Trending
Despite democracy being pummeled at this moment in time, we simply can’t give up on transparency and trust, rather than frenzy, to lead us to a constructive transformation of our government and our economy.
Trust? Well, as Earnest Hemingway said, “the best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” We’ve begun to see the extent of the damage which has been wrought by those who were willing to take a leap of faith and trust the current administration.
But back to the notion of trust, years ago a professor of mine shared an equation that stayed with me. He called it the "Trust Quotient." Unlike other definitions I’ve seen in finance, he used the product of Credibility times Intimacy, divided by Risk, or C*I / R. As we know, credibility and risk are common notions in financial markets. But Intimacy, not so much.
In recent days and with lightning speed, the first part of the numerator has declined. And the second part has been all but absent. Further, the denominator has exploded upward. In other words, the Trust Quotient is cratering.
So, in thinking about how to possibly reverse this damage, we can start by working hard to nurture an ethos of trust within our communities and with our representatives. It’s going to take an awful lot of time and pain, but maybe we can start by leveraging the tool of transparency. Transparency leads to greater insights, better decision-making, more efficiency, higher inclusiveness, and enhanced access…and most importantly, more trust.
Hemingway also said that “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” This is the only way to make progress.