Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

It’s Week #26 of 2016. This latest article is part of a series drawn from our 3rd annual 2016 Trust Poster….now hanging in hundreds of offices around the world. Get yours today!

52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

Bart Alexander offers this week’s advice. Bart is both a Top Thought Leader in Trust and a member of our Trust Alliance.

Assume good intentions.

I once worked for a leader whose adage was:  “Screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice, shame on me.”  But do we always know when we’re getting screwed?

We often presume we know the intentions of our co-workers, competitors, advocacy groups, customers, clients, not to mention or friends and family.  Their actions and words both speak loudly to us.

So, how should we react to a rude comment, a put-down in an email, that looking down while I’m speaking to you, or that project that messes up everything I’ve been working on?  Don’t these behaviors signal bad intentions?

We react to other’s actions and words based on our own background and experiences.  But no other person on earth is just like us.  That ‘rude” comment may reflect the straight talk expected in another culture.  The “put-down” may have come from an analytical thinker who was presenting “just the facts.”  Those averted eyes may be a sign of respect.  That project may have been launched without realizing its impact on your work.

Trust depends on honest and authentic conversation, but sometimes we need to put aside our own cultural or style biases and assume good intentions.  We can react to our perceived insult or slight by being open and curious — “What did you mean by that?”  — shared without anger or judgement.  

This approach shines in negotiations.  When we’re open and curious, ask questions and listen, we learn not only the other’s position, but why they hold that position.  Mediators call this moving from position based bargaining — win or lose — to interest based negotiation — finding common interests and win-win solutions.

Of course, sometimes there are intentions and resulting actions that are, indeed, unethical or even evil.  That’s when my old bosses’ advice to watch your back may be necessary.  

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its seventh year, the program’s proprietary FACTS® Framework ranks and measures the trustworthiness of over 2000 US public companies on five quantitative indicators of trustworthy business behavior. Barbara is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

It’s Week #25 of 2016. This latest article is part of a series drawn from our 3rd annual 2016 Trust Poster….now hanging in hundreds of offices around the world. Get yours today!

52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

Holly Latty-Mann offers this week’s advice. Holly is both a Top Thought Leader in Trust and an active member of our Trust Alliance.

Go public when expressing gratitude;

go private when expressing disappointment.

While cultural differences do exist regarding response to positive public recognition, no company on record has ever lost an employee due to discomfort with public praise. David Sturt (HBR, November, 2015) shared findings that employees in the USA, India, and Mexico tend to revel in it, while those from Australia and the UK enjoy it with less fanfare. When publicly acknowledging the Japanese, Germans, and French, small-scale publicity is more appropriate.   

What about shame-based management via public chastisement? Not all employer humiliation or harassment is illegal as long as the verbal abuse is unrelated to demographics (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity). Perhaps that explains the high prevalence of managers belittling coworkers publicly on job performance, yet across all cultures, such behaviors are shown to compromise trust in management, for which statistical evidence clearly points to a compromised bottom line (bit.ly/1WBOBp6).

A final note:  Company morale goes respectively up or down when a single person is publicly honored or dishonored, and the literature is prolific with studies showing strong positive correlations among morale, productivity, and revenue.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its seventh year, the program’s proprietary FACTS® Framework ranks and measures the trustworthiness of over 2000 US public companies on five quantitative indicators of trustworthy business behavior. Barbara is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

It’s Week #21 of 2016. This latest article is part of a series drawn from our 3rd annual 2016 Trust Poster….now hanging in hundreds of offices around the world. Get yours today!

52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

Davia Temin is a Trust Alliance member, a Trust Across America Top Thought Leader and a contributor to our Trust Inc. book series. She offers this week’s idea:

Say what you do, do what you say.

Reliability, dependability, integrity — these are the essential building blocks of trust. Sounds simple, yet they are so difficult to achieve day in, day out. 

Under-promising and over-delivery is the ticket, of course.  

Whether we are tempted to over promise because of enthusiasm, a lack of operational expertise, expediency, or duplicity, the results are the same — distrust is created. And once there is distrust, rebuilding trust becomes almost impossible without a significant shaming, and transformation, of the organization. 

So if you seek to build trust, don’t promise what you can’t deliver, either in your ads, your speeches, your press releases or in your town halls. Stick to what you can deliver. The public is so jaded by hyperbole, they will most likely appreciate and respect your honesty. And even if they do not, you will know you have done the right thing… And that counts for a lot. 

