite simply, that’s a leadership issue. If trust is embraced as a business imperative, the next crisis just might be avoided.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

                                                                                                  Coming Soon!

Should you wish to communicate directly with Barbara, drop her a note at Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2014, Next Decade, Inc.

Yesterday at lunch my colleague made a statement I hear rather frequently.

“It takes years to build trust but it can be destroyed in a second.”

I don’t agree.

A person with high integrity, a leader with outstanding character, an organization that has committed the time to build a trust bank account will not have trust destroyed as quickly as those who haven’t.

Yes, trust building takes time.  In the long run it’s worth it. Your next misstep (and we all make them) may not be the one that brings down the house.

Why not start today?

What do you think? Leave your comments below or  send them along.

Email: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

. 

Leaders Often Overlook the Obvious

Remember, What You Give is Often What You Get 

The following comments are sure to reduce the level of trust among your team.

How often have you heard these?

• Who works for whom?
• Because I said so.
• Fudge it if you don’t know.
• Who do you think you are?
• Not now.
• So what? Who cares?
• Don’t make a mistake.
• Who do you think you’re talking to?
• My door is closed for a reason.
• Because I make the rules.

What would you add to this list of things trustworthy leaders should never say?

Please share your comments and suggestions! Email: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Barbara Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series.

.