Posts Tagged ‘culture’
Our 7th Trust Alliance Lunch & Learn was held on July 23rd when we convened nine members to discuss trust and trustworthiness. This one-page presentation summarizes our findings, providing both Essential Steps and Additional Considerations for those interested in further exploring the role trust plays in organizational success.
Join the Alliance to participate in our next event on August 6th at noon.
Regardless of your occupation, job title, or the type of organization that employs you, have you ever considered the role trust plays in leadership, team and organizational success?
And are you helping to build (or deplete) your organization’s trust bank account?
If you haven’t given any or much thought to these questions, you certainly are not alone. In fact, most people view trust as a soft skill that can simply be taken for granted. But consider this for a moment; there has never been a more critical time to acknowledge and embrace the business case for trust.* In fact, study after study confirms that over the long-term, high trust organizations outperform their low trust competitors, with the following benefits:
Using our definition of Trust as “an OUTCOME of principled behavior,” what we knew about the benefits of high trust in the past is currently amplified in our current business environment. Often, it takes a crisis to remind us what happens when trust is ignored or taken for granted.
Whether you are working in person or remotely, these are some characteristics of a high trust workplace environment. How many are currently present in yours?
How many of the following signs of low trust are present in your workplace?
Leaders who ACKNOWLEDGE that low trust is a tangible risk have taken the first step in building a trust based team and/or workplace. And acknowledgement remains the greatest obstacle in most organizations as it requires direct leadership attention and input, and some degree of vulnerability. If this hurdle can be overcome, then it simply becomes a matter of IDENTIFYING the personal and interpersonal strengths and weakness that are either building trust or busting it. They can then be discussed, MENDED and tracked. Our Trust Across America program calls this AIM Towards Trust, and the tool is being easily adopted by enlightened leaders of teams and in organizations of all sizes and across industries, providing a path forward to high trust.
If a long term approach to elevating trust is not a leadership imperative at this time, all is not lost. Here are a few short-term ideas that any team can implement during the current crisis.
Which organizations will emerge the strongest from COVID-19? Probably those whose leaders chose to place trust in the center of their business strategy before March 2020. In fact, leaders and their organizations who banked trust in advance of the pandemic are now being handsomely rewarded and will continue to be long into the future. It’s never too late to start thinking about the role of trust in leadership, team and organizational success. Why not today?
*To receive a copy of our two-page Business Case for Trust, please contact us.
Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the founder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World, whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its 11th year, the program has developed two proprietary trust-evaluation tools. She also runs the world largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award-winning TRUST INC. book series. Kimmel is a former consultant to McKinsey who has worked across industries and with many Fortune 500 CEOs. She holds a bachelor’s in international affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch.
Copyright 2020 Next Decade, Inc.
Today we conclude our 2020 Trust Insights series. Should you ever choose to think about the role trust plays on your team or in your organization, start by answering the question “Trust to do what?” and then consider the following:
I hope you have enjoyed our 26-week Trust Insights series.
Before you leave, Tap Into Trust and complete our 1 minute/1 question quiz. Find out how the level of trust in your workplace compares to over 500 others.
Have you reviewed how our workshops are helping teams and organizations just like yours elevate trust? Schedule an ONLINE webinar today.
Did you miss our previous 2020 Trust Insights? Access them at this link.
Contact us for more information on elevating trust on your team or in your organization or email me directly:
Copyright 2020, Next Decade, Inc.
Given the right tools, trust can be measured. Barbara Brooks Kimmel
For decades, the external advisors to senior business leaders have counseled them to measure and evaluate every action according to return on investment. In recent years, box checking has become increasingly popular as well. Have you met your quota for women on boards? Are you decreasing your carbon footprint? Diversity and inclusion? Check. Advisory firms love to build new boxes to keep themselves in business. Last year’s box was “Purpose” and this year it is ESG. Imagine the year that the “trust” box becomes the box of choice. If you need proof that a business case for trust exists, please request it by sending an email to: info@trustacrossamerica.com
The following is a simple starting point to measure whether your employees trust you and trust each other. Ask them to count the behaviors below that are present in your organization.
Now ask them to identify how many of the following are present.
Subtract the second number from the first to arrive at your trust baseline score.
Let’s say hypothetically your employees identify 5 positive trust behaviors and 5 negative. (5-5=0). Your trust score is zero. Don’t expect much employee engagement, innovation or risk taking.
Or your employees identify 8 positive behaviors from the first list and 2 negative from the second (8-2=6). Six is better than zero.
Or 2 posItive and 8 negative (2-8= -6). Not a place ANYONE wants to work. (And that “trust” box certainly can’t be checked.)
