Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

And that is why I’m glad that I am not a Goop, are you?– Gillette Burgess

Who remembers the childhood poem about The Goops? It’s an oldie but goodie. Our family recited it in lieu of a prayer at the dinner table, and now as an adult, I have relatively good table manners. When we don’t teach our children “right from wrong” and ignore or overlook their bad behavior, they carry it into adulthood.

Certain professions are reputed for low ethics- bankers, lawyers, PR firms, marketing consultants. The world of trust and leadership is not without its goops, perhaps because there are simply no barriers to entry. One need not have a college degree, any experience or table manners. Like me, I’m sure you’ve met your fair share along the way.

Use this as a checklist to identify the next goop you meet.

• They grandstand about the importance of trust, integrity, values, ethics and leadership but are incapable of walking it in their daily lives. They never learned how to use the soup spoon, let alone the knife and fork.
• They help themselves to the work of others without proper attribution, also known as plagiarism.
• They “borrow” intellectual property-  logos, pictures, articles and anything else they choose with a sense of entitlement and no remorse.
• Their professional “claims” can’t be verified or checked.
• They are quick to blame but slow to accept responsibility.
• They say they are givers which makes them the worst kind of takers.
• They don’t keep their word.
• They speak hollow lingo- “listening” (this week), “mindfulness” (last week) and “trust” the week before.
• “Thank you” and “I’m sorry” are not part of their vocabulary.
• They lick their plates 🙂

Do any of the above sound familiar?

Why do we have “high trust” expectations of leaders in business, politics, media and sports? Why should we expect these public figures to be trustworthy when many of the people who claim to be the teachers and advisors to leaders on ethics and trust are not?

It’s lunchtime. I think I’ll go slurp some soup and join the rest of the goops. On second thought, I think I’ll pass. I’d rather go hungry. How about you?

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in learning more, and 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.

According to an earlier report by NJ 101.5 radio Chris Christie said he played by the rules during recent travel. And how exactly does Christie define playing by the rules?

“Everything that I do is cleared by ethics folks before I do it, and yeah I’m completely comfortable with it because I comply with the rules,” he said.

Makes sense, so what’s the problem? After all, it seems Christie broke no rules nor violated any laws.

Simply stated, the “ethics folks” are all attorneys. They are charged with ensuring compliance and nothing more. But what if Christie had posed the same scenario to his invisible “trust” staff. No doubt, their answer would have been quite different.

And therein lies the problem.

The public is demanding something else, something more than just compliance, something meaningful and authentic. Something that shows character and values. Whether it’s politicians, business leaders or sports figures, “playing by the rules” is no longer “enough.”

Visionary leaders build trust into their organization’s DNA through trustworthy leadership. While their “ethics folks” are certainly capable of keeping them “legal,” it takes the right kind of leader, surrounded by the right staff, to proactively take the next step toward building stakeholder trust.

Sorry Chris. From one LHS grad to another I like you, but you’re not getting what it takes to differentiate yourself from your colleagues.  The good news is, you have lots of company that doesn’t either.

And fortunately, it’s never too late to start building trust.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in learning more, and 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.

Donna Boehme recently shared a Wall St. Journal article by Ben DiPietro called I Wouldn’t Trust Us if I Were You.

A survey of 1,000 security and IT executives from around the world found 25% of respondents saying if they were a customer of their organization, they wouldn’t trust their company to store and manage their personal data…The research findings reveal some interesting contradictions between the perception and the reality of data security.

The article goes on to explore the findings from other data security surveys. But it was the comment at the end by Bruce K. that drove the point of today’s blog post home. Bruce writes:

Several years ago when I was working for a large international firm I found that the senior company execs that knew the least about IT were the most confident about their companies security and in many cases these were the companies that had the most porous borders. and data security controls.

Does the same apply to other important yet overlooked factors impacting organizational trust? Employee engagement, innovation, speed of decision making, and most important, profitability? As companies remain “stuck” in quarterly earnings and “compliance only” mentality, are senior execs ignoring the conditions that elevate organizational trust?

Data breaches are just one symptom of a diseased organization. Perhaps the impact of the others is not as deeply felt, but sometimes those are the ones that pose the largest threat to long-term success.

Our Trust Alliance has assembled a basic membership toolkit of organizational trust resources to help leaders in the best organizations get better by building trust into their long-term business strategy. The rest can continue to turn a deaf ear to trust and wait for the next data breach.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in learning more, and 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.

Should Brian Williams have been fired?

Two recent surveys conducted by the public relations firm of Edelman and the polling firm of Rasmussen Reports place public trust in media at historic lows. Edelman’s most recent global Trust Barometer shows a continuing decline in trust, down from 53% a year ago to 51% in 2015. Rasmussen’s poll of Americans is just slightly better.

