The Speed Of Trust — The One Thing That Changes Everything — Book Summary

Stephen M.R. Covey with Rebecca R. Merrill

About This Book

This book is all about how trust affects our lives both personally and professionally and what we can do to change it.

Trust is like the aquifer — the huge water pool under the earth that feeds all of the subsurface wells.

Some Quotes from this Book

“Speed happens when people . . . truly trust each other.”

Edward Marshall

“If you’re not fast, you’re dead.”

Jack Welch

“Technique and technology are important, but adding trust is the issue of the decade.”

Tom Peters, Business Author

“Our distrust is very expensive.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“As you go to work, your top responsibility should be to build trust.”

Robert Eckert, CEO, Mattel.

“Self-trust is the first secret of success . . . the essence of heroism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You can’t talk yourself out of a problem you’ve behaved yourself into.”

Stephen R. Covey

“No, but you can behave yourself out of a problem you’ve behaved yourself into . . . and often faster than you think!”

Stephen M.R. Covey

“What upset me is not that you lied to me, but that I can no longer believe you.”

Friedrich Nietzche

“All power is a trust, and we are accountable for its exercise.”

Benjamin Disraeli

“ Organizations are no longer built on force, but on trust.”

Peter Drucker

“Trust, but verify.”

Ronald Reagan

“ It is . . . happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”

Samuel Smiles

Book Summary:

Chapter 1: The One Thing That Changes Everything

• There is one thing that is common to every individual, team, relationship, and civilization throughout the world — one thing, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the greatest friendship, the deepest love.
• Trust impacts 24/7, 365 days a year.

Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust.

• We can increase trust — much faster than we might think — and doing so will have a huge impact, both in the quality of our lives and in the results we’re able to achieve.

Trust Issues Affect Everyone

Stephen told some repeatedly hear expressions of frustration and discouragement. Two of these are:

• The older my children get, the less they listen to me. What can I do?
• I feel like my contributions at work are hardly recognized or valued.

He said: I affirm that you can do something about it. Learning how to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust.

Getting A Handle On Trust

• What is a trust? A simple definition of Jack Welch he said, “[Y]ou know it when you feel it.”
• Simply put, trust means confidence. The opposite of trust — distrust — suspicious.

Trust Myths

• Trust is soft.
• Trust is slow.
• You can’t teach trust.
• Trusting people is too risky.

You Can Do Something About This!

How Trust Works

• Trust is one of the most powerful forms of motivation and inspiration.
• Most of us tend to think about trust in terms of character — but trust is based on the character only is a myth.

The Five Waves Of Trust

1. Self Trust — deals with the confidence we have in out-selves.
2. Relationship Trust — is about how to establish and increase the “trust accounts” with others.
3. Organizational Trust — deals with how leaders generate trust in all kinds of organizations.
4. Market Trust — is the level at which almost everyone clearly understands the impact of trust.
5. Social Trust — is about creating value for others and society at large.

Chapter 2: The First Wave — Self Trust

The principle of Credibility

The 4 Cores of Credibility

These are fundamentals elements that make you believable, both to yourself and others.

Core 1: Integrity

• Integrity means honesty.
• When integrity includes honesty, it’s much more.

Core 2: Intent

• This is related to our motives, our agendas, and our resulting behavior.
• Both integrity and intent are matters of character.

Core 3: Capabilities

• These are abilities we have that inspire confidence — our talents, style, etc.
• Capabilities also deal with our ability to establish, grow, extend, and restore trust.

Core 4: Results

• This refers to our track record, our performance, our getting the right things done.
• Both capabilities and results are matters of competence.

How to increase your integrity?

1. Make and keep commitments to yourself.
2. Stand for something.
3. Be open

How to improve the intent?

1. Examine and refine your motives.
2. Declare your intent.
3. Choose abundance.

How to increase your capabilities?

1. Run with your strengths.
2. keep yourself relevant.
3. Know where you’re going.

How to improve your results?