Our AIM Towards Trust survey tool has been used in dozens of teams and organizations to measure trust, start the trust discussion and fix what’s broken. The proactive and ethical business leaders who have adopted these tools can now check that trust box with confidence.
Before you leave, Tap Into Trust and complete our 1 minute/1 question quiz. Find out how the level of trust in your workplace compares to 500 others.
Have you reviewed how our workshops are helping teams and organizations just like yours elevate trust? Schedule an ONLINE webinar today.
Did you miss our previous 2020 Trust Insights? Access them at this link.
Contact us for more information on elevating trust on your team or in your organization or email me directly:
Copyright 2020, Next Decade, Inc.
Building trust in policing requires both trustworthy and collaborative community leadership and teamwork. Barbara Brooks Kimmel
Police chiefs are not solely responsible for building trust with their communities. They are part of a team. Just like a large corporation, the police department represents only one silo in the organization. They happen to also be the group subject to the most community exposure. In other words, it’s harder for the police department to hide behind a veil of secrecy, especially in cases involving misconduct, as we have recently witnessed. If you believe in the saying “The fish rots from the head,” you would be hard pressed to find an untrustworthy police chief working as part of a well-functioning team alongside a trustworthy mayor.
The following is taken from a recently updated report written by Trust Across America called Building Trust in Community Leadership, and originally published in 2013. It provides insights from top subject matter experts with whom we have worked over the years.
At a minimum….
The following are quick guiding principles in building and maintaining trust for community leaders:
Mayor
Public confidence in the integrity of elected officials is the cornerstone of our democratic representative system of governance. As the highest-ranking elected official of its municipal town or city, the Office of the Mayor is charged with the trust, wellbeing, security, and prosperity of its citizens and community. The Office of the Mayor should perform its responsibilities with the highest sense of ethical leadership, integrity and competence. Each Mayor’s Office should develop, implement and monitor a set of Guiding Principles of Integrity that is tailored to its unique mandate and responsibilities. Donna C. Boehme, Compliance Strategists
(This short news clip provides a timely example of a Mayor who is talking about fortifying trust between community, police and local government.) Thanks Mayor Terry Short!
Town Manager
Today more than half of U.S. cities with a population of more than 10,000—and an increasing number of counties—are run by a combination of appointed professional administrators and elected officials.
Trust is both the foundation and result of ethical leadership, and the manager must seek to create trust between himself and (1) the municipal employees, (2) his elected board, and (3) the community. He can only do this one-day at a time as he sets examples for all other employees to follow, and public policy for the elected board to adopt. His decisions on hiring, promotions, municipal services, and public policy must begin with transparency, and reflect his unbiased opinions on how municipalities provide public services to its citizens. David L. Woglom, Lafayette College
Chief of Police
An trustworthy policing leader creates and maintains a comprehensive values-based risk-management program that:
Head of Emergency Management
In emergency management the single most important issue that comes up again and again is the need for individual relationships to be in place before there is a disaster. The criticality of these personal connections cannot be over emphasized. One illustrative mantra that is shared is this, “If you see people exchanging business cards at the scene of an incident; you know it won’t go well.”
In reality while it sounds like relationships are key, the real shortfall that dooms projects, programs and regional efforts is a lack of trust between the individual players. Trust then is the ultimate goal and how you get there is a critical path to be followed. Eric Holdeman, Eric Holdeman & Associates
Superintendent of Schools
Few would argue that our education system must transform if we are to truly serve the needs of our students into the future. Now more than ever, the foundation for an educational leader’s strength comes from their trustworthiness and their ability to build trust among others. Trust is no longer assumed based on position and credentials, but rather must be built based on the quality of relationships. This requires a shift in leadership approach from one of command and control to one of collaboration. Susan Mazza
To obtain a copy of the complete 17- page report including trust-building action plans for the job functions mentioned above, as well as other community leaders, please click here.
Before you leave, Tap Into Trust and complete our 1 minute/1 question quiz. Find out how the level of trust in your workplace compares to hundreds of others.
Have you reviewed how our workshops are helping teams and organizations just like yours elevate trust? Schedule an ONLINE webinar today.
Did you miss our previous 2020 Trust Insights? Access them at this link.
Contact us for more information on elevating trust on your team or in your organization or email me directly:
Copyright 2020, Next Decade, Inc.
Robert, thank you for participating in our 2020 Trust Insights series. What is your trust insight?
“Trust is not a message; it’s an outcome – and trust may not even be the real issue.” Robert Phillips
Can you expand a bit on this timely insight?
