Five Star Approach to Good Business
By Noreen Kelly | May 19, 2009
The following five areas have been determined by Good Business International to constitute GOOD BUSINESS EXCELLENCE:
Human Bottom Line
The personal impact and responsibility of business on workers, consumers, and community.
Ethical Action
The value of personal values in for-profit business practice and execution.
Profits and Purpose
Making money while making a positive difference in the lives of human beings.
Green Action
Best green business & environmentally sustainable business initiatives and practices.
Common Good
Non-profit corporate philanthropic endeavors for the common good.
Topics: Business, Trust | No Comments »
Trust Works! Facilitator Certification Training and Solutions Integration Training - Trust Works Group
By Noreen Kelly | April 27, 2009
I attended the TrustWorks! Facilitator Certification and Solutions Integration Training in San Diego on April 21-24, 2009, sponsored by TrustWorks Group. In the three and a half day certification, I learned the ABCD’s of Trust, a behavioral model that focuses on four core elements - Able, Believable, Connected and Dependable - necessary in building a trusting, productive work environment.
The essence of the model is that we each bring different perspectives around trust. Because trust is based on behaviors and perceptions, it is important to come up with a common language to talk about trust. By linking specific components and core behaviors to each of the four elements, the model provides a solid tool for any team, leader or organization.
The three TrustWorks! programs address trust development in a positive and proactive way:
Myself as a Trust Builder - This program helps individuals look at themselves as Trust Builders and gives people an approach for analyzing and strengthening their trustworthy behaviors. These are life skills that can help in any of our daily interactions and relationships.
Leader as a Trust Builder - Leaders play a significant role in identifying, influencing and proactively addressing trust issues in the workplace. And, building leadership trust is an economic issue directly affecting the bottom line; clearly, the soft stuff is the hard stuff. In this training, leaders of all kinds identify their strengths and challenges in building trust and create an action plan to become more trustworthy leaders.
Great Teams - Designed for new teams, teams in progress, and “stuck” teams, this program provides a framework for teams to talk about trust. The training offers basic tools to help communication, a common way to assess how a team is doing, and a language for teams to work through difficulties that may arise and trust in one another so that goals can be met.
Remember … It’s All About Trust!
Topics: High trust, Leadership, Relationships, Credibility, Communication, Trust, Culture of trust | No Comments »
Smart People magazine
By Noreen Kelly | April 15, 2009
Smart People, a newly launched magazine, developed and published by Jerry Ash, turns knowledge management inside out, moves the knowledge dialogue from corporate management to the mainstream and targets a digital audience.
The aim of the magazine is to spread the news about the ‘knowledge factor’ and to help ordinary smart people capitalize on knowledge in living, learning, choosing, creating and working - which is the five sections of the magazine (only four in the first edition). The goal also is to groom the digitals early to play key roles in KM where the environnment is right and the systems are in place.
More than a magazine, Smart People is the foundation for a community where people can network (Smart People Events), share (Smart People Forum), discover (Smart People Blog), learn (Smart People Webinars), ask (Smart People Talk Radio) and read (Smart People Magazine).
The goals:
• To help smart people use their smarts – and the smarts of others – to succeed and excel in a digital world where the social, political and economic environment will be driven by the Knowledge Factor;
• To prepare smart people to take their knowledge capabilities to the workplace, to partner with their employers in transforming knowledge into real value to benefit themselves, the company and the customers.
Topics: Social networks, Trust | No Comments »
What is Trust?
By Noreen Kelly | March 24, 2009
Many definitions of Trust exist. Here are just a few for your reflection:
“What is trust? I could give you a dictionary definition, but you know it when you feel it. Trust happens when leaders are transparent, candid, and keep their word. It’s that simple.” - Jack Welch, Former CEO, General Electric
“Trust is a verb … something that we make, create, build, maintain, and sustain with our actions, promises, commitments, emotions, demeanor, and integrity. - Professor Al Gini, Loyola University, Chicago
“Trust is choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s action.” - Charles Feltman, The Thin Book of Trust
Dictionary definitions:
- Derived from the German word trost, which suggest comfort
- Allow without fear
- Have confidence or faith in
- Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing
- Believing in the honesty and reliability of others
- To hope confidently; to believe
From Wikipedia:
Trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill policies, ethical codes, law and their previous promises.
Trust does not need to involve belief in the good character, vices, or morals of the other party. Persons engaged in a criminal activity usually trust each other to some extent. Also, trust does not need to include an action that you and the other party are mutually engaged in. Trust is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party. Trust is a statement about what is otherwise unknown - for example, because it is far away, cannot be verified, or is in the future.
