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Archive for the ‘Professional Development’ Category

Feb
18

When trust is low, fear is high, and fear is very costly.

Numerous studies have shown that:

  • High-trust organizations consistently outperform their rivals
  • Trust is the foundation of high performing teams
  • Trust reduces employee turnover and increases engagement
  • Trust increases productivity and innovation
  • High trust leads to long-term business success, beyond just short-term “home runs.”

What is your organization doing to cut the losses of low trust?

The “fix” is relatively easy and inexpensive. And it begins by acknowledging that low trust is costing you money. Like a disease, if low trust is ignored, it continues to spread.

Our newest Trust Tool is based on our Trust Alliance Principles (TAP), the result of the collaborative efforts of dozens of the world’s leading trust scholars and practitioners. Since April, these principles have been accessed over 40,000 times in 16 languages. This tool will provide any team (including the Board of Directors,) or organization of any size in any industry, with a simple roadmap to track and elevate trust.

Want to learn more? Contact barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

 

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.  Barbara holds a BA in International Affairs and an MBA. Don’t forget to TAP into Trust!

 

Copyright(c) 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

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Jan
26

Celebrating Our 5th anniversary!

 

Formed in 2013, we are a growing collaborative community focused exclusively on elevating organizational trust by providing enlightened leaders with the “right” tools and resources. Unlike other think tanks, we have advanced our “thinking” to action.

 

The past twelve months represented a “banner year” for the Alliance as we completed the following projects:

Trust Alliance Project Highlights

 

  • Named our first 12-member Trust Council comprised of Alliance members who have taken an active role with us in building organizational trust programs over the years.
  • Published our 10th anniversary TRUST! Magazine spring issue, highlighting good governance practices. It’s a gem and should be read by every Board member everywhere!
  • Members contributed to our growing case study library called Trustlets.
  • Dozens of hours were spent coordinating and consulting on TAP (Trust Alliance Principles). Phase II has now begun with a new project launching on January 29, 2019.
  • Global members helped construct our first annual Country Trust Index.
  • The 4th annual Showcase of Service Providers was published.
  • Our 10th anniversary report “Trust & Integrity in Corporate America” (available at www.trustacrossamerica.com ) features the work of many Alliance member, and we published this “2 pager” under the Research tab on our website.

What’s Ahead?

 

In 2019 we began arming our members with a new actionable trust “tool” delivered every month through our member newsletter.

Why Not Join Us?

 

If you are interested in rolling up your sleeves and participating with a group of collaborative global professionals, we’d love to consider you for membership.

(Some of our members have been kind enough to add their thoughts on this testimonials page.)

 

Questions or comments? Feel free to send your thoughts along.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel, CEO and Chief Trust Officer

 

Copyright 2019, Next Decade, Inc.

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Jan
06

How can organizations ensure that

red lights turn green in 2019?

 

Please share your ideas.

 

 


Is this a useful resource to you and your organization? Please consider making a donation to help us build more tools.

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Jan
04

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.

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Dec
22

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World, our global Trust Alliance “elves” have spent the year hammering away at new (and free) tools to elevate organizational trust in any organization regardless of size, location or industry.

We are happy to provide our readers with “12 days of organizational trust resources.”

  1. Our special TRUST! Magazine spring issue focused on the intersection of trust and good governance. It’s a gem and should be read by every Board member everywhere!
  2. Several members contributed to our growing case study library called Trustlets.
  3. Dozens of hours of collaboration lead to the publication of TAP (Trust Alliance Principles) 
  4. Our “Million Taps” campaign launched with an inaugural group of fifty signatories. As of this moment 29,544 global professionals have accessed TAP, with thousands joining our movement ever month.
  5. Through our global network, TAP is now available in 16 languages. Our readers can download the translations at no cost.  EnglishArabicChineseDutchFinnishFrenchGermanHebrewHindiItalianJapanese , Portuguese (Brazilian)RomanianRussianSpanish, and Swedish
  6. The July issue of TRUST! Magazine focused on TAP with many Alliance members weighing in. 
  7. Our first annual Country Trust Index was published with the help of our global members. The index was the most popular download on our website in November. Switzerland wins!
  8. The 4th annual Showcase of Service Providers was published in October, featuring the work of some of our members.
  9. This “2 pager”  can be accessed under the Research tab on our website. It is a sample of the material contained in our 10th anniversary report “Trust & Integrity in Corporate America” made possible by the Alliance warriors working collaboratively to elevate trust during the past 10 years.
  10. Our members contributed to the publication of many articles on various organizational trust topics.
  11. With the help and support of our members, our 9th annual Top Thought Leaders in Trust nominations  have been a huge success. Honorees will be announced in the winter issue of TRUST! Magazine at the end of January 2019.
  12. Our 2019 calendar “Building High Trust Teams” is now available simply by registering for our Constant Contact mailing list. It is the beginning of Phase #2 of TAP with monthly discussion questions provided to elevate trust in your team during 2019.
Our website welcomes over 20,000 visitors every month. If you use our resources and would like us to continue to provide more at no cost in the future, please consider making a donation so that our elves can maintain their tools in tip top shape in 2019.
Our plans for 2019? Our Trust Alliance members will be building and benefiting from a new tool every month throughout the year!
May 2019 be the “Year of Trust.”
Barbara Brooks Kimmel, CEO & Cofounder
Copyright 2018, Next Decade, Inc.

