Chief Trust, Ethics, or Integrity Officer - Does it matter?

Let me start by letting you know this is not an academic breakdown of the differences between ethics, integrity and trust. Not that there is anything wrong with academics. I'm a huge fan. In fact, I've guest lectured and presented at universities around the world on trust, and I have many friends in academia, including Justin O'Brien, whose deep thinking and analysis on Trust, Accountability and Purpose: The Regulation of Corporate Governance, is greatly respected.

Personally, I'm interested in the practical application of concepts. I love the challenge of taking something as complex and nebulous as trust and finding simple but powerful and practical ways to ensure it is understood by everyone, and that a common language and effective processes can take shape. And unless there are ways to measure and report on trust, efforts to bring it about will die a natural death.

In my view, trust is too critical to remain conceptual, and is slipping through too many fingers to ignore. As it is lost and broken, it causes great pain, and its restoration comes at great cost. The fallout from the recent Royal Commissions investigating the misconduct in the Financial Services sector, and Institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Australia are just a sample of the testament to this.

Anyone who has been following my journey over the years will know I have been carrying the flag for trust around the world (for 13 years now). It is beyond a passion. It is a calling, a duty, and I'll do it until the day I depart this earth. Why? Because I have seen, heard and experienced its breakdown and the pain and confusion it causes globally, and I've seen, heard and experienced, and in a number of cases led, its restoration in organisations, families and communities globally.

But I still keep hearing leaders boldly claiming they need to rebuild trust, and then they engage in activities that are piecemeal at best - like bandaids on gaping wounds.

Trust needs to be understood in order for it to be built and restored, and it is the lack of understanding, and the myths that I see continually rising that are damaging those who are attempting to face the challenge head on. As I'm often heard saying, the myth that says if you are honest and transparent, then people will trust you - is simply that, a myth. It is one small part of what it takes to be trustworthy, but applying honesty and transparency as your main strategy to build trust will leave you at a loss, discounting trust as yet another consultant hype that didn't work.

Trust follows a formula, there is a science to it, and it is predictable provided you know how to apply the formula. It is simple, but there is depth in its simplicity. The way in which we choose to trust is the same for every person on the planet - there is a psychology and a neuroscience to it, it feeds behavioural economics and it maps theologically as well.

Ethics, on the other hand, is subjective. What is ethical to me may not be ethical to you, and we are seeing this playing out over and over again in policy decision making, with often polarising arguments - gun control, abortion, climate change, food production, fair wage, immigration... it's messy, and views and positions shift based on a person's experience and proximity to the issue at hand.

There are connections between ethics and trust, for sure, as we also choose who and what to trust based on our own experience with them, or what we are seeing and hearing. But when we have an increasingly diverse cultural mix in organisations, families and communities, with polarising experiences, values, culture, and self interest drivers, how do we create a meaningful ethical framework that achieves outcomes?

Integrity is different again. It's personal. It's about congruence. When your words and deeds match. It is also connected to, but is only a part of, the dynamic of trust. You may be a person of integrity, what you say is what you do, and there will be people who still don't trust you. People of deep conviction who follow through are people of integrity. They may not be ethical in some people's view, and many people still won't trust them. We have some classic examples in our current global political scene right now who come to mind. Can you focus on integrity at an organisational level? Yes. Congruence is critical. But it's still only a part of the trust picture.

So, does it matter if you are thinking about whether you need an Ethics, Integrity or Trust Officer? Yes. Do I personally have an unconscious bias towards a Trust Officer? No. I have a very conscious one!

Can you create and execute a strategy for trust. Yes. If you create and execute a strategy for trust building and restoration, will everything be perfect? No. Because we are human.

Can you measure trust? Yes and No. You can measure its impact. Just like you cannot measure air, but you can measure its existence, and its lack. Trust impacts what I call the 3Rs: Results, Retention and Relationships. Implementing strategies and tactics that focus on trust building and restoration has proven to improve all three, often significantly, and not just by me and people I've helped, but there are a number of organisations who have attested to this globally.

Can you build trust into systems and processes? Yes. Into everything from how you lead, how you bring people into your organisation, how you exit them if and when you need to, how you manage and encourage them in order to get the best for them and from them. From how you market and brand your organisation and its products and services, to how you sell them. From how you serve your customers, to how you help them when their trust in you and/or your products and services fail them in some way. From how you govern your organisation to how you exist and serve your greater community.

Building on what was the Ambassadors for Trust training, and bringing understanding and stories from politics, government, NGOs, education, corporate, church, community, and from around the globe - Russia, Sweden, Korea, Columbia, Canada, Nepal, Jamaica, South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, UK, Germany, Tanzania, Kenya, Qatar, USA, New Zealand, and Australia, I'm now equipping leaders to become Chief Trust Officers.

The first small group is kicking off in August 2019 in Melbourne, Australia, and I'm predicting it will be the first of many as a new profession emerges.

Are you ready?

Vanessa Hall

PS. (Here's a sample of what people have said over the years about what they have learned and gained from understanding how trust works. It will give you a sense of how it resonates with people from different cultures, different roles, and different levels of education.)