The Four Factors of Trust

Conclusion

In this chapter:

• The urgent need to build trust today
• Why organizations must lead the way
• Principles for building trust

Our research gives us tremendous hope for the future, because collectively organizations have the resources and power to change the world by creating and maintaining trust.

The Urgent Need to Build Trust Today

Our friend David Kirby of Ford offers this poignant analogy for how essential trust is to the fabric of our society: If you go to a meeting in a conference room, the first thing you do is find an empty chair and sit down at the table. Imagine one day you pull up the nearest chair and plop down. Before you know what happened, you find yourself with an ungraceful landing on the floor, the broken chair upturned beside you. The next day, will you sit down immediately, or will you instead check your chair first?

If you have to check your chair every time you sit, or confirm your bank is holding your money safe, or sniff‐test your food every time you eat … If you have to wonder if a product will work as advertised, or question whether your employers will keep their promises … If you have to do all these things, you won't have time to do much more.

Trust is foundational to human progress. Tens of thousands of years ago, humans lived in small nomadic groups that traveled together, hunted together, and gathered periodically with other groups. Out of this grew tribal culture, and eventually individuals took on specialized roles. Some hunted. ...