Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

In the words of Abraham Lincoln…. You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

The same applies to trust. These commonly taken shortcuts to trust may fool some of your stakeholders, but won’t fool them all, and over time they may come back to haunt you.

• Narrowly defining trust in a way that suits the trustee. Brand loyalty, check the box sustainability, philanthropy, “feel good” CSR, blockchain solutions and data security are not trust. Neither are reputation, loyalty or transparency.
• Delegating trust to a motivational speaker instead of a subject matter expert.
• Paying for a “great workplace” award.
• Beefing up the legal and compliance staff.
• Making trust a PR campaign based on “talk” rather than action.

Do we really need more proof that shortcuts to elevating workplace trust do not work?

Take a look at the following data:

Trust within an organization is essential to its success. But “Global Generations 3.0” research, released by Ernst & Young, showed trust isn’t a given. The survey of nearly 10,000 workers ages 19 to 68 in eight countries revealed that just 46% of employees placed “a great deal of trust” in their employer, and only 49% placed “a great deal of trust” in their manager or colleagues. June 2016

According to a new global study by BBMG and GlobeScan, “Brand Purpose in Divided Times,” net trust in global companies to act in the best interest of society is negative (-2). And for the first time since 2009, more consumers say they have punished companies for their behavior (28%) rather than rewarded them (26%), and the number of those who are punishing brands is up by 9 percentage points since 2013.

According to 2018 polling by the Public Affairs Council, only 7 percent of Americans believe that major company CEOs have high ethical standards, and only 9 percent have a very favorable opinion of major companies. Only 42 percent of Americans trust major companies to behave ethically, down from 47 percent last year.

Gallup’s 2017 reports: A highly engaged workforce means the difference between a company that outperforms its competitors and one that fails to grow. And according to their recent State of the Global Workplace report, 85% of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work. The economic consequences of this global “norm” are approximately $7 trillion in lost productivity. Eighteen percent are actively disengaged (up from 2015) in their work and workplace, while 67% are “not engaged.

Building a “principled culture” of high trust and ethics is not difficult. It simply requires leadership buy-in, and a bit of vulnerability. High priced quick fixes might fool some of the people in the short-term, but in the long-term sustainable businesses are built on trust from the inside out, not the outside in.

In our recently launched one minute (free and totally anonymous) diagnostic survey called “Building Trust One Principle at a Time,” we ask which of twelve universal trust principles (TAP) are weakest in your organization. At the end, respondents will see how their workplace compares to all others. Bringing this tool “in house” will provide enlightened leaders, teams and organizations with a baseline trust “temperature” from which to build long-term business health. Just tap on the Take our Quiz button or go direct to the Survey.

If trust is the “new currency,” as some have recently claimed, the challenge will be to “get it right” by avoiding the shortcuts and embracing the solutions.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is an award-winning communications executive and the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Barbara has consulted with many Fortune 500 CEOs and their firms, and also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance . She is  the editor of the award-winning TRUST INC. book series and TRUST! Magazine.  Barbara holds a BA in International Affairs and an MBA.

Copyright 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

For the past three weeks Trust Across America-Trust Around the World has been running an anonymous one minute/one question diagnostic survey/quiz to identify the weakest links in trust among teams and in organizations. The survey is based on 12 crowd-sourced universal principles called TAP. The Principles have been accessed over 40,000 times in the past 10 months. When effectively implemented, they will elevate trust in any organization of any size.

As of today, Accountability has been identified as the weakest of the 12 Principles with 40% of respondents flagging this statement as “weak”: We hold one another accountable – we each take responsibility without regard to level or role.

If you are not accountable, why would you expect your team members to trust you?

If you are a member of a team or lead one, accountability is an essential trait. Lack of accountability leads to distrust which, in turn, leads to disengagement. When you find yourself falling back on an excuse, stop and think about the impact it has on your team and consider using an alternative response instead.

