Kathy Tunheim, CEO, was recently featured in the Star Tribune’s commentary section. Her piece, “Dwindling trust in institutions: The road back is one of expectations,” analyzes the latest survey data measuring Americans’ lack of trust in our country’s private and public institutions.
“What makes an institution literally ‘worthy of trust’? The answer, at the core, is that if people or organizations meet our expectations over time, we conclude that they are ‘trustworthy.’ And once we’ve made that conclusion, we are even capable of overlooking periodic or momentary disappointments in performance.
Trust is not easy to establish, but once it is in place, we are loath to give up on the things we’ve anointed as trustworthy. This phenomenon explains the current struggle of so many to sort out their feelings about the trustworthiness of police departments, or the shock that has resulted from the collapse of roads or bridges in recent years (America took care of its infrastructure, we all trusted).
So what has happened to create such dramatic and widespread disappearance of trust in almost every institutional pillar in our culture?”
Read the complete commentary on StarTribune.com — and find out how leaders should navigate decision-making and strategic planning in this dynamic, complex environment.
