I was shocked this week by an email quoting research by British
sociologist David Halperin that only 29% of British people believed that others
can be trusted. Mind-boggling though that statistic is, even more amazing is
the fact that this figure has declined from 60% only 40 years ago.
If you
assume that trust will continue to decline at the same rate in the future, this
means we have 37 years to go until no-one trusts anybody! How depressing is
that thought?
Of course no-one can forecast such things precisely and it is in any case
hypothesising to a ridiculous extent to think that figure could ever reach
zero. Isn’t it? Heavens, I do hope so! No society can flourish without trust.
In any event my first reaction was to check out this research myself. After
all, you can’t trust just any statistic sent in an email or that you come
across on the internet, can you? (Damn! See how contagious this distrust is.) Unfortunately I cannot provide a direct link
but a Google search on “David Halperin trust” led me to a PowerPoint
presentation on the first page called “Why trust is a …” and I thoroughly
recommend you see this for yourself.
This presentation was actually created in 2006 which means that we are
already at least 7 years further into our decline, but it reveals some very
scary statistics. For instance:-
Only 12% of the US population trusts “big
companies.”
honesty and integrity.
observed illegal, unethical conduct on the job– which, if exposed, would
seriously violate the public’s trust
to get into graduate school.
as MBA students on their ethical dilemma exams!
I don’t know about you, but my reaction to this is “Crikey! Houston we have
a (BIG) problem!”) But there is more to a problem than just knowing about it
and throwing up our hands in horror. We have to do something about it.
For me that has to begin with changing the way we work. With such
(apparently justifiable) low levels of trust it is hardly surprising that
employee engagement levels are so bad. Furthermore, it also means that any of
your efforts to engage your employees and win their enterprise, enthusiasm and
effort, are likely doomed to fail unless you change this. And employee-ownership
and the democratisation of the work-place that this would effect, is still your
best option. It will increase the likelihood of someone, somewhere speaking up
when they witness unethical conduct and reduce the risk of damage to your
business. It will also create the sense of common purpose and shared values
that will engender greater organisational success. And, most important of all,
it will start the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction and fuel greater
trust. That would seem to be essential.
But we need to act NOW, because time is clearly not on our side.