{"id":4393,"date":"2019-05-29T08:43:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T12:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4393"},"modified":"2019-05-29T08:43:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T12:43:55","slug":"trust-starts-stops-with-the-board-of-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4393","title":{"rendered":"Trust Starts (&#038; Stops) with the Board of Directors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=4396\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4396\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4396 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-22-at-8.02.40-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"292\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-22-at-8.02.40-AM.png 1182w, https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-22-at-8.02.40-AM-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-22-at-8.02.40-AM-768x572.png 768w, https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-22-at-8.02.40-AM-1024x762.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px\" \/><\/a>Trust weaknesses perhaps represent the greatest risk in today\u2019s competitive business environment. Recent news confirms this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">A costly trust \u201cfix\u201d can wreak havoc on a company for years to come. Consider the long-term impact on all stakeholders as a result of Wells Fargo&#8217;s trust breach. The fact is, almost every trust &#8220;event&#8221; can be avoided or \u201csoftened\u201d when Boards acknowledge that trust is tangible, and choose to proactively build their trust bank account.\u00a0 Placing trust in the center of the business strategy, and practicing and reinforcing it daily is no longer a nicety, it&#8217;s an imperative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Trust is internal and ALWAYS built from the top down and the inside out.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Trust cannot be delegated to PR, communications or any &#8220;silo&#8221; per se. Purpose, reputation, sustainability and data privacy are also not substitutes for trust. They are simply placeholders or misguided &#8220;perception&#8221; of trust. A Board that chooses to ignore trust as a stand alone tangible asset, does so at its own risk, and cannot\u00a0 manage it by taking it for granted. Higher organizational trust produces the following outcomes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Higher employee engagement and retention and lower fear<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Expeditious decision making<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Innovative mindsets<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Elevated accountability, transparency and communication<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li5\"><span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/trustacrossamerica.com\/documents\/index\/Return-Methodology.pdf\"><span class=\"s3\">More profitable<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Speaking in 2016 at an annual con<span class=\"s4\">ference of the Arthur W. Page Society<\/span>, Paul Polman, CEO at Unilever noted that without trust in companies, there can be no genuine prosperity. Seventy-five percent of U.S. graduates, he said, do not want to work for big companies anymore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Given that trust is always a top down imperative, could the Board of Directors gain valuable insights into the importance of elevating trust if they surveyed their own members based upon universal <a href=\"https:\/\/trustacrossamerica.com\/tap-into-trust.shtml\"><span class=\"s5\">principles of trust<\/span><\/a>? What would the results reveal? Would the Board find respect to be high or low? How about integrity or understanding?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s6\">And what<\/span><span class=\"s1\"> if upon completion of the survey and creation of a plan to address the weaknesses, the Board expanded their trust-building efforts by administering the same anonymous survey to Legal, Ethics &amp; Compliance, HR, Finance and Marketing? Would this provide the Board with any actionable insights? Could reputation risk be reduced? And what would each team\u2019s results look like? How quickly could trust, and the resulting long-term benefits, be elevated by correcting the deficiencies?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">In fact, what if a Board member assumed the role of Chief Trust Officer for the entire organization? Sounds like a fairytale? It\u2019s not. This exact exercise is already being implemented in several progressive Boardrooms in both domestic and international organizations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>What are Boards finding?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">After completing the survey, one Board determined that the Principles of accountability, transparency and tracking were sorely lacking among their members. These weaknesses are now being addressed, while successes such as \u201ctruth\u201d and \u201crespect\u201d are being celebrated. This Board plans to roll the diagnostic out firm wide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>A Simple Solution<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\">In 2017, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World\u2019s global\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/cgi-bin\/alliance.cgi\"><span class=\"s4\">Trust Alliance<\/span><\/a>\u00a0set out to create universal trust-building Principles that could be applied in any team or organization of any size. The plan was to develop a non-threatening mechanism to start the \u201ctrust discussion.