Trust is the theme for this issue. It's curious, but when someone says "Trust me on this one!" you feel an instant sense of unease, even distrust. It's like "To be perfectly honest….", which has the hidden admission "…and sometimes I'm not".
Words can embellish, dissemble, bamboozle. Actions can't, or at least not over the long term. Trust flows from actions, which require so much more courage than words.
Stakeholders are getting better at peering through verbal fabrics that corporates - often with no ill intent - spin round themselves, to spot those actions that do speak louder than words. Enron's impeccable mission statement alerted many stakeholders (when it was too late) as to how easy it is to be misled. The result? Research into leadership by the World Economic Forum shows heads of NGOs are the most trusted, at 56 per cent - well ahead of leaders of multinationals at 35 per cent (See the Edelman charts featured in our Profile section). Willingness to trust other people has plummeted in the past 40 years. In the USA around 35% agree that they generally trust others; in Britain the figure is lower still at 30%; in France it is around 23%.
What actions engender trust to give corporate relationships real muscle, real sustainability beyond today and tomorrow? Discovering stakeholders' expectations, and, if you accept them, living up to them. Not overselling, and ending once and for all what the ClueTrain Manifesto called "the sterile happy talk that insults the intelligence of markets. " Pointing to targets set (yes, you can set them for behaviour) and showcasing the efforts you have made to meet them. Acknowledging complaints and reproaches, admitting errors - and even compensating to actually outbalance the disappointment or error. Avoiding a retreat behind technical concepts, jargon, secret languages. Retaining the 'common touch' by considering others' concerns from their point of view. Assuring responsiveness by staying alive to changes in sentiment, preferably as they first show on the horizon.
The state of trust is like a bank balance. It needs replenishment against the days when you draw on it. And for that you need to be able to read a constantly changing balance sheet of relationships: valuing the assets, understanding the liabilities, making provisions where necessary. Addressing and welcoming the difficult debates in the certainty that this will make you richer in the end.
I hope you find this latest Insight a treasure trove of ideas, directly and indirectly, to develop the trust that all good relationships depend on..
Sandra Macleod, Chief Executive