Talking Truth to Trust
September’s Jericho Notices is dedicated to the challenges of Trust – inspired in part by the publication of the excellent Trust: The Truth, courtesy of our friends at IpsosMORI.
It’s a terrific read, especially for the data-heads among us – busting the barometer myths and finding sympathy with our argument that there is no real “crisis of trust”. Instead, trust should be considered more of a chronic condition. As we have argued, it’s all too convenient for business and political leaders to talk-up a sense of crisis as a “dead cat” distraction for failures of leadership elsewhere. Trust should never be used as lazy shorthand for sh*t gone wrong. 
Jan Gooding’s and Robert Phillips’ recent talks and writings have focused on the challenge of delivering trust as an outcome, not a message – the vitality of truth and why trustworthiness is an altogether better expression. Jan delivered the annual Ogilvy Lecture, at the Marketing Society in Edinburgh, as part of the wider Festival, and followed it up with some thoughts on trust and truth in her regular column for Mediatel.
Robert, meanwhile, has been reflecting on leadership, communications & trust – captured in this article for Communication Director magazine and the European Association of Communications Directors. Effectively an update on Trust Me, PR is Dead five years on, it is accompanied by a Case Study from KPMG’s Jane McCormick on the global Responsible Tax project, a purpose and engagement programme developed in line with Jericho’s operating principles of activism, participation, accountability and dissent.
Robert has also been musing on the different dynamics on trust. Why we might trust our colleagues is different to how and why we might be trusted by customers or clients. You can read more here. Trust is a simple word for a complex idea. And, if “external” trust is messy, “internal” trust is messier still. In all cases, honesty, vulnerability and courage will most certainly be required.
We have designed a Trust Masterclass as well as measurement models to track trust-building behaviours in an organisation.
If you are interested in finding out more, booking a keynote and/ or working through some of these challenges, please get in touch.
Rebecca Perrin
September 2019
