Simon Newman, President CMG Innovation, Inc.
The United States of America is experiencing a crisis of Trust. Leaders of any institution need to be aware of how the current War on Trust is affecting the way people think and on their abilities to lead.
Trust levels in the government and in almost all institutions that underpin our democracy are at or near an all time low.
Almost everything we do requires us to have a certain level of trust in those around us. Trust is critically important because it is the basis around which all human relationships revolve. Without trust there can be no relationship.
Without trusting relationships any form of change, innovation or improvement is impossible. Trust is the central ingredient that allows our way of life to exist - and without it, we are facing an existential crisis.
The decline in trust is attributable to many causes. One major contribution is the increase in Toxic Narratives and inflammatory dialogue that has taken over as the leading "weapon" in fighting political battles. I will be writing about Toxic Narratives in a future blog posting.
The Arenas for these political battles of "trust" are varied but include:
Geopolitics:- such as the Russian attacks on the US elections and the Brexit Vote
National and Local Politics:- trust attacks occur in almost every election today
Institutions:- such as schools, universities and hospitals, where trust attacks come in the form of votes of no confidence, defamatory attacks, academic mobbings and general incivility
Public companies:- including actions by activist investors to influence corporate governance; attacks on the trustworthiness of a product by a competitor; or "trust runs" such as the recent collapse in value of Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Whatever the venue of the battle, the underlying techniques to cause disruption through toxic narratives and behaviors are similar in all cases. The attacks degrade or destroy the public trust in an institution, policy, person, product or service. These techniques have been around for centuries, but they are modified to suit the attacker’s agenda. What has made these approaches more of a concern of late are three things:
Frequency: Negative and unfair attacks are coming more commonplace, more nasty, and more blatantly false – because they demonstrably work and have limited downside for the attacker
Amplification: Attacks are enabled and amplified easily by social media, and the scandalous nature of the attacks makes them fodder for viral amplification, and re-broadcast through traditional media channels
Distrust: The sophistication of the attacks is increasing, as they often mix real facts with falsehoods and it makes the attacks hard if not impossible to counter
The annual Edelman Trust Survey has illustrated how the recent declines in trust started around 2005/6 when social media created a siloing effect - such that we all broke up into groups of people like me and our trust levels shifted from a trust in authorities and experts, to a trust in peers.
According to Edelman, today we are in a battle for truth.
So how does the United States compare with other countries? It turns out that just in the last year alone, the US has seen a 9% fall in the level of trust its citizens have in institutions. The US is now firmly a distrusting nation.
Perhaps even more troubling is the general population's trust in media. It is near an all time low, and it has become politicized - diverging among voting lines. Only 27% of Trump voters trust the media, so at least with that population it means that the media has an impaired impact.
One of the problems with trust in the media has been the emergence of Fake News. I am quite familiar with fake news myself, having got a University Education in how to create, scandalize, publish and disseminate fake news. Fake News is now a global phenomena and it has become weaponized.
In a healthy trust environment, the population relies on the media and on experts to educate them on the various political, social or economic issues of the day. This information comes to them through the media - TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines and increasingly online. Tragically, this last few years has seen a rapid decline in the trust of the media - so it is now the least trusted major institution as discussed in the Edelman annual trust survey. In the US, the level of trust in the media is now below the average of the Global 28 countries.
As a leader, it is imperative that you are aware of the forces that create distrust in your organization and you need to be skilled in both recognizing the signs, and in developing techniques to build trust.
The plain truth is that not everyone will trust you. If you are leading an institution through change, the Old Guard will not be your friend because they will see the changes you are making as a loss of power. Distrust is the currency of people in your organization who will be working against your change agenda: they cannot be won over, and they will rarely play nice. It is important to develop strategies for dealing with these troublemakers and we will be publishing future blogs to provide strategies for identifying the Connivers of Distrust, detailing their tactics, and developing strategies for dealing with them.