Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

Trust & regulation mix like oil and water, yet oil always rises to the top.

The 2015 PWC CEO Survey has just been released, and 78% of CEOs are concerned about over-regulation, and for good reason. Regulation happens to be a trust killer, but that’s not their main cause for concern. Regulation, like low trust slows down the pace of business and innovation. It’s also very costly.

Richard Sexton, PWC’s Vice Chairman of Global Assurance, filmed this short video in which he (attempts to) explain the important role of trust in business, except he misses the mark. To PWC, the route to trust is through (more) reporting. Create more boxes to check and teach companies how to check them and like magic, you’ve got trust!

So let’s recap, CEOs are burdened by increasing regulation and the escape hatch is via more reporting. Except trust CANNOT be regulated and it’s also NOT a check the box finite reporting “project.”

Building organizational trust begins when the CEO, with the support of his or her Board, commits to run a trust-based organization and takes the required steps to do so. But there are certain prerequisites that must be met in order to make this commitment:

• The C-Suite must acknowledge and embrace the importance of building trust. The business case has been made but it is being ignored by the vast majority of organizations.
• Building trust is a long-term strategy that may have a short-term negative impact on earnings.
• Trust as a business strategy requires a certain mindset and “type” of CEO, and a Board that supports this.
• And perhaps most important, building trust cannot be delegated.

Hiring more compliance staff, increasing regulation and checking more boxes will not build stakeholder trust, regardless of what this survey and others have claimed. PWC may be carving out a “reporting” practice area that will serve it’s internal needs and that of its clients for many years to come, but it’s as much about trust as oil and water.

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

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

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

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

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

JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING

We recently highlighted:

•  John Wooden’s greatest quotes on building trust
•  John Maxwell’s greatest quotes on building trust
•  Zig Ziglar’s greatest quotes on building trust and
•  Mahtma Gandhi’s greatest quotes on building trust.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day so this week we turn our attention to Theodor Seuss Geisel (affectionately known as Dr. Seuss) an American writer and cartoonist. Dr. Seuss published 46 children’s books and for many mothers, including myself, hours were spent reading these books to our children and conveying many life lessons along the way. This article pulls together twenty of his most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business or religious leader, our beloved Dr. Seuss has a message about character, competency and consistency, the key ingredients for building trust.

If you are a Mom, buy yourself a Dr. Seuss book for Mother’s Day and share it with your kids. It may just be a gift of a lifetime.

1. “Today I shall behave, as if this is the day I will be remembered.”
2. “It is better to know how to learn than to know.”
3. “With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.”
4. “You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. but mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?”
5. “Nothing is going to change, unless someone does something soon”
6. “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
7. “You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”
8. “I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent!”
9. “I’m afraid that sometimes you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ’cause you’ll play against you.”
10. “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!”
11. “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”
12. “Only you can control your future.”
13. “You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.”
14. “I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.”
15. “It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.”
16. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
17. “Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”
18. “ASAP. Whatever that means. It must mean, ‘Act swiftly awesome pacyderm!”
19. “Oh, the things you can find if you don’t stay behind!”
20. “You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.”

My favorites are #5, #6 and #20. How about yours? 

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

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

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

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

Yes, Hillary Clinton is “Dogged by Trust Issues” according to several recent polls including this one reported in Investor’s Daily. Hillary even has her own long-term personal “trustworthiness” graph as published in the Washington Post, and she has called for a restoration of trust among Americans.

Trust, trust and more trust. One would be hard pressed not to agree that “trust” is a central theme in this presidential contestant’s campaign. But should it be?

Emphatically NO! Not in Hillary’s campaign, nor in any other politician’s.

At a minimum starting point, trust requires:

• Character, competence and consistency. Many politicians, including Hillary, possess the competence component. It’s the other two that are usually lacking.
• Trust is built over time and in incremental steps. It’s not a campaign platform nor a short-term PR strategy.
• Finally, there is the question of whether one can separate professional trustworthiness from personal. The answer is a simple “No.” Either one is “holistically” trustworthy or they are not.