 

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Dec
07

Ten years ago, in the wake of the financial crisis, I undertook a study of organizational trust. Ten years later, and with the assistance of hundreds of global experts, I offer the following observations gleaned over the past decade.

Organizational trust is built over time and in incremental steps. There are simply no shortcuts.

Trust facts:

Organizational trust is an “inside out” strategy built through…

  1. A shared purpose and tactical vision acknowledging all stakeholders, not just shareholders
  2. A high integrity/high accountability board and CEO
  3. Long-term and corporate-wide intentional trust building strategies
  4. Daily reinforcement
  5. Hiring (and firing) in accordance with corporate values
  6. Rejection of hidden agendas
  7. Vulnerability and a willingness to admit mistakes
  8. Transparency, truth telling and promises kept
  9. Rewarding moral character
  10. Trust measurement and tracking

Recently my colleagues and I have witnessed some “sloppy” use of the word “trust” via short-term thinking attempts to provide quick and easy illusory measurements and solutions.

Trust Fiction:

Trust is not built through…

  1. Delegation of trust building to middle management or online ethics training modules
  2. Expensive and slick PR or “branding” campaigns
  3. CEO activism unrelated to the business
  4. CSR “one off” projects and ESG “check the box” practices
  5. Self-fulfilling surveys, reports and “best of” awards
  6. Philanthropy
  7. Empty apologies, lots of talk and little action
  8. Social media “strategies” and buzz words
  9. More rules and larger legal departments
  10. Short-term share price action

There are no short-term solutions to building a trustworthy business. Attempting to cut corners not only wastes time and resources but damages reputation.  For those Boards and CEOs who want to learn more, check back next week when we offer 12 free tools to elevate trust in every organization, regardless of size, industry or location.

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) 2018, Next Decade, Inc.

 

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Oct
29

The following information can be found in the first ten pages of our new 46-page report “Trust & Integrity in Corporate America.” It is the culmination of ten years of research on the impact of trust on business success.

Trust is a byproduct of strong core values that are practiced and reinforced daily. Click To Tweet Integrity is the adherence to the core values of moral and ethical principles. Click To Tweet

The common assumption is high integrity and trust simply “exist” at the individual, team and organizational level, yet dozens of surveys and studies show otherwise.

  • MIT concludes that leadership trustworthiness produces better results than competence.
  • A Deloitte study found that only 42% of CEOs and 50% of board members have discussed risks to their organization’s reputations in the past year. Also, 53% of CEOs and 46% of board members can’t identify events that can damage their organization’s reputation.
  • Gallup reports that only 46 percent of disengaged employees trust management.
  • Ernst & Young surveyed 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.

These and dozens of other studies, graphs, data, statistics and tools to elevate trust at the individual, team and leadership levels are included in this report.

Early reviews have been outstanding:

Wow. What a gem. What a valuable and persuasive piece. Hearty congrats. Bob Vanourek, former public company CEO
This is the single best compendium of business trust that I have seen, bar none, anywhere.  Charles H. Green, Trusted Advisor Associates
I love your paper. It weaves a tapestry of a trail across the landscape of trust in an interesting and informative way. I like the way you have pulled in quotes and stats to state a case and then propose a solution. There is a lot of new material in here for me e.g. the MIT Sloan data on why people believe in leaders or not. The concept of “ethical blindness” is consistent with Jon Haidt’s Moral Psychology where he argues that morality blinds and binds us. Trust is such a complex issue and there are many things to like in what you have crafted. Bob Easton, Senior Managing Director Accenture Australia and New Zealand
Who may find value in reading this paper?
  • Business leaders and their advisors
  • Boards of Directors
  • Industry Associations
  • Academics
  • Media
  • Investors and activists
  • ESG professionals
  • Communications and Investor Relations professionals
  • Corporate responsibility officers
  • Regulators and Policy Makers
  • Ethics, Compliance and Human Resource officers
  • NGO professionals

Trustworthy leaders build trustworthy organizations. Talking about trust without learning what trust means or how to strategically implement organizational trust-building strategies, places companies not only at a strategic disadvantage, but increases both short and long-term enterprise risk.  Building a trustworthy organization goes way beyond philanthropy or CEOs “taking stands.”