Thank you Davia. We hope our readers heed this week’s advice.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its seventh year, the program’s proprietary FACTS® Framework ranks and measures the trustworthiness of over 2000 US public companies on five quantitative indicators of trustworthy business behavior. Barbara is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

When a baby decides it is time to be born…”the show must go on.”

Such was the case on January 23, 2016 when approximately 103 million people were affected by a blizzard that hit the east coast of the US, requiring eleven states to declare emergencies, including New Jersey.

Assisted by local EMTs, the healthy baby was delivered at home on the living room couch, the second child of a couple with a fully paid health insurance policy. But the extreme weather conditions and treacherous roads required both the healthy mother and her new baby to be transported to the closest hospital, not one designated by the family’s insurance plan, and certainly not through any special requests on the family’s part. In less than 24 hours, both mother and child were released from the “unaffiliated” hospital, returning home to celebrate their new arrival.

But the biggest surprise for this family was yet to arrive.

The following week a hospital bill was delivered for $53,000. And in case you are not totally shocked by that number, it didn’t include subsequent invoices from the EMTs, emergency room doctors, nor the $39.00 adult diaper that was “sold” to the mother following delivery, to name just a few “incidentals” that brought the total “hit” to over $60,000.

Now this family, who should be bonding and celebrating the birth of their healthy second child, is instead:

1) Faced with a daunting bill that no insured young middle class family could ever possibly pay, and mounds of paperwork and invoice totals that change with every postal delivery.

2) Spending countless hours away from their children and professional obligations listening to prerecorded messages claiming “our menus have changed,” “your call is important to us” and “we are experiencing unusually high call volume.”

The following are some not so simple questions for insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, miscellaneous health services providers and any other parties who would like to weigh in on this story:

What responsibility, if any, do organizations have to ensure their customers are treated fairly, ethically and in a trustworthy manner?

Has corporate greed and the “maximization of shareholder value” permanently replaced doing what’s right?

If this child had been born to a family with no health insurance what would their bill be?

How can this family, who believed they had done everything “right” except better timing the birth of their baby, expeditiously resolve this and “get on” with what matters and their daily lives?”

I suppose the moral of the story is “buyer beware:” 

Even under the most extreme circumstances caused by acts of nature, thousands of dollars in monthly health insurance premiums don’t “cut it” once companies are asked to honor their obligations and do the right thing. Why is this so?

Please send any suggestions or advice to barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its seventh year, the program’s proprietary FACTS® Framework ranks and measures the trustworthiness of over 2000 US public companies on five quantitative indicators of trustworthy business behavior. Barbara is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

It’s Week #17 of 2016. This latest article is part of a series drawn from our 3rd annual 2016 Trust Poster….now hanging in hundreds of offices around the world. Get yours today!

52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

Nadine Hack a member of our Trust Alliance  and 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner offers a simple suggestion:

Be inclusive in your decision making

In our ever-more connected world, growing exponentially more so because of social media, people expect to be engaged rather than dictated to. This always has been true: it’s just more obvious now.

So, be open to the possibility you can learn as much from those you lead as they might learn from you. Involve them as early as possible in analyzing information to make truly informed decisions.

Territorial ego-based leadership is the opposite: keep strategies and activities secret, maintain control by keeping everyone else “in their place” and share as little as possible.

Yet, leaders who recognize that even the new intern can have a breakthrough “genius insight” are genuinely secure and do not have to dominate. They also get the best out of their teams.

Thank you Nadine. We hope our readers heed this week’s advice.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its seventh year, the program’s proprietary FACTS® Framework ranks and measures the trustworthiness of over 2000 US public companies on five quantitative indicators of trustworthy business behavior. Barbara is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

It’s Week #13 of 2016. This latest article is part of a series drawn from our 3rd annual 2016 Trust Poster….now hanging in hundreds of offices around the world. Get yours today!

52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust

David Penglase, a Trust Alliance member from Australia offers the following:

“In earning the trust of others, being clear on what you want for others, is more important than what you want from them.”

Your intentions matter! Not just what you intend to do (the action), and not just why you intend to do it (the motivation behind the action), but also having a clear and mindful understanding of how what you intend to do will impact others (the impact).

These three elements of intention, the action (what), the motivation (why), and the impact (how), are a direct reflection of your character (who). 