Given these foundational prerequisites for trust, there is not a single politician that should ever utter the word “trust”, let alone call for its restoration or use it to get elected.

But the most important reason for politicians to drop the word trust is found in our two-party system where the “trust” prerequisite for presidential candidates does not even exist. Democrats and Republicans alike will vote for who they view as the “best” candidate, regardless of how trustworthy they are, or claim to be. “Best” is defined not by level of trust, but rather by how the voter thinks the candidate will benefit him/her the most, or how big a cut of the pie will come the voter’s way.

So my advice to Hillary and all her opponents would be to drop the word “trust” from all future speeches, articles and campaign platforms and focus on being politicians, what they actually “do” quite well. Be honest about who you are. Leave the word “trust” to those who have a genuine interest and “pure” motive to improve it for the long-term betterment of society.

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

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

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

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

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

We recently highlighted:

•  John Wooden’s greatest quotes on building trust
•  John Maxwell’s greatest quotes on building trust and
•  Zig Ziglar’s greatest quotes on building trust.

This week we turn our attention to Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest Indian spiritual leaders of all time, and a believer in justice. This article pulls together twenty of his most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business or religious leader, Mahatma Gandhi has a message about character, competency and consistency, the key ingredients for building trust.

1. “To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”
2. “Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
3. “The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.”
4. “Action expresses priorities.”
5. “Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.”
6. “It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.”
7. “Manliness consists not in bluff, bravado or loneliness. It consists in daring to do the right thing and facing consequences whether it is in matters social, political or other. It consists in deeds not words.”
8. “Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.”
9. “I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.”
10. “Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”
11. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
12. “The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer.”
13. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
14. “There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.”
15. “A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.”
16. “Speak only if it improves upon the silence.”
17. “It is easier to build a boy than to mend a man.”
18. “Truth is one, paths are many.”
19. “Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.”
20. “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”

My favorites are #5, #6 and #14. How about yours? 

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

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

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

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

Low trust comes with high costs.

We have just been presented with a great year-end lesson for every business professor to teach as many graduating students head into corporate America.

What happens when two of the most disliked companies in America try to merge? NOTHING.

Thanks to Tom Wheeler at the FCC, Comcast’s Brian Roberts is licking his wounds. Years of Washington lobbying and deal making just weren’t enough to seal the Comcast/Time Warner deal.

And when all is said and done, every stakeholder loses. What a perfect case study in trust, and it can be taught in one hour!

Assignment #1:

Read TIME Magazine article providing overview of the players and events leading up to the failed merger.

Assignment #2:

Read Slate.com article on the most hated merger in America

Assignment #3:

Read the Wall St. Journal article on how the big investment banks lost out on $380 million in fees

Assignment #4:

A big win for consumers? Not so fast.

Assignment #5:

Entrenched local monopolies are not a “win” for consumers.

Assignment #6: (this could also be Assignment #1)

The Washington Post spends time discussing Roberts leadership and the role it played in this failed merger.

Assignment #7:

Read Return on trust 4-9 and  my article on How to Cut Your Biggest Expense. (Maybe someone can deliver copies to Brian Roberts.)

Questions to ask your students:

• What is the role of the Board of Directors in building stakeholder trust?
• What is the role of the CEO?
• Why are companies like Comcast and Time Warner hated by their customers?
• What societal “good” could have come out of the merger? Hint: investment bankers getting wealthier and larger monopolies don’t count.
• What should Comcast and Time Warner leadership do now to begin to earn the trust of their stakeholders?
• What companies do you consider trustworthy and why?

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

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

The Spring issue of TRUST! Magazine, celebrating trustworthy organizations,  is now available. It’s free by signing up at this link.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

We recently assembled twenty of John Wooden’s greatest quotes on building trust, followed by John Maxwell’s. Now we turn our attention to Zig Ziglar, an American author, salesman and motivational speaker who passed away in 2012. To many, Ziglar remains “America’s most influential and beloved encourager and believer that everyone could have, do and be more.” 