For way too long, “trust” has been hijacked by communications consultancies and strategy firms, who see/ position the trust “issue” and how to address it as a function of what the organisations says, rather than what it does. They sell strategies and programmes accordingly. Together with reliance on some dodgy data, this leads to a bogus and corrosive narrative around trust: often creating a false sense of (global) crisis. This masks more profound issues and challenges and many cultural and political nuances.
Organisations would do better by focusing on their own behaviours and on the real issues (including the climate emergency and tech disruption) that lead to better outcomes for employees, customers and stakeholders. Furthermore, trustworthiness is a more relevant construct than “trust”. Trustworthiness is a function of Honesty + Competence + Reliability + Good. It is undermined by self-interest, especially where such self-interest is not transparently declared.
Can you provide a real life example of a trust “challenge” where your insight has been effectively applied.
The Global Responsible Tax Project curated by Jericho Chambers for KPMG, has been running since 2014. Based on organising principles of activism, participation, accountability and dissent, it now hosts a community of 1700 experts, built peer-to-peer, from the Global North to Global South and across the political spectrum – including corporate leaders; advisors; politicians and policy-makers; activists, NGOs and campaigners; academics and experts; media and the commentariart. This global coalition has worked together to develop new policy ideas and recommendations – leading to more trust between all parties and better policy outcomes for the common good. It’s starting point was that any solution to global tax problems were better served by addressing the purpose of tax, than communications and lobbying around the issues, and that no-one has all the answers. Tax is trust, write large – as this article brings to life.
Generally, do you think the global “trust” climate is improving or worsening? What actions are making it better or worse?
Many claim we have a crisis of trust. Do you agree?
No, although a recognition of the chronic condition (see above) is important, as is a determination to do something about it.
Robert, thank you so much for your time and more importantly for your commitment to elevating organizational trust. What would you like our audience to know about you?
Robert has been at the forefront of the UK Public Relations industry for three decades. His expert area is the relationship between communications, leadership and trust.
Robert’s 2015 book Trust Me, PR is Dead was heralded by Management Today as “a game-changer for the future of communications”. His often-outspoken views have been described as “essential for anyone who wants to influence and persuade in the mid-21st century”. Since 2014, Robert has helped build coalitions across business, government and civil society on subjects ranging from Responsible Tax to the Future of Work; Adult Social Care to the Future of Transport; Infrastructure and Housing to the Built Environment. Robert advocates new operating principles based on activism, accountability, co-production and dissent.
Robert is Founder of Jericho Chambers and Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, City, University of London. He was formerly CEO, Europe, Middle East & Africa for Edelman – the world’s largest Public Relations firm – and Global Chair of its Future Strategies & Public Engagement Group. He co-founded JCPR in 1987 – described by PR Week as “the seminal consumer brands consultancy of the Nineties and Noughties” – which he sold to Edelman in 2004. Two of Robert’s campaigns, for Wonderbra and PlayStation, were included in the Top 20 PR Campaigns of All Time.
Before you leave, Tap Into Trust and complete our 1 minute/1 question quiz. Find out how the level of trust in your workplace compares to hundreds of others.
Have you reviewed how our workshops are helping teams and organizations just like yours elevate trust? Schedule an ONLINE webinar today.
Did you miss our previous 2020 Trust Insights? Access them at this link.
Contact us for more information on elevating trust on your team or in your organization or email me directly: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com
Copyright 2020, Next Decade, Inc.
Randy, thank you for participating in our 2020 Trust Insights series. What is your trust insight?
Trust doesn’t “just happen.” Randy Conley
Can you expand a bit on this important insight?
I’ve found that people think trust just sort-of evolves naturally over time, as if through some relationship osmosis. The thinking goes that the longer you know and interact with someone, the more you grow to trust them. That leaves the development of trust to happenstance, and for most people, they don’t think about trust in a relationship until it’s been broken.
A better way is to approach building trust with purpose and intention, and to realize that it’s a skill that can be developed. Trust is based on perceptions, and those perceptions are formed by the behaviors we use. If we behave in trustworthy ways, we’ll build trust with others. If we use behaviors that erode trust with others, then we won’t be trusted. It’s pretty straight-forward in that regard. If trust is based on perceptions, the challenge becomes whose perception is the correct one? That’s why it’s important to have a common definition of trust. Since trust can be so subjective, having a common understanding of what trust is and isn’t, allows organizational team members to be on the same page regarding how they can build trust in their relationships.
Can you provide a real life example of a trust “challenge” where your insight has been effectively applied.
