Are we resigned to the cost of mistrust?

Last week a 'good' news story stood out amongst terrible ones - about the restoration of a famine-era bothy in western Ireland that is available to stay in on a trust basis. My first reaction....'Oh no! I hope it doesn't get ruined by the first people in there and then they'll have to close it'.

Would that be your reaction too?

After a recent trip to Denmark, where trust, at levels twice that of Ireland, is both a societal and commercial lubricant, I have been thinking a lot about the topic....and can't help but conclude that mistrust is costing us!

We say that we want our society to be 'more like the Nordics', but we need to take a look in the mirror:

• Every time you have to fill in a government form and feel like you have to give your inside leg measurement of detail, that's because somebody, somewhere took liberties with public money. This slows business and society down.
• Every government initiative takes YEARS to progress because if its not designed to cater for every permutation/combination and edge case, the gap is in the courts, on the front of the newspapers or 'Joe Duffy' talk radio. This stymies innovation in public service, trying to respond to a rapidly changing world.
• Ireland has 1/3rd the number of collaborative innovation partners as Norway, because culturally, we won't tell the right hand what the left hand is doing. This is hurting our economy.
• Every time a 'Cute Hoor' tops the poll, its because we want them to, and then say that 'they are all the same'. This only serves to foster further mistrust. This hurts us all.

There are no easy solutions. In an increasing adversarial and individualistic world, trust can only be created and maintained with integrity and fair dealings. Does our common law contractual framework drive individualism and mistrust? In business, contracting for the relationship (as opposed to the outcome) can reduce costs by up to 40% . What could increased levels societal trust do for our economy? How more agile and efficient could we be if we grew our level of trust by even 5%?

What can we do to increase trust?

Let's start a conversation........