This article pulls together twenty of his most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business or religious leader, Zig Ziglar has a message about character, competency and consistency, the key ingredients for building trust.

• “The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.”
• “Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there”
• “If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.”
• “It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action and discipline that enabled us to follow through.”
• “Don’t count the things you do, do the things that count.”

• “You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.”
• “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”
• “A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.”
• “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.”
• “If you don’t plan your time, someone else will help you waste it.”

• “If you pay that price daily by planning and preparing and working to become the right kind of person, then you can legitimately expect to have all that life has to offer.”
• “Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared, but only men of character are trusted.”
• “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”
• “People who accomplish great things work toward their objectives every day.”
• “Send out a cheerful, positive greeting, and most of the time you will get back a cheerful, positive greeting.”

• “The depth of your spirit will determine the height of your success.”
• “Ask yourself a question: Is my attitude worth catching?”
• “Value and purpose are about understanding the specific benefits you will help people receive if they receive what you have for them.”
• “If you have the character to hang in there when its tough, you will develop or acquire every other characteristic necessary to WIN in the game of life.”
• “With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.”

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

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

The Spring issue of TRUST! Magazine, celebrating trustworthy organizations,  is now available. It’s free by signing up at this link.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

Collaboration fosters better decision-making, and by working together, groups can achieve extraordinary outcomes.

On a personal level, collaboration:

• Improves communication skills
• Stimulates critical thinking
• Enhances self esteem
• Builds confidence
• Motivates individuals to take risks
• Builds self-control
• Allows for evaluation of personal values and goals
• Builds empathy
• Teaches to listen with respect
• Develops conflict resolution skills
• Shifts the focus from the “short term” to the “long term”

As a group, collaboration:

• Increases productivity
• Speeds up decision-making
• Encourages creativity
• Simplifies workflows
• Pools skills and resources
• Fosters diversity
• Increases profitability
• Brings balance to decision-making
• Encourages win/win situations
• And most importantly, builds trust

High trust organizations embrace collaboration which leads to high productivity and profitability.

The next time someone asks you to collaborate, perhaps your first response won’t be “What’s in it for me?”

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

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

The Spring issue of TRUST! Magazine, celebrating trustworthy organizations,  is now available. It’s free by signing up at this link.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

We recently assembled twenty of John Wooden’s greatest quotes on trust. Now we turn our attention to John C. Maxwell whose philosophy is simple: “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

His life’s passion is in developing leaders at all levels. Along the way he’s written over 70 books and spoken to millions of people about what it takes to become a great leader.

This article pulls together twenty of his most inspiring quotes. Regardless of your role in life- a parent, teacher, business or religious leader, John C. Maxwell has a message about character, competency and consistency, the key ingredients for building trust.

1. “Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.”
2. If a good reputation is like gold, then having integrity is like owning the mine.
3. “Your success stops where your character stops. You can never rise above the limitations of your character.”
4. “Image is what people think we are; integrity is what we really are.”
5. “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”
6. “Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
7. “Actions are remembered long after words are forgotten.”
8. “To collaborative team members, completing one another is more important than competing with one another.”
9. “Growth inside fuels growth outside.”
10. “If you don’t change the direction you are going, then you’re likely to end up where you’re heading…”
11. “Success is… knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your maximum potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.”
12. “A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others.”
13. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
14. “People tend to become what the most important people in their lives think they will become.”
15. “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
16. “LISTEN twice as much as you speak.”
17. “If you wouldn’t follow yourself, why should anyone else?”
18. “A Chinese proverb says, “Those who drink the water must remember those who dug the well.” Gratitude is one of the most attractive of all personal attributes;”
19. “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.”
20. “There are no short cuts to any place worth going.”

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

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

The Spring issue of TRUST! Magazine, celebrating trustworthy organizations,  is now available. It’s free by signing up at this link.

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

“We all know the next crisis will come….but in the meantime it’s business as usual.”