This is a list of the most commonly heard trust BUSTING excuses and an alternative trust BUILDING response.

Trust Busting Excuse #1:  It slipped my mind.

Trust Building Response #1: I won’t forget.

Trust Busting Excuse #2: Sorry, I’m going on vacation.

Trust Building Response #2: This will be done before I go on vacation.

Trust Busting Excuse #3: I’ll do it later.

Trust Building Response #3: I will do it right now.

Trust Busting Excuse #4: Keep reminding me.

Trust Building Response #4: You will not need to remind me.

Trust Busting Excuse #5: It’s not on my “to do” list.

Trust Building Response #5: I’m putting it on the top of my “to do” list.

Trust Busting Excuse #6: It isn’t a high priority.

Trust Building Response #6: I’m giving it high priority.

Trust Busting Excuse #7: It was just a white lie.

Trust Building Response #7: I admit to being dishonest.

Trust Busting Excuse #8: I’m very busy. Check back later.

Trust Building Response #8: I’m very busy right now but let’s talk in one hour.

Trust Busting Excuse #9: I thought I did it.

Trust Building Response #9: I will take care of it right now.

Trust Busting Excuse #10: I ran out of time.

Trust Building Response #10: It’s more time consuming than I thought, and I will get it done.

Take our anonymous Building Trust One Principle at a Time survey here by clicking on the Quiz button. Upon completion of this one minute/one question quiz you will see how your organization compares to others. This diagnostic survey is also being administered with individual organizations and teams. If you would like to use it, send a note to: barbara@trustacrossamerica.com (This survey can be administered in 16 languages.)

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is an award-winning communications executive and the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Barbara has consulted with many Fortune 500 CEOs and their firms, and also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance . She is  the editor of the award-winning TRUST INC. book series and TRUST! Magazine.  Barbara holds a BA in International Affairs and an MBA.

Don’t forget to TAP into Trust!

Copyright(c) 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

Building Trust One Principle at a Time

This past week the World Economic Forum held its annual meeting at Davos and the global elite were buzzing like bees around the word “trust.” 

Overlapping was another meeting being held in a remote corner of NJ (of all places), perhaps because the “polar vortex” was about to ground the attendees’ private jets. This gathering was called “Sovad so Good” or “Sovad” for short.)

For those unfamiliar with the annual Davos event, it’s by “invitation only,” and even those who secure an invite might not be able to afford the cost of admission. Most badges require a membership to the World Economic Forum, which costs somewhere between $60,000 and $600,000, plus an additional fee of more than $27,000 per person to get into the conference. (CNBC, January 25, 2019)

Worth noting: Of the 3000 attendees almost 800 were Americans and 22% were women, up from 21% last year! Less than 5% of S&P 500 CEOs are women—that’s just 24 companies. We can’t know how many of those 24 were invited to the event in Davos, but the official attendance list includes four of their names: Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan N.V.; Adena Friedman, CEO of  Nasdaq Inc.;  Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental Petroleum Corp.; and Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM. Quartz, January 21, 2019

Sovad (the other Davos) didn’t include the high price tag (or any admission fee for that matter), nor the “A” list of celebrities like Matt Damon or Will.i.am, and side deals were not being done off stage, probably because there was no stage. (Over 50% of the SOVAD group is women.) No large “trust signs” were erected at the entrance to our gathering like the one leading up to Davos. It was just too darn cold for anyone to want to climb a ladder, especially those in skirts.

CNN reported, ‘Trust is the new buzzword at Davos,” and as Dana Carvey “The Church Lady” liked to say on SNL, “Well isn’t that special.” (Dana and I lived together at one time but that’s a topic for another post.) So what was all the Davos “buzz” on trust about? These were the trust “themes:”

1. Rebuilding trust (think Facebook.) Sheryl Sandberg was the trust “expert” on this subject.
2. Trust and technology (digital security, AI, blockchain, etc.)
3. Trust and innovation
4. Trust and sustainability
5. Trust and CEOs “taking stands.”