\u201d The Alliance itself (now in its 6th year) is comprised of cross functional professionals including Board and C-Suite members, compliance &amp; ethics, risk, HR, marketing, finance, accounting, CSR professionals, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\">Beginning with almost ninety ideas, and over the course of a full year, members weighed in through a powerful decision-making software tool, and honed the ideas to twelve Principles that form the acronym, \u201cTAP INTO TRUST.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\">TAP (Trust Alliance Principles) was first published in April 2018 and is currently available as a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/trustacrossamerica.com\/tap-into-trust.shtml\"><span class=\"s4\">free PDF download<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in 16 languages. In just one year, over 50,000 global professionals have \u201ctapped in\u201d and the trust \u201cmovement\u201d shows no sign of slowing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\">In March 2019, Phase II was introduced. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/aim-towards-trust.shtml\"><span class=\"s5\">AIM Towards Trust <\/span><\/a>is an anonymous one question, one minute survey that allows teams and organizations to obtain their trust baseline metrics and address weaknesses. AIM is an acronym for <\/span><span class=\"s7\"><b>A<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\">cknowledge, <\/span><span class=\"s7\"><b>I<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\">dentify, <\/span><span class=\"s7\"><b>M<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\">end.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=4387\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4387\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4387\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-05-at-9.18.51-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"257\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-05-at-9.18.51-AM.png 1078w, https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-05-at-9.18.51-AM-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-05-at-9.18.51-AM-298x300.png 298w, https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-05-at-9.18.51-AM-768x774.png 768w, https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2019-05-05-at-9.18.51-AM-1016x1024.png 1016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 257px) 100vw, 257px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Building trust-based principles into the DNA of an organization lowers fear and elevates security among all stakeholder groups. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Employees stop looking over their shoulders and instead start engaging, innovating, collaborating and working for the \u201cgreater good.\u201d <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Customers no longer question whether the &#8220;brand&#8221; can be trusted.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Shareholders trust that their investment is less risky.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The most enlightened Boards (we have written extensively about this subject in <a href=\"https:\/\/trustacrossamerica.com\/documents\/magazine\/Trust-Magazine-2018-spring-single-page.pdf\">TRUST! Magazine<\/a>) have an enormous business advantage when they choose to become the catalyst that turns around low trust in their respective companies, and in the broader business landscape. The tools are available for those who want to do more than &#8220;talk&#8221; and to actually make \u201cTrust the New Currency\u201d instead of just the latest buzz.\u00a0 And remember, trust always starts at the top.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Barbara Brooks Kimmel\u00a0is the CEO and Cofounder of\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/trustacrossamerica.com\/index.shtml\"><span class=\"s8\"><i>Trust Across America-Trust Around the World<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0, now in its 11th year, and whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She also runs the world&#8217;s largest global\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/trustacrossamerica.com\/cgi-bin\/alliance.cgi\"><span class=\"s8\"><i>Trust Alliance<\/i><\/span><\/a><i> and is the editor of the award winning\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/trustacrossamerica.com\/order.shtml\"><span class=\"s8\"><i>TRUST INC.<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0book series. She holds a BA in International Affairs and an MBA.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-best-social-bookmark\"><ul class=\"socials\"><li class=\"oknotizie\"><a href=\"http:\/\/oknotizie.virgilio.it\/post.html.php?url=https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4393&title=Trust Starts (&#038; Stops) with the Board of Directors\" title=\"Share this on oknotizie\"> <\/a><\/li><li class=\"twitter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Trust Starts (&#038; Stops) with the Board of Directors &raquo; https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4393\" title=\"Share this on twitter\"> <\/a><\/li><li class=\"delicious\"><a href=\"http:\/\/del.icio.us\/post?url=https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=4393&title=Trust Starts (&#038; Stops) with the Board of Directors\" title=\"Share this on del.icio.us\"> <\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Building trust-based principles into the DNA of an organization lowers fear and elevates security among all stakeholder groups. For example, employees spend less time looking over their shoulders and more time engaging, innovating, collaborating and working for the \u201cgreater good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[450,426,390,409],"tags":[122,202,136,116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4393"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4404,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393\/revisions\/4404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}