The Williams incident is certainly not NBC’s first scandal. In fact, just a few days prior, another NBC debacle was swept under the rug in Washington. And let’s not forget Don Imus, Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, Mitt Romney and Martin Bashir to name just a few in recent years.

Does NBC think that firing Brian Williams is going to reverse this escalating decline of consumer trust in the media? According to NBC News President Deborah Turness, they do. Apparently, Brian has “a responsibility to be truthful and uphold high standards,” while the rest of the organization gets a free “pass.” Turness has had her hands full since joining NBC in 2013. And  for those who may have forgotten who owns the company, it’s Comcast, under the direction of Brian Roberts, another organization with more than just an occasional “oops.” In fact, Frank Eliason, the original “Comcast Cares” guy recently wrote this article about his former employer. If your bill came addressed to “Dear A–Hole would your trust in Comcast increase or decrease?

Can anyone else identify the real culprit here? Call it a lie, an embellishment, a mistake or a conflation, what Brian Williams did was wrong. But should NBC have fired him? Considering Williams is just one mangled car in a bad train wreck, how much responsibility lies with his boss and his or her boss’s boss? After all, aren’t they at least as much to blame as Williams, if not more so?

NBC has a problem with its culture. In fact, the entire industry does. Yet, that goes unmentioned by the people who have the power to change it.  Deborah Turness certainly didn’t mention culture when she fired Williams. And until she, Brian Roberts the remainder of the “C Suite” and the Board of Directors acknowledge their untrustworthy culture and take responsibility for affecting change, the industry will continue to lose the public’s trust. That’s the way trust works.

Brian Williams is just a symptom of a much larger problem. What is stopping the executives at NBC and every other media outlet from taking responsibility and charting a course to fix this systemic disease? The downward spiral of public distrust in media need not continue. Will the industry use the Williams incident as a culture wake-up call, before the public turns its back on it for good? What do you think?

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in learning more, and 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.

What would happen if the following prerecorded messages were made illegal?

Your call is important to us

Listen as our menu options have changed

We are experiencing unusually high call volume

And instead, a person with just a bit of education and who had a decent command of the English language, answered your call and said the following; “Hello Customer, I’m here to help you. This call will not end until you are satisfied with the outcome.”

How would the customer experience change? What would be the long-term impact on the business? As companies grow larger and their executives get greedier, they consciously choose to substitute good customer service to save money. Profitability wins while “efficiency” and customers lose. This is short-term thinking and it busts trust with those who keep the company in business.

Makes no sense? Of course not.

Think about the calls you have placed to your health insurer, cable company, phone provider, even your doctor’s office. Check out the salaries and bonuses of those at the top of these organizations and then ask yourself how much YOU matter. The business of doing business is to serve customers, not the other way around. Leaders who choose to make their customers a low priority are not worthy of your business.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in learning more, and 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.

If trust is such an important element of long-term business success, why do so few executives embrace it as a business imperative?

Is it:

• What can’t be measured can’t be managed?
• Too much pressure to perform quarter to quarter?
• Trust is simply taken for granted?
• Compliance is all that matters?
• Greed is good?

Any advice?

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She runs the world’s largest membership program for those interested in learning more, and 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.

Trustworthy businesses are also more profitable. There is simply no reason NOT to implement long-term strategies for increasing organizational trust starting today.

How can your organization elevate its level of trustworthiness?

Hint: It starts with the leader.

#1 Trustworthy leadership – Very simply, a culture of trust cannot exist with an untrustworthy leader. Trustworthy behavior must start at the top and carry down through every manager in an organization.

#2 Transformation – Productivity and execution begin when the CEO creates a set of values and goals that are shared, accepted and adopted by all stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, vendors, shareholders, etc.) CEOs should regularly address all stakeholders about the steps being taken to build trustworthy behavior within the organization. Trust should not be confused with compliance, CSR or PR. Being “legal”, having a CSR program or “advertising” your trustworthiness, are not synonymous with being trustworthy.

#3 Tools – There are many trust tools CEOs can use to build trust with their internal and external stakeholders. These run the gamut from metrics and assessments to online surveys. The results may be surprisingly good, or just the opposite. And if they are the latter, and really bad, it’s time to get busy. And maybe time to add a Chief Trust Officer to the C-Suite to oversee the implementation of long-term trust building strategies.

#4 Treatment– The Golden Rule says to “treat others the way you want to be treated.” This certainly holds true for trust. The CEO that extends trust to his or her stakeholders is more likely to have it returned. Trust fundamentally works by a series of reciprocating actions between the truster and the trusted.

