They also announced today their prestigious 2012 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior list that Stephen M. R. Covey and I are honored to be included on for the second year in a row.

Trust Across America, the respected international think tank and research firm known for developing pragmatic criteria for identifying the most trusted organizations, today announced their 2012 list of Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behaviors.  Stephen M. R. Covey and I are honored to be included for the second year in a row in this unique and prestigious company.  We join many of our  North American mentors, and peers including Barry Rellaford, one of our business partners,  Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo who wrote the foreword to our new book Smart Trust, Tony  Hsiesh, CEO of Zappos who we interviewed for our book and numerous other long time friends and colleagues.   We are humbled to be included and intend to do our part to follow the lead of Trust Across America to amplify the significance of growing high trust cultures and restoring trusted behavior as a recognized driver to restoring our global economic growth.

Renowned leadership authority Warren Bennis, also on this list, had this to say when he read our new book: “Smart Trust is without doubt one of the most powerful and seminal books of our age. It exposes and helps solve the most dangerous crisis apparent in almost all human institutions: how to trust in a low trust world.”  

We feel that Trust Across America is contributing an important platform to as Steve Jobs said: “put a dent in the universe”  as it relates to transforming our toxic economy as it relates to trust.  We applaud their efforts.

Finally we are on the verge of publishing our new book Smart Trust: Creating Prosperity, Energy and Joy in a low Trust World,  after several years of extensive research, interviews, collabortion and study.  Smart Trust  highlights enlightening principles and anecdotes of people and organizations that are not only achieving unprecendented prosperity from high-trust relationships and cultures but–even more inspiring–also attaining elevated levels of energy and joy. 

The sustainable success these leaders and enterprises are exhibiting is paradoxically being produced in what has proved to be the lowest trust economic climate in years, if not decades.  Smart Trust shows what they are doing and the 5 actions they are commonly taking to prosper, against all odds, in the same economic circumstances causing so many others to fail.

Smart Trust has met the strict scrutiny of business  leaders around the globe and is validated by research from multiple sources that confirms that high-trust organizations outperform low-trust organizations by nearly 3 times.

Find out why trusted people are more likely to get hired or promoted,  make more money,  get the best projects and the bigger budgets, and are typically last to be laid off.  It is our hope and intent that reading Smart Trust will increase your probability of not just thriving, but prospering in this increasingly unpredictable economic marketplace.

Stephen M R Covey and I do intend to make this year our best year yet as far as our mission to shift global governance  on teams in organizations and hopefully even countries to one of high trust.  We were committed and optimistic when we chose the sub tittle to our first book The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything.  We actually approached that sub title a little sheepishly at the time.  We felt in 2006 that perhaps it was a little too bold.  Now in hindsight after selling over 1 million copies of The Speed of Trust  and spending the last 2 years researching and writing our new book Smart Trust: Creating Prosperity, Energy and Joy in a Low Trust World, that feel if anything we understated the significance of trust.  This year we intend to boldly emphasize the over arching influence that trust has on all aspects of our lives and leadership.  We strongly suggest that high trust is the key to transforming toxic relationships,  toxic teams,  toxic organizations and even toxic countries into extraordinary growth engines that will drive our ailing economy to new heights.

We have discovered and documented in Smart Trust compelling examples and evidence that certain “outliers” of success are producing extraordinary results in the same circumstances causing others to fail. We are thrilled that Smart Trust will be in stores in 10 short days and provide a platform for this important dialogue to make 2012 our best year yet.

Following one of his presentations, a man approached Stephen backstage with a question that was obviously troubling him deeply. “Are you really serious about this?”, he asked incredulously. “Are there really people out there who operate with the kind of trust you’ve described?” This man lived and worked in a country where there was ripe corruption, characterized my massive distrust. He was clearly feeling deeply torn. He sincerely wanted to believe what we’d said, but was finding it almost impossible in the context of his environment.

In many variations, this question has been posed to us repeatedly by people around the world–in organizations, businesses, schools and government. In this era of profound distrust, are there really those who succeed and experience the benefits of trust in their personal and professional lives? If so, who are they? What are they doing? And how?

This new book is written in response to these questions. The short answer is, “Yes—absolutely!” There are hundreds of examples of people, companies and countries—individuals, teams, organizations, markets and industries—that have created cultures and relationships of high trust and are enjoying the wonderful benefits demonstrated in this forthcoming book—prosperity, energy and joy. In fact, one of the most exciting dimensions of our work over the past seven years, even predating The Speed of Trust book, has been to both sense and see first-hand the groundswell renaissance of trust that is gaining momentum and transforming lives and leadership around the globe—even in the midst of the “crisis of trust” that fills today’s headlines.

Warren Buffet likes to say that anything good that’s ever happened to him can be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country at the right time.  While trust was not a specific criteria all these indicators correlate with trust.

The US answered that question  a full 8 points lower than even last year while China, India and Brazil either increased trust in business or in the case of China stayed the same.  More significantly trust in business ranged from 62% to 82% compared to only 46% for US.  Clearly US business suffers from a trust tax that requires attention.  Check out this years global trust study at Edelman.

I dare say it is LOL funny in spots. (yes we can use LOL now that it made the Oxford  dictionary).  The humor surprised me.  That is a very tough thing to pull off for a business audience without loosing credibility and sounding trite.  Well done David and Barry!  It is a delightful read that will certainly touch all who read it.  It artfully teaches powerful principles to a surprisingly broad audience:

from the school room to the board room.

Speaking of the board room,  Spencer Johnson,  author of Who Moved my Cheese told Stephen that executives bought his Cheese book in bulk,  by the boxes,  to encourage their entire organizations to embrace change by reading a lighthearted story.  I predict that executives will do the same with A Slice of Trust in order to help all their team members embrace today’s critical competitive advantage of high trust.  Consider what the Chairman of Nissan Americas, Carlos Tavares had to say: “Dazzling…and true! It took me years to discover the power of trust.  With A Slice of Trust, you will understand so much more–and in only a few hours!”

Stephen M R Covey made an equally wise observation in his foreword to this book: “As you join Simon the Pieman on his adventures in trust, I invite you to reflect on how you have extended trust in your organization, your relationships, your family, your world.  After all, the most important story is your story. It’s a story that you create everyday as you explore opportunities for trust.  And it’s a story whose telling is brought to life every time you extend your trust to another, one slice at a time.” Well said Stephen!

Personally,  not so big on the “fruity filling” I prefer coconut cream or pecan, but I digress. Either way this book will leave you hungry for more. Not just pie but trust too.  I can just see author Barry Rellaford at a taster table in Costco serving pie and signing books. (or the Costco equivalent outside the 8 countries that now are lucky enough to have a trusted Costco).  I enjoy the picture conjured up by my close friend and favorite Dane, Mette Norgaard, author of  The Ugly Duckling Goes to Work: “A Slice of Trust is served with warmth and humor.  Pour yourself a cup of tea and enjoy a few bites of wisdom for the workplace.”

A Slice of Trust will soon be available in a language near you as it follows The Speed of Trust’s global success in over 22 languages and counting.  For now buy your Slice of Trust or a box or two in World English at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com or your favorite bookseller in your airport or neighborhood.  (it is a fast read so don’t worry about the pile of books on your nightstand you will read A Slice of Trust before it gets to the pile).   Whether to introduce your team or family to Trust or reinforce the principles taught in The Speed of Trust reading A Slice of Trust this month will make you smile.

Enjoy

To Quote Steve Jobs: “When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”  Steve Jobs

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