You now have the who, what, why and how of intention, all that remains is for you to decide on when you will start to build even more trust in your life (self-trust, trust in others and earning the trust of others) by harnessing the power of intention.

Thank you David. We hope our readers heed this week’s advice.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its sixth year, the program’s proprietary FACTS® Framework ranks and measures the trustworthiness of over 2000 US public companies on five quantitative indicators of trustworthy business behavior. Barbara is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

Is Gender Diversity Profitable? That’s the title of a recent study published by The Peterson Institute. In its introductory abstract the study states: Analysis of a global survey of 21,980 firms from 91 countries suggests that the presence of women in corporate leadership positions may improve firm performance.

Trust Across America-Trust Around the World is encouraged by this research and employed it as a steppingstone for a study to test the following hypothesis:

Does the percentage of women on boards positively impact the trustworthiness of public companies, and therefore, their performance?

Our methodology:

Our *FACTS® Framework data served as the basis to analyze the 5-year average FACTS® score for the Top 50 and Bottom 50 companies in the S&P 500.

We then matched the 100 companies (50 top and 50 bottom) to publicly available board composition data from the 2020 Women on Boards Gender Diversity Directory. For those unfamiliar with this program, the goal of 2020 Women on Boards is to increase the percentage of women on US company boards to 20% or greater by the year 2020. Women currently hold 18.8% of Board seats up from 14.6% in 2011.

Initial observations:

50 Most Trustworthy Public Companies

• An average of 23% women on boards
• Thirty companies above 20% women on boards, twenty below 20%
• In this 100-company universe Dr. Pepper Snapple Group had the highest percentage (44%) of women on boards.

50 Least Trustworthy Public Companies

• An average of 16.3% of women on boards or 43% lower than the Top 50 companies
• Twenty companies above 20% women on boards, thirty below 20%
• Four companies in the Bottom 50 had no women on their boards.

A few notable early findings:

Eight of the most trustworthy companies in our survey are in the financial services sector, often cited as one of the least trustworthy sectors. Of the eight, only JP Morgan Chase & Co. had less than 20% of women on their Board.

Nine of the least trustworthy companies are also in the financial services sector. Only one of the nine has a female board composition of over 20%.

This is why we like to say “Industry is not destiny.”

*Our FACTS® Framework

• Measures the trust “worthiness” of over 2000 public companies
• Across 16 sectors
• Over a period of 6+ years (since 2010)
• Including five quantitative indicators of trustworthy business behavior
• An audited portfolio performance track record vs. the S&P 500 is available for the period February 2013 to February 2016.
• Portfolio returns as follows: FACTS® returned 80% above S&P 500; FACTS® annualized 16.7% vs. S&P 500 9%

While our initial study supports The Peterson Institute’s findings, the hypothesis can only be proven, or disproven, with a more detailed analysis covering years of historical data and information. Further findings will be reported in the spring research issue of TRUST! Magazine scheduled for publication in late April and distributed at no cost to our Trust Alliance members.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO and Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. Now in its sixth year, the program’s proprietary FACTS® Framework ranks and measures the trustworthiness of over 2000 US public companies on five quantitative indicators of trust. Barbara is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine.

Contact: Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Copyright © 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

Last night was a “late night” in the office so I was surprised when the phone rang at 9:00 PM.

Trust Buster #1: A business call after normal business hours raises immediate red flags.

The caller ID announced “Private.”

Trust Buster #2: A legitimate business would identify the name of their company, providing the recipient with information about the caller.

The call went  to voicemail and this was what I heard from the female robo caller.

Trust Buster #3: A legitimate business would never expect another business person to answer or listen to a robo call.

The robot said “Hi this is Cheryl from XYZ Roofing.” Not “Hi Barbara”

Trust Buster #4: A legitimate business would know the party’s name or the business name that it was calling and would address the party appropriately. 

The message went on to say: “Someone from your office called to get an estimate on a new roof. We will have an estimator in your area next week and just need a little more information. Please call this number so we can schedule an appointment.

Trust Buster #5: A legitimate business would never lie to attract new business… and this message was an outright lie. Nobody in my office had called about a new roof.

The sad part of this story is simply that the owner of XYZ Roofing signed off on this sales pitch campaign as a good idea. What was that person thinking? If a business owner lies to get his/her foot in the door, nothing they say after the lie should ever be believed.

