The TRUST Show

S4E11: Can You TRUST Customer Reviews?

The idea of posting and relying on customer reviews comes from the fifth law of trust: that trust is transferrable. If you trust one person, who trusts another person, you may trust that other person too.

The better business bureau (BBB), Amazon, Google, and many other companies use such reviews. Before you buy almost anything, before you download a song, go to a movie, or book a hotel room, you check reviews. You buy if you see positive reviews, and you don’t buy if the reviews are bad.

But is that trust justified? Should you trust people you don’t know? In this episode, I will share some of the dangers with relying on customer reviews, but will also discuss other aspects of it, as well as give you ideas on how to know if you can trust reviews, and how to increase the reliability of such reviews.

S4E10: How do you Measure TRUST?

Trust is the foundation for everything. With trust, you have creativity, productivity, and financial results. With trust, you have strong marriages and healthy relationships with your kids, parents, and friends. But how do you measure trust? Trust is a relatively intangible, abstract construct that’s hard to measure. You can’t just send a questionnaire and ask people “what is the level of trust in your organization?” Trust is relative, and therefore no absolute answer would be accurate. Yes, if trust is the foundation for everything, you must measure it somehow. In this episode, I will provide a philosophy of how you should measure trust.

S4E9: What Does TRUST Have to do with the Boardroom?

When the organization has high trust, customers prefer to buy from it, even at higher prices. The employees are less stressed, more engaged, and more satisfied with their jobs. They are capable of conducting a constructive disagreement that leads to creativity. Those high trust companies are more innovative and productive. Projects are completed on time and budget 45% more than low-trust organizations. They deliver 5 times higher profits and 286% higher shareholder returns. It’s all good. But what does that have to do with the board of directors? In this episode, I will give you 4 ways in which the board can influence the level of trust in the organization, for better or worse.

S4E8: TRUST and Breaking the Rules

Once again, I’m recording an episode in response to something Simon Sinek said. In a LinkedIn post, he wrote “We don't trust people to follow the rules. We trust people to know when to break them.” I understand the need to be provocative and contrarian, but is this statement true? Is that how we should decide who we trust and who we don’t trust? In this episode, I will break down the relationship between trust and following, or breaking rules. I will also broaden the scope of the discussion and bring in ethics and morals, too. 

S4E7: Is TRUST More Important Than Performance?

In one of his videos, Simon Sinek makes the point that trust is more important than performance. I agree with a lot of what he says, but not with this statement. In this episode, I will give you two reasons why I so strongly disagree with this statement, but also, given that trust is relative, how do you balance those two? 

S4E6: How Many People Can You TRUST?

How many people can you really trust? Is there a limit to the number of people you can trust? In this episode, I will answer this with a definite YES. But to answer the question “how many?” I would have to say, “it’s complicated.” In this episode, I will uncomplicate things. I will explain what factors affect how many people you can trust, and how much you can really trust them. This episode is a little philosophical, but would help you answer that question yourself. The answer will be based on several laws of trust, on the fact that trust is relative and dynamic, on what you have to lose, on time and intimacy, and, believe it or not, the size of your brain. And, yes, I will give you numbers.  

S4E5: Trust and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic, now entering its third year, had a major impact on trust in many ways. Some might say that the impact is not smaller than the events of 9/11. In this episode, I will discuss things such as our trust in the media, science, and experts, the impact of virtual meetings on intimacy and trust, the impact of the polarization around masks and vaccines on trust, the quality of education, and the impact it will have on trust in the future, and the great resignation. I will not take a position on those topics but rather discuss how they relate to, affect, or are affected by trust. Finally, I’ll address the issue of “the new normal.” 

S4E4: 10 Ways to be More Accountable and Trusted (Part II)

This is the second part of this two-part episode on accountability. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines accountability as “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.” In my research, I found a very strong link between trust and accountability. Like any trust relationship, this one, too, is reciprocal. If you behave in an accountable way, I will trust you, I will give you autonomy because I trust you not to abuse it, and you will then trust me, and be even more accountable. Accountability cuts across many relationships, from personal to professional. This is the first of two episodes in which, through stories and my research and trust model, I will discuss several aspects of accountability, the link between accountability and trust, and give you 10 ways to be more accountable and trusted.

S4E3: 10 Ways to be More Accountable and Trusted (Part I)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines accountability as “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.” In my research, I found a very strong link between trust and accountability. Like any trust relationship, this one, too, is reciprocal. If you behave in an accountable way, I will trust you, I will give you autonomy because I trust you not to abuse it, and you will then trust me, and be even more accountable. Accountability cuts across many relationships, from personal to professional. This is the first of two episodes in which, through stories and my research and trust model, I will discuss several aspects of accountability, the link between accountability and trust, and give you 10 ways to be more accountable and trusted. This is the first in a two-part episode. 

S4E2: How to Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions

It’s that time of the year, and we set our new year resolutions. But, before you set your new year resolutions, let me ask you one question: did YOU achieve LAST year’s resolution? I found a statistic that showed that 35% of people kept ALL their 2020 resolutions. That’s not bad! 49% kept some, and 16% kept none. So, what’s the secret to achieving your new year's resolutions? In this episode, I will focus on resolutions that intend to form new habits. The framework I will use is the same that I used in The Book of TRUST and I use in my Trust Habits Workshops to help form habits that build your trustworthiness. I also used it in the book Worst Diet Ever to help lose weight and live healthy (and that’s how I lost 32 pounds myself…). In this episode I will show you how to form habits, successfully, so that you will achieve your 2022 resolutions.