Trust is an intentional top-down strategy, built from the inside out, and practiced and reinforced daily. Click To Tweet

Access to the report can be found on our homepage at www.trustacrossamerica.com 

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) 2018, Next Decade, Inc. All rights reserved.

Oct
13

If this confidential workplace culture survey were administered, how many of the following ten questions would you answer “yes?” 

(Take the survey below)

  1. Do you trust leadership?
  2. Are you very engaged at work?
  3. Do leaders have the “right” skills to build trust?
  4. Do the words of leadership match their actions?
  5. Does high organizational trust keep you at your job?
  6. Does your company behave ethically?
  7. Is the company culture highly aligned?
  8. Is innovation affected by the culture?
  9. Do you think a high trust culture is responsible for elevating the success of your company?
  10. Has leadership committed to elevating organizational trust?

No doubt these are some tough questions. And while most workplace surveys exclude them, imagine the valuable insights if they were included. And in fact, every one of these questions has been addressed in recent studies conducted by many leading organizations. These are just a few of the answers to the ten questions posed above.

  1. According to HBR.org and Zenger/Folkman, these two competencies were voted the most important for management positions. “Inspires and motivates others, displays high integrity and honesty.”
  2. According to Deloitte’s Millenial Survey 2018 only a minority of millenials believe businesses behave ethically.
  3. Gallup reports that only 46% of disengaged employees trust management.

Are you surprised by these findings? For the most part, trust in business has stagnated since we began tracking it ten years ago. In Trust Across America’s most recent 2018 study of the trustworthiness of America’s largest public companies only 103 companies in the Russell 1000 scored a 70% or above. The rest failed our test.

In celebration of our 10th anniversary helping organizations build trust, we spent the best part of the past three months assembling a research report called “Trust & Integrity in Corporate America 2018.” The (almost) 50-page report answers every question posed above, and many more. Studies from over 20 leading organizations, trust models addressing individuals, teams, leadership and organizations, highlights of our FACTS® Framework research and many other valuable tools are included.

Good measurement informs uncertain decision-making, and when an organization asks the right questions and measures what matters, leaders make better decisions. While corporate culture, core values, good citizenship, ethics, integrity and trust are commonly believed to be immeasurable intangibles or soft skills, research highlighted in our report points in the direction that these are not only false beliefs, but also that the benefits of an ethical culture far outweigh the costs. Yet most leaders continue to hold fast to the “soft skills” argument because neither they nor their Boards of Directors are thinking about them or reviewing the “right” data or inputs. Trust Across America tackled the “Board challenge” topic in the free spring 2018 issue of TRUST! Magazine.

It’s not uncommon for the following warning signs to be present in organizations when focus is on the wrong “tangibles” and the “soft skills” are misidentified.

  • The organizational culture is a mystery.
  • No clear “ownership” of ethical or trustworthy business practices or decision-making exists.
  • Discussions/training on ethics and trust rarely occur. When they do, they are lead by either the compliance or legal department and focus on rules, not integrity and trust since these attributes are voluntary and cannot be regulated.
  • Discussions of short-term gains and cost cutting dominate group meetings.
  • The pressure to perform is intense and the language used is very strong.
  • The Legal and Compliance departments are large and growing.
  • Ethical considerations/testing are not part of the hiring process and fear is widespread among employees.

Sound familiar? If so, leaders should be asking themselves a series of questions including the following. (Others are addressed in our recent report.)

SUCCESS: What role does trust play in ensuring a healthy culture ultimately impacting the success of your organization?

PERFORMANCE: How is trust tied to high performance, innovation, and sustainability in your organization?

COSTS: What are the costs/implications of not having a high level of trust in your organization?

BENEFITS: What are the payoffs of a trust-based organization for your stakeholders including your employees, customers, community and shareholders?

CULTURE: What values, principles or beliefs does your organization follow that are essential to building a foundation of trust?

What better time then now to start asking the “right” questions, collecting the “right” data and improving the culture for the benefit of all? Wouldn’t it be great if more organizations, including yours, could pass the test? What’s holding you back?

Take our survey here:

[powr-survey id=cc4e6af7_1539436598009]

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

 

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May
30

 

Many models of (un)ethical decision making assume that people decide rationally and are in principle able to evaluate their decisions from a moral point of view. However, people might behave unethically without being aware of it. They are ethically blind.