I worked with the CEO of a mid-western steel manufacturer and his leadership team to define what trust means for their organization. Trust was one of their core values, but they didn’t have a common language or understanding about what that looked like in practice. They adopted our ABCD framework as their definition of trust, which allowed them to communicate to all employees that when they talk about trust, they are referring to team members demonstrating they are Able, Believeable, Connected, and Dependable, and knowing the behaviors that support each of those four elements.
Generally, do you think the global “trust” climate is improving or worsening? What actions are making it better or worse?
Many claim we have a crisis of trust. Do you agree?
Generally we do have a crisis of trust, but more specifically, we have a crisis of untrustworthy leaders. At its most fundamental level, trust is an interpersonal dynamic, and organizational leaders need to take more responsibility, and hold themselves to a higher level of accountability, to build and maintain trust with their stakeholders.
Randy, how has your membership in our Trust Alliance benefitted you professionally?
My involvement in the Trust Alliance has benefited me by learning from other experts in the field. Their wisdom has sharpened my thinking about trust and encouraged me to consider viewpoints I may not have considered had I not been part of this community. I, and hopefully other members, have mutually benefited from the support and encouragement we offer each other.
Randy, thank you so much for your time and more importantly for your commitment to elevating organizational trust. What would you like our audience to know about you?
Randy Conley is Vice President & Trust Practice Leader for The Ken Blanchard Companies. He is Blanchard’s subject matter expert in the field of trust, co-author of Blanchard’s Building Trust training program, and works with organizations around the globe helping them build trust in the workplace. Trust Across America has recognized Randy with a Lifetime Achievement Award as a Top Thought Leader in Trust and he is a founding member of the Trust Alliance. Inc.com named Randy a Top 100 Leadership Speaker & Thinker and American Management Association included him in their Leaders to Watch in 2015 list. He holds a Masters Degree in Executive Leadership from the University of San Diego.
Before you leave, Tap Into Trust and complete our 1 minute/1 question quiz. Find out how the level of trust in your workplace compares to hundreds of others.
Have you reviewed how our workshops are helping teams and organizations just like yours elevate trust? Schedule an ONLINE webinar today.
Did you miss our previous 2020 Trust Insights? Access them at this link.
Contact us for more information on elevating trust on your team or in your organization or email me directly: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com
Copyright 2020, Next Decade, Inc.
Sean, thank you for participating in our 2020 Trust Insights series. What is your trust insight?
“Developing trust starts with building a culture that values trust.“ Sean Flaherty
Can you expand a bit on this important insight?
Can you provide a real life example of a trust “challenge” where your insight has been effectively applied.
Generally, do you think the global “trust” climate is improving or worsening? What actions are making it better or worse?
Many claim we have a crisis of trust. Do you agree?
Sean, how has your membership in our Trust Alliance benefitted you professionally?
I am a new member, but I am passionate about trust and committed to doing my part. I can’t wait to have a better story to tell in a year.
Sean, thank you so much for your time and more importantly for your commitment to elevating organizational trust. What would you like our audience to know about you?
Sean Flaherty is a partner at ITX Corp. based in Rochester, NY where he oversees business development, partnerships and the innovation practice. ITX is a software product innovation firm with over 250 employees in 7 countries. Sean started building software products at 11 years old on his 8-Bit Commodore Vic-20 and he has never stopped. He studied aviation electronics working on F-14 Tomcats in the Navy, molecular genetics at the University of Rochester, and earned an MBA from the Simon School of Business. ITX has built a passionate team of technologists and artists that inspires him every day with the magic that they produce for their clients. Sean runs Innovation Workshops for his clients and speaks regularly on turning the intangibles in business, like trust, loyalty and advocacy into measurable results.
Before you leave, Tap Into Trust and complete our 1 minute/1 question quiz. Find out how the level of trust in your workplace compares to hundreds of others.
Have you reviewed how our workshops are helping teams and organizations just like yours elevate trust? Schedule an ONLINE webinar today.
Did you miss our previous 2020 Trust Insights? Access them at this link.
Contact us for more information on elevating trust on your team or in your organization or email me directly: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com
Copyright 2020, Next Decade, Inc.
Our 2020 Trust Insights series kicks off with the best trust-building stories of 2019.
As the year comes to an end, the news media routinely “treats us” to the top “trust fails,” and 2019 is certainly no exception. This year we saw Boeing, Google, and the continuation of the Facebook trust saga take center stage.
While media outlets hold fast to the belief that only “bad news” sells, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World was launched more than ten years ago, in part to tell the “good” stories that rarely get coverage.
The following list is not about “feel good” PR, CEOs taking stands, philanthropy, “check the box sustainability” or a CSR project, but rather about high integrity leaders who understand the benefits that a long-term holistic trust-building strategy can have on their stakeholders.
