To be transparent, of course I am biased in my comments about this wonderful book by my colleagues.  That said, seriously, you will be glad you read it.  I do have a somewhat informed judgement of business books by now and this useful parable stands well with the best of business parables,  including the all time greats like,  FISH, One Minute Manager and Who Moved my Cheese. A Slice of Trust: The Leadership Secret with the Hot & Fruity Filling,  highlights in a memorable and meaningful way an important, career critical, management essential insight: Trust matters.

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

Atheists, agnostics and other non believers outscored believers on Pew Nationwide survey of U.S. religious literacy.  Non believers averaged 66% of questions right to only 50% for believers. In a thought provoking editorial in today’s USA Today, Stephen Prothero confirms that the U.S. is a nation of religious illiterates. A couple of questions that jumped out at me were that only 47% knew the Dali Lama was Budhist  and only 27% knew that most of the population of the Southeast Asian country of Indonesia are Muslims. No wonder we don’t trust each other–we don’t understand each other.    Listening to and understanding our differences can go along way toward growing trust.   The 3 million people living in Mauritius for example have 3 dominant religions, Christian, Muslim and Hindu and one of the lowest crime rates in the world.  The police do not carry guns and the people celebrate each others religious holidays. Just sayin understanding grows trust.

Stephen and I really relate to this as we are not the most tech savvy members of our team.  Thank you Steve Jobs for giving us a fighting chance with our iPhones and MacBooks.

Link & Covey as "The Ugly American Tourists"

Believe it or not Stephen and I have rarely spent free time together.  When we travel on business together once or twice a year it is usually just that, we do the business and immediately fly off in different directions.  We enjoyed the 4 hours we had together in Beijing immensely. It turned into quite a memorable adventure. We happened across the network, familiar to most savvy international travelers, of starving art students that speak English and love to “show their work” to international tourists.  Actually it was refreshing to see first hand that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in China.  Stephen and I were an easy mark. We stood out like a sore thumb as we tried to jam days of sight seeing into a few hours.  We were approached by a college student (read lead generator) who suspected we were lost.  He offered to walk us to Tianimin Square.  

My propensity to trust waned however, as he attempted to convince us that we needed to turn right, away from the square,  when we clearly had two blocks left to go.  (He did not realize that I had been there before.)  Undaunted he graciously served as tour guide but ultimately managed to lead us out the side entrance of the Forbidden City which conveniently led us to his Art Studio on a side street.  From there we experienced a sales process second only to the American timeshare industry.  Turns out, the shop is owned by his “Art Professor” and the student was trying to raise money for a trip with the professor to the USA. Never mind that they contradicted each other several times on what cities they planned to visit. The art was actually quite impressive.  Stephen really liked one of the professor’s pieces, but loving soul that he is. did not want to offend the student by not buying one of the student’s pieces.  Voila, in a masterful tour de force that I thought was exclusively American, the student turned Stephen over to the Professor (known as a T. O. in the car and timeshare industries) who generously solved Stephen’s dilemma by offering to throw in the student’s work if Stephen bought the more expensive Professor’s piece (known as the drop in the US car and timeshare industry).  It was really  beautifully orchestrated.  The good news is that the art Stephen bought is an extraordinarily beautiful Oriental ink drawing.  As we laughed about our experience while we walked back to the hotel taxi stand to return to the airport it dawned on us that neither one of us had any idea the market value of the art.  Fortunately value is in the eye of the beholder and both Jeri and Stephen love the piece and Stephen and I have a great road warrior story and a great laugh together.

Birds Nest with rare blue sky

Happy Valentines day Geri Covey and Annie Link #12 USA TODAY February 14th!!