To the attendees at Davos these are certainly important revenue generating discussions to be having. But do they actually get to the heart of trust, or even move the needle slightly to elevate societal trust? That’s a solid “No.”  Here’s why.

It seems only one trust conversation was missing at Davos, and probably the most important one: How do we move our societal institutions from trust buzz to trust action? And that was the ONLY conversation at Sovad.

So while the fine food and drink flowed, and the planes stayed warm on the tarmac in Switzerland, the Sovad attendees arrived by auto and took the following action over a burger and a beer:

With no revenue generating agenda, we created 12 universal principles for elevating trust and began asking those who didn’t travel to Europe, how that “trust thing” is working in their organization. After all, isn’t that where trust starts (and ends)? Apparently, we struck a chord as over 35,000 unassuming folks from around the world have joined the conversation.

Will you take our brand new (one question/one minute) survey? Find out how your organization compares to others.

Note: Some believe that this year’s gathering was a disappointment on many fronts. Perhaps the word “trust” was simply a placeholder until a “real” topic can be identified for 2020. Kenneth Rogoff, the Harvard economist, summed it up: “This is the flattest Davos I can remember. Normally, there is a star country or a star industry that everybody is talking about. But this year, there is nothing.”

Could it be that the “nothing” has “something” to do with trust?

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is an award-winning communications executive and the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. A former consultant to McKinsey and many Fortune 500 CEOs and their firms, Barbara also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance, and is the editor of the award-winning TRUST INC. book series and TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 she was named one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International, and in 2017 she became a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute. Barbara holds a BA in International Affairs and an MBA. Don’t forget to TAP into Trust!

For more information contact barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright(c) 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

For Immediate Release

January 29, 2019. Trust Across America-Trust Around the World (TAA-TAW), global leaders in organizational trust announces its 2019 Top Thought Leaders in Trust. The awards program, now in its 9th year, celebrates professionals who are transforming the way organizations do business.

To read the full Press Release and access this year’s honorees, click here:

Copyright 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

This is a timely article about what trust is and what it isn’t! 

www.fcpablog.com/blog/2019/1/24/five-stupid-ideas-about-trust-in-business.html

Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s free

2019 Calendar and Poster

provide ideas to start the trust discussion.

Will 2019 be the year when you become an enlightened leader?

Register to receive these tools via the home page of our website.

If you have any questions, comments or ideas, we are here to listen.

Copyright 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

You have been the victim of a major trust breach and you may not know it.

To how many of the following do you subscribe? If you are reading this, you certainly have an account with at least one of these services! Were you notified about the attacks that stole both your email address AND your password?

• Adobe: 153 million accounts
• Bitly: 9.3 million accounts
• Disqus: 17.5 million accounts
• Forbes: 1 million accounts
• LinkedIn: 164 million accounts
• Dropbox: 68 million accounts
• Ancestry: 297,806

You can view the full list here. In total and as of this moment, 517,238,891 passwords have been exposed to data breaches.

Source: www.haveIbeenpwned.com

I was not aware of the magnitude of this problem until yesterday’s most recent “spoof” appeared in my inbox demanding a bitcoin ransom. I’ve received a few in the past, (after the first one it becomes less scary!) but this was different. Not only was it sent from my OWN email address, but it contained an old password that I had used to register for some of the services shown above.

Before you freak out about the next ransomware demand coming to your inbox, check this website to see if you’ve been “had.” Chances are you have, and it’s time to stop using the same old passwords.

Find this information valuable?

Please consider making a small donation by clicking here!

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is an award-winning communications executive and the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. A former consultant to McKinsey and many Fortune 500 CEOs and their firms, Barbara also runs the world’s largest global Trust Alliance, and is the editor of the award-winning TRUST INC. book series and TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 she was named one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International, and in 2017 she became a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute. Barbara holds a BA in International Affairs and an MBA. Don’t forget to TAP into Trust!