#5 Teamwork – Teamwork leads to better decisions and better outcomes. Teams create trust, and trust creates teams. Breaking down silos, and in particular exhibiting trustworthy behavior in the C-Suite, should be on every CEO’s priority list. Teams whose members trust each other escalate both innovation and decision-making.

#6 Talk – Your stakeholders need to know what steps you are taking to build a trustworthy organization. Quarterly numbers are no longer the “be all and end all.” In fact, evidence is mounting that a trustworthy culture and “good numbers” go hand in hand. As mentioned earlier, long-term trustworthy behavior is more profitable – every quarter – than short-term changes that don’t “stick.”

#7 Truth – Truth-telling is at the core of trust. Any CEO who wants to build a trustworthy organization must have an extremely comfortable relationship with the truth. No company is perfect and it’s not necessary to air all the dirty laundry – just don’t lie about it or intentionally mislead. In times of crisis, a habit of truth telling yields particularly good returns. The absence of such habits can be disastrous.

#8 Time – Building a culture of trustworthy business does not happen overnight. It takes time, maybe even years – but not decades. The CEO who invests the time to educate himself or herself about how to build trust with teams and stakeholders — then develops a plan, communicates and implements it – will be rewarded with greater stakeholder trust. When a slip-up occurs, those who “banked” trust will recover faster.

#9 Transparency – Merriam Webster defines “transparent” as visibility or accessibility of information, especially with business practices. Any CEO who thinks he or she can still hide behind a veil of secrecy need only spend a few minutes on social media reading what their stakeholders are saying. In today’s world, transparency is no longer the risk – opacity has become the risk. Transparency must exist inside and outside the company. Communications and social media have roles to play here, but the fundamental is that transparency  builds trust.

#10 Thoughtful – Not all stakeholders need to know the company’s trade secrets, or what the CEO had for dinner. But if your company is serious about increasing trustworthiness, consider engaging all your stakeholders in rich, thoughtful conversations. Don’t approach them as constituencies to be maneuvered, managed or massaged. Instead, view them as vital contributors to a better organization by letting them into the conversation. To be a thoughtful company with a thoughtful strategy, trust the stakeholders to be thoughtful.

These suggestions are among dozens outlined in our award-winning TRUST Inc. book series. For your own personal well-being, and that of your organization, stop talking about trust and do something about it.

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.

It’s unusual for people to “unsubscribe” from our mailing list so when someone did last week, they were kind enough to leave a note that simply said “Content is not Relevant to My Job.” As often happens, curiosity got the best of me so  I “Googled” the person’s name to find out what kind of job they hold. Turns out it’s a relatively high HR position in a major bank.

Is it a surprise that this person works for a major financial institution? Judging from the actions of many of these companies over the past six years, I would venture a guess that the vast majority of employees in this industry feel the same way as my “unsubscriber.” They have been brainwashed into believing that “compliance” and “trust” are synonymous. Trouble is, they aren’t. Compliance is about staying just to the right side of “what’s legal” whereas trust is completely voluntary. It’s simply about doing right and acting with character, competence and consistency. It’s a “leadership thing,” and it must start at the top.

The best companies know this and they are the most profitable.

We wrote about some of them in the fall issue of TRUST! Magazine. (Scroll to bottom of page)

The rest are hiring more compliance staff and unsubscribing from “trust.” Here’s a list of 119 compliance openings just at JP Morgan. Some people never learn.

Regardless of the industry, is trust relevant to your job? If not, why not?

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.

Is loneliness at the top a trust buster? You bet. But don’t believe me, just read this Wall Street Journal article and pay particular attention to #3.

We must not forget that our organization’s leaders are humans first and executives second. How can we expect leaders to be trustworthy when rising in the ranks impedes the growth of trust?

I’ve spoken to CEOs who joke about how lonely it is at the top, but I never stopped to think about why. Imagine getting to where you are only to find that you are forced to trust fewer people as more try to take advantage of your position?

If building organizational trust rests squarely on the shoulders of leadership, this Catch 22 must be overcome. Leaders can start by availing themselves of the myriad of resources (many free) to avoid the “loneliness trap” by building organizational trust in incremental steps.

Trust Across America-Trust Around the World has spent six years sourcing trust tools and bringing them together on our website- books, magazines, videos, reports, speakers, and even a master research bibliography. If you are the leader of an organization and feeling the “loneliness at the top” and diminishing trust, please stop by. If you can’t find what you are looking for, drop us a note at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com . We’ll be glad to help (no strings attached.)

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.

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.