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The UK now finds itself in its lowest-ever position in the Global Trust Index, just one place off the bottom, with only Russia below it – Ed Williams President and CEO, EMEA
The results are in: Nobody trusts anyone anymore.
The 2020 update of the Edelman Trust Barometer, which aims to survey trust and credibility around the world, reveals that we are living in a ‘trust paradox’. We have almost reached full employment with more people lifted out of poverty than ever before. And yet – globally – no institution, be they government, business, non-profit or media— are trusted.There’s also a lack of faith that the government can address our problems. Sixty six percent of respondents said they do not have confidence that “our current leaders will be able to successfully address our country’s challenges.”
Institutions are variously described as remote, too slow. Too bureaucratic. Not agile enough.However , there is hope.75% of people want to see much greater collaboration from institutions, with each other and involving citizens. Indeed, across the board, collaboration is key to regaining trust. Partnering with other institutions to solve complex issues is one of the most important steps to regaining people’s trust.Many more people place their trust in experts and local communities. 80% of respondents said they trust scientists, 69% said they trust “people in my local community” and 65% said they trust “citizens of my country.”When nearly 70% of people trust others in their community and want to see greater collaboration from civic institutions, you have something positive to build from.Yesterday I was in Cardiff with Wales Audit talking about the opportunities and challenges for accelerating innovation across the public and private sector.
These kind of debates about how organisations can move from the old world to the new are increasingly vital if we are to do anything about a trust deficit.The excellent sketchnote in the header (thanks Chris Bolton! AKA @whatsthepont) nails the key behavioural shifts that organisations need to make to become ready for an era of equal partnerships rather than one based upon command and control.
- A shift from targets and sanctions to supportive coaching
- A shift from compliance and rules towards continual learning and improved outcomes
- A move from hierarchy to partnerships through networks and collaborations
- A move from broadcasting and controlling the message to conversations across trusted networks
- And a seismic shift in transparency about failure – a move to a test and learn culture
- As Chris said – we’d be naive to think this is going to happen overnight – and it’s a spectrum rather than a binary choice. Sometimes you DO need sanctions and you need a hierarchy.That said, and as the Edleman report lays bare, incrementalism is no longer enough. People are looking for big bold change to deliver a discernible improvement in their lives.More than ever people need to feel that organisations are competent and have the ability to fulfill their commitments. We need to believe they have the right motives, are benevolent, act fairly and honestly. We need to see they are transparent, that they are learning from mistakes and failure.Enabling this new world of service delivery means shifting from ‘what matters to us’ towards ‘what matters to you’ . This requires quite a profound behaviour change from our organisations.It means reducing the gap between organisational rhetoric and the reality. It means doing less talking and more listening. It means stopping saying how great your organisation is. It means engaging rather than broadcasting. It means defaulting to transparency. It means partnering.The first step to regaining trust is to believe in someone or something. Perhaps that’s a good place to start for many of our organisations.
- Do people believe we are benevolent?
- Do people believe we are even competent?
- Do people believe we even understand the problem we were set up to fix?
- Distrust will only be combatted through leaders being open and accountable and having public discourse with one another and with the people they collectively serve.Concern about disinformation will only be combated by providing real evidence of the kind of outcomes we are achieving. It’s time to kill it with the awards for ourselves.The real positive here is that people aren’t sick of change, they want change on a scale like never before.Whether we are capable of delivering it, or whether we are even prepared to, remains to be seen.