At least we’re not in Italy.
While Italians live in a spectacularly wonderful country, they have come to really, really distrust the big institutions that generally propel civilizations forward. Thus, their forward progress has stalled.
Things are better in the United States, but some worrisome trends lurk out there.
I’ve been thinking about the trust thing a lot since I sat on a panel assembled earlier this year to consider the weighty topics of trust, ethics and such. The event was organized by the big public relations firm Edelman, which was releasing its annual Trust Barometer, and cosponsored by the Georgia State University Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility. The barometer is derived from an annual survey of 30,000 leaders from government, business, non-profits and media.
The 13th edition finds that Atlanta is not alone in what the Edelman folks describe as a "a true crisis of leadership." The crisis is global.
In Atlanta, trust often seems to be what’s missing when leaders try to propel our little piece of civilization forward. A trust shortage pretty much doomed last year’s massive transportation referendum. And after spending years denying they had a problem, state legislators trying to shore up trust nearly exhausted themselves to pass even modest ethics rules.
Trust is an issue now as the Metro Chamber seeks a new leader. For decades, the chamber’s leader has been the face of Atlanta’s business community. And since our chamber is no longer limited to mere commerce and way into schools, transportation, water, etc., bad things can happen when leaders lack public trust.
The Edelman barometer is intriguing and useful. While things aren’t great anywhere – Italy fared particularly poorly – it’s only a little better in the United States.
Overall, the U.S. score on the “trust index” rose from 49 in the 2012 report to 59 this year. (Italy fell from 56 to 51.)
Keep in mind that this study was done in the brief calm after the 2012 election. A hundred bucks says next year’s barometer will look a little different. (See fiscal cliff, Benghazi, IRS, NSA, AP, etc., etc.)
And even the sunny news from those halcyon days comes with dark clouds. Alan VanderMolen, the Edelman vice president who interpreted the barometer for us, sees two very disturbing trends. “While trust in institutions in general in the United States is going up, trust in the leaders of those institutions is going down,” he told business, academic and government leaders over breakfast at the Capital City Club downtown.
When the going gets rough, people expect politicians and CEOs to lie, the barometer suggests. While Americans generally trust businesses, only 15 percent believe that CEOs are honest when confronted with a difficult issue. Only 10 percent believe politicians are honest under stress. “Trust in the leaders of those institutions on moral ethical and honesty issues is not so good,” he said.
The other troubling trend is a growing chasm between the way society’s elites – the people with money, education and regular exposure to news – views the world and the way things are seen by the general public. “There’s a huge gap between what we would call our informed publics or opinion leaders … and the general population,” he said, scanning the clubby room filled with business, media, political and academic leaders. “So people like you in this room tend to trust each other, but nobody outside of this room trusts you.”
I believe it. Atlanta seems divided between the informed, more educated and affluent – i.e. our readers - and the general populace who know very little about even the immediate world around them. The study suggests that exposure to legitimate news sources engenders trust. It further suggests the knowledge gap is widening as well as its concurrent loss of faith.
All is not lost, VanderMolen, says, but things must change. His research focused deeply on what businesses should do, but I see lessons for any public undertaking. The research says corporate success and great products are dandy, but they don’t build trust. Reputation, yes; trust, no.
Trust comes from engaging deeply in a community to work through the things that matter. “There’s a power shift,” he said. “We need to change our thinking from monologue to dialogue.”
And as important, leaders must demonstrate integrity and transparency.
So, we can either embrace an agenda of engagement, integrity and transparency or drift toward becoming Italy – sadly, without Rome or Tuscany.