Those were the exact words spoken by the Chief Communications Officer of a well-known financial services company at a recent conference I attended on trust.

Other than an enlightened handful, most companies continue to ignore the business case for trust and its inherent strategic advantages:

• Fewer crises and the ability to recover more rapidly as a result of having “banked” trust
• Faster decision making
• Higher employee engagement
• Greater innovation (high trust fuels high innovation, not the other way around)
• Increased long-term profitability

But instead, let’s continue to watch trust decline across all major institutions, talk about it from time to time, and choose never to implement long-term trust-building strategies. After all, it’s “business as usual” until the next crisis as evidenced by our current collective mentality:

• Disengaged boards with minimal diversity
• Short-term profit maximization at all costs
• Decreasing CEO tenure and increasing compensation packages tied to quarterly earnings
• Siloized decision making
• Increased regulation and larger legal and compliance departments
• High employee turnover
• Using CSR or sustainability “programs” as corporate window dressing
• Taking trust for granted or passing it off to the communications folks like a hot potato.

But as a reminder, industry is not destiny and “hats off” to those companies and organizations that have chosen a different path. We applaud you for your efforts. You can read about them and the updated business case for trust in the Spring issue of TRUST! Magazine published this week by registering on our signup link.

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

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

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.

Trust Across America Names Most Trustworthy Public Companies 

Trust Across America- Trust Around the World (TAA-TAW) global leaders in organizational trust, this week announced the results of a five-year study of over 2000 US based public companies, naming Texas Instruments (TI) as the Most Trustworthy Public Company for the period 2010-2014. Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director states: “We are pleased to see TI top this list.  The company has a history of trustworthy behavior as evidenced by the following long-term corporate vision:

“One of TI’s greatest strengths is its values and ethics. We had some early leaders who set those values as the standard for how they lived their lives. And it is important that TI grew that way. It’s something that we don’t want to lose. At the same time, we must move more rapidly. But we don’t want to confuse that with the fact that we’re ethical and we’re moral. We’re very responsible, and we live up to what we say.”

– Tom Engibous
Former chairman, president and chief executive officer, Texas Instruments – 1997

Kimmel cautions that no company is perfect. While the ongoing short-term, quarterly earnings focus is disappointing, we are encouraged by mounting evidence that long-term profitability is enhanced in organizations choosing to lead with trust. It should also be noted that while the average tenure of a Fortune 500 CEO has fallen to 4.6 years, those in our “Top 10” average 8.4 years.

To create this index, TAA-TAW began with a universe of over 3000 publicly-traded North American companies, evaluating more than 2000 to identify those receiving the highest 5-year ranking on five equally weighted quantitative indicators of trustworthiness that comprise the proprietary FACTS® Framework: Financial stability, conservative Accounting, Corporate integrity, Transparency and Sustainability.  Companies are not nominated, nor do they participate in this analysis in any manner.  The model independently identifies those with the highest scores in all five FACTS® indicators. A final screen scans news for unacceptable trust violations that might include fines, inappropriate CEO conduct, accounting irregularities, avoidable security breaches, etc.

The framework initially conceived and developed in 2008, is “the most holistic and comprehensive trust “health” checkup for public companies,” according to its founders. “It’s all about corporate culture and leadership, said Barbara Kimmel. If Boards and CEOs remain unwilling to place trust at the top of their daily agenda, they are missing out on a tremendous competitive advantage.

America’s “Top 10” Most Trustworthy Companies is shown below in rank order. Congratulations to these outstanding companies.

1. Texas Instruments
2. Intel
3. Nike
4. Hormel Foods
5. Lexmark
6. Southwest Airlines
7. Accenture
8. Whirlpool
9. Staples
10. Disney

Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™ provides the most comprehensive tools and resources for organizations to transition to high trust through a global collaborative network. More information about our honorees and their best practices can be accessed via the free spring 2015 issue of TRUST! Magazine by registering on our signup link.

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For more information on this topic, or to schedule an interview with Barbara Kimmel, please email barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright 2015, Next Decade, Inc.