People want to do business with other people they trust. Businesses want to do business with other businesses they trust. Very simply, trust is not built through lies and deception.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust and integrity. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara also serves as 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.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

Certainly, everyone who has studied marketing learned the rule of “Giving the customer what they want.” But too often what the customer wants and what the customer actually needs are not the same.

For example, ask most leaders whether they believe a need exists to elevate the level of trust in their organization and without the blink of an eye, the answer will be a resounding “No!” Their understanding of organizational trust extends no further than increasing quarterly earnings, keeping Wall Street happy and following the advice of the general counsel. But if the level of organizational trust was what leaders believe it to be, innovation would be at an all time high, as would employee engagement and retention, those Glassdoor reviews would read a whole lot better, and decisions would be made, as Stephen M.R. Covey likes to say, “at the speed of trust.”

So why the glaring disconnect? It begins with the leader who simply does not know the right questions to ask and ends with the paid “experts”,”gurus” and “consultants” who deliver what many call “the happy talk song and dance” in the form of NSA trained and scripted speeches and seemingly quick and painless fixes forgotten before the ink dries on the check. It’s simply a revolving door of wasted time and money delivering what the customer wants.

The truth is that strategic trust not only takes time but also expertise to develop and implement. It requires leadership commitment, an understanding of organizational culture and core values, Board support, stakeholder buy-in and daily practice. It’s not built through happy talk and pre approved PowerPoint presentations, and rarely is it a quick fix. It requires a leader with a willingness to explore, with the right professionals (and there are only a handful), not what they believe they want but what they actually need. It requires vulnerability and a long-term perspective.

It’s no secret that most leaders continue to hold firm to the argument that the business case for trust simply does not exist, even though it does and continues to grow stronger. If you are a leader who wants to build organizational trust but cannot answer these questions, find someone who can help you. The returns will be game changing and the organization will flourish. If you are a service provider, stop giving the customer what they (think) they want and instead, take the time to find out what they need. If you are not the right person to fill that need, offer to help locate someone who can.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the CEO & Cofounder of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She facilitates the world’s largest membership program for those interested in the subject. Barbara also serves as 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.

Have you seen our 2016 Trust Poster? It’s changing the way organizations do business.

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.

Yesterday, at a small holiday gathering someone asked simply, “Does anyone care about Trust Across America-Trust Around the World’s programs?” This year-end post is being written in response to that question.

Trust Across America? Who cares?

Our friends care: We have built a holistic multifunctional circle of friends who have individually (and at times collectively) helped steer us in our mission to build organizational trust.

Our Alliance cares: Now entering it’s 4th year our Trust Alliance has worked collaboratively to publish three award-winning books in our Trust Inc. series, five issues of TRUST! Magazine (the most recent issue being downloaded almost 30,000 times) three annual “Trust Ideas” posters and a host of organizational trust tools, of which virtually none existed before the alliance formed.

Our Top Thought Leaders care: Now in its 6th year Trust Across America’s annual honor is bestowed on the Trust Across America Top Thought Leaders whose daily work helps elevate organizational trust and ethics and who hold this award in high regard on both their websites and in their biographies.

Our Most Trustworthy Public Companies care: Now in its 5th year, this annual honor is given to the “Top 10” Most Trustworthy Public Companies in the US. Many of these companies use this award to recruit new talent and in their marketing and communications messages. Unlike other “Top” awards, companies do not know they are being judged, nor do they participate in the review process.

Researchers care: We maintain the largest living bibliography of trust research (free) thanks to the generosity of one of our friends and colleagues. It’s accessed constantly and updated as researchers contribute new material.

The Media cares: Our press coverage continues to expand.

Our Website Visitors care: Organizations very much care about the subject of organizational trust. Occasionally we audit visitors to the site according to our web stats. Here’s who stops by: repeated visits from Fortune 500 and other multinational companies; federal and state government agencies, both domestic and foreign; universities and colleges around the world; and we’ve even seen some visits from the White House!

Since January 2013, 742,000 visitors have accessed 2,276,000 pages of material. We think that’s quite a bit of caring!!

Cheers to you Bob for challenging me to write this year-end post. And thank you to ALL our friends, Alliance members, Top Thought Leaders, Trustworthy Public Companies, Researchers, Media, website Visitors and Blog Post Readers who care. Without you, there would be a whole lot less trust in the world.

Here’s to more caring in 2016!

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

PS- Drop me a note at barbara@trustacrossamerica.com and let me know you care!