 

As organizations are comprised of individuals, Ethical Blindness naturally extends into the workplace. Some business sectors appear to be more ethically blind than others, and this creates enormous enterprise risk. This chart shows the trustworthiness of the major sectors for the Russell 1000 companies based on Trust Across America’s FACTS(R) Framework.

 

Ethical blindness can be corrected if leaders choose to be “tuned in” to the warning signs described below:

  • The Board of Directors does not have established long-term policies or procedures in place to elevate ethical and trustworthy behavior with their internal and external stakeholders. For more information see the Spring Issue of Trust Magazine.
  • Leaders, unless they are ethically “aware” by nature, are not proactive about elevating trust or ethics as there is no mandate to do so. When a crisis occurs, the “fix” follows a common “external facing” script involving a costly and unnecessary PR campaign. Wells Fargo’s latest “building trust” television commercial provides a timely example. Meanwhile internally, it’s “business as usual.”
  • Discussions of short term gains and cost cutting dominate most group meetings. The pressure to perform is intense and the language used is very strong.
  • The Legal and Compliance departments are large and growing faster than any other function.
  • The organizational culture is a mystery. No clear “ownership” of ethical or trustworthy business practices or decision-making exist. Think “hot potato.”
  • Discussions/training on ethics and trust rarely occur and when they do, they are lead by either the compliance or legal department and focus on rules, not ethics and trust.
  • Ethical considerations/testing are not part of the hiring process and fear is widespread among employees.

Is Ethical Blindness at the organizational level fixable? Absolutely. But the first order of business requires leadership acknowledgement and commitment to elevating organizational trust and ethics.

These 12 Principles called TAP, were developed over the course of a year by a group of ethics and trust experts who comprise our Trust Alliance. They should serve as a great starting place for not only a discussion but a clear roadmap to eradicating Ethical Blindness. As a recent TAP commenter said:

An environment /culture that operates within this ethos sounds an awesome place to me , I would work there tomorrow if I knew where to look for it. 

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is 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. For more information contact barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright (c) 2018, Next Decade, Inc.

 

 

 

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Mar
01

 

Yesterday in a CNBC interview with Jim Cramer, Marc Benioff emphatically stated that “trust is the highest value at Salesforce.” The company’s success is a by-product.

Ten years ago tools to assess and build organizational trust were rare and difficult to locate online. Trust Across America-Trust Around the World was formed, in part, to serve as a clearinghouse for trust tools and related resources.

Like Salesforce.com, most progressive companies are pursuing trust as an intentional business strategy, knowing full well that it is a competitive advantage. Leaders of organizations of any size and shape who are interested in elevating trust and proactively practicing it as a business strategy, may find these website links to be useful. Many of the resources are free.

FREE RESOURCES (Most Popular)

Trust Across America Blog: Viewed 74,898 times in February

TRUST! Magazine: a digital magazine, dedicated to helping leaders and organizations place trust on their strategic agenda. Our current issue has been accessed over 20,000 times.

Case Studies: Our Trustlets are a newly launched and growing library of real-life cases available as free downloads and for use in both academia and business.

Trust Bibliography: Updated annually and curated by Robert Easton, a partner at Accenture, it is probably the most extensive online research tool available (currently 86 pages).

Building Trust Reports: A growing library of “special reports” written by members of our vetted Trust Alliance.

Special Report via our Corporate Integrity Monitor: The Impact of Trust on Financial Returns

Join our Constant Contact mailing list for updates on our progress.

RESOURCES THAT CAN BE PURCHASED

Trust Alliance: a growing group of vetted global professionals working to elevate trust and share resources, now in its 6th year.

Workshops, speaking engagements, etc. Our Alliance members are available to meet just about any trust need an organization might have. No reason to search the internet for the “right” person to fill the gap. Just contact us.

Trust in a Box: A “do it yourself” solution for professionals and organizations interested in elevating trust, ethics and integrity.

Data Licensing: Our proprietary FACTS(R) Framework is the longest ongoing research study of the trustworthiness of America’s 2000 largest US public companies, now in its 8th year. Our data is available for licensing on a case-by-case basis.

Books: An entire Reading Room dedicated to organizational trust.

Top Thought Leaders Program: Nominations are now open for the 9th annual Top Thought Leaders in Trust.

If you lead an organization, serve on a Board or in any management capacity or work with others, and you continue to ignore trust as a hard asset, you are losing out to your competitors. Trust works. Give it a try.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is 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 & Co., 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.

Contact me for more information.

Copyright (C) 2018, Next Decade, Inc.

 

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