Edition 2 - 18th March 2024

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The Power of Know, Like,Trust.

The know, like and trust equation is one that will be familiar to many in business. It is a key element of building relationships, with clients, customers, partners, and friends. Research suggests that people are more likely to do business with someone they know, like, and trust.?

Positive relationships take time and require constant nurturing, rather like a garden. It isn’t something that you can just pick up when you want something.

Two examples of where, in my opinion, this has gone wrong are policing and politics.

In my experience, 21st Century policing has abandoned the know, like, trust relationship. Perhaps this is why trust in the police is at a low point.

During my three decades of experience in policing, I found that policing was at its best when it was community based. I have had the privilege of working in some of the most elite teams in the Metropolitan Police, as well as working as uniformed beat officer in a community ‘safer neighbourhood team’.

A key element of the community policing model is know, like, trust. When a community know who their local police officers are, they can begin to like and trust them. Often, this relationship then encourages the community to share information. This also works when investigative teams make enquiries about a local community or key members of that community with the local police. Without that community policing expertise, the local knowledge is missing.

When there is a major incident, be that a high-risk missing person, a murder or a terrorist incident, the police will flood the area with uniformed officers and detectives. They will expect the local community to trust them and share information. This is where the issues begin. The know and like elements are missing. The nurturing phase of getting to know has been missed and taken for granted.

Politicians require local people to vote for them in order to get elected. In many cases, people vote for a party rather than a person and this is fine when the party is strong. However, when a party is struggling, it can no longer take people’s votes for granted. Local people take greater interest in the candidates when they lose faith in a party.

However, if the local MP hasn’t taken the time to get to know their local constituents, the know, like and trust elements won’t exist, and posting leaflets through the letterbox won’t achieve anything. When a local MP is invisible the community won’t be fooled by the their sudden interest in them as an election looms. They don't know, like or therefore trust their local MP and probably won’t vote for them.

Not all MPs are active in their constituencies, my own local MP is a virtual stranger to most constituents. This is part of the reason that just 9 per cent of the British public said they trusted politicians to tell the truth, down from 12 per cent in 2022, the lowest score since records began in 1983, making politics the least-trusted profession in Britain, according to Ipsos.

If politicians and the police want to improve the level of trust they want, they have to take the time to build the relationships. This cannot be done when they want something, such as votes or information but must be a constant. ?Community based policing benefits everyone, but requires investment and a commitment from the police to provide continuity, ensuring officers are posted into a community and stay there for long periods of time, free from abstractions.

UK Politics requires a significant improvement. For some, the fear of being attacked has caused them to shut down they weekly constituency surgeries and become less visible. They need to be more visible. This can't be something that is done just when they want our votes. In order to be known, liked and trusted, they need to do it regularly to understand the issues we are experiencing and for us to believe they actually care. The fact that politicians are the least trusted profession in the UK, which means that most are unknown, not liked and not trusted. ?That is the greatest threat to our democracy.

I cannot recall the last time my local MP was out knocking on doors, nor can I remember when I last saw a local police officer on the beat, who I? knew or could say I liked. These may be seen by some as a quant and old fashioned desires, but not everything new is better.

One of the most inspiring networkers I know, Siv Sivasamy shares a mantra that is believe is key, ‘it is about we, not me’. ?It is a mantra that if practiced, will improve all of our lives.?

The Defuse Podcast with Giles Kenningham MBE

?This podcast features Crisis Communications expert Giles Kenningham MBE

Giles is a former Head of Press at Number 10 Downing Street and spokesman to the Prime Minister. He was the Director of Communications for the Conservative Party’s general election win in 2015 leading a team of 40 people. Prior to this he was a special adviser/ press secretary to the Secretary of State for Communities, Local Government and Housing.

He started his career as a journalist in national radio reporting on business and consumer issues for a variety of stations including Classic and Magic FM. He is a former ITV News producer having worked for 3 years on their three main flagship programmes.

Few people entering the sector have his level of experience and insight of dealing with every crisis imaginable. From political scandals to sex scandals, to privacy issues, he has dealt day in day out for 6 years with the issues that have led the TV news bulletins and dominated the newspaper front pages.

Giles regularly appears as a political and media commentator on BBC , Sky News CNN . He also writes for a variety of national publications including The Times and Spectator.

Listen and subscribe to The Defuse Podcast here.

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