For more information contact barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright(c) 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

In 2018 Trust Across America-Trust Around the World celebrated its 10th anniversary. We are a collaborative social enterprise whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Highlights of our progress can be reviewed on this timeline. As our programs expanded this past year, we attracted almost 300,000 global visitors to our website and over 30,000 professionals have joined our TAP movement.

While we will always be interested in connecting with others who share our vision, we must also remain committed to the most urgent “task at hand” which is building new tools to help our community move its work forward. We are “doers” not “talkers” and “doing” requires time, energy and focus.

What does this mean going forward?

As of January 15th, we will be sharing new content and original though leadership less frequently on social media and will be deleting many of our current connections. The bulk of our efforts will be directed to those in our community who are:

1. Members of our Trust Alliance
2. Members of our broader network via subscription to our mailing list
3. Have donated to our program
4. Have actively participated in any of our recent ongoing projects
5. Have reached out directly with something other than a sales pitch!

Click on any of the five links listed above to remain involved, or simply send me a note.

Best wishes to all for a 2019 filled with more trust, success and good health.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel, CEO & Cofounder, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World

Copyright 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

Around this time every year, the news “treats us” to the top leadership failures, and 2018 is certainly no exception. “The trust buck” certainly stopped on the CEO’s desk at Facebook, Uber and Theranos, to name just a few.

While the media may continue to believe that only “bad” sells,  I launched Trust Across America-Trust Around the World more than ten years ago, with one objective of directing attention to the “good” because their stories rarely get told. Perhaps they are just too “good” to get air time, and just maybe the media is ignoring the stories that people want to hear.

This list is not about CEOs taking stands, feel good philanthropy, “check the box sustainability” or CSR projects, but rather about high integrity leaders who believe that a long-term holistically trustworthy strategy will positively impact ALL stakeholders.

Top Ten Stories of 2018

(presented alphabetically)

• *Chip Bergh runs Levi Strauss and continues his focus on building a long-term culture with great success. (And BTW: Chip and I share the Lafayette College alma mater.
• Many people like to throw darts at Jeff Bezos at Amazon for “disrupting” retail, yet he also gives back in a big way. This is his newest preschool initiative.
• Larry Fink Blackrock’s CEO rattled the business world in his letter to CEOs by announcing a new model for corporate governance.
• David Kleis is St. Cloud Minnesota’s longest serving Mayor, who, over the past 3 years, has been hosting monthly dinners at his house and almost 700 town halls to get to know his constituents, complete with a mobile bus!
• *Rose Marcario at Patagonia is using the company’s $10 million tax break to help save the planet.
• *David Reiling is CEO of St. Paul-based Sunrise Banks. Under his leadership, Sunrise became Minnesota’s first bank certified as a community development financial institution, a legal benefit corporation, and a member of the Global Alliance of Banking on Values. As David says “At the end of the day, if the community succeeds, we will be able to thrive along with them.”
• Physician Kylie Vannaman runs MDPCA (Midwest Direct Primary Care Alliance) a group that is buying back medical bills from those who cannot afford to pay them.
• Martin Van Trieste, a former Amgen executive is the CEO of Civica RX. Never heard of them? This mission driven company plans to stabilize the soaring costs of prescription drugs.
• Bob Wilson an 89-year old California business owner just wrote 1085 checks, each for $1000. Find out why.
• Jeff Yurcisin, a former Amazon executive who recently became president of Zulily, talks about why trust is the #1 leadership imperative.

Let’s celebrate these trustworthy leaders and their organizations. Let’s work together to continue to build organizational trust in 2019.

* Chip Bergh, Rose Marcario and David Reiling also appeared on this list in 2018.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder 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. In 2017 she was named a Fellow of the Governance & Accountability Institute, and in 2012 she was recognized as one of “25 Women who are Changing the World” by Good Business International. She 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, CEO and Cofounder

Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

You may also join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.