Five Stupid Ideas About Trust in Business
With apologies to David Letterman’s signature skit series of a decade+ ago, Charlie Green and I wrote an article with this original title for the FCPA Blog back in January 2019. After recently speaking with Charlie, the title is being borrowed again to highlight (and update) a few of the many misunderstandings about the nature of trust in business. (This updated article could also be called Trust 101: Back to Basics Again.)
Here’s our list of Five Stupid Ideas About Trust in Business, followed by some comments about the flaws.
Do these flawed views of trust merit actually being called “stupid”? You be the judge.
1. Trust is synonymous with “check-the-box” ESG, DE&I, sustainability, “greening” your organization, etc.
2. Blockchain is a road to trust.
3. Loading up corporate communications with trust words du jour elevates brand or organizational trust.
4. Elevating data security is a pathway to trust.
5. Trust can be chemically induced.
While all these ideas represent flawed views of trust, they are not all “wrong” in the same way. Exploring how they are flawed tells us a lot about what real trust concepts, tools and metrics look like.