1. Take responsibility for results.
2. Expect to win.
3. Finish strong.

Chapter 3: The Second Wave — Relationship Trust

The Principle of Behavior

The 13 Behaviors

The truth is that every relationship — personal and professional — what you do has a far greater impact than anything you say.

Behavior #1: Talk Straight

Be honest. Tell the truth. Let the people know where you stand. don’t leave false impressions.

Behavior #2: Demonstrate Respect

Genuinely care for others. Show your care. Don’t fake caring.

Behavior #3: Create Transparency

Get real and genuine. Be open and authentic. Don’t hide information.

Behavior #4: Right Wrongs

Make things right when you’re wrong. Apologize quickly. Don’t cover things up.

Behavior #5: Show Loyalty

Give Credit freely. Don’t bad-mouth others behind their backs.

Behavior #6: Deliver Results

Establish a track record of results. Get the right things done. Be on time and within budget.

Behavior #7: Get Better

Be a constant learner. Continuously improve. Don’t consider yourself the above feedback.

Behavior #8: Confront Reality

Don’t skirt the real issues. Don’t bury your head in the sand.

Behavior #9: Clarify Expectations

Disclose and reveal expectations. Discuss them. Validate them. Don’t violate expectations.

Behavior #10: Practice Accountability

Hold yourself accountable. Take responsibility for results.

Behavior #11: Listen First

Listen before you speak. Understand. Diagnose.

Behavior #12: Keep Commitments

Make commitments carefully and keep them. Don’t break confidence.

Behavior #13: Extend Trust

Demonstrate the propensity to trust. Don’t withhold with trust because there is risk involved.

Chapter 4: The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Waves — Stakeholder Trust

The Third Wave — Organizational Trust

The Principal of Alignment

The 7 Low-Trust Organizational Taxes

1. Redundancy
2. Bureaucracy
3. Politics
4. Disengagement
5. Turnover
6. Churn
7. Fraud

The 7 High-Trust organizational Dividends

1. Increased Value
2. Accelerated Growth
3. Enhanced Innovation
4. Improved collaboration
5. Stronger Partnering
6. Better Execution
7. heightened Loyalty

The Fourth Wave — Market Trust

The principal of Reputation

Market Trust is all about brand or reputation. It’s about the feeling you have that makes you want to buy products or services or invest your money or time — and recommend such action to others.

Main topics of Chapter:

• “BRAND” matters on every level.
• The Compelling Evidence
• The Country tax and the Industry tax.
• The speed of trust in building or destroying the reputation
• How to build your brand

1. Talk Straight

2. Create Transparency

3. Listen First

• Walking Tax or Walking Dividend?

The Fifth Wave — Societal Trust

The principal of Contribution

A sense of social responsibility creates social trust, and that trust produces observable and measurable results.

Main topics in this chapter:

• Fish discover water last.
• The principle of contribution.
• The principle of contribution In business
• “Intentional Virtue” and “Conscious Capitalism”
• Global Citizenship: An Economy Necessity
• Global Citizenship: An Individual Choice
• A Summary and A Challenge

Last Chapter: Inspiring Trust

Whatever is your situation, you can learn how to extend “Smart Trust”. You can develop the competence to extend trust in ways that avoid the pitfalls and ensure the greatest dividends for all concerned.

• Extending “Smart Trust”

When you are dealing with trust, it seems there are two extremes.

1. At one end of the spectrum, people don’t trust enough.
2. On the other end, people are too trusting. They’re gullible.

• The Smart Trust Matrix

1. Gullibility 2. Judgment

3. Indecision 4. Suspicion

• Restoring Trust When It Has Been Lost.

Trust is not something to be taken for granted, it is something to be build-up, valued, cherished, protected, and carefully preserved.

• When others have lost your trust

1. Don’t be too quick to judge.
2. Don’t be quick to forgive.

A Propensity of Trust

• Inspiring Trust
• Most Respond Well to Trust
• Profound Moments of Trust
• Choosing to Trust

Extending trust to others rekindles the inner-spirit — both theirs and ours. It brings happiness to relationships, results to work, and confidence to lives. It produces an extraordinary of our lives: the speed of trust.