Trust in institutions and leaders is on the decline. That's bad news for organizations navigating difficult times. How can companies build trust, and can you repair it once it's been broken? Professor Bill McEvily joins the season premiere of the Executive Summary podcast to explores those questions and more.

Show notes:

[0:00] Declining trust in institutions, businesses, and CEOs – Why public trust is at an all-time low.

[0:33] Meet Bill McEvily – University of Toronto professor and expert in organizational trust and leadership.

[1:42] Defining trust – What trust really means in the workplace and beyond.

[2:46] The three dimensions of trust – Understanding reliability, competence and integrity in people and organizations.

[4:02] The role of trust in the workplace – How trust drives productivity, collaboration and resilience during chaotic times.

[5:46] What breaks trust – Common behaviours, decisions and policies that erode trust in organizations.

[6:15] Examples of companies breaking trust – Real-world corporate missteps and lessons learned.

[7:39] Consequences of broken trust – Impact on employees, customers and overall organizational performance.

[8:24] Repairing trust – Why there is no magic formula, but consistently delivering on promises works.

[9:15] The importance of communication – How transparent, honest communication strengthens trust.

[11:21] Building trust remotely – Introducing Bill’s concept of “prismatic trust” for teams and stakeholders you don’t interact with directly.

[12:26] Lessons from EZ Trade – How companies can implement systems to build trust with people you’ve never met.

[13:14] Signals of trustworthiness – How organizations communicate who and what can be trusted.

[14:18] “It's important for people to understand that there are mechanisms for ascertaining trust, even when we don't have the ability to know people personally… Human beings are ingenious in figuring out how to trust strangers. But therein lies the paradox… it's just how human society functions.”