Trust. It's at the Core
  of Every Positive Thing
  in Your Business (and your life!)

Every service offered by The Duncan Company is designed to help people and organizations be more effective. And at the core of it all is a simple principle called trust.

Some people mistakenly regard trust as just a soft and mushy concept. No one argues against trust. Everyone's in favor of it. But a lot of folks seem to think of trust as only a "nice-to-have" social virtue.

Trust is much, much more. Trust is a hard-edged economic driver that impacts speed and cost. Moreover, trust is more than a characteristic. Trust is a behavioral competency.

In collaboration with our associate Stephen M.R. Covey, author of the best selling book The Speed of Trust, The Duncan Company offers training and coaching in the competency of trust.

Consider these Five Trust Facts

1. Trust is the One Thing that Changes Everything

Trust is always operating, affecting every aspect of our personal lives, organizations and even global economies. Trust undergirds and affects the quality of every relationship, every work project, every business venture, and every effort in which we are engaged. Trust impacts the quality of every present moment as well as the trajectory and outcome of every future moment of our lives. Because trust is often a hidden variable, most organizations don’t know how to grow it and leverage it. Trust is truly the “operating system” of your organization.

Click here to learn more about "The 7 Low Trust Organizational Taxes" and "The 7 High Trust Organizational Dividends."

2. There is Nothing as Fast as the Speed of Trust

In every organization, trust is always impacting two critical variables: speed and cost. When trust is high, speed increases and costs decrease. The opposite is also true. When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden “tax” on every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed.

By contrast, individuals and companies that have earned and operate with high trust experience the opposite of a trust tax—they receive a “dividend” that becomes a performance multiplier, enabling them to succeed in their communications, interactions, and decisions and to move with incredible speed.

3. The Impact of Trust is Quantifiable

Contrary to popular misconception, trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don’t. In fact, trust is a pragmatic, measurable, actionable, mission-critical asset that you can create…faster than most people think. The reality is this: the costs of low trust are very real, they are quantifiable, and they are staggering!

4. Trust is a Competence

Are your employees good at establishing and sustaining trust? Internally? With clients? How will you know? If you think there is a deficiency, how will they learn? The new global economy is illuminating the economic and competitive relevance of trust. Those companies that will win are those that focus on trust as an explicit, strategic lever and get good in their ability to establish, grow, sustain and restore trust with their key stakeholders.

5. Trust is Operating at 5 Levels

Trust is more than how two people feel about each other, more than integrity and more than trustworthiness. Trust is operating at 5 levels…we call this the 5 Waves of Trust. These 5 waves are Self, Relationship, Organizational, Market & Societal. Organizations that leverage this hidden yet powerful variable learn to work at all 5 waves. This includes helping people throughout the organization experience paradigm, language and behavior shifts relative to trust; and to help leaders elevate trust to a stated, mission-critical strategic imperative and design organizational systems to support it.

MYTH	REALITY
Trust is soft	Trust is hard and very real.
Trust is slow.	Nothing is as fast as the SPEED of Trust.
Trust is integrity only.	Trust is equal parts Character & Competence.
You either have trust or you don’t,	Trust can be both build & destroyed.
Trust can’t be measured.	Trust affects both speed and cost and is measurable.
Once lost, trust cannot be restored.	Though difficult, lost trust can be restored.
Sarbanes Oxley rules (or external compliance/regulations) kill trust.	Compliance/regulations are all the more reason to establish trust.
You can’t teach trust.	Trust can be both taught and learned.

Click here for "What does a low-trust, low-performance culture look like? and What does a high-trust, high-performance culture look like?"

Click here for an Executive Book Summary
of The Speed of Trust.

All materials related to The SPEED of Trust^® are derived from the copyrighted works of CoveyLink, LLC. The Duncan Company is an authorized and licensed strategic partner of CoveyLink.