Trusted Sources

Many believe that Trust is the real loser in the 2020 American elections. With claims of fraud continuing almost a month after the presidential election, it's an uneasy ending to a bitterly fought campaign.  Put it in perspective, says Dan Hoffrenning, political science professor at St. Olaf College and frequent election commentator.  He says in many ways, the election was a testament to the durability of the democratic process and a a win for the rule of law. Still, about half  of all Republicans who answered a Reuters poll of November 16 said they believe Trump rightfully won the election. How can that be good? 

Joshua Leigh headed up the team for UK-based design strategy firm,  Method , on the Trust 2030 Project with Hitachi. The Trust 2030 research and analysis was propelled by Hitachi's need to predIct behavior in its design for large -scale infrastructure projects like global transportation and power systems  Using the framework of a fictional major event,disrupting basic trust in  government institutions, the team developed 3 scenarios for how society could respond when trust broke down. Wait. 2030? ?  I think that date just got a lot closer. 

Matt Jennings, Global VP Enterprise Sales at SAP, was al business owner/founder earlier in his career. He grew and sold 2 successful technology firms before joining the likes of Fortune 500 Bosch and SAP. I asked how he builds trust during the pandemic for multi-million dollar technology contracts without access to relationships built on-site over time. Turns out, building trust now is not nearly as difficult as it was to turn over his first business to new owners and to trust them with his baby. 

"Our instincts can lie to us. " That's what Dr. Odeh Muhawesh said to me when I told him he comes across  as a person who instinctively trusts people from the first minutes of an interaction. Muhawesh, successful business leader, scholar and author has started sold multiple businesses and had countless partnerships in the past 30 years and is now an active chair of Squigl, a technology firm.  Muhawesh has been a professor and interfaith leader who is passionate about ridging the cultural gap of diverse communities in the US. After talking with him, I understood why he's a sought after speaker on issues around the Middle East, negotiating conflicts and our shared humanity.

If trust is a Process, then we are all in the process of learning who we can trust in the health, social and economic crises that surround us. With trust in institutions at an all-time low before the pandemic hit, it’s no surprise we’re feeling that we’re feeling alone, anxious - and angry. The bright side, says Lee Schafer, business columnist in the Star Tribune, is that we may be more willing to learn how to lean on each other. To listen more, and to build trust in the process. 

Emily Baxter, J.D. and  founder of We Are All Criminals, talks about the heightened need for changes in the criminal justice system in the aftermath of the killing of Mr. George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis after he presented a potentially fraudulent $20 bill.  She talks about how we use shorthands that tell us quickly who to trust. A criminal record is an easy shorthand, no matter what the crime - or when it was committed. The problem, says Baxter, is that the very system we rely on for these shorthands, is untrustworthy. Disclosure note: I've worked with Emily Baxter in the past, both on a pro-bono basis for training and on a fee-basis to help with her published book. We have completed that work and COVID-19 has prevented Baxter from in-person speaking for the time being. 

Mikalia Bradberry, a young, black mezzo-soprano sings in a  live-streamed virtual performance July 23 with Arbeit Opera Theatre. It sounds like any other performance announcement until you realize how rare it is for black artists to get to write, speak and sing in their own words -- and to an audience that also listens to classical opera.  We Out; Black Artists Voicing our Truth'  includes text, narration and of course, singing. Bradberry says AOT founder Kelly Turpin deliberately stepped back, trusting the artists knew best to tell their own stories.Link to live July 23 performance https://www.arbeitoperatheatre.org/we-out-voicing-our-truth

“Intercultural agility” is a term that was new to me. H.R. professional and diversity/inclusion expert Janice Downing talks about what happens when cultures clash in the workplace, and why simply hiring diverse employees isn’t enough to build trust. She says intercultural agility can be learned and is essential to navigating a diverse workforce. Janice Downing is CEO of CommonSense Consulting@Work she helps organizations change behaviors system-wide in addition to training leaders and employees. She has worked at American Express, Medtronic and Cargill and is a certified professional in human system dynamics (PHSD). Joanne Henry has more than 30 years of experience in communications and has started three successful businesses, including PR for Good. She’s helped build and strengthen brands and has worked with global companies to entrepreneurs as they navigate and recover from a crisis. She also helps companies identify and act on their visions for social good beyond a business mission and is a co-founder of the Common Good Breakfast series. You can find her on Twitter at JoanneHenryPR. 

Who do you trust when you're in danger? ClutchSOS was developed  by a linguistics professor who whose students were grappling with assault risk and also random violent shootings including one at his own campus. Mohammad Abdurrahman, PhD. also has personal experience with how race influences trust and suspicion.Serial entrepreneur Abdurrahman is an adjunct Linguistics professor at the University of Minnesota and Metropolitan State University. His work has been covered by Forbes, Wired and Harvard Business Review.

Why don’t we trust science? Science and scientists have been taking a bit of a beating as the global pandemic wears on with the coronavirus even being called a hoax. Father Brian Zuelke is a University chaplain and theologian with a graduate degree science and deep into philosophy. Zuelke says people can be threatened by the Power we give to science – and knowledge in general. How do you get that power back? You discredit the source.

Trust in the police, already low among people of color, may never be the same in Mpls. after the death of George Floyd in police custody. His death under the hold of an officer was video -recorded in a horrific cold-blooded scene that spread virally around the US and abroad. Floyd’s death was followed by peaceful and violent protests, destruction, fires, and also senseless crime. In all this, I think of the mothers of young  black men . will face the days ahead. Who can they trust to keep Their sons safe?   *Two separate autopsies both ruled that Floyd’s death a homicide. The police officer who held his knee on a prone Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes has been charged with third degree murder and manslaughter. 

My friend, psychiatrist Jeff Berger, describes trust as a process with as many layers as there are fathoms in the ocean. Now in private practice, he's worked with people in prison, at a college, on an Indian reservation and as Medical Director of a mental health unit of a regional hospital.  We talked about what mental health treatment is like in the age of the coronavirus and at the end, did a deep dive into how we trust enough to share our most painful experiences.Dr. Berger did his Pscyh residency at Oregon Health University in Portland, Oregon and earned his medical degree from Indiana University Medical School. He lives with his wife on Samish Island in Bow, Washington and has a private practice out of Mount Vernon, Washington. 

What does it take for a business to earn trust today? My guest Mike Klein, a leading change communicator in the Netherlands, talks about the different kinds of trust and why predictability is so important in business. Must a company be virtuous to be trustworthy? You’ll hear Mike’s conclusion.

Today we’ll be talking with our guest and business columnist at the Star Tribune, Lee Schafer.  Named the best business columnist by American Business Editors and Writers, Lee was a reporter at Investors Business Daily, the Real Estate Journal and Corporate Report before spending  15 years in the business community, most recently as a consultant on mergers and acquisitions.  He returned to his journalism roots in 2012. Lee is a frequent speaker, and has covered a range of issues from complex tax consequences of mergers,  Federal Reserve policy and  health care economics - as well as the very personal challenges of small business owners.  Lee is a  graduate of Macalester College and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University — and he is one of my personal highly trusted sources. Finally, in  full disclosure, Lee and I were business partners in a financial and market research firm from 2002 - 2007, a business we formed as equal partners on the basis of mutual trust.