Topics: Quotes, Trust | No Comments »
Trust in business at 10-year low
By Noreen Kelly | February 5, 2009
“Trust in business is at a 10-year low in the United States, according to the 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer, the firm’s tenth study of trust and credibility (the survey sampled informed public in 20 countries aged 25 to 64). When respondents in the U.S. were asked about trust in business in general, only 38% said they trust business to do what is right – a 20% plunge since last year, and the lowest in the history of the Barometer. Only 17% said they trust information from a company’s CEO. Both are lower levels of trust than those Edelman measured in the wakes of Enron, the dot-com bust, and the aftermath of September 11, 2001. In the U.S., this year 77% of respondents trust corporations less. Internationally, trust has fallen 62%.
The survey also measured how trust hits the bottom line: 91% of respondents said they bought a product or service from a company they trusted, while 77% had refused to buy products or services from a company they distrusted. Additionally, the survey found that communication and trust are as important to reputation as value for the money.
Topics: Leadership, Low trust, Trust, Communication | No Comments »
Trust Deficit
By Noreen Kelly | January 9, 2009
When speaking at the Presidential Transition office in Washington, D.C. on January 8th to flesh out details of his economic stimulus plan, President-Elect Obama said, “Our problem is not just a deficit of dollars - it’s a deficit of accountability, a deficit of trust.”
“Wall Street has not worked, our regulatory system has not worked the way it’s supposed to. We’re going to have better enforcement, better oversight, better disclosure, increased transparency.”
Topics: Transparency, Business, Trust | No Comments »
The presumption of trust
By Noreen Kelly | December 18, 2008
A December 17,2008 article in The Nation, Bernard Madoff, Trust-Buster, states, “Business runs on trust, and Bernard Madoff has busted it.”
“Madoff has sown the seeds of suspicion everywhere. He has caused us to doubt men and women with whom we have done business with for years. There is no way of knowing if someone is a con-artist. The presumption of trust is gone.”
“Business runs on trust, and Bernard Madoff has busted it … Fear, confusion and mistrust has been amplified by the absence of government supervision, regulation or policing. The Securities and Exchange Commission admits it did not do its job … the result is the heart-wrenching situation for millions who fear that they will be living out the last decades of their lives counting their food stamps and hunting for bargains in the used clothing bins.”
The article states, “Madoff and the crash underline the powerlessness of the millions.” Let us hope that President-elect Obama and his administration will
Topics: Trust | No Comments »
And now it’s on to Chicago …
By Noreen Kelly | November 8, 2008
After the joyous and electrifying Election Night in Grant Park, Chicago on November 4, 2008, I recalled the last words of Senator Robert F. Kennedy after he won the California Democratic primary on June 5, 1968, “And now it’s on to Chicago, and let’s win there.”
Here’s an excerpt from Robert Kennedy’s final words from a Democracy Now! Special: Robert F. Kennedy’s Life and Legacy 40 Years After His Assassination – On June 5, 1968, Kennedy had just won the California Democratic primary, a major boost in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Just after midnight, Kennedy addressed supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in LA in what would be the last moments of his life.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY: What I think is quite clear is that we can work together in the last analysis and that what has been going on within the United States over the period of that last three years, the divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with our society, the divisions, whether it’s between blacks and whites, between the poor and the more affluent, or between age groups or on the war in Vietnam, that we can start to work together. We are a great country, an unselfish country and a compassionate country. And I intend to make that my basis for running over the period of the next few months.
Mayor Yorty has just sent me a message that we’ve been here too long already. So, my thanks to all of you, and now it’s on to Chicago, and let’s win there. Thank you very much.
With Barack Obama’s win, a spirit of hope has been rekindled in this country. Addressing the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama stated: “Hope - hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.”
Topics: High trust, Authenticity, Credibility, Integrity | No Comments »
A New Day
By Noreen Kelly | November 5, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama has inspired the American people to leave behind doubt, fear and cynicism, and open ourselves up to faith, hope and optimism. A world of possibilities await us.
Hope Changes Everything (1:01)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLVN3Trs5VQ&NR=1
Yes We Can (4:30)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
Topics: Leadership, High trust | No Comments »
A Republic, If You Can Keep It
By Noreen Kelly | November 4, 2008
On this historic election day, a quote from Benjamin Franklin …
“Well, Doctor, what have we got - a Republic or a Monarchy?”
“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The response is attributed to Benjamin Franklin — at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation — in the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention.
Topics: Quotes | No Comments »
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