While this is not the first year running our year-end review, this one was particularly challenging. Finding ten “trust in action” stories wasn’t easy.
This diverse group of business leaders have gone beyond “talking trust” to sharing their strategy for building it.
The following list is presented alphabetically:
Aron Ain, CEO Kronos
Aron builds trust by focusing on “us” not “me.”
Dr. Richard Baron, CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation
Dr. Baron offers insights on building trust with patients.
Marc Benioff, co-CEO Salesforce
Marc considers trust a company’s highest value and explains why.
Anil Dash, CEO Glitch
Anil discusses the role personal accountability plays in building trust.
Hussein Fazal, CEO Snaptravel
Hussien finds common ground, shares responsibility and prioritizes transparency to build trust.
James Filsinger, CEO Yapta
James stresses maintaining culture and rowing in the same direction.
Fisk Johnson, CEO SC Johnson
Fisk is transparently sharing the ingredients in his products so consumers know what they are buying.
Beth Mooney, CEO KeyCorp
Beth is a strong advocate for transparency, truth telling and a mission mindset.
Brian Niccol, CEO Chipotle
Brian talks about the new food safety culture at Chipotle to address customer trust.
Rami Rahim, CEO Juniper Networks
Rami discusses building trust as one of the 3 “Juniper Way” pillars
Congratulations to all of these CEOs!
Let’s work together to build more trust in 2020.
Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Founder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance and is the editor of the award-winning TRUST INC. book series. Barbara holds a BA in International Affairs from Lafayette College and an MBA from Baruch at the City University of NY.
For more information visit our website at www.trustacrossamerica.com or contact Barbara Brooks Kimmel
PS-
Why aren’t more business leaders choosing to publicly share their stories? This could be attributed to one of several factors:
You may also join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.
A story of a toxic industry and how a soccer game might just offer some guidance…
This week HSBC announced the layoff of 10,000 employees, just months after ousting its Chief Executive, and bringing in an interim. According to the Financial Times, in 2014 the company employed 24,300 risk and compliance officers, and in their 2018 annual report the word “compliance” appeared 129 times. Yet since 2014, billions of dollars in fines have been levied against HSBC ranging from bank violations, fraud, money laundering, wage and hour violations and toxic securities abuses. Even with a very significant compliance presence, something still isn’t quite right at HSBC, and hasn’t been for years. Could it be that it’s not a compliance issue?
HSBC isn’t alone. Others in the industry are taking similar steps, with banking leaders continuing to cite “external” factors driving their decisions. Rarely, if ever do we hear “I screwed up” or better yet, “Our culture remains toxic and the expensive 1980s fixes are no longer working.” What if instead, leaders chose an all together different strategy, one that began with some introspection and ended with an outcome other than mass layoffs?
And now for the soccer part…
Any parent who has sat on the sidelines of a high school soccer game knows that the referee serves in a “leadership” capacity, “controlling” both the technical and behavioral components of the game. Some might think of the referee as the “Chief Compliance Officer.” Usually the “calls” are accurate, but not always. When they aren’t, coaches, parents and players pile in, and the yellow cards fly. Sometimes these “stakeholders” are even removed from the field.
But what happens when the referee doesn’t to show up? That scenario recently played out in a game between two teams- one a big inner city group, and the other a “smaller” suburban group. From the sideline, it looked like trouble. Who could imagine these two groups facing off on a field with no one in charge? But since it was an “add on” to the schedule, and didn’t “count”, the coaches made the decision to play the game without a “leader.”
The parents and coaches held their collective breath as the game began, and for the next hour, we waited for “trouble.” It never came. In fact, the two teams got along just fine, better than in most games. Good sportsmanship was displayed and members of both teams were communicating and laughing with each other throughout the hour. It ended in a 2-1 victory for the urban team, the boys shook hands, and we all went home. What a pleasant surprise. Nobody got “carded.”
What can we learn from this story?
Perhaps the person in charge only thinks they have the power. After all, they can make the “obvious” short-term calls, collect their fee and leave the field. They have completed the “task” they were hired to do. Yet when no one is in charge or the leader chooses to relinquish some control, team members are empowered and collaboration replaces command and control. The obvious calls are mutually agreed upon, and the not so obvious are talked through until a consensus is reached. This is a healthy culture where trust replaces fear. Maybe there is a lesson for everyone to take away from this story.
What are your thoughts? Drop me an email at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com
If you want to learn more, join over 70,000 global professionals who have Tapped Into Trust, participate in our global 1 minute/ 1 question global workplace study and access our survey tools.
Copyright 2019, Next Decade, Inc.
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