Isn’t it interesting?
The American Society for Training and Development’s (ASTD) International Conference was packed with sessions on virtual learning, social media, 3D, best practices for webinars and so on. I attended the conference, and while there, I received a press release about Ken Blanchard’s acquisition of the Trustworks Group. Yes, I did receive it on my iphone, and I admit, I read it while listening to the speaker. Seems this is typical behavior for certain generations.
Well, that definitely peeked my interest given that I have been working with Stephen M.R. Covey for the past three years to bring engaging and dynamic learning programs to the market based on his best-selling book, The Speed of Trust.
Obviously, other thought leaders besides Stephen M.R. are catching on to the idea that trust is a key leadership competency, and that there is a great need to develop leaders who inspire trust.
This is certainly no surprise given that in the past decade, both business and government have violated stakeholder trust and demonstrated how its loss erodes reputation. As a result, trust has emerged as a new line of business.
The 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer suggests that, to advance reputation, companies need to be everywhere, engaging everyone. That they must build a “mosaic of trust.” In fact, the barometer shows that trust and transparency are as important to corporate reputation as the quality of products and services.
High trust organizations out perform low-trust organizations. Total return to shareholders is almost three times higher than the return in low trust organizations. So we assert that trust is clearly a key competency. A competency or skill that can be learned, taught, and improved, and one talent to screen for.
Leaders need to be transparent and talk straight, instead of creating illusions, having hidden agendas, making things seem different from reality, or spinning the truth. These are two of the key behaviors in Stephen M.R. Covey’s book that came out of his work on trust.
We are glad to hear more buzz about trust in the marketplace. And we hope your trust work is based on trust as an economic driver, and about implementing the behaviors of trust at all levels in your organization – getting people to speak the language of trust and understand how to extend, restore and build it.
There are no trust falls or funny hats in our Speed of Trust simulation and Speed of Trust Meeting in a Box. These dynamic learning solutions are about trust as an economic driver; about making trust your operating system; about learning and applying the behaviors common to high trust. Now there is something to tweet about (or we’ll send a press release if you prefer)!